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| From Russia With Love |
| From June 2 till July 5 2003 I went on a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia. It was such an amazing experience! They have such a rich culture, it puts ours to shame in a lot of ways. The main thing I did while in Petersburg was study a general education culture class, and a literature class. I also had an hour of language every day. And let me tell you, that was definitely not enough time! We did so many cultural events it made my head spin! We went to see the ballet "Swan Lake", which was just absolutely beautiful, and also "Giselle". I loved the story, but the dancing was definitely not as good as at "Swan Lake". We also went and saw the opera "Boris Godunov" at the |
| Mariinsky Theatre. It was absolutely amazing. We visited several Orthodox churches. They were so incredibly beautiful! Something about those churches moved me, and I can't exactly explain why. My friend Yulia explained to me that Orthodox Christianity is more focused on the spirtual side of Christ, and goodness, then on all the man made laws that are imposed, and the severe idea of hell that goes along with Western branches. I don't know, I think I will definitely have to check into it more. We also had day trips to Novgorod, the oldest city in Russia (which is kind of funny considering it's name means "New City"), the Peterhoff palace, called "the Versailles of the east", Staraia Ladoga, an old city near Lake Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe, and Tsarskoe Selo, the Catherine Palace, a very beautiful home of the tsars of Russia. We also visited the Hermitage Museum and were able to see some paintings by Van Gogh, Renoir, Matisse, and other famous painters, and the Russian Museum, which houses a great collection of Russian icons and other Russian art, including Kandinsky. With my literature class I went on a tour of the city according to Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment"; and also saw his, Ahkmatova's, Pushkin's, and Blok's |
| memorial flats. We went on a night cruise and saw the bridges open, which was a breathtaking sight. We were extremely fortunate to be in Petersburg during "white nights", where it is only dark for a few hours every night because of its northern location. Also, in May they celebrated the three hundreth anniversary of St. Petersburg, so everything was just beautiful. The nightlife in Russia is great. We went to a really cool club called the Metro Club. It had three dancefloors, and three bars. If you go to Russia, I hope you like techno music, because they love it! Also, make sure and drink the vodka, it is the best kind you will ever find! They also have a lot of great beers, and a lot of the bars and clubs stay open until 6 am, when the extremely clean metro opens back up. Their metro is the deepest in the world, almost three stories below the streets, because it was built on a swamp. So, I loved my time in Russia, and I hope you will consider going there and meeting a lot of loving people with a fascinating culture! |
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