St. Petersburg, Russia – 09/04 After the train tickets

(Michelle) By the time we left the train station, we went to get a little lunch at a guidebook recommended café called Bliny Domik. Bliny is a Russian staple that I cannot really distinguish from a crepe, but I like anything in the pancake family so I was enjoying my bliny. TJ had some sort of hardier Russian dish that he liked.

After lunch I was not feeling so hot (even though the food was good). I decided to forgo any sightseeing and take a rest. TJ took a stroll around the city on his own. After my rest and having a good comfort food meal from Subway, I was feeling better. (The photo is a random church across the street from the restaurant we had lunch at).

That night, we hung out with our roommates with a few drinks and cards. Rebecca knows the same card game I used to play with my family called ‘Oh Hell’ (Nadirah and Nathan – this is the game we taught you guys in France). So we played that for a while. We may have also played some President, A**hole. It was a late night

(TJ) Once we had made it through the initial train debacle I was able to wander the streets of St. Petersburg since Michelle’s stomach had enough of Russia for one day. It’s a great city to just be able to stroll around. The architecture is great, around Nevsky Prospekt all of the buildings must be at least 100 years old if not older. This part of town reminded me a bit of Amsterdam since there are many canals all over the city and a bit of Berlin. I say Berlin because many of row houses looked similar, 4-5 stories tall with symmetrical windows on the street facing side, structures of brick with a painted stucco with stucco columns and other exterior embellishments. The difference between the two cities is that the houses in Berlin are in state of disrepair for the most part where as in St. Petersburg the majority of the houses were in good condition.

The first major landmark that I ran in to was the Church of the Spilled Blood. What a great name, why don’t more churches have dark names like this. The church commemorates the site where in 1881 one of the czar’s was assassinated. I just saw the exterior of the church and it’s quite cool to look at. It has the onion domes that you would typically associate with a Russian church. The part that was cooler was the mosaics on the exterior that depict scenes out of the bible. I have attached a photo of the mosaics.

I next walked along the river and ended up walking around the Winter palace, former home of the royal family and current home of the Hermatige museum. I also took a ton of pictures of the exterior of the Hermatige and the mammoth square that in the front of the Winter Palace. It quite a site to take a look around, the architecture combined with the scale is amazing, check out the pictures.