Russia - St. Petersburg

Hello dear readers, 

So (like many other posts) I must start this one with an apology. Recently, I went to Russia. And I told you about the trip beforehand, so the fact that I came back a week ago today makes this particular post long overdue. It's just that I've been (not very successfully) revising for my GCSEs, which are looming in the way too near future. 

ANYWAY, you came here to hear about/ see pictures of my trip to Russia. But I think its story is best told with photos. 

So we started off the trip in St. Petersburg, and this is one of the main squares, with me and my friend Helen (who featured in another recent post) in the middle of it. This one's a cutie, if I do say so myself!

Part of a cathedral we saw the next morning. 

 

The city has always been known as the 'Venice of the north' and you can kinda see why

A slightly creepy, sneaky selfie of a selfie

This whole trip was for our GCSE history, so if you do the same course as me you'll understand our excitement at the claims of this ship being THE Aurora Cruiser, which sailed up to the Winter Palace during the Bolshevik Revolution. If you're a history fanatic you'll find that exciting, and if you're not... I ask you not to dwell on my nerdiness.

SO MANY RUSSIAN DOLLS

 

I mean, LOOK 

#cray

Sorry, I got a bit carried away with the photog here...

That evening, we went to the theatre to see a ballet. I bet you want to know what it was called/ what it was about/ who starred in it. But sorry, my answer to all those questions is I have absolutely no idea. We all enjoyed it though!

The theatre was so pretty (also don't know the name of that either - hopefully tiredness is a good excuse for my incompetence)

 

Lots and lots of dancers (A* in obvious captioning over here) 

I think the gist of the story was that it was a dramatic, tragic love story. It was just that no one knew what the ending was all about - I have theories, believe me, but they would take explaining far beyond the patience boundaries of most humans, dear readers, so I hope you'll forgive me in excluding them from the post.

You've now been magically transported to Catherine the Great's palace

This is a slightly blurry photo that doesn't quite do this hall justice - it was essentially a ballroom/ extravagant thing, covered in mirrors and gold, complete with a slippery floor - perfect for sliding across and getting consequently told off by your teacher

One of the main things I'll say about this trip is that the Russians know how to make a bloody good chandelier, as demonstrated by basically everywhere we went to 

I'm sure this beautiful amazing wondrous writing desk will call out and fondle the hearts of the authors amongst you. It certainly fondled me, if you'll pardon the euphemism 

The cold never bothered me anyway *cue piano interlude*

Cute sign we saw from our extra-touristy coach (yep, you've guessed it - we did the whole guided tour on coach, get off for ten minutes to take selfies and group shots, get back on coach, leave and go to next spot thing - how wonderfully irritating) 

Getting artsy with cups, saucers and hot chocolate at the hotel. Am I the only person who finds hot drinks machines equally fascinating and exhilarating - I mean, what could be more exciting than your favourite, warm liquid coming out of a machine at the press of a button?! And it knows when to stop so your cup doesn't overflow. GENIUS.

Yet another thing I found exciting (you've probably picked up that this is a recurring theme for me): the light. Golly. 

The Church of Spilled Blood, which was built around the very place where Tsar Alexander II fell down after he was assassinated

Sorry to be so factual, but this church was so interesting: its insides were covered with 7065 square metres of mosaics, each carefully made and presented. The fact that it should in theory take someone a year to make a single sqaure metre of this mosaic type shows the pure manpower that went into making this church... 24 years it took them, not 7065; and that's extra impressive. 

 

That's right, it's the Venice of the north 

Cute group shot outside the Winter Palace/ Hermitage museum. There's a little huggy photobomb going on on the right there

Inside the very grand palace. To be honest, we saw so much gold in the buildings on this trip that it kind of lost its impact, and eventually we'd walk into a room covered with gold and just say "oh, another one"

We like our chandeliers we do

Little memorial of paintings of all of the officers/ important Russian army people who fought against Napoleon

There were so many chandeliers in this room. Imagine how I felt, considering my new- found little obsession 

One of the two Raphael paintings they have in the Hermitage museum/gallery. It would take you 23 years to see everything there, it's so big 

They even had a Michaelangelo. This was heaven for the art students amongst us (that includes me!)

What else do you buy when it's freezing cold outside? ^

The way this was translated/ worded made me chuckle... "Lavatory pans"

Again, it was crazy to think know much important history had happened on this very square 

Where Tsar Nicholas II and most of his family are buried (we're now at a church in a fortress) 

And now we're at St Isaac's Cathedral 

The view from the top of the cathedral after climbing up 300 steps or something 

The friendly countdown to the bottom 

The snazzy, but traditional restaurant we went to on our last night in St Petersburg

My favourite part of the trip was the folklore show we went to that evening. Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the show itself, but here's one of my friend and I looking like the perfect couple at the palace where the show was (what do you mean, they're cardboard cut-outs?! Never!). It was an eccentric place - they played bird noises in the toilets, which as you can imagine was slightly distracting. The show itself was amazing - they had the classic costumes and dance moves, and the stories behind the dances were hilarious. They got people to come up on stage, I befriended an Irish woman called Ann who sat next to me, and it was all together a lot of fun. 

To get to our next destination, Moscow, we went on the 'midnight train'. It was more like a 2 in the morning train, judging by the time we got into bed. I don't think anyone slept at all - we were, as forty girls would be - unsettled by the fact that we all shared a loo, the taps didn't work, and the flush was on the ground, which was very confusing. Aside from toilet difficulties, it was definitely an experience! 

I think I'll end here, and make another post about Moscow, because it's taken me an hour to write this one and I worry about how long it will take to upload, considering the huge amount of photos... Uh oh ;) 

Thank you for reading, be lovely to one another, many hugs

The (very tired and) happy blogger xxxxxx