SANKT PETERSBURG 6.24.08 – 6.27.08

The last few days have been intense. They have been filled full of political emotion for me, not to mention tired feet, weird foods, and lots of long lines, although to be fair, we have skipped our fair share of uber long lines as well, due to ye ol’ Russian bribery ;) (our gracious host here is fluent in the ways of greasing the wheels and getting us past the “common” folk)

We’ve spent the last few days going around to Russian palaces that have been around during the last few centuries. They are huge, intense, filled with unimaginable wealth, and most have had to be reconstructed after the fires and looting of the Nazis in WWII. These palaces are very beautiful and massive at the same time, and they exactly mirror the palaces that are often shown in movies portraying ye old King & Queen days. While George and I haven’t exactly been ecstatic about the tours inside these massive palaces, at least we can now say that we’ve been there, and I guess that makes us more cultured or something.

I have to say though, that I have felt mostly uncomfortable being there, because all I can think about has been how much money and power has been spent on luxury and fancy things for the szars and the emperors while the Russian populace has starved and suffered. But I guess that is pretty much the story for any “advanced” society..

Otherwise, here in this city of 5 million, we’ve been chauffeured around by a private driver who is the craziest and most fun driver I’ve ever had the pleasure of driving with. He mashes like a mofo, but I haven’t felt unsafe with him yet. Apparently he not only was a cabbie here for fifteen years, but he actually received an award from the city government for being “The Best Drive in St. Petersburg” He’s an incredibly safe driver due to the fact that he has never been in any one accident and has an incredible driving record.

The other sites we have seen here have been the Hermitage – which is one of the biggest museums in the world, rivaling that of the Louvre. We saw the Petersburg ballet company do Swan Lake in the famous marine opera house here, and today (Saturday 6/28) we are going to the Russian museum and then taking a boat ride through the river upon which we will see the raising of the bridges. St. Petersburg has over 300 bridges, and the big ones (approximately 30) are raised every night so that ships can get through. Since there are islands here, the people that get stuck on them have to stay there until the bridges are connected again in the morning.
..we’ll try not to get too drunk tonight so we don’t get stuck on the wrong side..

Next stop – Moscow!