Matryoshkas and Chicken Kiev

This entry is partially written by M as my adventures in St. Petersburg were limited due to O being sick and quarantined in our cabin. Before arriving in St. Petersburg we had booked a private two day to show us as much as possible of the city. The first day we were met by our guide Svetlana and the driver Edward who started us on a city tour showing us some of the great sites of the city. St. Petersburg sits on the beautiful Neva River and despite the effects of the war on many of the cities we previously visited, many of St Petersburg’s buildings are still standing including apartments constructed during the Stalin era - which we learned are a hot commodity.

Sphinx from 1500 BC on River Neva

We visited the Faberge Museum - a private museum owned by a “Russian Oligarch.” The opulence in the museum as well as in the design of many of the buildings is something I’ve never seen before. We also went to the Church of Savior on the Spilled Blood whose opening hours are 6pm-10pm. We didn’t get to the church until 9pm, but if you weren’t wearing a watch, you would have thought it was 3pm in the afternoon. Our guide let us know that St. Petersburg is going through a period called the White Nights where the city sees an hour or two of darkness.

Faberge Museum

Church of Savior on the Spilled Blood

Of course no visit to Russia’s souvenir shops would be complete without buying some matryoshkas and being offered vodka while you shop - to which I politely declined.

One thing became pretty obvious about Russia, it’s all about protectziya (Hebrew meaning - who you know). At almost every stop, the guides got on their phones rapidly speaking in Russia to get us into places or to skip lines.

 

Day 2 - Blog post courtesy of M
Today we woke up at 6am to meet our guide to have a full day of St. Petersburg. I was very tired because last night Mom and I toured the city until 11pm.

Our first stop was the St. Petersburg subway. The tunnel and escalator was the longest I ever saw. There are no metro cards but special tokens, I wanted to keep one, but I couldn’t. There were fancy mosaics on the walls and the entrance into the subway was a moving walkway under the River Neva.

St. Petersburg Subway

We then visited the Grand Choral Synagogue of St. Petersburg. Baba told me that at first we couldn’t get in, but our guide told the security we were famous VIPs from America, so they let us in.

Grand Chorale Synagogue (I'm a VIP)

Then we went to the Hermitage Museum. Mama and I visited the outside of the building last night. The Hermitage is the second largest museum in the world. The guide gave me some assignments:

    Find a lady with a scale
    Find 10 babies
    Find 2 thrones

I found everything !

Now it was onto lunch. My sister is the better eater than me, but since this trip, I have been better at trying foods. Baba ordered me Chicken Kiev for lunch and the Russian version of chicken soup with a hard boiled egg inside; double thumbs up to both.

Chicken Kiev - Yum!

We got in the car and drove to Peterhof Palace to see over 150 fountains. There are even secret fountains inside the rocks, called trick fountains. Our guide told us that if you step on certain stones you activate the fountains and water comes shooting out. It was so much fun! After we left Baba told me that the story isn’t true and there is a person operating the fountains and turning them off and on to get the kids wet - pretty scammy.

Trick Fountain

Trick Fountains at Peterhof (the man in the red cap is the controller)

Catherine's Palace

I was very tired but we only had one big stop left,  Catherine’s Palace and the Amber Room. In the Amber Room there were some paintings that showed the senses and our guide told me to guess which painting shows which sense. Baba told me the best way to describe the Palace was lavish which now I know means very fancy.

Since Mama likes to do the shopping and was on the ship with Orli, she asked us to go to a Russian supermarket and buy some good well known Russian chocolates. We have a whole suitcase of chocolate now from almost all of the countries we have visited. I can’t wait to taste test.