St. Petersburg, Russia February 20-23, 2010

We had a great time in St. Petersburg despite the frEEEEEEEEEzing temperatures. We are now looking forward to going back in the summer to experience St. Pete’s without snotcicles, and to walk through the beautiful gardens. Unfortunately, our small digital camera’s battery is on the fritz, so we weren't able to get many pictures on this trip.

We were up at dawn’s crack because our train left at 6:45am. We took the fast train to St. Pete’s, which just started running at the end of 2009. It was super clean, and very comfortable. It’s called the “Sapsan because a Sapsan is very fast bird! It only took 3h 45m to get there!

The weather was less than desirable. Due to the amount of humidity in the air, it felt even colder than the 1 degree (f) temps. And it was pretty much a blowing, snowing blizzard. We just bundled up and walked to most of our destinations. Notice Darron’s lashcicles.

Once we arrived at the Kunstkamera museum-one Darron “just had to see”, he asked me very nicely to go into the bathroom and maybe look in the mirror. Yes, this is what I looked like. My hair was frozen and the blowing snow caused my make-up to go all kinds of crazy. I am thinking of sending this in to compete for Mrs. St. Pete’s 2010…what do you think?

The State Hermitage Museum. Now, I am not really a museum-liking chick. I’m more interested in the architecture inside the building. It’s beautiful. Its ginormous! One of the largest museums in the world. “The collection of the State Hermitage includes more than three million works of art and artifacts of the world culture. Among them are paintings, graphic works, sculptures and works of applied art, archaeological finds and numismatic material”. museum website

Darron and I went to the ballet at the Mariinsky Theatre. It was AWESOME! I’d never been to a real ballet before and I enjoyed it tremendously! We saw Shurale and it was super fun and vibrant. Due to our camera malfunctions, I am going to use some pics I found on the internet to show you what a beautiful theatre it is. If only our weather mirrored what’s in this picture!  Now I am scoping out tickets to attend a ballet here in Moscow.

I did take these next two pics. Not great and they don’t do the theatre justice, but it’s the best I’ve got.

The Church of the Spilt Blood. I loved this church. It was amazing. Favorite mosiac church I’ve seen thus far. Unfortunately, camera battery was dead so thanks Mr. Internet for allowing me to borrow some pics…

The church contains over 7500 square meters of mosaics– according to its restorers, more than any other church in the world. The walls and ceilings inside the Church are completely covered in intricately detailed mosaics – the main pictures being biblical scenes or figures – but with very fine patterned borders setting off each picture.”  wikipedia

We also went into St. Issac’s Cathedral which was beautiful. “St. Isaac's Cathedral was originally the city's main church and the largest cathedral in Russia. It was built between 1818 and 1858, by the French-born architect Auguste Montferrand, to be one of the most impressive landmarks of the Russian Imperial capital. One hundred and eighty years later the gilded dome of St. Isaac's still dominates the skyline of St. Petersburg”. wikipedia

We plan on visiting St. Pete’s again this summer-with a new camera..and less sweaters!