First day in Peters city

So much seen, so much to tell, so where to start??? Well, let me take you on the citytrip we took on Sunday and tell about the momuments and cityparts like we came across in time.

Metro station

The first experience starts when travelling by metro. After only having seen two metro stations that day, I could already tell that the metrostations here are much more beautiful and much wider then in the Netherlands, but judging by pictures, not yet as beautiful as the metro in Moscow. The trip starts when you take the three minute trip with the escalator down to the platforms. At eleven o'oclock we met with our practical teacher Nastya, who took us to St. Isaacs cathedral first. It was designed by French architect Montferrand and built between 1818 and 1858, named after St. Isaac of Dalmatia on whose feast day Peter the Great was born. At the same square you'll find the statue of ruler Nicholas I surrounded by his wife and three daughters representing Wisdom, Faith, Power and Justic ealso designd by Montferrand.

Having seen this 6 m statue, we went on to go to the head postoffice. Here the so called "zero"statue can be found. The marble (read: cardboard) monument indicating the absolute centre of the city and measuring point of the exact distance to Moscow.

Strolling a little further, we stopped a typical "boulevard", a path for pedestrians in between two roads with houses alongside.

Russian reconstruction

It was here we found out the meaning of "reconstruction" in Russia. As you can see in the picture, while the building is being demolished, the front is left intact. Behind this wall a new building will be built; reconstruction!

Next we moved on to "New Holland". New Holland is a builing situated on an island, built with the purpose of constructing ships, like Peter the Great had been taught in the Netherlands. For centuries now this building has been closed for public, being rebuild to what has to become a cultural centre. Walking through the city Nastya told us many things about all the things we saw on our way. At around two o'clock we ended the tour with a very challenging lunch, depending heavily on our teacher as we were definitely willing to eat something nice. Menu's are written in Russian and the waitresses don't always speak English. After that, our group splitted up and two of my fellow students and I took our first glance in the "dom knigi": the house of books at Nevsky Prospekt, the main street of Saint Petersburg. Around the corner we discovered another beautiful palace and from there did some more sightseeing.

We ended the day in the big appartment where some of the others are staying with a great plate of spaghetti, cooked by the Italian students and some real Italian/Dutch salsadancing.

New Holland

Meet our group; Nastya is the second person on the right