Hidden beauty

Nastya very well knows her way around in the city and can show you what she calls "Saint Petersburg secret places", places that are not in the tourist guide, but very well worth visiting.

Mosaic

On Friday 6 August, Nastya took Marta and me to see a small garden ornamented with mozaics. Children studying on the academy of arts, beside their regular education, decorated the playing ground and lower parts of the buildings with mozaics. The small garden is hidden between high buildings, representing the typical Petersburg life.
After our walk along the Neva, Nastya showed us the museum of Anna Akhmatova, a well known Russian modernist poet. She wrote while living under the difficult conditions of Stalinism and her work was censored. She choose, however, to continue living in Russia (Wikipedia, 10-08-2010).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Akhmatova

Ballet!

One of things I admire the most in Russia is it's culture, in specific, the beautiful theatres, opera's and ballets. So visiting a ballet or an opera was definitely on my to-do list. In summer there are no shows in the famous Mariinsky theatre, but luckily the Mikhailovsky theatre presented the Swan Lake.

Mikhailovsky theatre

Yoleen, Luba, Nicole and me went to see the show on Thursday 5 August. When you enter the theatre, you go through detection portals. As I always carry a large bag, because who knows what you might encounter, of course, the alarm went of. If I had any metal stuff with me. After having seen my telephone and keys, the guard asked me something in Russian I didn't understand. Luba, Yoleens Russian friend translated it for me and so asked me if I carried a gun. Taken by complete surprise and driven by sarcasm in a reflex I answered I carried ten. In hindsight I'd say that was not the most smart remark, but it actually made the guard smile. He obvioulsy understood I was a tourist from a non-gun-carrying country. The lounge of the theatre looked nice, more elegant than in Dutch theatres, but while entering the actual hall I couldn't suppress a pleasently surprised "aaah" which made my neighbour smile and me explain that I had never been to a Russian theatre before. Nicole and I sat on the fourth balcony, so very high. Down we could see the orchestra. The theatre was beautifully ornamented with the use of a lot of gold.

Theatre interior

 The ballet, performed by Leonid Jacobson State academic ballet theatrefrom Saint Petersburg, was absolutely amazing. AT first, I must say, dancing didn't seem to by synchronised, but later on that improved. The soloists danced very very beautifully. The decor and the costumes of the performers, ranging from the leading part to the smallest part, were all lovely and fitted so well within the theatre, making it one big spectacle.
Going to the theatre in Russia was a whole new experience and definitely one that I would like to recommend!

Yoleen, Luba, me and Nicole in front of Mikhailovsky theatre 

Classes and practical

Today I will update you on my classes; what do they look like and how are my language skills developing. Some students follow group lessons, while others are taking individual lessons. Marta and I are pretty much at the same level, but where as she understands almost everything that is being said and finds it harder to speak, I'll just throw every word I know in a sentence and have to pay very close attention to what is being said. The third lesson was really hard because I hadn't had much sleep, as there is so much to do here in this big, big city, but luckily we have a very patient teacher who is very nice and explains well! The Thursday lesson went better and today we had a different teacher with whom we talked about grammer, but mostly practiced our communication skills. We have got four hours of class each day  and then some homework, which, as I believe I have mentioned before, is mostly done at night.
In addition we have practical lessons, which are intented for improving conversation. Tuesday afternoon Marta and I met our teacher Pasha in the city. Pasha helped us to buy tickets for the Swan Lake. He prepared a city walk and Marta and I could mention what we wanted out of this afternoon. We walked through the Field of Mars, where participants of the February Revolution of 1917 were buried. It was transformed into a park in the 1930's and in the centre of it burns an eternal fire for those who died.

Eternal fire in the Field of Mars

We crossed the bridge over the Neva and went to visit Peter and Pauls Cathedral. This main building within the fortress stems from the 18th century. The design of the church is a combination of traditional western religious architecture and ancient Russian Church design. Detail our "guide"mentioned, is that the bells were supplied by Belgium. The fotress was built to protect the city from possible attacks from Sweden. The building was only finished after the Swedish were defeated and the fortress became more of a prison. The entire family and staff of the last Russian Emperor, Nicholas II, were shot to death are still buried there, as well as other Emperors and Grand Dukes.

Peter and Pauls cathedral

After this visit the three of us strolled along the river side, very much enjoying the view of the Hermitage at the otherside, to finish standing in the Neva with bare feet and sitting down to write down some of the words we leaned this afternoon. It was a great day, Pasha new a lot about the history of Saint Petersburg and I was really able to put some Russian verbs, adjectives and nouns into practice!

Take a look at the beauty inside
the Peter and Pauls cathedral

Pasha and me with in the background on the right the Hermitage

Between history and modernism

One of the first impressions you get when you are exploring St. Petersburg, is the huge difference between for example buildings and cars. Some look very very neglected, while others are new and luxurious. As I believe pictures tell more than words, I will add a few. What I very much like to see is that there are a lot of playing grounds here, outside the centre, between the high flats. Really a lot, also ranging from very old with fainted colours to brand new ones, and they are usually occupied with families, quite lovely to see.

Old meets...

new! 

History and modern times are actually not that far apart

Lessons!

Besides all the lovely sightseeing, work is also calling! Books need to be open and languages need to be learned, so... Monday morning, 9 a.m.: first lesson in Russian! Together with my roommate from Poland, Marta, I went to Nastya's class. This trip from bedroom to class has actually been the shortest of my whole life. Was primary school situated at a walking distance of 2 minutes, now, if I have a lesson let's say at 9, I start to think about leaving at 8h59, because the lessons are in our apartment! Perfect! The four hours were spent intensively, which I very much appreciate! Focus is on communicating, and that is so hard!!! Reading and writing in the Russian language actually goes quite well, but to speak and use all the cases and verbs in the right way is  very very difficult. While our schedules are so full, homework was done in nightly hours the first day. I think I closed my books at around 2.20 a.m. and my other roommate from Belgium, Yoleen, honestly, I haven't heard her come to bed, so it must have been after 3 o' clock when she closed her books!!!

Tuesday started by picking up our registration carts at the registration office in the centre. A very important thing to do as to the authorities would like to be sure you are not lost in Russia. Having done that, Marta and I headed back for class, stopping along the way to visit some stores at Nevsky Prospect, of course. The second lesson today in the afternoon went well. It becomes clear that we really need to focus on grammer and speaking!!! Grammer we wil tackle tomorrow!

Well, that's it for now, love from Peters city, Russia!

Me standing in front of the cathedral of the spilled blood

Some more pictures to share

Enjoy!

 Let me introduce to you Peter (l) and Giovanni (r) in the metro













 St. Isaacs cathedral

 Statue of Nicholas I

The so called boulevard

Another pretty sight

Kazans cathedral












Dom knigi

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