Back home!

I finally made it back home. What a nice feeling! Amy, Hazel and Henry picked me up at the airport last night. While I held Hazel in my arms, Henry kept reaching out from Amy's arms to try to touch me. It reminded me of the video David after the Dentist when he says "Is this real life?" as Henry wasn't sure I was real or just a FaceTime image. Apparently, the airport put my luggage on a different flight so I wasn't able to get it last night but we opted to have drop it off for us. It arrived noon today and I honestly wouldn't have had energy to open it and sort through the mess so all is well that ends well.

Thank you for reading this blog! So many more read it than I thought would. It was a joy to reflect daily on what I got to see and experience. I imagine there were a lot of typos or errors as I was writing on the go, but hopefully things were clear. I also think it was a good way for people to read as much or as little as they wanted to and see relevant pictures. On that note, I took some 1,400 pictures and will be posting some of the best on Facebook or somewhere else. I will be sure to put a link back on this blog if you are interested. Thanks again!

You know you're in Boston when. . .

The TSA person shouts out: "Guys! Make sure you empty ya pockets, no receipts, no papers, no nothin'.

Ugh, I feel like a dirty zombie.

Last night I spent the night in Helsinki airport and manage to get 3 hours or so of sleep. From there I caught a 2 hour flight to Frankfurt with a four hour layover. I slept there for a couple of hours too. I just got off a 6 hour flight or so and am now in Boston waiting for my last flight to San Francisco. I am ashamed to say I have been in the same clothes for nearly two days now (even though, technically, I have come from the future and this is all one day), I have serious stubble and probably smell like a homeless person. Not including layovers, I figure I am spending about 12+ hours in the air today. So much for air travel being luxurious. 

Babiators

Why did Amy and I jump on this while the kids were young?!!!

   

Helsinki, Finland

I guess this blog should have been titled Spain, Russia and Finland as I planned to spend at least one day in Helsinki before flying home. Too late now. :) I'll make sure Finland gets its due here though.

Despite my frantic boarding this morning, the train ride excellent. The stewardesses and customs agents were nice and multilingual. Right off of the train I was greeted by Helsinki information people handing out free maps. A few minutes later I was able to talk to an agent at an city information desk and get clear help on how to get to the airport, stow my luggage for the day at the train station and find an ATM. The people here in Helsinki are really nice people. . .of the Russians I encountered many of them were nice too but not outgoing. Expecting a smile might be pushing it. Here in Helsinki I get a smile and very clear English. I almost feel bad that I don't know any Suomi or Suoma (see I don't even know what to call it, I know it's not Finnish).

I found a one day tour online and decided to follow it since I hadn't really researched what to see. If you're interested in all the details the link is here http://wikitravel.org/en/Helsinki_itineraries  After stowing my luggage, my first stop was the Espanadi Park, a small slice of green belt of what was once bourgeoisie stone houses and the outskirts of the city, where many of the poor lived in wooden houses. Once a gated strolling place it is, of course now open to everyone. The city takes good care of it as everything looks healthy, green with planter beds adding color. There is a restaurant at the end for super fancy people who want to each lunch for 19 € or more. . .no thanks. I did stand a watch a alt rock band do their thing for an hour in the afternoon. It sounded good, if you like the Franz Ferdinand/Blur sound. Don't ask me for their name, I am sure it's super complicated with circles over the "A"s and umlauts over the "U"s.

Next, was the Senate square with the Lutheran cathedral looming over. Once I reached the square I had a cup or two of tea in this cool little cafe called, Cafe Engel. The tea was more than it should have cost, something like 3 or 4€ (I read somewhere that food prices are more expensive in Helsinki, and I guess I am cheap) but I enjoyed the atmosphere. Fully charged, I walked past the statue of Alexander  II of Russia (erected here when Finland belonged to Russia) and up the steep steps to the Lutheran cathedral and check out its interior. Inside, the cathedral was plain but also made of quality materials--which is typical of reformation era churches which wanted to distance themselves from the excessive luxury with which the Catholic church used its money in those times (e.g. elaborate Baroque designs, gilded everything, precious stones, neck chains with dollar signs on them. . .wait, take that last part back ;) Statues of Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon and some other guy I didn't recognize adorned three of the four inside corners of the church with the last corner being the raised pulpit.

Uspensky Cathedral was an interesting contrast to the Lutheran Cathedral. If I read the Russian plaque right, Uspensky was commissioned by Nicholas the I or Alexander II and had been completed by a later Tsar. It's outside decoration is what you would expect of a Russian or Greek Orthodox Church. The interior was painted with vivid colors depicting various saints and apostles whose names were written in either Old Slavonic or a script so fancy I can't read it. 

   Uspensky Cathedral

Just a minute or two walk away was the Market square which had lots of great arts and crafts like homemade jewelry, reindeer antler bottle openers or cork screws (really, you could get just about anything made of antler), postcards, magnets, the usual souvenir stuff. Right next to the bay, it also offered a lot of fresh sea food. For lunch I had a salmon plate that changed my life. It was seasoned salmon with a kind of dill garlic sauce, boiled melon balled potatoes mixed with some squash, carrots and a little side salad. Even though it was 10€ (here I go again) it was well worth the price for fresh food.

    Mmmmmm. Salmon

After l lunch I leisurely walked to The Church in the Rock which was well. . .you guessed it, again, a church cathedral in a rock. The center part of the feeling had copper in the middle. The acoustics were pretty good but not enough to hush up a large group from Asia that spoke as if they were outside despite signs in multiple languages to be quiet. 

    The Church in the Rock

The last significant things I did following that was shop Stockmanns and a few other stores a bit an get a great view of the city from the top of a hotel building (one of the tallest in the city). After that I simply walked to new places, sat in scenic park benches or revisit old areas. Helsinki would be a nice place to bring the family if we ever get a chance to get back here. With the exception of me nearly missing my train, it has been an easy, relaxed day. I had plenty of time to see things and even sit and sip tea. Here is a low res shot from my iPad. Gorgeous huh?

   Helsinki

I nearly missed my train!

I was almost too late to catch my train to Helsinki, frankly too close for comfort. I was, literally, the last one on, sweating and breathing hard. I woke up a little late but encountered a longer wait in the metro than I anticipated. When I could, I ran hard. I arrived in the train station about 2 mins. early but it turned out that the international station was around the corner and down the street. I turned around and ran back out and around the train station. I took a chance on a particular direction and lucked out. As I ran in I saw a police officer, said the number of my train in Russian too him and several people told me to hurry and ushered me on board. I guess I should have gotten up earlier. Thus far the ride to Helsinki is pretty though. . .if I could only get my heart to slow down a bit. :)

   Vyborg from the Train

Peterhof, and До свидания St. Petersburg!

Today was my last day in St. Petersburg and the finale of my trip--Peterhof! Peterhof was Peter the Great's answer to the Versailles palace. It is located southeast of St. Petersburg along the Baltic coast. A fan of sailing and the ocean, Peter made sure the place has a lot of aquatic influences, the most significant being the palace complex's many opulent fountains--a difficult thing to engineer in the early 1700s. 

To get there I had to go on a bit of an adventure. I took the Metro from Vosstaniya to Baltiskaya, then I walked out of the station and took a маршрутка or mini bus. It was the cheapest of all the options to get to Peterhof. Sure, I could have taken the hydrofoil but it was a ton of money and I wanted to take public transport for the thrill of it! Apparently, on a маршрутка the bus driver is the guy you pay and he gives you change while he drives. . . scary huh? At any rate, I made it and it only cost me about 70 rubles or the equivalent of about $2.50 or something like that. The bus dropped me off right out side of the Upper Garden at about 11:00am and I bought a ticket to Lower Garden (to see the fountains and the palace grounds) and then immediately started queuing to get a ticket for the Grand Palace. I waited in line for an about an hour. Then it started raining.

   Peterhof

Side Story Time! Yesterday, at Tsarskoe Selo, it started raining before I got off the bus. I panicked and bought a poncho for like $8 thinking we would be outside a lot and I did not have my North Face jacket with me. Turned out that I only needed it for like 5 minutes as we walked to Catherine's palace and not afterwards in the surrounding gardens the so I felt like a total dummy. Today, I got my money's worth.

Back to Peterhof. After I got inside the ticket office I thought I would immediately get to go inside the palace. Not so! I had to queue outside with ticket holders to get in. In the second line, I waited another hour in the rain but luckily I had my poncho and stayed dry. When I got inside we put on shoe covers to protect the parquet flooring and were ushered through in groups. Included in the price was a tour guide and a headset to hear the tour guide, only it was in Russian. Thinking back now, I should have gotten it anyway. Thankfully, my Rough Guide had a walk through. Seriously, this book has gotten me through so much. I hate to give a shameless plug for a tour book, but honestly it covers so much. 

    Rough Guide to St. Petersburg

After the palace, the rain stopped and for the rest of my time there it was a beautiful day with blue skies and big puffy white clouds. I checked out the grounds and made sure to see at least every major fountain. I think my favorite was pyramid fountain, but really they were all excellent. 

   Pyramid Fountain 

Next to the palace grounds is Alexandria Park--a huge, mostly depopulated park with the Cottage Palace where Nicholas I and successive generations of Romanov's lived in a normal sized (by American standards) house. To visit it I had to exit Peterhof and buy a ticket for that park. Once at the cottage I had to buy a ticket there as well. Are you getting this? Everything is compartmentalized. I had to buy 4 tickets today! Too see everything, which is crazy, would cost thousands of rubles. At the ticket office the I thought the price was 200 rubles but it turned out to be 400 rubles. My heart sort of sank as I only had a few hundred rubles with me and I needed at least 70 to get back. The girl there asked me if I was a student and I replied that I was not. She said something after that that I quickly realized meant that she wanted me to fake being a student. OK! I gave her my CA drivers license, she looked at it and in a wink-kind-of-way gave it back to me and only charged me 200 rubles. That's Russia for you.

   Cottage Palace

The cottage was especially neat as it was more intimate than the palaces I've seen. You could see beds, sinks, and personal belongings on display as they would have been nearly 200 years ago. For my last hour or so in the park I strolled Alexandria park and snapped shots of scenic areas. This place would serve as a great picnic spot and a safe place for kids to run around without worry of creepy types.

The trip back home was relatively easy. I walked back to where the bus dropped me off. When the sign didn't have my bus' number, I asked a local and she helped me. I did have to stand most of the way back though as the bus was packed. 

I will miss St. Petersburg. The people here are nice even though they don't smile much, I was able to brush up on my Russian and use it to get by in a few instances, and the stay with Irina and her family has been great. I knew I was taking a risk staying with a Russian family I did not know, but I really think it gave me a more authentic Russian experience than staying in a hotel or hostel. Tomorrow, I leave St. Petersburg on a train for Helsinki where I will spend a day then catch my flight home. I am super excited to see my wife and kids! I'll blog along the way if there is wifi available.

Shopping and Tsarkoe Selo

This morning I awoke to the sound of multiple people in the flat. Irina, her son, Mark, and her mother arrived late last night while I was in bed. For breakfast, Irina's mother made blanched Zucchini that was stuffed with rice, meat, onions and sour cream. It was super good! Irina and I talked over breakfast about what we had seen and done over the past few days in mixed English and Russian. She told me about the projects she undertook at the Dacha and I told her how I had seen many things and wore myself out. 

I gathered my things and leisurely got ready for the day and left at about 10:30am for a bit of shopping. My first stop was a place off Mayakovskaya ulitsa which had lots of Russian antiques and was certainly off the beaten path. Prices were pretty good, but I didn't really see anything I wanted or needed. The book cases were stuffed with books by Pushkin, Solovev, Tolstoy and others. I almost bought a copy of the Master and the Margarita by Bulgakov, my favorite novel, but it was not really a collectors item and I knew I would never really have the time to read it in Russian. Towards the back of the shop were old cameras,  pins, scarves, an old portrait of Lenin that has a tear across the top, dishes and several other flea market type items. The second place I visited was pretty much at the opposite end of the shopping spectrum--Yeseliev's, a super fancy delicacy shop dating back to at least the 19th century. Inside the interior was tastefully decorated in art nouveau. A piano played songs by itself and store cases displayed pastries that probably taste as good as they looked.

   Yeseliev's

I shopped a few other stores briefly before I caught my excursion bus for Tsarskoe Selo. The bus ride took about 30 minutes and passed several Soviet-era monuments along Moskovskaya Prospekt. The rain started as we left the city. Our tour guide, Alexander, was a tall, soft spoken, coke-bottled bespectacled man in his forties. You could tell that 1) he learned the Queen's English but still did not have command of it. And 2) in terms of history he knew a lot though was irritated by tourists. Perhaps, he wanted instead to be. . .A Lumber Jack! (start the Monty Python sketch here :) At any rate, Catherine's palace was amazing and had the majestic feel and power of Versailles. Many of the rooms had been inhabited and adopted by various Romonovs in the past not just Catherine the Great. Especially impressive was the Amber Room created from huge panels of amber stones. 

   Tsarskoe Selo

The room has an interesting past. . .I'll be brief though. It was originally commissioned by Frederick the I of Prussia for his wife to be installed in Charlottenburg. His wife died and he discontinued the project. His son, concerned more with war, sold the panels to Peter the Great where upon one of his successors installed them in Catherine's palace. During WWII, Nazis dissassembled the panels and took them to Germany where they may been buried somewhere or might have got lost at sea. The recreation of the room has cost some $12 but some also say that it is actually the original for reasons too long to describe here.

   The Amber Room

After a brief tour through the rooms, we headed outside. Luckily, by this time the rain had stopped and we got to enjoy the lush green surroundings. In the grotto, near an idyllic pond, we got to listen to a small Russian choir. The acoustics of the grotto and dynamics by these men were unbelievable. Toward the end of the tour, Alexander left us to snap some photos for about 15 minutes before heading back to the bus. A lady near me asked where the restroom was located and Alexander pointed her back to the entry of the palace and confirmed her repeated directions on how to get to the bus. At the appointed meeting time it turned out she could not be found. Alexander tried to look for her for about 10 minutes but couldn't find her. Her husband, who sat idly in the back, asked Alexander if he wanted him to look for her. At one point their conversation got heated, and Alexander said he tried to find her and that "she could not sit on the toilet for half and hour." When the husband asked for Alexander's name (I guess he forgot when he mentioned it earlier,) wanting to make him responsible for losing his wife, Alexander replied "I will not sign anything." After looking for another 20 minutes Alexander sent our bus back to Petersburg and he stayed to look for they woman. It was kind of funny and tragic at the same time. Moral of the story: if you're with a group, stay with the group.

This guy has a man purse.

Just saying. . .

Art, Graves Sites, and More Soviet stuff!

After some blinys (think Russian pancakes) for breakfast I headed to the Russian Museum for another heavy dose of art. Whereas the Hermitage specializes in European art, the Russian museum specializes in. . .you guessed it! Russian art. The early rooms focus on icon art by greats like Andrei Rublev while the latter rooms end with artists who painted according to the Socialist Realist convention (although the museum didn't point that out. . .I get the sense that Stalinism has not been officially repudiated in art even still. And yet, even with the last few rooms being a bore from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, I feel like this is one of my favorite art museums. It was much easier to navigate and less crowded that the Hermitage. Further, It was great getting to see works like Ilya Repin's Barge Haulers (a sly jab at the Tsarist regime in the late 19th century that passed the censors), Isaak Levitan's Lake, portraits by the court painter Karl Brullov, Malevich's infamous Black Square from the early 20th century (it is simply a black square on canvas) and Goncharova's cyclist with its cubist motion.

    Repin's Barge Haullers

 

    Levitan

    Goncharova' Cyclist

I got out of the museum in the early afternoon then proceeded to the metro where I got off at Alexander Nevsky station across the street from. . .you guess it again Alexander Nevsky Cemetery and Cathedral. The cemetery holds some of Russia's artistic greats: Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky and so on. The atmosphere in the cemetery was serene and peaceful. Large shade trees above provided plenty of shelter from the sun. Each plot typically had hedges and/or flowers around it. There were several fountains around with benches to rest and relax for a bit. 

    Dostoevsky's Grave Site at Nevsky Cemetery 

Following the cemetery, I walked a short distance to the Nevsky Cathedral, which I will describe in a moment. But first, a little history. Nevsky was a medieval leader of the city of Novgorod in northern Russia. He most famously defeated Teutonic Knights near the Neva river earning him near saint-like status for protecting Orthodox Christianity and the cool title of Nevsky. Peter, who also famously defeated Western invaders, utilized Nevsky's historical fame for himself and had a cathedral built near the approximate spot of the famous battle in the medieval era. Now, back to the cathedral. When I entered the cathedral there was some kind of service going on. Lucky for me, Russian Orthodox services are come and go affairs and I could simply watch from a distance and observe. I saw much chanting, monotone reading from scripture and individuals crossing themselves. 

Not having had my fill of walking I decided to walk a long distance north alongside the Neva embankment to the Smolniy area. There I saw the Smolniy Institute, which housed the Aug. 1917 Provisional Government and where the Bolsheviks gained the upper hand over their Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary rivals. Outside the institute stood an impressive array of Soviet statuary: a statue of Lenin, busts of Marx and Engels facing off across the main road to the Institute, and a columned structure with the famous phrase "пролетарий всёх стран соидителось!” (Workers of all countries unite!). Not too far from here also stands a statue of Felix Dzherzhinsky, who was head of the ruthless Cheka (the precursor to the KGB) during the revolutionary years. Why is this statue still standing?

For dinner I tried to find a well-reviewed Georgian restaurant called "Kavkaz" but could not find it. I walked another long distance back to my home street where I found a different Georgian restaurant and had lamb shashlik. It was yummy. Tomorrow, I plan on relaxing a bit in the morning and then at 2pm taking a excursion bus to Tsarskoe Selo.

From Peter to Lenin

Today was another full day of sightseeing. I should be getting amazingly fit from all this walking. I woke up this morning, took a shower and greeted Irina in the kitchen. We had oatmeal this morning. It didn't quite taste like oatmeal back home, (we put chocolate chips in it ;) but it got the job done. Today, she is leaving to go pick up her son and mother from the Dacha so I should see those two tomorrow for the first time. It is odd living in someone else's house, but I also feel like I am getting a real perspective on what it is like to live here.

I left the apartment and headed to the почта, or main post office, near the admiralty building. I sent a few postcards and a surprise for Hazel. It was kinda neat and the interior was mid-19th century with a huge iron wrought sky light above the center letting lots of light through opaque panels. I tried to communicate a little with a few of the ladies working there and got what I wanted with what I could muster and good gestures. Funny thing: the stamps are not sticky. You have to go to a table and wipe the stamps on this sponge that has sticky substance on it. 

From there, I walked to the Peter and Paul fortress on the Petrograd side. The Peter and Paul fortress is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) sites in the city. Here in the early 1700s Peter ordered that a fortress be erected after he managed to beat the Swedes out of Schlisselburg further down the Neva river. The original fortifications were built of wood but Peter and successive generations built it of stone and granite. In the fortress is a boat house (where a replica of the first boat Peter used to sail can be see), the Trubetskoe bastion (which is where Peter's son died and the prison there housed many political prisoners in both Tsarist times and Soviet), a mint, an engineers house. Among other things, the Peter and Paul Cathedral is there. The cathedral was the traditional burial site for the Romanovs from Peter to Nicholas II. Inside, the interior was nicely decorated in gold and some other pastel colors. Six ton marble caskets house the bodies of great historical figures like Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander the II (the Liberator), and Nicholas and Alexandra's family (the last Romanovs) throughout the small chapel. 

   The Peter and Paul Fortress (I took a helicopter ride to take this shot--kidding)

At one point, while I was walking around the fortress, I heard a marching band. I walked swiftly to the source and saw crowds surrounding a military band and a formation of soldiers lined up near one of the central bastions. After the band finished their song, the members simply stood there alongside the soldiers. Thinking that it was a waste of my time I walked away from the crowds still standing there to try to find tickets to get into the cathedral mentioned above. As I walked I hear a bomb go off. It spooked me and I turned around quickly toward the source of the explosion. However, when I looked at my watch, I realized that it was 12:00 and they must have done some kind of noon celebration. . .still it must have been a huge canon.

From there I walked around the Petrograd side and checked out various Soviet historical markers. I almost got lost in doing so. I saw the cruiser Aurora, which assisted in the 1917 Revolution, a monument to the Decembrists, and a monument to the victims of the Gulags, which oddly had only a few words and a simple boulder. I guess the creators were lucky to simply pass the censors. I then walked up Kamenoostrovsky Prospekt to check out the Yelizarov apartment, which belonged to Vladimir Lenin's sister and served as a hideout for Lenin during the years leading up to 1917 and a different apartment where a minority of the Central Committee of the Bolsheviks decided that they should prepare for a coup--a turning in point in the events leading up to the Revolution.

On my way back to Petrogradskaya metro I simply got lost. I probably spent 15 minutes walking in the wrong direction and passed several streets and buildings named after the great scientist Pavlov. Yes, the drooling dog guy. I retraced my steps, but as I got closer to the metro I still could not find it. I am glad I asked a local where the metro was because he told me that it does work "не работает" and kindly gave me directions to Gorkovskaya. I would have spent hours looking for that dumb metro. Sadly, this meant more walking. 

At about 6pm I walked to Gorkovska metro and took the blue line down to Moskovskaya station in the souther suburbs to see the House of Soviets. When I walked up from the metro, the surrounding scenery l made it seem as if the Soviet Union was still around: the square was packed with loiterers, fountains were flowing, a statue of Lenin stood over the square, and freezes on the building illustrated the Communist parties achievements.

My last stop of the day was to visit St. Isaacs cathedral, back in the heart of the city. This cathedral, the fourth built better fits the classical European style of the surrounding city. Unlike, the Church on Spilled Blood (see my post from yesterday). I purchased a ticket to the cupola and exhaustedly walked up several hundred steps. The view of the city from the top was rewarding though! The ocean wind felt fresh and the sun was still high due to the city's White Nights.

    The view from St. Isaac's Cathedral

I had dinner at the Peterburger cafe and got to choose an assortment of Russian things that I know are edible and good. While I ate I watched Moscow's ЦСКА play St. Petersburg's Зенить, a fun rival soccer match, on TV.

   Tasty Russian Cuisine 

The Hermitage: Art Ad Nauseum

Today has been a lot of fun. I slept in till 8:30am and took a shower in Irina's weird shower. No place to hang the shower head and the water heater was only a foot or two above the faucet. . .like I could see the pilot running while I showered. I think that is what I like about traveling in Europe. You never know what the shower is going to look like. Some places have curtains, some don't. Some places hang their shower heads, others you have to hold it over your head while you do your thing. 

Irina made a tasty breakfast. I had eggs with kielbasa slices and dill all mixed together with a few slices of Lapplandskii (Finnland style) bread (it is dark and has seeds). We chatted a bit in Russian and English again and I headed to the Hermitage via metro. I had to change lines twice to get to Admiralticheskaya, which is near the Winter Palace. On a side note, I have noticed that nearly every thing looks nicer in St. Petersburg the closer you are to the center--buildings, streets, metro stations. When I took Moskovskaya metro I was shocked at how shabby it looked. When I got off at Admiralticheskaya this morning it was fancy, mosaics, women wiping down the escalators, etc.

Having the purchased ticket for the Hermitage was great. It gave me a permit to use my camera and I simply walked in after a few minutes wait. I started the Hermitage at 11:00am and didn't really leave until 5:00pm. No lunch break. I simply digested art for six hours straight. Frankly, there were some places i walked through and said, "Rembrandt, Lucas Cranach. . .cool." and moved on, and some places I did not even visit. 

The Jordan staircase was a neat triumphal entrance to the palace. From there I headed up to the second floor where I spent most of my time today. It took me about a half an hour to gain a sense of direction as the palace is immense. I took notes as I went in my guide book and dotted places I had been so I wouldn't retrace my steps too much. Here is what it looks like at the end of the day:

    My Poor Guidebook

I took tons of pictures, notes and noted paintings I liked and might want to use in my AP European history. Honestly, the Hermitage has it all if you know and appreciate art: old masters, Baroque and Rococo favorites like Caravaggio, Bernini, Velazquez, Boucher, Watteau, the Romantic era artist Caspar David Friedrich, Impressionists like Monet, Poussin, Cezanne, Manet. Upstairs had paintings of Picasso from his early and later years, works from Matisse and a cool exhibit on El Lisitsky called "Utopia and Reality" which showed some of his ambitious sketches for art in the new Soviet era circa 1920s. All throughout the palace, amongst the art, one sees jaw-dropping architecture and wealth. I was especially draw to many malachite vases which glow with an eerie green luminescence. When I left the Hermitage I was certain I left many things unseen, but I knew I had also seen all that I would have wanted to and more.

    The Jordan Staircase

     Pavilion Hall

     El Lisitsky

After dinner at a Subway (I'll try Russian cuisine some time but I wanted easy and convenient), I visited the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. This church, constructed near the end of the 19th century, commentates the death of Tsar Alexander II, who was known as the Tsar Liberator and abolished serfdom in 1861. It is literally built on the spot where he was assassinated. In my opinion, the cathedral is colorfully and beautifully adorned. To many classicists of St. Petersburg it is an architectural slap in the face as it is more in the Muscovite tradition, something Peter tried to intentionally avoid when he built the city known as the Venice of the North.

    Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

Inside are amazing mosaics of Christ's life and the saints. Since its recent restoration the colors really pop out. During the Soviet period many churches were turned into barracks, storage places or in some cases museums of atheism. It is nice to know the church can survive. 

Following the Church of the Savior, I did a little souvenir shopping and then found cafe where I am sitting currently. Tomorrow, I plan to see the Decembrist monument, the Peter and Paul fortress (the first construction of the city and burial place of the Romanovs), some sights of Petrograd, and Soviet kitsch in the southern suburbs (the House of the Soviets, the victory monument, etc). 

St. Petersburg!

After a flight from Barcelona to Berlin and Berlin to St. Petersburg I finally made it! I had to stay the night in the airport. My flight got in at 2:30am and I didn't really see a point in getting a room for just a few hours-especially after I had gotten my luggage and took the trip from the airport to the city center. I am not sure whether I am proud or embarrassed. I guess I will say proud! I got to FaceTime Amy and the kids this morning. I miss them a ton. Coming back will be special.

At 6am, I took a city bus and a metro to get to my guest house on Vostanniya ulitsa. The place is pretty shabby and might spook most people who have never been to Russia. Especially after having my own room in each of the hotels we stayed at in Spain. I woke up Irina, my host, and she showed me the keys, my room, where I can find some Tapochki (sandals) for in the house and then said that she was going back to bed. After getting almost no sleep last night and about 5 hours the night before, I went to bed too and slept until Tatiana, the HOPA representative, showed up at 9am. She registered my visa while Irina put on a kettle. After, Tatiana left, Irina drank chai and I got to chat a bit and I tried what Russian I have left since I studied it about 5 or 6 years ago. As expected I don't have much vocabulary and I have trouble putting adjectives in the right gender, BUT I have been complimented a couple of times on my pronunciation. YAY! The weather is cooler here as you would expect and it has even rained off and on all day. 

   Nevsky Prospekt

After chai I packed my backpack and headed down a couple of blocks to Hotel Life where I caught up with some other English types (Ok. Really a Canadian and two Finns--who spoke good English) who were also waiting for the Peter Walks tours. The tour guide who walked out, Eugene, looked ruff and my first thought was that he was not real. The first part of the tour also focused on courtyards and some sketchy places of St. Petersburg, but as we worked our way to the center of the city and nearer the Hermitage, I could see that our tour guide actually did know his stuff and wasn't just swindling us. We saw: Nevsky Prospekt, the outside of the Dostoevsky museum and one of his apartments, the Swedish quarter, several parks, buildings by foreign architects like Rossi and Ferrand and a lot of misc. Rossi's so called "perfect street" pretty interesting. It is supposedly as high as it is wide and 10Xs that same measurement in length. At one point we stopped for lunch and I got a cheese and egg roll that tasted delicious and a small glass of kvass to wash it down. After the tour ended at the Hermitage, I walked to Vasilevsky Island, checked out the Bronze Horseman, strolled up Nevsky Prospekt stopping at Dom Knigi (lit. House of Books) and Gostinny Dvor, a shopping mall since the time of Catherine the Great.

   The Perfect Street

    The Bronze Horseman 

Now I think I am going to take it easy tonight and go to bed early as I need to catch up on sleep and save my energy for the Hermitage! 

La Pedrera, La Rambla and Hard Rock Barcelona

Yesterday, nearly wore me out! We got up early, had breakfast at our hotel and then quickly walked to the metro station where we traveled from Plaça d'Espanya to Diagonal, off Grand Via, to see La Pedrera. La Pedrera is a architect's paradise. Essentially an apartment building, it was constructed from 1906-1912. The brochure I picked up claimed it to be the zenith of his work. The outside facade looks like a series of waves for each level and all of the windows and balconies are composed of curved lines and lips. Basically, it looks organic or smooth and flesh like but, of course made of stone. Ironically, the roof is probably its best known feature. The chimneys are each uniquely designed and covered with tiles and glass. After starting with the roof we moved down to the attic (which sounds weird to say!) which was made of brick parabolic arches circling and interconnecting across the building. They had several models of Gaudi's work there. Moving down again, we got to see a restored  apartment of what a typical bourgeois (wealthy middle class) family would have lived at around the time of the early 1900s. The interior was nicely decorated in the art nouveau style and even had a maid's quarters. It made me think of Downton Abby. :)

   La Pedrera

We got out of La Pedrera at about 10:30 and then a few of the girls wanted me to chaperone them around the town as we shopped a bit during our free time. The girls came up with a sound off to help me better keep track of them. It made me glad that I teach such good kids that want to make my life easier. . .not go off and get in trouble. We visited El Corte Ingles (a department store), Desigual, H & M and many, many souvenir shops and stands. I got to do a few fun things to and the girls obliged. We shopped at Diesel for a bit, had some tea and granizados at Bracafe (a nice vintage Brazilian cafe that has been poorly named), and visited St. Joseph's Mercado (fancy farmer's market).

For lunch we stopped at this place called Que Pasta? It had a cool concept at its core. 1) Choose your type of pasta. 2) Choose your type of sauce, and 3) Choose a cheese topping. I had fusilli pasta, carbonara sauce and Parmesan topping. They put in a Chinese to go box and with a drink it only cost 5 euros or so. Not bad! And it tasted good!

We did some more shopping after lunch but eventually wore ourselves out and crashed at a city park east of the Gothic quarter. We laid down on the grass underneath a shade tree and enjoyed people watching for an hour or so. I took a couple of cat naps.

On our way back to meet the rest of the group at the Hard Rock on Plaça Catalunya, we saw a flea market outside the Gothic cathedral that sold all kinds of old European cool junk. They had old records, books, maps, medals, European currencies, etc. Normally, I shy away from flea markets because they are filled with old American junk. But European junk is different. :) 

Barcelona, Gaudi and Laundry

The first half of my day was filled with the sights, sounds (and yes smells) of Barcelona, capital of the Catalan region. If you haven't studied it or visited Spain you might not know about Catalonia's desire to be independent and their distinct culture. The Catalan language is everywhere here. Actually, our tour guide, Sonia, said that you can be fined if a sign is written only in Castilian (the Spanish we know and teach in America). Still, Catalonia's desire for independence has mainly been by peaceable means in contrast to the Basque ETA, which is essentially a terrorist group, who, thankfully in recent years have calmed down. Remarkably, Spain is less cohesive than even the Switzerland with its autonomous Cantons! 

I had a small but hearty breakfast of a few breakfast sausages, chorizo, a slice of toast and a tasty pear. We then got in our tour bus to view the city. Our first stop was Montjuic, the place of the 1992 Olympics. Following that, we drove through the downtown area and saw out our bus a few buildings by Antonin Gaudi, a famous architect at around the turning of the 20th century, who, with others pioneered the Modernisme movement, an off shoot of Art Nouveau. Next, we stopped at Park Güell. Güell was wealthy business entrepreneur who invested a huge amount of money trying to develop a community in the surrounding hills of Barcelona. He even managed to get Gaudi to make a few model homes for the development and to create a plan. When few people bought up the tracks of land in 1914, Güell gave up the project and handed the development over to the city to be preserved as a park. Gaudi and his apprentices painstakingly tiled nearly every square inch of architecture in this park and managed to use all sorts of materials: bottles, mirrors, tiles, etc. Then we visited La Sagrada Famillia, Gaudi's major work. Undertaken in 1882, this impressive cathedral is slated to be finished by 2026 the 100th year anniversary of his death. With its melted-candle-wax/organic look this cathedral is bound to be one of the best I've ever seen and its completion will be in the history books.

   Parc Güell

    La Sagrada Familia

Following our yummy Paella lunch in the Barcelona Marina, we did a brief walking tour up La Rambla with Sonia to gain our bearings. At the end of the brief walking tour others went on to do a bike tour, some to shop, but I went back to the hotel via subway to do my laundry. Luckily some of our students got a washer in their room and lent me their key so I could use the free washer. The only problem was that their were some 50 different settings with tiny Ikea like characters that I hadn't a clue what setting to choose. I chanced upon a snow flake combined with a feather. . .cold and delicates right? My clothes came out fine but took forever. To further complicate things, the dryer was broken so I now have laundry hanging all throughout my room and on my patio. :)

For dinner we went to a kind of Fresh choice type place that had lots of salad options and meat for the boys in our group who haven't have struggled with the European diet. Over dinner Sonia and I talked politics in Europe and America. I don't often get a chance to hear a European perspective so it was interesting to see what her beliefs are as half Spanish, half Swiss. One interesting thing to share was that she found it hard to believe that Christians would want to own guns. Her thoughts were that Christians are peaceable, and well, we are! I tried to explain that, at least where I grew up, people owned guns because of a distrust of government and joy of recreation. . .not for committing crimes or violence. Still, she found this incredible. On my side, I had trouble understanding Swiss government and how it works as a direct democracy. Still, we both enjoyed the conversation and were glad to talk politics. 

Our trip to Barcelona

Yesterday we left Logroño and our weird but well accommodated hotel and got on the bus for the trip to Barcelona. As we drove we traveled through several different and distinct regions. La Rioja, as I probably mentioned before, is a famous wine producing region (mainly reds) and looked like Napa at times. The soil also looked chalky. We dipped through a part of Navarra and spent most of our drive in the desserts of Aragon, which I thought looked somewhat like Nevada--sage brush, the occasional tree, rocky dirt, etc. Throughout the trip I read my book, played the dot game (where you make squares by adding lines) with Raquel, a student, and laughed about inside jokes made during the trip. 

Once inside Catalonia, we stopped at Lleida at a buffet type restaurant for lunch. It felt a lot like Ikea where you put what you want on your tray and then they add it up. I had breaded pork cutlet, and some peas, carrots, and Lima beans all cooked together, with a lemonade type drink. It tasted great and I especially enjoyed the cooked vegetables as I have all too often gotten chicken and potatoes. The cool thing about the rest stop restaurant and gift shop was that it was constructed over the Autovia or high way. As I sat eating lunch, I could look at the windows at the two lanes of road. 

From there we had a hour drive or so to Barcelona where things considerably got greener and we started to see wine grapes again, only this time, our tour guide told us they were Cava grapes--basically, champagne grapes but since they do not come from the champagne region in France they call them Cava, much like we call ours sparkling wine in CA. 

Our hotel is really nice, situated in the Montjuic area and has lots of amenities. I have a kitchenette, a patio and two chairs, a TV and even a towel warmer. . .oooooo! And so much more! In the evening we checked out the Plaça d'Espanya and the Magical Montjuic fountain which changes all kinds of colors. It was really quite beautiful but also a tourist trap and a pickpockets paradise. 

   Plaça d'Espanya

How we survived the San Firmin Chupinazo.

This morning we traveled to the San Firmin chupinazo festival in Pamplona. The chupinazo is basically the crazy inauguration to the running of the bulls, which will take place tomorrow for about 2 mins. If you blink you miss it and chances are you won't be able to elbow your way to see it.

Imagine, every Austrian and American tourist in the continent, every Spaniard from miles around, and everyone in the town (the streets on the outskirts were like a ghost town) descending on a poor, small Basque town to celebrate this day. Everyone wears white and has red sashes around their waste and/or bandanas around their neck. The small Spanish streets are packed from one side to the other all up and down near the main square with people all wanting to see, hear and experience the blasts inaugurating this celebration. The people around you are drinking heavily, or getting there, and throwing their wine glasses and squirting their bota bags on their friends and on bystanders as they sing and chant like as if a soccer game was taking place. The people in the balconies above fill tubs, basins, anything really, and drench the crowds below who holler and cheer, shouting "aqua! aqua!" 

   The Chupinazo

For as insane as this sounds it was really a lot of fun! My white shirt and khaki shorts by the end of the day were tie-dyed a cool purple color from all the sangria splashed on me. One guy even spilled cold beer down the back of me and I was completely soaked from the water poured from the balconies, but the crowd was energizing and everyone seemed polite within reason. I didn't see any excessive shoving, fights, etc. The tough part was making sure the students I was with got to experience the crowds but didn't get lost in the mix. 

In the late afternoon we found a park and sat under some trees in the shade and shared stories of the crazy things we had seen. All had fun, was uninjured and had decorative clothing on. Tonight we are in Logroño, just south of Basque Country on the Elbro river in La Rioja, Spain's best wine making region. It is really just a place to stay for the night before we embark on our 6-8 hour drive to Barcelona. 

Bilbao and San Sebastián

Yesterday we did a panoramic tour of Bilbao and are now immersed in Basque Country. I knew that Basque culture was unique and different from Spain, but I had no idea of the autonomy, pride, and linguistic independence these people have from Spain. All throughout the city and the region every sign is in two languages: Spanish Castilian and Euskadi (the Basque language, which is really unlike any other). 

    The Bilbao Guggenheim

Bilbao has a lot to offer architecturally and many things are new (less than 15 years old) as a result of the urban renewal and cultural renaissance brought from the creation of the Guggenheim museum. Before Bilbao was simply a steel town port with only moderate significance. Today, it is easily becoming a major destination in Spain. The museum itself was great. I enjoyed the art on the first two floors and particularly enjoyed seeing works by some of my favorites: Kandinsky, Klee, and Matisse. But I also noted some new works (to me): Pop art by Jean Michel Bisquiat, Rauchenberg, and Kurt Conrad's WWII camp sketches. The third floor was mainly a weird juxtaposition between Baroque and eroticism. . .didn't really enjoy that one. After walking for several days and the Guggenheim I took a nap, but I did venture out in the evening for a bit and got to ride the Metro :)

    San Sebastián

Today we took a trip to San Sebastián, a surf town on the Bay of Biscay on the Atlantic Ocean. We had a walking tour until noon saw some nice sights--none all that too impressive other than the beautiful beaches, quaint markets, and fun tourist shops. We had a huge amount of free time this afternoon! I had plenty of time to eat pintxos (the Basque version of tapas and which were some of the best food I've had here) and get some helado (it's really like gelato here). I looked at maybe buying some new shoes here but the prices just seem higher than the states. We also visited a FNAC which seemed like a big Borders, which now is out of business. It had music, books, novelties.

   Pintxos

Tomorrow is Pamplona and the beginning of the San Firmin festival (the running of the bulls). We've done our best to prepare for the craziness. I pray we come out alive! 

Hanging out in a cafe in beautiful San Sebastián

Roman, Gothic, Moorish, Moderne

We have done some many things today and seen some many different times and discussed time periods!

Segovia

Today we visited Segovia and its Alcazar (Castle) which magnificently is perched atop a outcrop of rocks around a river bend. This castle has ties to Isabella of Spain as she was growing up.  Later we visited the aqueducts at the other end of the city which were still functioning as of the 1980s before it was preserved. The Romans designed it so that it would bring water several miles from the near by mountains. It is accurately level to 1 or 2 degrees! For lunch I was adventurous again and tried a variety of small bocadillos (sandwiches) for lunch. Three out of five weren't bad. ;)

    Segovia's Alcazar

   Segovia's Aqueducts

Burgos

We hopped in the bus again and headed for Burgos with its impressive Gothic cathedral, and the burial cite of the legendary El Cid. Our tour guide was hard to understand but he sure tried hard and had many pictures to help make his points. Throughout the city I also saw Moderne or Art Nouveau style doorways and facades in a few places. Later after dinner I got to walk out around the city for a bit to experience the Burgos Fiesta celebrations going on right now. It was fantastic and a lot of fun. There was an outdoor concert going on (it was mainly accordion music. . .hmmm) but I really liked that various groups or regions of the city dress up in a certain color, play brass band music, and dance different styles of dance around the city in a competition to outdo each other. In my opinion, the blue group who's banner said "Manga" stole the show. :)

   Burgos Cathedral

Tomorrow we leave for Bilbao and Basque region! 

San Bernabeu, Toledo and Churros

Had another great day in Madrid! I got up early to check out the Plaza Mayor, the historic city center and, a long time ago, center of the Inquisition. Since I was there early I got some great shots of the square empty. Later on after breakfast we visited the San Bernabeu stadium, home of Real Madrid! If you're not into soccer this is like the Mt. Olympus of fútbol (am I mixing metaphors?). At any rate, we got to see the trophy cases, visit the pitch (field), sit in the players sideline seats, check out their locker rooms, see the press room, get fake photos with our favorite players, etc. It was a soccer dream come true. :)

After a very quick lunch, we got in our charter bus and traveled to Toledo where we took scenic views of the city from the outskirts, saw the inside of the Toledo cathedral, the Jewish synagogue--dating back to the late 1100s and the San Martin bridge. Before we left we got to check out some sword making and pick up some souvenirs. 

    Toledo

After our Tapas dinner, several of us went to San Gines for Chocolate and Churros, established in 1896! The chocolate was super thick, dark and rich. Loaded with sugar, we strolled through the Plaza Mayor and the Mercado San Miguel taking in all the fantastic, odd, funny, artistic things Madrid has to offer.

    San Gines

    Plaza Mayor

Note: the pictures are clearly not mine. Mine would look better. . Ha ha! But I don't have the ability to connect to a computer so these should give you an idea of what we are seeing until I get a chance to upload what I have. 

Palacio Real, the Prado and Flamenco Dancing. . .what more could you ask of Spain?!

Holy Moley today was filled to the brim with things to do. In the morning we took a chartered bus tour of Madrid seeing some of the major sites: the Templo de Debod, the monument to Cervantes, the Puerta de Toledo and of course the Palacio Real (although we have yet to see the Plaza Mayor for those of you who know Madrid's sites). Our group tour went through the Palacio Real with a tour guide  who spoke English. Some of the major highlights for me was seeing the Sphinx's table, on which Spain signed a treaty in 1985 entering the EU, the apartments of Charles the III, the ornate plant themed wall decorations in the Gasparini room and the Stradivarius cello, viola, and two violins in the Antechamber de la Reina Maria Cristina. 

We got back on a bus and left the Palacio and drove to the Bourbon part of Madrid where we stopped so people could have some free time and look at what they wanted. I and some students grabbed a quick bite to eat in the beautiful Parque de el Retiro (amazing shrubs and trees cut and trimmed neatly)  and headed to the Prado museum for a 1 hour whirlwind visit as it was all we had time for. I saw lots of great early Renaissance masterpieces (nerd alert) and Baroque works like Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, a truly weird but cool piece), a few Raphaels, a duplicate of the Mona Lisa probably painted by one of Leonardo's protégés, lots of great Goyas like the 3rd of May, and Velasquezs like Las Meninas and Queen Marianna, and a few El Greco paintings. One of the silly highlights of the visit was me leading the way to what looked like an elevator but stopping on a few feet short before realizing that it was not an elevator at all but some maintenance doors. I turned, looked defeated, and the kids all had a good laugh at me. As hard as it is to describe it, it was pretty funny.

We left the Prado in a hurry and made it back to our hostel in time to catch our bus to the Flamenco show at Corral de la Moreria. I was sincerely impressed even though I thought I wouldn't be. It was loud, interactive "Olé!", and face paced. The dancers as you can imagine we're very dramatic, expressive, passionate and well. . .good at tapping their feet and waving their hands.

We finished the night with some good food and some shopping near the Puerta del Sol. Tomorrow is the Bernabeu stadium, Toledo and tapas for dinner. I need some sleep. Buenas Noches!