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).
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