Incredibly, I had 5 days of snow in St. Petersburg. Everyday, starting around 11 in the morning, the fall would begin. Big, wet flakes coming from every direction, rendering my cheap polish umbrella worthless.
Walking the streets of St. Petersburg in the snow was great. Beautiful edifaces every direction you look. Towering spires of the churches, beautiful bridges across canals. You can really fall in love with this city, even in the winter.
The only site I really wanted to see was the Hermitage, the art collection that's probably larger that the Lourve in Paris. It is located in the Winter Palace along the river and truly does have a great collection. I was disappointed to see the state of disrepair the palace was in however. Carpets faded and torn up, walls with chipping paint and electrical sockets of dangling wires. I found a lot of the lighting above the artworks so disruptive that you cannot even appreciate the paintings in some rooms.
I found a groovy college bar with a group from the Hostel I was staying at: a Scot, Swede, Aussie, two Germans, a South Korean, and an American (me). Later a group of about 12 russian mountain bikers showed up a the bar with all of their gear and bikes, some even had full-body protective armour... like it was the normal thing to do for them on a snowy Thursday night. (For the humor, you must understand that St. Petersburg was built on a swamp: There isn't a mountain, or hill, in sight...)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment