When I got off the ship, I noticed that Professor Dmitry Strovksy was standing where you go through immigration, and asked to take a picture with him because I enjoyed his presentations during his stay on my ship. We then talked about Russia as a country. I asked if he was excited to host the Olympic Games here early next year, and he said that he is not. Russia spends around 60% of the income of the country to prepare Sochi for the Games. He said that Russia needs a lot of improvement, and all of the taxpayers money is going to something that will be done with within the next year. Russia does not accommodate people with disabilities. Professor Strovsky would rather see his money go towards improvements and accommodations rather than Olympic development. I found this very interesting because Americans would be proud to host another Olympic Games. This showed me one of the huge differences between our countries; we really have life easier than we imagine back home in the States. I really enjoyed talking to him because he gave me more insight on how the Russian government ran, as far as economic disbursement throughout the cities, as well as the political corruption in their leaders.
·Russia paid three times more to construct Saint Isaac’s Cathedral than American’s paid Russia for the acquisition of Alaska!
·Saint Isaac’s took forty years to construct.
·The subway (Metro) has the fastest escalators in the world toaccompany the deepest subway in the world. In order for the Metro to go under the Neva River, it must go down 150 meters!
·The third largest library in the world is in Saint Petersburg. The second is in Moscow (the Lenin Library), and the first is the Washington Library in the United States.
·Saint Petersburg is the home of the famous composer Tchaikovsky, who wrote the Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake.
·It is very easy to remember how many bridges there are in Saint Petersburg because there is one for every day of the year (365)!
·“Hermitage” means secret corner or private. The Hermitage Museum was named such because Catherine the Great wanted to keep the collection to herself, so it would be her own private collection.
·Saint Petersburg changed its name several times throughout history. The city was created in 1703 and was names Saint Petersburg for Peter the Great. In 1914, the city changed its name to Petrograd to get away from “burg” which sounded Russian; in 1914 Russia was involved with WWI against Germany, so they did not want any ties to their rival country. In 1925, the name was changed to Leningrad in honor of Lenin’s death in 1924. The name was changed for the last time in 1991 because of the fall of the Soviet Union. The name was voted on by the citizens of the city back to Saint Petersburg.
·Saint Petersburg was the capital of Russia from 1712 until 1918, when it was then moved to Moscow. It is now considered the cultural capital of Russia.
·The “Merchant’s Yard” is the oldest department store of Saint Petersburg, originating in the 18th century.
·There are around six million foreign visitors a year; most come by a cruise ship, like me!
·Russians get marries in “wedding palaces” as opposed to churches. Couples can be married in churches only if they have been married in a wedding palace first.
·The phrase “I love you” in Russian sounds like “yellow blue bus.”
·Their Christmas is on January 7th because of the difference in their calendars. Because of this, their revolution anniversary that should be in October, is now hosted in November.
·Every night, the bridges open at 1:15 in the morning and remain opened until 5:30 in the morning. This tradition was started in order to allow larger ships to navigate the Neva River, but it is still done today because this is one of the traditions that Saint Petersburg is still known for.
I disembarked my ship on Thursday, August 29th, 2013. When I got off the ship, I noticed that Professor Dmitry Strovksy was standing where you go through immigration, and asked to take a picture with him because I enjoyed his presentations during his stay on my ship. We then talked about Russia as a country. I asked if he was excited to host the Olympic Games here early next year, and he said that he is not. Russia spends around 60% of the income of the country to prepare Sochi for the Games. He said that Russia needs a lot of improvement, and all of the taxpayers money is going to something that will be done with within the next year. Russia does not accommodate people with disabilities. Professor Strovsky would rather see his money go towards improvements and accommodations rather than Olympic development. I found this very interesting because Americans would be proud to host another Olympic Games. This showed me one of the huge differences between our countries; we really have life easier than we imagine back home in the States.
I registered for a city orientation trip through my ship because I was not very familiar with Russia. The tour took us to the Hermitage Museum, which was once the Winter Palace of Catherine the Great. Today, the Hermitage is the third largest museum in the world, and it houses over 3 million exhibits! The museum houses a large selection of pieces from Monet, Picasso, and Leonardo da Vinci.After we looked though much of the museum,we walked to Church of the Savior on Blood (Spilled Blood Church or the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ).
Then, we walked along a canal towards Nevsky Prospekt, which is the most expensive street in Saint Petersburg (much like 5th Avenue in Manhattan and Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles). On this road we saw the Kazan Cathedral. We toured more of the city and saw Saint Isaac’s Cathedral. This cathedral withstood the harsh battles of World War II. On the third pillar, there is an indentation from a bomb during one of the battles in Saint Petersburg. On my first night, I took a canal boat ride with a small group. We went around several canals, as well as the Neva River. The Neva River flows into the Neva Bay,the Gulf of Finland, the Baltic Sea, and eventually the Atlantic Ocean. On my second day in Saint Petersburg, I tried to look for a post office to mail my postcards! This was very challenging because I had to follow a map that was written in Russian! It taught me to be able to count streets and be aware of my surroundings (such as canals, rivers, and important monuments) because there are no street signs! My roommate and I ate at a McDonald’s because she needs to compare their food in several countries. We both got chicken sandwiches, and they were square. Also, the bread had bacon bits in it; it was very different from home. On my second night I learned how to navigate the Russian Metro and Train systems to travel to Moscow!
