Day 3 - St. Petersburg

Monday, 11/24 -

The bus pulled into Baltic Station and I adjusted my watch an additional hour ahead. Just before we got off, I was witness to a horrible act. There were tons of mothers with young children on my bus. In waking them to get off, one little girl gave that whiny little cry that kids do when they are woken up out of the blue. Poor lamb; she had my sympathy. If adults hate this, kids must hate it more. While she was fidgeting and crabbily murmuring her disappointment, the mother hauled off and slapped her open handed across the face! The speed was like an open handed punch. All without saying a word, and silently carrying on like she had not just beat her kid.

We arrived about 45 minutes later than expected and this screwed me over because I had ordered a car transfer to my hotel. I guess they wouldn't wait or I couldn't find them, but I ended up resorting to what I dreaded - taking a taxi cab. Taking a cab in Russia is a true rip-off experience for tourists. It's what I wanted to avoid and what ended up being my only recourse. I could've taken the metro, but it was rush hour and the Russians are unforgiving during this time. I, with my large suitcase and carry on, would be no match - yet.

Finding an ATM was easy, thankfully, I could do the transaction in English, my saving grace. It wasn't until afterwards that I discovered I should've requested the smaller bills option the ATM ("bank-o-mat") offered, which had perplexed me. My first lesson. Hardly anyone takes anything over 500 rubles here! I completed another transaction getting smaller bills, which enabled me to show my face again to the woman running the little store who had previously refused my request to pay for a beverage with a large bill. Trudging through snow and passing the rush hour crowd and stray dogs, I reluctantly approached the taxi stand. The cab twisted and turned through the dark city streets. A flash of green appeared before me and I realized we were passing the Winter Palace. My face to the window, I savored that view for as long as I could until it disappeared when the driver turned a corner.

After finding and settling into the hostel, I had breakfast at the Nevsky Grand and headed out to explore. I had been in a tizzy over my bad start and really needed to begin my love affair with the city. My first stop was Church on Spilled Blood, which was only a few blocks from where I stayed. Coming up on the church, at first, I could only see people snapping photos. I knew what they were taking pictures of and so braced myself. Taking in a low voice, I said "brace yourself, brace yourself, steady…", rounded the corner and semi-burst into tears. I was finally here, finally in St. Petersburg, and the emotions just hit me right there and then. The church was even more breath taking inside and I merrily snapped away at everything I could, knowing that the richly colored images would not produce a bad photo, but they could never quite express the actual feeling of being there.

Next, was a walk up Nevsky Prospect, snapping away at anything that caught my eye - a statue of Catherine the Great, a McDonald's sign in Cyrillic, the Anichkov Palace, and the Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace. This palace was historically special to me because it once belonged to Grand Duchess Ella, Empress Alexandra's sister. It's also architecturally stunning. I stopped into a cafe to order hot chocolate with somewhat passable Russian. I was second guessing myself on the translation, but the word chocolate is the same in Russian as it is in English, so I had that working in my favor.

My last stop for the day would be at the Mikhailovsky Palace, a branch of the Russian Museum. It was my first entrance into a former palace. The rooms are works of art themselves here and when I was finished looking at the artifacts, stared in amazement at the architecture surrounding me.

Since I traveled in the month of November, darkness arrived much earlier. I headed back and met my fellow hostel mates. They were all from England and Ireland, and we hung around chatting about the city, learning a thing or two from one another. I learned that through the back courtyard, the hostel was literally just steps from the Winter Palace/Hermitage, and where to purchase a train ticket to Moscow nearby without wasting time going several miles away to the actual train station. I decided to head out once again to take some night photos before coming back and calling it a night.