Saturday, September 17th, 2005
It had been said a number of times over the last few days that the Hermitage would be the highlight of our time in St Petersburg and the trip in general. Considering that I’d been pretty impressed with the city thus far, that was a pretty high bar to try and clear. The Hermitage is the second largest art gallery in the world, second only to the Louvre, and is housed in the former royal Winter Palace on the Neva in downtown St Petersburg, facing onto St Petersburg Square. Now I’m a long way removed from OAC art with Mrs Goetz, droning on about the golden ratio and “The Raft Of The Medusa”, but I think I still like art. And stuff. Oh, and I’d seen Russian Ark and even though I didn’t really understand it, I was quite blown away by the museum it took place in.
After entering through the majestic Grand Staircase, we headed straight up to the third floor where the French impressionist and post-impressionist galleries were. It was something else being surrounded by works by Monet, Cezanne, Rodin, Renoir, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Matisse… yeah. The centrepiece of the 19th and 20th century collections were two galleries of Picassos. Pretty goddamn impressive. The galleries themselves were quite spartan, not decorated like the lavish galleries on the lower floors.
Traffic inside the Hermitage wasn’t too bad while we were upstairs, but heading down to the main floors created a logjam of tour groups, with one group jockeying for position with the other as we moved from room to room. It made keeping up with our tour guide really difficult and the fact that she didn’t speak very loudly meant that I didn’t always have the benefit of commentary as I looked around. But guidance wasn’t really necessary to be overwhelmed by the art everywhere – the walls, the ceilings, the paintings, the sculptures, geez louise. They were particularly proud of their Titian gallery and works by da Vinci and Michaelangelo, and rightfully so. By the time I reached the Rembrandts, my brain was full and I think I stopped absorbing anything and was just wandering around, slack-jawed at the majesty of it all. I did grab a tour book, tough, so that will help fill things in. Did I mention that we skipped many many galleries, didn’t look at loads of works… the standard line was that if you looked at every piece on display for just ten seconds, it would still take you something like a billion years (okay, eleven) to get through everything on display. Their collection is over three million pieces. Yeah.
What I particularly liked was the security there – each gallery was manned by one stern-faced, purse-wielding little old lady. I’m convinced they were ex-KGB and could kill you without even blinking. I half-expected them to leap up and snap the necks of all the people ignoring the “no flash photography rule”, but I guess even they know a losing battle when they see one (I only used the flash once, for Michaelangelo’s “Crouching Boy”, but as it turned out, my non-flash photos still turned out quite well). We sort of had to power through the Hermitage because of scheduling – if we stayed on schedule, we’d get back to the ship just 15 minutes before having to leave on our next tour. I didn’t lay good odds that we’d make it, but somehow we did.
Tour two was to see the fountains and gardens of the Peterhoff Palace. Located a short ways outside of St Petersburg in the town of Peterhoff, we started the tour from a dock just outside the Hermitage. Yeah, we rushed from the museum back to the ship only to get brought back to the museum… but we got to get on a hydrofoil! It wasn’t as cool as the one that GI Joe had, but still. Neat. We took off down the Neva river and out into the Gulf of Finland. The trip took about half an hour and deposited us on a pier directly off the gardens of the Peterhoff Palace. Originally built by Peter the Great and expanded upon by his daughter Elizabeth and Catherine the Great, the lower gardens are famous for a huge array of elaborate fountains which are also notable for not using pumps – they do their thing entirely by gravity. That’s just cool.
Unfortunately, the Grand Cascade, the main fountain outside the palace, was turned off while we were there – there was some sort of stage and PA set up in the middle of it all that probably wouldn’t have reacted too well with huge chutes of water. Apparently the president of Malaysia was around so maybe he was, like, doing something official-like. Anyway, it was a pity but it did allow a better look at the gold statues in the fountains. As we were leaving, we passed through the largest and most interesting souvenier market I’d seen in St Petersburg yet. I had some rubles to divest before we left Russia so I grabbed some postcards featuring the working Grand Cascade. I didn’t really understand the souvenier market – every stall pretty much sells the exact same merchandise, claiming to have authentic Russian memorabilia and whatnot but I can’t help but wonder how traditionally Russian a set of nested dolls painted with an ersatz Harry Potter is. But they seemed to be doing a brisk business, so what do I know?
So that was Russia. We’re en route to Tallinn, Estonia, and I’m more than a little sad to be leaving. I fully intend to return to St Petersburg someday and see the sights that I only got to glimpse through a tour bus window. I don’t know how well I’ve conveyed my impressions of the city… wait for the photos. They’ve turned out quite well. I’ve never been to a city so steeped in and defined by its history. Everything was so amazing to see and to learn about, I simply have to go back someday and take more of it in. For now, I have four more countries to explore and will surely be ready to head home at the end of next week. But someday.
Friday, September 16th, 2005
Honestly it’s hard to do St Petersburg justice in words. Today was the first of two days in Russia’s second-largest city, and the whole of it was spent on an overview bus tour. In preparation, I’d been boning up on my heretofore non-existant Russian history through books and a couple of on-board seminars and even after that and nine hours of intensive tour guiding, I know I’ve barely scratched the surface of this place.
Things started out on a drab note – a really early departure time meant it was still dark out when we boarded the bus and it was cold and raining. Our first stop was actually the town of Pushkin outside of St Petersburg, so we headed through the Moscow district of the city. The first thing I noticed was the Soviet-ness of it all. Barbed wire still lined the fences and walls around many buildings, architecture was very Stalin-esque and monolithic, to say nothing of run-down and generally depressing. There were occasional flashes of style or modernism, but for the most part it looked a lot like you would have expected Russia to look like, at least during the Communist years. Things improved – both scenically and meteoroligically – by the time we left the city and reached Pushkin (also known as Tsarskoye Selo) and the sun was starting to peek out.
The main stop there was The Catherine Palace, named for the wife of Peter The Great and built by her daughter, the empress Elizabeth. Even though I’d seen many pictures of the exterior and interior of the palace, I still wasn’t prepared for the sheer scale and grandeur of the building. It was ostentatious to the extreme, especially the insides and the Great Hall in particular, with its gigantic ceiling mural, mirrored walls and gold leaf applied over pretty much everything. What struck me was that there were no hallways – one room connected directly to the next meaning that to get from point A to point G, you’d have to go through points B through F. Apparently the royal family wasn’t all that concerned with privacy.
When we went outside to the Catherine gardens, the rain and cloud cover had broken and it was radiantly sunshine-y out. Fantastic. The gardens were immaculate and beautiful, save for the occasional structure that was undergoing or due for restoration. That’s the thing about St Petersburg in general. It was nearly demolished in World War II from the legendary 900 Days Seige of Leningrad, and only recently with the ascendency of native son Vladamir Putin to the presidency have the funds been made available to restore the countless damaged or derelict historical buildings in and around the city. A lot was done in time for the city’s 300th birthday two years ago, but work continues – everywhere you look, you’ll see scaffoldings surrounding structures in desperate need of care.
Another thing about the garden is that it was simply crawling with souvenier vendors. Selling guidebooks, postcards and nested dolls must be one of the largest occupations of St Petersburg residents. Most fearsome were the armies of grannies selling handiworks at the gateway to the park. I found it best just not to make eye contact. Our time is Pushkin was rounded out by what was billed as a traditional Russian meal with traditional Russian entertainment. It was all enjoyable enough though it hardly smacked of veracity, what with the souvenier stand at the front of the restaurant and the singers hocking their CDs of traditional Russian folksongs. But enough of the people in the group happily left with furry hats, nested dolls and vodka that I guess it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.
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Thursday, September 15th, 2005
Finlandia! Today’s excursion was a somewhat short (three hour) bus tour that hit a lot of the key tourist-y spots with great efficiency. We first toured around the harbour area and then headed up into the downtown area to see Senate Square and the adjacent cathedrals, university and open-air marketplace. Then up past the new Opera House, Olympic Stadium, up and around the Meilahdenpuisto region (where the President lives) and down to Sibellius Park, dedicated in honour of Finland’s favourite composer whom I’d never, ever heard of before setting out on this trip (not that I’d claim to be an expert on 19th century Finnish composers). I really liked the monument there, which is a fascinating sculpture composed of hollow steel tubes meant to represent music (as well as a bust/sculpture of the composer to appease the less imaginative). Unfortunately, it had started raining just then, so my photos have a little bit of water blotching to them. It wasn’t raining hard enough to actually get me wet, just enough to muck up the camera.
The next stop was Temppelaikukio, or the “Church in the Rock”, which was quite accurately a church built into a huge chunk of granite. Located mostly underground, the round Lutheran church was built around three decades ago and is quite stunning inside, with it’s large copper dome ceiling and stone walls. The acoustics are also supposed to be superb, making it a popular venue for concerts. The tour bus then swung through the more modern, commercial part of downtown en route back to the ship where I grabbed a quick lunch and then caught a shuttle back into the city. I then engaged in some general wandering and photography. A stop in a record store gave proof to the rumour that metal is still very big in Scandanavia, with Iron Maiden sharing feature rack space with Sigur Ros. Unfortunately, the intermittent rain was getting more mittent and heavier so after a couple hours it was time to duck back on a bus and retreat to the cozy confines of the Star Princess.
So what about the architecture? Everything has a very clean, classical look which is pretty remarkable considering that most of the city’s buildings are less than 200 years old (the country in its current incarnation hasn’t even been around for a century yet). It helps that much of the city’s public buildings were laid out to a master aesthetic plan by the architect Carl Engels and the rest of the city seemed to follow along, stylistically. I didn’t get to see too many of the modern buildings (Temppelaikukio notwithstanding) except from the bus, so most of my up-close-and-personal experience is from the older-styled building around Senate Square and the downtown commercial area. As I wandered, I couldn’t help thinking how drab and uninspired Toronto is in comparison to here (and everywhere in the world, it seems). It’s like that almost every building there is remarkable in some fashion, and there’s so many of them that rather than being made heritage buildings and tourist destinations the way they would at home, they’re turned into retail shops, drug stores, etc. And even with the bar set that high, buildings like the train station or Museum of Modern Art are as simply made even more spectacular. I can understand why Helsinki’s buildings have such an excellent reputation.
Like Stockholm, I found Helsinki wonderfully understated and charming. Even the Presidential palace was impressively subtle. Despite the somewhat dodgy weather, I found the whole place to have a real nice feel, like a perfect blend of modern and classic influences. I also liked that I was able to spend more time in the less tourist-y part of town than I did in Stockholm and I daresay the women here are better looking than in Sweden…
Tomorrow we hit Russia, which necessitates turning the clocks ahead yet another hour. Just when I get adjusted to one time zone, we go to another. Overcoming jet lag is like a moving target. What’s most nuts is that by the time my day is almost over, most people back home are just getting started. It’s like I’m in the future.
Wednesday, September 14th, 2005
Finally, landfall! Though to reach land, it took another boat. For whatever reason, the ship was docked offshore at the port town of Nynashamm, about an hour outside of Stockholm, and we had to take the ship’s liferafts (called “tenders”) to get ashore. Naturally, the weather was dismal with wind and rain and pretty choppy waters. We made it without incident though, and it was on the bus for a drive through the Swedish countryside into the capital. Not counting my brief sojourn between airport and ship in Copenhagen, this was my first ever time in a truly foreign country. America is weird, but not really foreign, so I don’t count it.
The tour package for the day was called “Stockholm on Your Own”, which as the name implied, meant they dropped us off in Gamla Stan (“Old Town”) and said they’d pick us up in four-and-a-half hours. Otherwise it was every man for himself, which suited me fine. I started out just wandering the cobblestone streets of Gamla Stan, which were wonderfully chaotic in size, shape, slope and direction. The tall 16th and 17th century buildings lining the streets were mainly shops and restaurants, but rarely excessively tourist-y or gaudy. It all still looked very authentic. I just happened to make it to the Kungliga slottet (Royal Palace) around noon when the changing of the guard was underway – I just passed by so I don’t really know how much I saw or how long it was going on, but there were many many soldiers in both ceremonial and combat uniforms lining the streets, practicing glaring at people. The palace was impressive, but also somewhat subdued as far as royal palaces go. That was actually my impression of Stockholm overall – charming and modest, content to be what it was. I liked it.
More wandering took me over to the Riksdagshuset, an island just off Gamla Stan where the Swedish parliament sits. Or so I was told, it looked like a big street party to me. Maybe that was just the outside. After peeking around a bit, I backtracked onto Gamla Stan and around the perimeter to check out the harbour district and then down to the ferry docks to punt across the harbour to Djurgarden. I’m under the impression that Djurgarden is a little like Coney Island off season, not that I’ve ever been to Coney Island. It had a theme park which was closed for the year, and was generally empty. There’s little sadder than an empty, chained-up amusement park. There were definitely signs that this was a place that was usually more hopping with people, but as it was, it was kind of barren.
The main reason for heading over to the island was to check out the Vasa Museum, which was one of those tourist must-see attractions. It houses an enormous 17th century Swedish warship that was to be the flagship of the navy… if it hadn’t sunk on its maiden voyage. Apparently this is still something the Swedes are proud of, because it was finally raised almost completely intact in 1956 and placed on display. It is pretty massive and impressive – they also salvaged a lot of the decorations and detailing of the ship, as well skeletons of some of the crew who died on it, and all are on display. That was about all to see on Djurgarden, I didn’t have the time or energy to check out Skansen, an outdoor Nordic museum and zoo. Apparently if I’d gone in, I could have pet a moose.
I killed the rest of the afternoon again wandering Gamla Stan, checking out the souvenir shops and listening to some impressive buskers. By this point the sun had actually broken through the clouds for a bit, so it was nice to see the city with some colour instead of the grey, overcast-ness that had defined most of the day.
Oh yeah, it’s true – almost everyone in Sweden seems unnaturally attractive. Even their unattractive people are good-looking. I found it quite unsettling, to be honest. But otherwise, I rather enjoyed Stockholm. It was smaller and more modest a city than I’d been expecting, but I’m probably too accustomed to sprawling North American metropolises. There is something to be said for small, but with loads of character. If you want to learn more about Stockholm and Sweden, visit your local library! No, don’t Google it, go read a goddamn book. What’s wrong with you?
Tomorrow – Helsinki!
Tuesday, September 13th, 2005
Know what being at sea on a cruise liner is like? It’s like Die Hard in a retirement home. Don’t ask me how, it just is
This was one of two travel days on the trip, which meant I had pretty much the whole day to kill, and ship programming considerately gave me the option of playing shuffleboard or bingo to while away the time. I spent a goodly amount of time wandering the ship, looking in vain for something interesting to do, but to little avail. I figured I could hit the casino and work on my gambling habit or maybe sit and contemplate my employment future (which could very well involve sitting in front of a slot machine for hours on end), but instead I opted to sit in the lounge chairs on the aft deck of the ship, reading Harry Potter, watching the wake of our passing and pondering the curvature of the Earth. Weighty stuff, I know, but come on – I’m on vacation. There wasn’t much in the way of scenery to enjoy – some transport ships off in the distance, some turbines as we pulled away from Denmark in the AM but mostly just water. Lots of water.
Otherwise, much of the day was spent waiting for meal times (the food here is pretty damn good) and avoiding spending too much time around the poolside (Consider what I’ve said about the passenger demographic. Now put them in swimsuits. Shudder). There was a presentation designed to whet our appetites about seeing St Petersburg in a couple days (which it did) but otherwise, it was pretty lazy.
But hey! Tomorrow is Sweden. I’m pretty excited about getting off the boat and checking out some local colour. It will be an early morning though, we are out of here at around 8:30 AM local time, which is about 2:30 AM back home. The jet lag isn’t quite as bad as I’d feared, but I will be turning in early tonight.
And that’s the day.
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