The big event for us right after school was the arrival of my (Amanda) parents! They came for a total of 10 days and we did everything we could think of. Since a lot of these places already have pictures up around the blog I've just picked the "special features." :-)
When they got here we were in a cold and rainy streak (about the mid 50s F) but we were mercifuly blessed with sunny weather every day but one and it warmed up quickly.
When they first got here we went to Teremok for blini and walked down by the river.
Next day we walked down Nevsky. My mom's favorite thing in the city was the Spilled Blood (as it should be! :-] ). We also had amazing clouds in all of our pictures which made for gorgeous photos.
Some of the detail in one of the mosaics in the Spilled Blood.
We talked about the love locks a little before but they just installed a big metal tree in a park by us just for the locks. You have your names carved on the lock and you throw away the key. So this big red metal tree is in the shape of a heart and quickly filling up.
At the same park we also watched a woman digging up tulips the park had planted and taking the bulbs for herself. Very odd!
At Peterhoff we saw an adorable squirrel!
Also at Peterhoff there are a bunch of "trick" fountains. This one has benches inside and Matthew decided to dive in!
My family's shadows in the Colonnade of St. Issac's Cathedral.
My parents and the city behind them (also from the Colonnade).
The Peter and Paul Cathedral in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Matthew and I had never been here before but there is a prison inside the fortress and so we all went through it. Many of the cells are labeled with who occupied them, including Gorky, Trotskyk, and Lenin's brother. It was a special prison for people who were considered politically dangerous and extreme measures were taken to keep them isolated and in total silence.
Of course we went to the Hermitage and Matthew found a painting he had been looking for when his parents were here last summer. It's called Boy with a Lute.
The throne room in the Hermitage. You can kind of see in this picture that the design in the ceiling matches the design in the parquet below it.
My parents were able to meet two of our friends for lunch. Sveta and Lena both work at the school with us. We went to a market with them afterwards. Later in the week we were also able to meet up with Jarod, our friend and another teacher at the school, but alas we have no pictures from that.
We took a canal ride of the city. It was pretty cold since we sat on the open deck.
The bridge ahead in the picture is the lowest in the city and you can easily touch it while sitting as you go under it.
We went to the Artillery Museum as well, which Matt and I had never been to before. Obviously it was more of a thrill for the guys but mom and I had a good time as well.
A particularly weird gun they liked.
The Cruiser Aurora. It is a museum of sorts now. It fired the shot that signaled the Bolshevik Revolution.
The day we went above St. Isacc's we weren't able to go in because it was Russia Day. However, we did go in later in the week and it was much more impressive than Matthew and I remembered it being. It's covered in marble and Western styled church paintings.
My dad bought a carved Grandfather Frost and the vendor offered to take our picture. It's a really great shot of all of us. :-)
The Russian Museum.
This painting is called "The Wave" and it is enormous. Just looking at the picture of it does not give a sense of just how huge it is.
The painting in the center is of Christ's baptism. What makes the whole wall cool though is that the painting is surrounded by the study paintings that the artist did for the people in the picture. You can find each person in the painting.
This painting is of the Woman Caught in Adultery. What makes it the most impressive though is the donkey in the right corner. No matter where you go in the room it looks like the man on the donkey is headed toward you.
Above you have the painting from the right.
And the painting from the left!
There was a special exhibit of Labas. This is his painting "City of the Future," one of Matt's favorites. He worked during the communist era but his art is nice in that it is still very beautiful and uplifting. It does focus a lot on the usual themes (tech, future, glory of communism) but his airy style is so pretty.
The Summer Gardens was open for the first time in a few years so we were able to see the newly renovated garden. There were tons of Greek style statues throughout the gardens. This one I loved. It is of Night and her belt is a bat and she has a starry cloak. There's also an owl by her foot.
Peter the Great's cabin that he first lived in here is inside of this building. Catherine the Great enclosed the cabin during her reign and the Summer Gardens surrounds it.
The only day we had bad luck with the weather was the day we went to Kronshtad. We've talked before about how much colder the island is than other places in the city so we were definitely cold. However, the Naval Cathedral was finally unveiled! It had been under remodeling every other time we had been to the island and the scaffolding was finally off of it.
At Tsarsky Selo we were able to see more of the grounds than we had ever seen before. Above is the Creaking Bathhouse (the flag on top is wooden and creaks loudly). It was fashionable in the time of the tsars to have an "oriental" building or village. There are also artificial ruins on the grounds for the same reason.
This is a picture you see all over the city from the side but what we didn't know was the bridge actually has four legs. Very fun!
Took the water taxi several times (another favorite of my mom's).
After going to the Russian Museum it was fun to go through the graveyards at the Alexander Monastery and see the graves of artists whose work we had just seen a few days before.
We went to a ballet earlier in the week at the Marinsky Theater. It was A Midsummer's Night's Dream and it was the most fun ballet we have seen so far. Since the ballet was put together fairly recently it was more comedic and very easy to follow.
On the south west edge of the city there is a memorial to the Blockade so we went to that as well.
And for their last night with us we went to a restaurant called Na Zadrovye (To Your Health). It was very cute, with exaggerated Russian peasant decor everywhere and live Gypsy music. Poor mom got a pie with raisins and rice instead of meat but her Napoleon cake made up for it.
-Amanda
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