Russia part 2

Alright *sigh* second half. Where did we leave off. St. Petersburg... (I'm following my itinerary, because I'm lazy haha). The next day we went to the Hermitage, which was so beautiful, you can see the amazing photos in my web albums and Yuspov Palace, which is a renovated palace with original furniture. It was beautiful and interesting, although common with many of those old
houses, you can only enter half of the rooms. That night we saw the opera, "The Magic Flute" in Russian, which was boring the 1st half, and amazing the second half. It was a little weird because we saw opening night, so it was not quite perfect, but still amazing nevertheless.

The next day we went to the Museum of Political History and the battle ship Aurora. Those were boring. Moving on.... That afternoon we relaxed at the hostel and got coffee at a local cafe. That evening we went to a very modern ballet called the "The Glass Heart," it was beautiful and all the pictures from the ballet you can see how the Mariinsky Theater, where the most famous ballerinas of all time dance (and the Swan Lake was debuted) contributed to the atmosphere. That night we went back to Fidel with a big group and had an equally good time. The last day we packed up our things, explored St. Petersburg a little more and then got on the train.

Overall impressions of St. Petersburg: The culture in St. Petersburg was absolutely wonderful. Seeing a ballet and an opera in some of the most famous halls in the world by itself was such a unique experience that I am very grateful for. We saw so much on this trip I had a hard time truly enjoying everything, but looking back at all the pictures I took I'm so glad we saw so much. The Hermitage was amazing and I loved every part of it. They told us that if we spent 1 minute at every painting at the Hermitage, it would take 2 years to see every single painting. It was so huge and had so many paintings in a room that sometimes you'd be standing in front of a picture and you'd realize you're looking at a Monet, Picasso, Degas etc. I would love to go back to St. Petersburg and spend weeks there.


A few more pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/hannahsink/Russia2008Part2