From Russia With Love

            Day One:

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Russia. Not only is it a foreign country where no one speaks our language, but we were heading into a country where Americans aren’t necessarily welcome right now. In our country pre-port, someone asked about the current relations with Syria. It’s been difficult on the ship to keep up with everything going on in the world, but we knew that if Congress granted Obama’s request for war, that we’d be stuck in the middle as Russia is one of Syria’s allies. With that in mind, we turned to head off the MV Explorer.
           

That first day, I was with Jay, Neah, and Julie. With nothing but directions to cross the St. Petersburg bridge and time on our hands, we headed towards the city. After wandering around the city for a bit, we found ourselves in the courtyard of the Hermitage Museum. The Hermitage and Winter Palace were absolutely beautiful from the outside. It’s amazing to see the level of detail that went into these buildings. Right next to the Hermitage was a small restaurant called Xoact Macao. Between the four of us, we got pizza, potato dumplings, pesto pasta with octopus, and some of the best chocolate cheesecake I’ve ever had in my entire life. The waiter spoke very little English but we managed to get by just fine. Using rubles is definitely interesting, and our lunch was surprisingly cheap, especially compared with just having used pounds in London. After lunch, the four of us headed towards the main drag, Nevsky Prospekt.

           

            Walking down Nevsky Prospekt helped hit home that we were actually in Russia, as the people around us were speaking a different language and the signs were all in Cyrillic. One of the immediate things we all noticed about Russians is that no one smiles. After London, where every single person you speak to smiled back, it felt very cold and unwelcoming. People would turn around to look at us because we’d be smiling and laughing loudly. I must admit though, something I learned to appreciate about the Russians I came into contact with is that they all look you in the eye no matter what.  It felt like a stronger form of respect than smiling at someone.

           

Following Nevsky Prospekt all the way down, we turned the corner to find ourselves  in front of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. I don’t have the words to describe how beautiful it was in person. We’d passed St. Isaac’s Cathedral earlier in the day, and it was magnificent with a gorgeous gold dome on top, but it had nothing on Spilled Blood. This cathedral was modeled after St. Basel’s in Moscow. There was a small market across the street from the cathedral and it was full of scarves, jewelry, and the Babushka dolls. It took everything in my power not to buy all of them.

On our way back, we learned the importance of the buddy system. Part of our  mission for the day was to figure out not only the city, but also the metro system. In order to get back to the ship, we took on the task. However, unlike London, which has loud beeping whenever the train doors are about to close…St. Petersburg doesn’t. We learned that one the hard way. When we figured out which train was ours, it had already been sitting there for a few seconds. Julie walked on, but as soon as the three of us tried to get on, the doors started to shut. Thankfully, Neah was thinking quickly and pushed her way through the doors, her water bottle getting stuck in the outer doors. Luckily, it was on a carabineer, so while she unhooked it, I grabbed ahold of it. We learned very quickly that the Russian metro was not something to be trifled with.

That night, we headed out to a bar on our side of the Neva river. We learned really quickly that the bridges in St. Petersburg like to go up at 1:30am and don’t come back down until 5:30 am. Knowing we didn’t want to get stuck on the wrong side of the river, we found a small bar for the night. We decided that since we couldn’t go out in Russia without trying the vodka at least once, that’s what we would start with. That proved interesting when faced with our first major language-barrier. The waiter had absolutely no idea what we wanted, and the menu made very little sense. With multitudes of laughing, help from a stranger, and a small game of Pictionary, we managed to get our drinks. I’ll say one thing about Russians: they know how to make vodka. You don’t drink Russian vodka; it drinks you.

Day Two:

On Friday, Lauren and I decided that we wanted to head out on our own. We knew that we wanted to go to the market and get Lauren’s ticket to Moscow right away. Little did we know, this would become a two-hour affair. With only a little trouble, we finally found our way to the train station. This was just the beginning. There was no one in the entire station that spoke English. We figured we would run into the problem eventually, but most of the train/metro stations we’d come across so far in the trip had at least a few words of English. Not even close. After we’d been there for about an hour and a half, Lauren noticed that a couple standing near us was carrying an Italian-Russian dictionary. Thankfully, she was able to communicate with them, and then they spoke in broken Russian to the woman at the ticket counter. After they left, we played a frustrating game of Pictionary with the woman until finally we were able to get Lauren’s tickets. We were so grateful that the woman behind the counter had the patience to work with us, because most of the people in St. Petersburg that we’d interacted with weren’t the friendliest.

            It was the first major time we’d come across a situation that put everything into perspective for us. We were in a foreign country. Very few people spoke our language. The language barrier was so great that something that should have taken twenty minutes at most ended up taking a little over two hours to accomplish. We were tired and frustrated, but at the same time it was incredibly satisfying to overcome the language barrier. Once again, I’m struck by the kindness of strangers. The Italian couple didn’t have to help the two lost Americans, and the woman behind the ticket counter could have brushed us off just as the others had. But they didn’t, and because of that, Lauren was able to go to Moscow. It was the first time we’d felt truly out of place in another country.

After we got that sorted, we headed off in the direction of Kuznechny Market. We’d heard from a few other kids that it was definitely worth going to. Armed with only the name of the market and the metro stop, we ventured out. The first thing we saw when we got off was Vladmirskaya Cathedral, a towering yellow and gray cathedral. It was absolutely stunning. We wandered around, up and down a few streets, starting to get frustrated when we couldn’t find the market. Eventually we stopped at a bakery so Lauren could grab coffee and I could get a snack. In the bakery, we ran into some of her roommates who had just come from the market, so they sent us in the right direction! Unless you knew where it is, the market is practically hidden inside a building. As far as I could tell, there weren’t any indicator signs for it at all.

The market was in a long warehouse, and the first thing you see upon entering is color. Everywhere you turned, there was some sort of fresh fruit or vegetables. I was immediately in food heaven. We started walking up and down the aisles and we ran into Kait! She’d apparently been there for several hours, just wandering. She told us that if we went up to the vendors and motioned to try something, they would be more than happy to oblige. And oblige they did. I got to try the most amazing fruits and cheeses and honey. There were fruits I’d never even seen before, but one bite and I was sold. We ended up getting a massive handful of grapes and half a melon for the equivalent of about five dollars. It was easily the best fruit I’ve ever had, and it was refreshing to have fresh food after eating the ship food for a week.

We spent a few hours in the market and around Vladmirskaya Plaza hanging out with the other girls we’d picked up along the way. Since they’d all had field labs, no one had been over to the Church on Spilled Blood yet! A quick metro stop away, and we once again found ourselves outside of the cathedral. It was just as beautiful the second time. I honestly could have stared at it all day. Since no one had gotten souvenirs yet, we headed across the street back to the small souvenir market. I immediately fell in love with a scarf, and managed to barter it down to less than half of what the woman had originally asked for. Bartering still makes me uncomfortable, but it’s the only way to get things at a fair price.

On the walk back to the ship, I saw my sixth bride of the day. Apparently, this time of the year is perfect for weddings because no one wants to get married in the middle of a blizzard. It’s also for this reason that Russia is full of colorful buildings and intricate detailing. When they built the city, they wanted to add a bit of color to offset the endless Russian winters. Another thing I’d noticed about Russia is that meals are a production. A simple lunch lasts at the very least, two hours. Especially when we weren’t in wifi hotspots, it meant we had to sit down and actually talk to each other. I think that’s something I appreciate most about Russia, as well as the ship. With the lack of internet, I find myself talking to people long after dinner is over. I’m beginning to understand how the shipboard community becomes so tightknit, mostly because we’re forced to live in such close proximity with each other that we have no choice but to talk to each other.

Day Three:

           

On Saturday, I went out with Kait, Rishika and one other girl to explore the cathedrals in the city. We started off the day at this tiny café, where we were able to get sandwich-croissants. We had a perfect view of St. Isaac’s. The outside of the cathedral wasn’t that impressive, and half of it was ensconced in scaffolding. But that had nothing on the inside: mural after mural. The inside was absolutely stunning. We decided to climb up to the top of the cathedral, and you could see the entire city, including the Hermitage and the MV! Afterwards, we ventured back to Spilled Blood. Both the outside and the inside of the cathedral left me speechless. Unlike St. Isaac’s, Spilled Blood had wall-to-wall mosaics. It was cool to recognize some of the scenes depicted in the murals.

I knew I couldn’t go all the way to St. Petersburg and not see the ballet! I went on a SAS trip to the Alexandrinsky Theater, one of the oldest theaters of opera and ballet. I got to see ballet company performing Swan Lake. Inside the theater is covered in red and gold fabrics, and there is the most beautiful chandelier hanging from the ceiling! If you have your back to the stage, you can see that the theater has 5 levels of sets, with an enormous entrance in the back. Each row is illuminated by tiny light fixtures and decorated with red and gold fabric.

 We had a perfect view of the stage because we ended up being 7^th row! If I sat up far enough in my seat, I could even see into the orchestra pit right in front of the stage. Being so close, I had a special view of the stage that my friends in the top balconies couldn’t see: the costumes. Each costume was designed beautifully with crystals so they sparkled whenever the ballerinas turned, large intricate headpieces, and you all would have loved the colors. The performance was split into three acts and had one intermission. I was impressed with the stage presence of the performers: they all made it look so easy! You knew immediately when the prima ballerina came on stage, because she had such confidence in her dancing that you could have watched her dance forever! It definitely made me wish I could dance like them. It was the perfect ending for Russia.