Contrasts of Scandinavia and Russia

Day Eight – 30 May 2010

Weather: cloudy then partly cloudy, 16

After crunching on white scrambled eggs, I opted to skip breakfast and surf for the hour after I got up and eat granola bars. We left at 8:30 for the shopping trip where the guides took us to their “recommended” shop. It was called Red October and was a bit pricy. I did get a pair of ear rings for a gift but skipped on everything else because of the price. They had an incredible mink hat that went for 10,000 Rubles. ($300 +).

From there it was on to the Hermitage.

Wow.

Catherine the Great built it to hold her own treasures and it got the name because only hermits saw the collection (?). It’s over 2000 rooms among a number of interconnected buildings and only a small amount of the collection is on display. In the war, much of the collection was boxed up and shipped to Siberia. The buildings themselves were hit by two bombs and 17 shells and the Russians claim this is proof that the Nazis purposely targeted the Hermitage.

We saw paintings by Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh and Da Vinci as well as a statue by Michelangelo. I walked into one room that looked awfully familiar and as I walked along, I knew the painting of The Prodigal Son by Rembrant was around the corner.

It was my Amazing Race moment.

We made a quick visit through the Rome, Greek and Egypt rooms then had lunch in the museum café and left after a bathroom break.

Optional Opinion: Essential. I mean, who goes to Paris and doesn’t visit the Louvre?

From here, we proceeded to the Yusupov palace. The Yusupov were a wealthy family with connections. The queen at the time was a relative of the English royal family and as a result, had the hemophilia gene. They had four daughters who could not succeed their father, Nicholas II, but then they had a son who was a hemophiliac. The queen was distressed and called on a mystic from Siberia to heal her son. That was Rasputin.

He “healed” her son (made him feel better, who knows?) but it was enough to convince the queen that Rasputin was authentic. He gained some power in the royal family which the other Romanovs didn’t like and with the help of Yusopov, they conspired to kill Rasputin. They invited him to meet Irene, Yusopov’s wife, but she wasn’t in town. Rasputin waited in the cellar and had a meal which had been poisoned by cyanide.

He drank the cyanide and asked for another cup.

The conspirators weren’t sure what to do, so they shot him. Rasputin, still alive, made it outside where the conspirators caught up to him and shot him six more times. They wrapped him in a carpet and put him into the river through a hole in the ice, expecting that the river would carry his body away, but it remained in the ice and was discovered.

An autopsy proved that he had survived the gunshots and had ultimately drowned.

The conspirators were arrested, but never tried as the revolution interrupted their planned trials. Yusopov fled Russia to live out his life in the U.S.

After visiting the cellar where Rasputin was shot, we continued with a tour of Yusopov’s palace.

Did I mention I was “palaced” out?

I had a great sense of déjà vu.

And you need a photo permit to take pictures.

After getting the whole story of Rasputin, we returned to the Peter and Paul fortress to visit the cathedral where Peter the Great and many other Russian figures are buried. With the sun out, the picture opportunities were excellent.

Optional Opinion: Again, if you would rather see something on your own, this would probably be the one optional to skip. You can get the story of Rasputin and the Romanovs on Wiki and the palace and church were the same as so many others.

Except that Peter the Great is there.

On the way back to the hotel, one tourmate asked me why everyone’s name ends in ski.

Simple, I said. They don’t know how to toboggan.

She turned around and asked Diego, who is a walking wikipedia. He said it was a way to indicate what village or town you are from since serfs only had one name. “Ski” simply means “from.”

Again, we had barely enough time to freshen up for our departure at 5:15 for our farewell dinner (for those leaving the tour at St. Petersburg and for Diego).

While we were waiting for everyone in the lobby, I asked the hotel staff where I could find the ATM I was told was right next door. They told me to go out the door to the left. Not sure how we got our wires crossed, but I went out and looked at the machine then called over some tourmates and we all stared at it wondering how it worked. It had a card slot and keypad but the screen was funny and there were no card decals.

Diego came out onto the sidewalk and we all called him over. Well, he walked over and started laughing before we could ask him how to use it. When he caught his breath, he said it wasn’t an ATM. It was a condom dispensing machine.

Okay. I guess I could wait and get some cash later.

The restaurant for the farewell dinner was on the canal and we had another photo op to get pics of the water and boats.

The meal was excellent with buns that we think are made from potatoes, borsche (sp?), beef, potatoes and cabbage and a white cake with caramel sauce for dessert.

Now, if this were any other tour, that would be it for the night, but nope, this is Russia. We had yet another optional to attend. LOL

Well, they did promise to keep us busy.

And it was well worth it. As much as the ballet was putting us to sleep, the Folklore show was lively and entertaining. Diego told us not to sit in the front seats since we may get taken up to dance, but in the end, they took men from the aisles once and that was it. That was the best place to sit because then you can see their feet.

So my pictures include a lot of heads in it – not too many feet.

The other alternative is to sit in the back row where you can stand to take pictures. It’s not too far back. I would have done it if I hadn’t changed the lens on my DSLR.

The show ended at 11 pm and it was like walking out into 8:30 pm. With the sun out, it was much brighter than the night before. We were taking pictures of the sky then the clock inside the bus. This is almost 11:30 pm.

And it’s not even June yet.