Russia!

The jump from Scandinavia to St. Petersburg, Russia was like taking a trip to the moon.  Not only did I not have any idea what it was going to look like, but the city vibe took me by surprise also.  Day 1 was a visit to the Hermitage Museum.  It is enormous and insanely elaborate both inside and out.  I have included pictures of both as well as some art pieces.  There was a room filled with portraits of what I assumed were colonels or generals, and I thought this one looked like Karsten Oaks and laughed.  The funniest part is that in a lot of the portraits their hair was in motion.  There were no outdoor backgrounds but many had hair blowing in the breeze! 

It took us hours to quickly go through just sections of this museum.  I love Van Gogh and this piece was my favorite on display.  Always a fan of tertiary colors.  There was a large room of armor and weapons with intense detail.  I of course got the biggest kick out of this piece of armor below with a special penis protector.  I suppose it makes sense.   Some of us never mature.

Unfortunately there just isn't enough time in the day to see a whole city.  So while I was able to get a far away photo of The Church of Spilled Blood I didn't get to see it's amazing colors, texture and detail up close.  I don't care much about visiting churches, I actually had an evening shore excursion planned out and was going to Swan Lake!!!!  We had an overnight here in St. Petersburg.  I will say that I thought the city was pretty ugly during the day- but at night it's gorgeous!  Day time all of the buildings are the same shape and height.  They are painted yellow or orange and I asked one of my tour guides why that is.  She said with regards to the weather that they have 9 months of waiting and 3 months of disappointment for summer and the warm tones of the buildings brighten their mood during the harsh gray months.  But at night every single window sill has a spot light on it and the bridges have amazing sparkling lights as well.  I'm not saying it looks like Times Square or anything but lots of lights and neon really give the city a different feel at night.  

Another thing that I didn't realize is that St. Petersburg has a lot of canals.  Day 2 I went on a shore excursion to a palace followed by a canal boat tour.  Quick photo of the at home theater in the palace.  I was just very intrigued to see the ornate interiors of one of these homes.  Canal tour was actually really nice and was an hour long giving me a great tour of the city.