Last Post From Russia :-(

Привет one last time from Moscow.

Today is//was my final day in Russia. Tomorrow I will be returning home to the states. I'm am certainly looking forward to my "homecoming", but at the same time there will be many things that I will miss...most notably the friends that I have made in Moscow.

I would just like to say thank you to all of you loyal followers who looked forward to my new posts. It meant a lot to me that you all were so interested in what I was doing in Russia.

As for my other photos... This past week has been quite hectic and I had absolutely no time to blog. But hopefully I will post the rest of my pictures once I get home. Plus next time I see you hopefully I'll have my laptop and I can show you the hundreds perhaps thousands of pictures that I've take here.

Once again, thank you so much for your loyalty and support! It meant so much!

From Russia (one last time) with love!

Товарищ Бен

Санкт-Петербург --- Part 5 --- Петергоф (Peterhof Palace)

Последние блог дня (Last blog of the day),

Coming back to you live from Moscow...well when you read this it won't be live, but I couldn't think of a more creative way to start my introduction. This blog is about my favorite place that we saw while in Saint Petersburg. It is a palace about 29km outside of St. Pete called Peterhof (Петергоф) sometimes referred to as the Russian Versailles. It is a fabulous estate containing numerous fountains, gardens, and of course a palace fit for a tsar. It was simply spectacular to see.

Brief background (I figure referring to it as "background" and not "history" may cause you to read it, ha): Peter the Great would often travel to the Gulf of Finland from St. Petersburg to oversee the construction of the Russian Navy. He conceived the idea to create a place that would triumph Versailles in France. He helped in the designing and building process which began in 1714. The estate contains over a hundred fountains, each of them being uniquely designed (some by Peter). After Peter the Great, the estate remained a major "vacation spot" for the Romanov (Tsar) families. During World War II Petergof was occupied by Nazi troops for three years and they almost completely destroyed the grounds. However, many of the stolen statues have been recovered and the estate looks almost exactly as it did nearly 300 years ago.

Alright, I hope I didn't bore you to sleep with the "background"...here are some pictures. I took over 90 photos, but don't worry they are not all on this blog.

The church on the estate. It's connected to the palace.

View from the top of the main cascade. You can see the Gulf of Finland if you look down the canal.

View from the top of the main cascade of another fountain and designs in the grass.

The center piece of the main fountain in the main cascade. Called the Samson Fountain it represents Russia's victory over the Swedes. The fountain shoots out of the mouth of a lion.

View looking up the main cascade with the palace in the background.

Just another fountain. Nothing interesting or fun to say about this one.

Perhaps my favorite cascade. Reminds me of a checkers or chess board...not sure of the name of it. You can see at the top the water comes out of the mouths of three dragons.

Me in front of a fountain...looking good as always.

Hanna, Graham and myself in front of another fountain.

Statue of Peter the Great.

A very artistic picture of some flowers and fountain in the background.

View of the Gulf of Finland. If you click on the picture and zoom in you can see the docks and other buildings of Saint Petersburg on the horizon.

View down the canal.

Another picture with me in it...just for my fans. Ha. Palace in the background.

A tiny fountain I thought was cool. It represents some French fairy tale or story in which the dog always swims after the ducks but he can never catch him. Notice the dog on the right swimming after the ducks.

Some crazy Pantheon looking building with statues and fountains of course.

View of the guest house across a small pond.

View down one of the paths on the estate.

View from the top of another cascade in which you can see the small pond mentioned two photos ago along with the Gulf of Finland.

And finally this awesome squirrel that was supper friendly. Some lady reached into her purse to give him some food and he climbed on her. HA!

So that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed your photo-tour of Peterhof. Hopefully I'll get the last two posts up sometime soon. Keep the comments coming!

Now only 9 days left (Moscow time that is)

Спокойной Ночи!

Санкт-Петербург --- Part 4 --- Ночь (Night)

Добро пожаловать в Санкт-Петербурге в ночное время,

(Welcome to Saint Petersburg at night time),

Here is a short(er) post with some pictures of night time in St. Pete. On Friday night I went with some of my friends from the group and we met up with some Russians whom we met on the train. There may have been some vodka and beer :-) At about 12:30 am we hopped on a boat to watch the bridges in Saint Petersburg across the Neva River open. Since the Neva River connects to the Gulf of Finland, it is a major waterway traveled by large ships. Since all the bridges across the river are not very tall, they are all draw-bridges. Around 1:00am the bridges open and they do not close again until around 5:30 or 6:00am. So it is almost impossible to get from one side of the river to the other while the bridges are open. Luckily, our boat dropped us off on the right side.

Now I know this will disappoint you all, but there is no history lesson with this post. Simply enjoy it!

First, a crazy-flying saucer-alien looking metro station. Kinda cool right?

A view from the water of the Peter and Paul Fortress.

View of some building (I forget which one). Still really pretty.

View of the Winter Palace//the Hermitage all lit up at night from the water.

A bridge opening. Sorry all the pictures of the bridges are a bit blurry.

Another opening.

A bridge opened all the way. Neat right?!

Well that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed the mini-mini-tour. I might do one more tonight before I go to sleep.

-Товарищ Бен

Санкт-Петербург --- Part 3 --- Эрмитаж (The Hermitage)

Добрый день, друзья и семья

So after my short vacation from blogging I have returned with part 3 of Saint Petersburg...woot! This post is all about the Эрмитаж (The Hermitage) Museum. It is basically a giant art museum on Palace Square in Petersburg. I heard from someone (not sure if this is accurate or not) that if you spent 10 minutes in each room of the Hermitage it would take over a week to see everything! Of course, I am not huge on the whole art-scene so there are no pictures of any paintings from the museum...sorry. Ha.

First, once again to bore you to death, some brief history about the Hermitage: it was constructed under orders of Catherine the Great and founded in 1764. It is one of the oldest museums in the world and has a collection of over 3 million items. It also boasts the largest collection of paintings in the world. Originally the main building of the Hermitage, the Winter Palace, was a palace of the tsars. The museum has been open to the public since 1852.

Alright, tried to keep it short. Here ya go...

View of Palace Square (Дворцовая Площадь). The focal point of the square is the columnknown as The Alexander Column (Александровская Колонна). Fun facts: 47.5 meters tall (155 ft 8 in). It is so heavy and perfectly set that it is not attached to the pedestal, basically it is just resting.

View of the Winter Palace (Зимний Дворец).

Entrance to the Winter Place//The Hermitage.

Again, the Winter Palace...really quite impressive.

Inside one of the rooms in the Palace.

The throne inside of the Winter Palace.

This is a mosaic floor inside one of the rooms in the palace. It is based on some mosaic from ancient Rome.

View from the Winter Palace to Peter and Paul Fortress across the Neva River.

Once of the beautiful hallways inside the Palace.

View of Palace Square from the Winter Palace.

And finally a group photo! Can you find me?? Just kidding, it's impossible to miss me. Ha

Well that ends part 3 of the tour. More to come soon. And for all of you out there who are not counting down, only 10 days until my return to the states.

Пока!

Санкт-Петербург --- Part 2 --- Петропавловская Крепость (Peter and Paul Fortress)

...and thus begins part two of seven. How excited are you?! I know, I know.

This entry is about the Петропавловская Крепость (Peter and Paul Fortress). This was the first building in St. Pete. The church steeple shown below is the second tallest building in Saint Petersburg (St. Petersburg has no skyscrapers).

Once again, since I like history, I'm going to throw some quick facts at you. And once again, feel free to skip over this section if you find it boring...you won't hurt my feelings :-) The Peter and Paul Fortress was established on May 27, 1703. It was built at the height of the Northern War (between Russia and Sweden). It was built on the last upstream island on the Neva river to protect the capital city against Swedish attack; however, the fortress never was attacked by the Swedes. It includes a prison that was used mainly for political or high ranking prisoners. The prison is where Peter the Great placed his son for plotting against him to take the power of Tsar of Russia (gotta love the crazy Russian history!)

Alright, enough history. Here are some pictures. Enjoy!

The Peter and Paul Cathedral (Петропавловский Собор) with its bell tower. Once again it is the second tallest building in all of Saint Petersburg at 123.2 meters (over 404 feet).

Inside the cathedral. Simply beautiful//amazing.

Again, the insides. So intricate and beautiful.

Paintings on the ceiling of the cathedral.

Part of the Iconostasis. All gold and all amazing.

The gave of Peter the Great.

Tsar Nicholas II and his family. He was the last Tsar of Russia and was executed by the Bolsheviks.

Me with the church in the background.

View on the outside walls of the fortress across the Neva River.

...and the best for last. O-H-I-O!!! From right to left (Graham=O, Jordan, Hanna=H, Andrea, Katie=I, and myself=O)

Well that's enough for one day. I hope you enjoyed the mini tour thus far. And just remember, still 5 more entries to come ;-) Time for bed.

Спокойной Ночи (Spokoinoi Nochi = Good Night)

Санкт-Петербург (Saint Petersburg) Part One

Привет Товарищам,

So this is the first of a seven part blog series about my adventures in St. Petersburg. I took over 400 pictures during our three day stay, but don't worry I won't be posting all the pictures cause that would probably just bore you to death. Instead I'll be posting right around 80 over this seven part series. Don't worry, all the pictures are saved on my computer so next time I'm with you I can show you all of them if you'd like.

First a brief history of the city (feel free to skip over this section if you are not interested in the history but I like to think at least one of you will read it. Ha): Saint Petersburg was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27, 1703. The first stone building in the city was the Peter and Paul Fortress (Петропавловская Крепость). The city was mostly built by slave labor and by Sweedish prisoners. The city has appx. 63 canals running through it. Saint Petersburg was actually the capital of Russia for more than 200 years, but ceased being the capital city after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Currently it is Russia's second largest city (behind Moscow) with appx. 4.6 million inhabitants. It is commonly referred to as the Venice of the North because of all the canals.

Now to the first tour. This blog is just a selection of random pictures from around the city. It has highlights of all the major buildings that will be covered in later entries. I hope you enjoy the pictures and like I said above, many more are to follow in the coming days!

View down the Winter Canal (Зимняя Канавка) towards the Neva River (Нева Река).

Okay, so we witnessed this huge roller-blade parade. It was awesome. And this crazy motorcycle thing was in it. Totally Russia. Ha.

Statue of Peter the Great on a horse. It is known as the Bronze Horseman.

Statue of a Sphinx. From what I understood it was bought by Russia from the French during the time of the French Revolution because France had no money.

The biggest globe in the world. 'Nuff said.

View across the Neva River.

So we found this Corvette parked on the street. Check out the license plate. O-H-I-O. Woot!

View down one of the canals. In the distance you can see the Church of the Savior on Blood (Храм Спаса На Крови). It was built under the order of Tsar Alexander III as a tribute to his father, Tsar Alexander II who was assassinated on the spot where the church stands.

Church of the Savior on Blood (Храм Спаса На Крови).

Very cool monument to Tsar Nicholas I. The reason its so cool and unique is because it is one of the only horse statues in the world where the horse is balanced on only two legs. Most horse monuments require three legs or a tail touching the ground. Neat right?!

Best. Street Sign. EVER. Hahaha.

This is Russia. Note the front wheels...or lack of.

Alrighty then, that is all for part one of seven. Be sure to check back for more posts about my adventures in St. Pete.

Пока!