Russia day 5

Day 5

- Pushkin

- Russian wooden restaurant "Podvorie"

- Tamara

Today seems like we didn't do much, but we had quite a bit of travel time
getting to the places we wanted to get to.
Todays amazingness was Pushkin and Catherine's Palace.

Here we are on the good ol' metro!

 At the station was this awesome little man playing the accordion.
You will see this quite a bit in Russia and it just fills me with happiness whenever it happens!

 You take the Metro to the bottom/last stop and then take some little buses/vans out to Pushkin. You get out at the stop (which was just around the corner from my apartment there when I served there for only 2 weeks to finish off my mission) and look up the street and boom! There you are!
Catherine's Palace

 Right as you walk in, this dude is playing the flute. incredible. We were there several hours and he was still in that spot playing! What the?!

I stinkin love this palace. Looks a lot like the Hermitage, but this one is by favorite color :)

 The gardens around it are insanely beautiful and seriously just perfect. In fact- if you walk on the grass around there you'll get an angry Russian man blowing his whistle at you and chasing you down. Luckily it didn't happen to us, but we saw it several times and got a good laugh from a far!

Cutest selfie I couldn't help myself but catch them in the act!

 awwweeee heart eyes

 Those trees?! I mean come on! 

 We went inside and did a tour of the palace. gold. EVERYWHERE

 Pretty shot looking out a window. 

Can you notice the door ways that keep going and going? again I say- so. much. gold.

 One famous and stinkin incredible room is the Amber room in the palace. The walls are covered and decorated in amber! Pictures aren't allowed- so I had to be sneaky. shhhh. 

 This was the best. Dad just propped his little head on his audio guide and started falling asleep standing up! hahaha 

The grounds/park around the palace is soooo big and occasionally has beautiful buildings, statues, structures, etc. of all different styles. Such a pretty place to just walk and enjoy being outside!

Also need to document, at Russian weddings, the wedding party always goes around the city to take pictures at all the main stops. This bride had the right idea to come to Pushkin for photos. Even though tourists will be in the background, or be like dad and always have to sneak a pic of you as well. haha seriously just about every time, he will go and snag a pic! He should start a business ;)

 He's just a fun guy. 

Cectpa Clark (my mission President's wife) had recommended a restaurant (Restaurant Podvorie) nearby that has great Russian food, but also a fun Russian atmosphere because everything is painted and wooden and just adorable. Awesome place!

The server was ordering our drinks and he asked if we wanted Kvas- which is fermented bread...who knows what....it is just the worst. I tried it on the mish and gosh it's not even close to being good! I made Kode and dad try it and here were their reactions..

..Not good. haha

On our way to a visit we got on a Tram and finally got a "happy ticket!" Each ticket has 6 numbers on them, if you add the first three numbers and they equal the amount of the last three numbers, then Russians believe that you'll have good luck! We got one! Wahoo! Lucky us

We were able to meet up with Tamara, a very spunky member of the church. Her husband was there as well and I had never met him before, so it was fun to get to know him more. They are so generous and fed us bread and meat, candy, little desserts, tea, and watermelon. They talked our ears off about their travels and were just so fun to visit with! They even gave us a few things like some shells from Crimea (it's their absolute favorite place and were so excited to tell us all about it) oh and even a map of Crimea for my dad haha, a pin for me to always remember them, a little doll for my mom...gosh they just kept going and going and wouldn't let us say no. 

I love ending the day visiting people I love! 

 Also- just have to document this tiny, creepy, squishy elevator. We're still alive! Probably thanks to that lucky ticket earlier...

Russia day 4

Day 4

- St. Isaacs Cathedral- inside and up top!

- Hermitage

- Meet up with Masha

We met up with Val again this morning and went into St. Isaacs Cathedral. We got an audio tour as well and learned a ton about this incredible building! It is the largest cathedral in Russia and 4th largest 'domed' cathedral in Europe!

 Holy cow. It's crazy in there. It's got a little of everything.. 

paintings, sculptures, murals, gold...the works

 In the top of the dome you can see a while dove sculpture way up in there. Neat little touch there. It's all about the details, people.

 Umm...that's a door. No big deal. 

 Here is a little replica of the cathedral 

 Apparently this is now the 4th cathedral in this spot. Just really needed it to be bigger and better I suppose! If it ain't ornate- then get outta here!

Besides the beautiful inside, you can go up the 200+ steps to the dome and have incredible views of the city all around the outside of the dome! 

This is one of my absolute FAVORITE things to do in St. Petes!

Climbin up the spiral staircase! You get a bit dizzy. They painted numbers every 10 steps to be a helpful count down for how many more steps you have till you reach the top. 

 Hah dad and Kody got a little choppy in this panorama...oops. 

But gives you a better idea of the spiral.

 Then you go up these last steps to the top!

 This view (South) you can see the statue of Alexander II, and the Russian legislative building behind that

 Oh, and the building tells you which way you're facing. Neat. 

 West. Too far to see, but in the distance is the seaport 

 North. Behind the trees is the Bronze Horseman, the Neva River, Peter and Paul Fortress 

 East. Basically everything that is good. haha Admirilty, Hermitage, Church of Spilt Blood, Kazan Cathedral, etc. 

 

I'm not gonna lie....I shed a secret tear or two up there. I love this city so much.

 This is what those last few steps look like. Neat. 

 Starting the spiral down. You can see the numbers goin down if you look close. 

We made our way over to the Hermitage! Lots of people know this as the Winter Palace too..

 This is looking back where you can see over the trees (near the center) in the distance St. Isaacs big gold dome and Admirilty's gold spire as well. This place is crazy insane and I'm obsessed.

When missionaries serve in the city, you go and serve in the Hermitage once a week. You just stand at the entrance inside and tell answer any questions or direct people where they need to go...but mostly just tell them to go put their coats or umbrellas in the cloakroom. hah But it was still awesome. I showed where we would go in the back and stick our own bags and coats

 aaaand here I am at the entrance doin my thing of showing where to go. 

 This is one of the largest museums of art and culture and woah you could spend hours and days here if you were to really dig deep and get your culture on! There is art from all sorts of times and places, and the architecture and decorations itself is beautiful enough! 

Like I said before... If it ain't ornate- then get outta here! 

 What the doorknob....seriously. 

 Craziest piano I ever did see

 Even the flooring was insane

 Remember how we are hanging out with Val? In St. Petes? Awesome

 I love this painting (and over heard a tour guide say this is possibly the most famous/favorite painting in the Hermitage) of Rembrants "Return of the prodigal son"

Hard to tell in this pic...but this is an elaborate golden peacock statue clock thing that has all sorts of details in the trees and surrounding plants and animals that even move around and the wings open up...who thinks of this stuff

Sorry so many pictures...but I just want to give you a little taste of what it's like in there! 

Seriously you could get lost. 

 Couldn't help ourselves...FBI- Female Body Inspector 

Again we couldn't help ourselves and grabbed a little snack. I always loved these pastries with cream cheese on them. mmmm. 

 Oh you know... just Gandalf the Grey. He let us pass.

#whenyouseeit

 There is a wax museum that always has some crazy stuff out on display to lure you in

We stopped for a quick bite to eat at Teremok- a yummy blini (russian crepe) place where we got some sweet (filled with strawberry jam, banana & chocolate, or sweetened condensed milk) and savory (chicken and sauce) blini. This place also has little stands throughout the city, so I ate there occasionally on-the-go as a missionary.

 Walkin Nevsky Prospekt with the rain comin down! Classic St. Petersburg right there. 

 To finish off the night we met up with Masha who is a member in an area I served in. She was so sweet to meet with us after work and show us this delicious gelato cafe. She is seriously one of the most kind people and such a strong member of the church.

That's me- not Hermione Granger... 

But I just love this pic of Masha walking us to our bus stop and putting her arm in mine- 

Russians love doing that and I love that they do too!