The holiday period in Moscow is from Jan 1 until after Russain Christmas and THQ closes. We had a few days to spare so decided to join our American neighbours on a train ride to St Petersburg. We packed the picnic set and headed off on the 9 hour train journey through snow covered feilds. We were warm in the train and relaxed as we enjoyed the very different scenerey.Our first night in St Pete it snowed and so that set the scene for our 6 day stay.
We walked our way around the central city area taking in the beauty of this very old city. Some days we were out for the whole day walking and sight seeing.
There were so many choices - museums, Cathedrals, markets, and just places to go and look. Map in hand and a picnic on our backs we found our way around taking it all in.
The Neva river is frozen over - but due to the need to keep it flowing the icebreaker makes it way down each day - causing an interesting chopped up effect. St pete is built on a river delta and canals separate the city into a number of islands With building and roadways built to the edges. We had great fun meandering our way around and discovering the sights, sounds and smells of a new city. We were able to walk out on the frozen river to where some people had built some ice sculptures - or is that a frozen stone henge?
Moscow has St Basils cathedral and St pete has Christ our saviour and we are not yet sure which we like best. But we took plenty of photos until we make up our mind.
One of outings was to go to the 'Hermitage' also known as 'The winter palace' which is a famous museum housing some of the worlds most famous art collections and also some amazing architecture. As it was holiday
time we stood in a Russian queue - 2.5 hours to get in the door and a further 30 minute in the coat rack queue. Finally we got in and then 3 hours later it was time to close. But we did get to see a bit of it. It is an amazing feeling standing in a place - on the other side of the world - looking at things we had only heard or read about. We felt priviledged to be able to stand in front of the Rembran
dt painting of the Prodigal Son and also to see so many other expression of art both in paint and sculpture and also in the porcelain and architecture. It was a place you needed to go back to - over and over. And as we have our Russian work permit we saw all for only $5 - no more tourist prices for us- our 12 month working visa came through the day before Christmas!Well as with all good things they come to an end. It was time to return to Mo
scow. Our return trip not so exciting as we enjoyed the Russian third class train travel - or was it 4 th class.A large sign over the river reminded us of the time of the year - and so we greet you all with this message ........HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
