We started the day with listening to the noon cannon at the Peter and Paul Fortress. Wow ... just wow. They do this every day at noon, and we were in the courtyard below it with a great view of the cannon, we arrived perfectly timed as well. The blow was massive, like not even sound-wise more like the shock wave! Geo and I were flabbergasted, the shock wave blew the air out of my lungs, it actually felt surreal.
So after that unusual experience we headed along the river enjoying the weather St Petersburg spoilt us with and watching the ice plates float along the river. Due to the chain of sunny and warm days we had during our trip all the snow melted and the ice on the river broke. It was an amazing view.
Then we walked past the St. Isaac's Cathedral (finding it was closed on Wednesday's) and on to our Pelmeni lunch (Russian dumplings). Geo really enjoyed them and I love the potato mushroom ones so who am I to object!
The main goal of the day was the Hermitage. We got free entrance as students so that was really nice, but we couldn't buy tickets to the golden chambers because they only had Russian excursions and apparently a non-Russian can't join that....stupid but oh well, we got to see the rest:
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| With all its intricate wooden floors... |
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| ...grand halls... |
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| ...the famous peacock clock... |
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| ...and mosaic tables. (YES it's mosaic, it's so small you can hardly see it!) |
With that we rounded up our touristy side of the trip and spent the last night with my relatives eating and talking. While wanting to stay up the whole night until we had to leave for the airport at 3, we ended up falling asleep after all. But we still had a smooth trip and safely got home.
It was a wonderful trip showing the touristy and homey side of Russia and seeing my relatives. I was super happy to be able to introduce Geo to that part of my culture.
-KK
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