In the Footsteps of Tsars

St Petersburg
30F

Nevsky Prospekt is the main tourist attraction in St Petersburg. It is commercial and flashy, distinguished and incredibly elegant, filthy and loud, and representative of all the contradictions that one finds in this country. Although it is the primary place most visitors see, Nevsky is not what Russia is really like at all... it is no more than a facade. Nonetheless, it is such a treat to get a real hoagie from Subway or a burger from Carl Jr's.

Nevsky is like the Russian equivalent of 5th avenue. The street is lined with ultra high-end companies like Versache and D&G. Everything is ridiculously expensive. One of the major shopping hubs of the city is a huge building called Гостиный Двор (Gustiny Dvor). It was designed by master architect Francesco Bartolommeo Rastrelli (who also planned the Winter Palace and the Smolny Catherdral) and at the time of its opening was the first shopping mall in the world. Today, at more than a kilometer long, it contains more than one-hundred overpriced stores. It is amazing though, in the sense that if you need to buy something... anything... you can find it at Gustiny Dvor.




Among the other sites on Nevsky Prospekt: The Russian National Library, Kazansky Cathedral, and the Grand Europe Hotel. Also, Nevsky is one of three major arterial boulevards in St Petersburg that radiate outwards from the Admiralty Shipyards. This makes for an incredible photograph if you are daring enough to stop for a few seconds in the middle of the cross walk.


I spend a lot of time on Nevsky, but make sure to spend at least twice as much time exploring the "real" Russia. It is an amazing place to visit, especially at night when all the buildings are lit up, but while there, it is too easy to forget where you are. Perhaps this is/was why it is so popular, and why so much time and money has been spent by the government to preserve it.

St. Petersburg
30F

A few weeks ago, on a snowy afternoon, I decided that I need to visit a “green place” on the map because it had been far too long since I had seen a tree. In the very center of Vasilevsky Island is just such an area-- an enormous Russian Orthodox cemetery. Yet, for something so big on the map, it was unusually difficult to locate on foot. Only after about an hour of wandering around the island, I saw a dense area of trees surrounded by a wrought iron fence and decided to head in that direction.

Russian Orthodox cemeteries are very different than the type that most people have a familiarity with. Instead of granite headstones, they are filled with countless crosses of every type imaginable. Wooden, stone, steel, wrought iron crucifixes shoot up from the ground every few feet as if a packet of seeds were spread from somewhere high above. Additionally, the graves lay wherever the plans for the area dictate, even if it means in the middle of the forest.

As the sun was starting to set, I ventured into the Смоленское православное кладбище. At first I was confused because I did not see any of the graves, but as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, they seemed to jump out from between the trees all around me. It was an amazing sight. Everything was dusted with a clean layer of snow, and the darkness was slowly creeping in.

After about fifteen minutes of walking through the woods, I stumbled on these two beautiful cathedrals. Some sort mass had just let out from the one, and everyone was walking over to light candles on a stand beside the other. The whole scene was like something out of a movie. I tried to take some pictures, but they do not capture it very well. Certainly another “uniquely Russian” moment that I will not forget.