The Grand Hotel Europe is one of the nicest hotels in St. Pete. It is located right off Nevsky so we would always go there to send postcards and exchange money because the employees there speak English, woohoo! Anyways, it rained almost every day we were in St. Pete and one day it rained so much that the lobby flooded.

Kate and I in the flooded GHE lobby.

Catherine Palace is located in Tsarskoye Selo (Tsar’s Village), an area on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. Tsarskoye Selo was the summer residence of the Russian Tsars. During the Soviet era, the area’s name was changed to Pushkin, in honor of the famous Russian poet.

Catherine Palace is the most famous example of the Russian baroque style, and was designed by Rastrelli…see, I learned something in that Russian Art History class.

We stepped off our tour bus to the tune of the American National Anthem, courtesy of a band dressed in tsarist era military uniforms. Yes, we stand out as Americans. When we entered the palace, our guide led us to a big box full of slippers. We had to wear them over our shoes so we wouldn’t damage the floors. They were quite slippery on the wooden floors, though, so you had to be careful or you would slip and fall on your ass.

During World War II, Catherine Palace was looted and partially destroyed by the Germans (or as the Russians call them, Fascists). Some of the rooms still haven’t been restored, but the ones that have been are amazing. There is an entire room decorated in amber, and there is another room in which the walls are completely covered in paintings.

Here are some of my favorite signs around St. Pete.

St. Isaac’s Cathedral was once the main church of St. Petersburg and the largest church of Russia. The church was designed to accommodate 14 thousand standing worshipers. The gilded dome of St. Isaac’s is one of the most recognizable features of the skyline of St. Petersburg. We climbed the 300 steps to get a better view of St. Petersburg and snap a few pictures (which until recently was prohibited due to national security reasons…uhhh yeah).

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I spent 5 weeks at “EMOP”, a school at St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University located at 28 Grazhdansky Prospekt. Living in St. Petersbug is definitely an interesting experience…we didn’t have any hot water for 2.5 weeks, so that meant nice arctic cold showers every day. The water itself is infested with enough metal pollutants, bacteria, and parasites to keep you in bed for a day or so. The food was also pretty random. For breakfast they served kasha, which I didn’t particularly care for, and these odd cheese covered hot dogs, which I didn’t even touch. The bread was delicious though, and I must have consumed an entire loaf a day. I’ll hand it to the Russians – they know how to make damn good bread. For lunch we would have soup, although it didn’t have much of anything in it – it was basically broth, so you would dump in a few spoonfuls of sour cream to thicken it up. When they served borscht, though, ohhh that stuff was good – I’d have about 4 bowls. There was usually some sort of meat dish…it was always fun trying to guess what it was. We usually had dinner at a place on Nevsky or a blini place, but dinner was alot like lunch…in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they just served leftovers from lunch for dinner.

The Artillery Museum was definitely my favorite museum in St. Petersburg. Basically, it is a huge building full of cannons and guns. They have other stuff, too, like Napoleon’s uniform.

Sadly, the outside exhibit with all the really cool missile launchers and tanks was closed, but that didn’t stop us from wandering in! Luckily a nice soldier was there to inform us we were not allowed to be there…hey, we’re just stupid Americans, what do we know?

During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 the Aurora took part in the Battle of Tsusima, but that’s not why it’s a famous ship.

On the night of October 25-26, 1917, crew members on the Aurora fired a blank shot at the Winter Palace (then the residence of the Provisional Government), giving the signal to workers, soldiers and sailors to storm the palace. This single shot marked the beginning of the October Revolution.

The Aurora also served as a type of Bolshevik radio station. Vladimir Lenin announced the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in a wireless broadcast from the Aurora. He had the wireless operator on board the Aurora send out the information in a series of Morse Code broadcasts.

“The Fuhrer has decided to wipe the city of Petersburg off the face of the earth. It is proposed to tighten up the blockade of the city and level it to the ground by shelling and continuous bombing from the air.” – “On the Future of the City of Petersburg”, secret directive issued by the German naval headquarters in September 1941.

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, marking the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. By September 8, 1941 the Germans had fully encircled Leningrad, which had a population numbering a little less than 3 million residents. This siege of Leningrad lasted for about 900 days, from September 8, 1941 until January 27, 1944. The siege was a time of incredible suffering and hardship, as there were extremely limited food and fuel provisions, and the city was constantly bombarded by German shells.

The winters were especially harsh, and there was often no heating, no water supply, and very little food. In January 1942, the minimium food ration (given to children and other non-workers) in the city was equal to about 1/4 of a pound of bread per day. Usually the bread was laden with sawdust in order to use less grain. To supplement these meager rations, Leningraders would scrape off the paste behind wallpaper, cook leather belts or the soles of their shoes until they were chewable, or…some would turn to cannibalism. In a period of just two months, (January and February, 1942) 200,000 Leningraders died of cold and starvation.

Although figures vary, it has been estimated that as many as one million Leningraders died in the siege. This monument, which lies six miles from the front lines of 1941-44, is dedicated to the soldiers, workers, and citizens that defended against the Nazis and refused to surrender their city.

Harrison Salisbury wrote an excellent book on this topic called “900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad.” I read it while in St. Petersburg, and highly recommend it.