April 30, 2008

Lisa slept well but I didn't. Guess it took me an extra day for the jet lag to hit.

Got up with the plan to hit the Hermitage today. Everyone in the family except me dreads large museums so we our plan was that after 3 hours we had to leave no matter what. Well I lost at 1.5 hour mark!!! We got there right at 10:30AM when it opened and it took an 1/2 hour to get our ticket. Started out at the Jordan staircase then headed to a special exhibit on Arabian Art. Pretty cool tents they had set up. We then hit the older European art which bored everyone except me. Did a quick tour of the French impressionists and the headed out at 12:30PM.

We then walked across the bridge with the idea of having Blinni for lunch from one of the two fast food chains that Hannah likes and then hit the Mendeleev Museum. Well it turns out that the museum is just on the other side of the bridge. Hannah was able to pick the right building in the St Petersburg State University 'Campus' and after some help from a student / teacher we found the correct door. After ringing the bell, a nice older lady came out took our coats and turned on the lights. Turns out that Wednesdays is not the day for the English tour. Hannah helped us decipher some of the texts but we were able to spot the early artifacts of the Periodic Table. After 3 rooms of pictures and letters, another woman came out and turned on the lights in his office. This was our chance to ask questions. She pointed out his more than 100 diplomas, the vast array of art reproductions that he collected on his wanderings around the world, his 6 children, and some of his inventions. She pointed out that he was the first petroleum engineer and that his travels took him to Western PA hitting Oil City and Pittsburgh.

A short 20 minute walk with Hannah pointing us towards the Geological Museum (check out the symposium in June), she found a Blinni restaurant. We tried the cheese, chicken, mushroom, and plain one covered with sweeten evaporated milk. We all loved the last one. The 'Rock' museum is a great find that the Lonely Planet guide pointed out. It is a huge building where we had to wait for a nice old man to come down and escort us up to the 3rd floor climbing up a magnificent stone staircase. We get in there and he asks for a donation and points us to the areas. This place takes the whole 3rd floor and has case after case of rocks. Highlights are a 20 ft dinosaur skeleton, some cool geodes, and the advertised map of Russia made of precious and semi-precious rocks. We really like the 2 cases were they had polished various rocks and matched them with photographs of art or nature that looked remarkably similar.

After this Hannah finally agreed to give us our first taste of public transportation. We caught a tolley that would take us to her host apartment where her host mother was to entertain us for late afternoon tea. First we got off a mile before her apartment and we walked to see the Bay of Finland. Then off to her apartment which Lisa remarked looked very similar to the high rises in the Bronx. Her host mother was very excited and had bought a fancy cake, some Russian Easter Bread, 2 kinds of jelly, and brought out her fancy teacups. We had a nice time sitting in her 50 square foot kitchen, listening to her talk Russian and Hannah translating for us. She had bought us gift of a picture book of St Petersburg but didn't double check the language; it was in Italian!!!

We headed back to our hotel area to have dinner with one of Hannah's friends at an Indian restaurant that they liked. This time Hannah took us on a Mishipoo(sic), a private van that follows the bus routes. This was a rat trap van and it filled up about 1/3 of the way into town. Needless to say we made it...

The evening ended with Lisa and I having a drink in the Renaissance lobby with the intention of listening to the harp player. She wasn't that good but quit fairly soon after we got there. I got interested in the UEFA Chelsea vs Liverpool game and noticed this cute petite girls heading back to the restaurant with these huge burley guys. Turns out that all over St Petersburg we saw these posters for "The Pussycat Dolls". Lisa brought Sam down to verify that they were the real thing.

April 29, 2008

Quick entry so I remember what we did yesterday:

Woke up late again cause we all slept well except Lisa who had problems getting to sleep.

Today was a long walk. We hit:
Liberty Monument: Walked along the Neva until we hit the other side of the Hermitage. Headed south and past this square that has many bones left of people that didn't get to live in a communist society after 1917.
Church of the Spilt Blood: Just a few steps away is this church that we walk past yesterday on the way to the Russian Museum. Today we went in and marveled at the mosaics and marble floors. This is a smaller church and we realized a rebuilt church (just in the last 10 years). Still it it is pretty impressive.
Souvenir Bazaar: Just across the street is this set of 20 or 30 carts. Lots of souvenirs but it turns out pretty expensive. We held our hands over our pockets and decided to wait until later in the week.
Crossed the Neva and walked to the Aurora: We left the historical district by walking across the Palace Bridge and headed to the Petrograd side. Long walk but the wonderful weather was something to enjoy. 70 degrees and lots of sun. The Aurora is the one place that we don't have to pay admission. Lenin broadcast his call for revolution from this boat and I guess Russia is still proud of this part of their history. Check out this slightly biased version of history but I think the facts are basically tru
Through the Petrograd side to the organic / salad restaurant: Hannah likes this restaurant and it is something that I didn't expect to see. Organic and natural food in the northern climes. Very tasty.
Peter and Paul Fort: This fort is under lots of construction but we decided to visit Peter I and Alexeander II tombs along with many of their family. They take up most of the floor space in the cathedral in this fort so services are not held here too often.

On the way home we walked across the across the 2 bridges that connect by the way of the tip of ??? island. There is a nice little park at the tip of this island and we saw 4 or 5 wedding picture sessions complete with snacks and champagne going on.

We got back and had a nice surprise, we got the rest of our luggage. Sam and I immediately changed our clothes!!!

After a short rest we started towards the JAFI art show and for discussion with 2 high school boys and one girl in her first year of college. This was arranged by Katia who picked us up at the airport. She works at JAFI with the young adults in various ways, this one as a mentor for a small newletter that they put out. Hannah and Sam talked with them for about an hour while eating tea, mocha coffee, beer, and sweets. They discussed the fact that although they are Jewish, they don't feel a strong connection to Hebrew or the religion. Also, one of the boys seemed very active in politics but they all seemed very resigned that nothing was going to change.

We got a ride back to our hotel so the driver could pick up the 2 large bags of ballet clothes. We arrange to have dinner at 1913 with Katia which was a fancier Russian restaurant. We all had food that we loved. Sam had a steak, Lisa had fish soup and chicken Kiev while Hannah and Katia both had the soup with potatoe pancakes. I had an appetizer of herring, egg salad, carrots, potatoe, and apples all arrange in beautiful layers. For dinner I had the Russian Ravioli. Turns out that both are what we consider traditional Jewish food for us back in the states. The ravioli we call kreplach.

April 28, 2008

Today was our first day in St. Petersburg. We got in a few minutes late last night but unfortunately our luggage did not. As of Monday evening we are still waiting for it (later in the evening Lisa's bag showed up but not Sam's and mine). I had made arrangements through a childhood friend for a friend to pick us up at the airport as we brought over ballet clothing for her youth program. So she picked us up and we went down the street from the airport, to the local Lenta. It is a Walmart style store, well more like a K-Mart but it had everything from clothing, car parts, and food as it had everything but not a wide selection. We bought a few pieces of underware and some sleeping clothes with the hope that our luggage would make it on today.

Our gracious hosts then took us to the hotel and we settled in with no problems. Hannah decided to stay with us. We slept until 9AM and got moving around 10:30AM. Started walking around the neighborhood. Here is what we saw before 5PM.

Coffee Shop: We started walking and Hannah found one of her favorite local chains as they have good savory rolls at a very reasonable price. I got the cabbage one which was very tasty except they serve it cold. It would be much better warm. The coffee was reasonable but nothing special.

St Issacs Cathedral: Headed back towards our hotel and which is 1/2 block from here. Figured out that we should pay for both the museum and the view. Went in and I was amazed at how huge it was with a marble everywhere. They had mosaics on display and we were not sure if were original or had been put there just for display. There were large amounts of tour groups from Russia, Finland, Germany, Korea, China, and all over. It was definitely the place for tourists. The other part of the tour is to climb 211 steps and walk around the rotunda for great views of St Petersburg's rivers, canals, cathedrals, TV towers, cranes for new buildings and harbor and roofs of all shapes. The whole family thought it was the highlight of the day.

Peter I Statue: A short walk towards the Neva took us to this famous statue. From here you can look across the Neva River to Vasilievsky Island where you can see St. Petersburg State University which it the partner with Bard College creating the Smolny College where Hannah is spending the semester. Her classes are farther northwest along the river. Nice view of the pastel colored buildings that St Petersburg is famous for.

The Neva River and Palace Sqare: We continued walking up the river toward the Hermitage but decided to find a place to eat and then spend the afternoon in the Russian Museum. Well before we got there we crossed Palace Square which was empty except for 3 or 4 small bands and few tourists here and there. This place is huge and the bands only consisted of a dozen musicians in full military dress. They were practicing. Some were standing in formation and moving back and forth, others were just standing like a band should, while others were resting. Each played a part of a tune and then stopped. Not sure what they were doing but I am guessing that they were getting ready for May Day. We then walked past Pushkin's apartment and museum and watch another group soldiers take a cigarette break. The walk was our first view of the canals and although it was too early for tourist boats this was the most pleasurable walk of the day as the buildings and area was the cleanest and most kept up part of the area.

Stolle (bottom entry): This was a nice little restaurant that Hannah likes to go that has great savery rolls also. The weblink above calls them Perogi.

Russian Museum: On the way we past the Church of the Spilt Blood a church that from the outside had many different architectural features than St. Issacs. We then headed over the Russian Museum and started by going into the back door. This area has the special exhibits so we started with Yuri Khrzhanovsky exhibit. It was a retrospective as he recently died and Sam was amazed that his style kept changing. We all liked his music phase in the 1980's.
Saluko. We then roamed the whole museum although I went a lot slower than the rest of the family. I really like to mid to late 19th century paintings of the russian forests by Ivan Shishkin although I didn't know it was a special exhibit at the time. I also was amzed at the and the reconstructed palace rooms in the permanent collection section in the Mikhailovsky Palace.

On our way back to the hotel, Hannah took us down Nevsky Prospect. This experience was not appreciated until we were halfway home. The constant rush of people and group after group of fashionably dressed Russians made it obvious that we didn't really belong there. We hit a traffic light that was green but the guy in front of us refused to cross and as it was narrow started blocking all of us. This seemed crazy but then I realized that he was setting up a pick pocket and jumped out of the way. Well we made it without incident back to the hotel for a few hours rest.

For dinner Hannah took us back to Nevsky Prospect but this time we took the back way. The walk was pleasant but typical of the day, fast traffic, dirty streets, and block after block of 3-4 story pastel colored buildings. We went to a Georgian Restaurant that her friend recommended and we had a very tasty meal but a not so great wine list. To top it off, the entertainment was a guy singing to a karioke machine very LOUD. We tried mainly Georgian style food, the eggplant stuffed with walnut paste, bread with melted cheese on top called ???, chicken with an alfedo type sauce, veal stew highly seasoned with salt but very tasty, a mutton stew with potatoes and onions. Made it out of there by 10PM and it was still light out. Nice walk back to the hotel.

We had a surprise as my wife's bag was in our room. It made her so happy!!!! Well Sam and I will continue in our Russian style of dress. They have 2-3 main outfits which they wear in public and when they are home, they immediately change into separate clothes. The difference is that their public outfits are very expensive and stylish (leather coats, fancy shoes, tight jeans). We on the other hand are living in our baggy jeans and sweatpants. Oh well, having fun anyways...

Be sure to visit Hannah's blog at hannahinrussia.blogspot.com

April 21, 2008

This is the week of Passover. We had 2 very nice Sedars. I really like the food that I only get once a year like matzah, matzah balls, ztimmas(Lisa refuses to put the matzah balls in), macaroons, coconut covered marshmallows.

I also saw 2 plays. First I went to Don Carlos presented by the masters class at CMU. It was a very powerful show which took place in 17th century Spain, a time period that I don't know much about. Nice little theather made it a very engaging show.

The next night we went to Schenley's last musical. The school is suppose to close and the classes will be dispersed. Historically, Schenley's yearly musicals have won many Kelly awards. Just a few days before the first performance, Mr. B died who was the teacher most responsible for their success. This year's show is All Shook Up and I thought it is a very clever use of Elvis music and Schenley did a a great job presenting it. The bass player was very good (a friend of my son Sam).

Packed up and we are on our way to St. Petersburg. This post was done while waiting for our Air France flight from Charles de Gaul to St Peterburg while connected via my monthly WiFi service Boingo on our families laptop

April 14, 2008

Well we had a meeting on Monday, and I had orchestra on Tuesday so I headed up to Boston on Wednesday. The weather was nice so I made a deal with Howard that I could ride his bike in exchange for taking him out to dinner. I didn't make it to his place until 6:45PM and it was starting to get dark. I figured out that I could get a half hour in pretty safely so I headed out to try to find the Minuteman Trail but didn't make it. Explored part of the area around Tufts and made it back safely. The roads there are almost as bumpy as Pittsburgh. Had a good dinner at La Buona Vita in Arlington of Mussels, shrimp and veal cutlet. Turns out that the entrance to the trail was right across the street.

So the next night I suggested that Howard ride his bike out to the end of the trail and that I would take him to Bedford's favorite Italian restaurant, Cafe Luigi.

April 7, 2008

Well, I decided to pick up my new bike on Monday evening and ride it to REI to check on the Thule bike carrier attachment. Angelo played with his own bike the whole day so he didn't have it ready when I showed up at 6PM. Had to wait 45 minutes and by that time the sun was starting to go down. I figured though I could rush down there and get the information I needed on moving the locks from the old Mazda MPV attachments to the new one for the Highlander's roof rack. Well it went pretty smoothly so I decided to speed up the trail along the river before heading home. Nice ride, but my neck hurt when I got home. Need to figure out how to ride a racing bike without straining my neck.

Worked the whole weekend again on the rec fields. No issues except I got to work a few games myself.

March 30, 2008

Hectic week getting the soccer referee schedule ready for this weekend. We ended up with 27 games a weekend requiring 61 assignments. Using about 20 referees per weekend which makes 3 games in a row. Working with the little kids can be tiring so I hope I don't burn out this bunch of referees.

So I really liked that Jamis bike but Lisa made me look at the bikes at the other shop. I rode them Monday evening and they felt about the same to me but they were $400 more. Well I decided to think about it during the week some more...

I was out on the field the whole weekend. Saturday was cool and shady so I didn't think about putting on sunscreen. I ended up with a nice sunburn on the back of my knees, neck, and hands. Hurt for a few days. Everyone showed up though so it was a good weekend.

Sunday came, I had a few hours before heading to the fields so Lisa and I went to the bike shop to test ride the Xenith again. I decided that it was time I stretched myself on bike riding so I bought it!!!