Monday morning on the overnight train we arrived back in Moscow from St. Petersburg, the second capital of Russia. St Petersburg was established in 1703 by Peter the First (or the Great, whatever) in order to open up Russia to the rest of Europe and compete in trade and military strength. The position of St. Petersburg on the Neva River was just several kilometers away from the Bay of Finland and the Baltic Sea. St. Petersburg for this reason, was built to resemble a European city, and unlike Moscow, is completely planned out. There are canals that run through the city, in addition to the rivers, and the streets for the most part are on a grid. I must have gotten used to the fact that Moscow makes no sense, because I could not find my way around. I missed the radial streets of Moscow, with all the traffic and I missed the metro.
St Petersburg was home to the czars of Russia from Peter the Great until the revolution. In the city there are many palaces and cathedrals built by different members of the royal family. The largest is the Winter Palace, which is now the Hermitage museum. The weekend we were there was also the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where Putin, Medvedev, and Chinese President Hu Jintao all spoke. While I wish we could have attended the forum, the first night there was a large outdoor concert where Sting performed on Palace Square. We also saw Hu Jintao’s motorcade shut down Nevskii Prospect, the largest street in Peter. That Saturday was also Alye Parusa, which is a St. Petersburg literary holiday that I do not really understand. All of the students that just finished high school receive an invitation (we wrangled some because our program director had connections) and there was a huge concert and it basically shut down the entire center of the city. The celebration ended with a fireworks show on the riverthat set the background for a massive ship with red sails to come through the lift bridge. While I think that I prefer Moscow in general, it was important to see such a different side of Russia.
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