Saturday, April 30, 2011

Sometimes the Postage System is a Pain

I received notification of a box arriving for me on Thursday afternoon.  I was very excited, hopeful that this meant my birthday present from DW had arrived!  It had already been really fun to receive birthday mail from Steve, my grandma, and Jill, and I wanted that box!

Tuesday afternoon I went to the post office and the box I was given was very beaten up and I did not recognize the hand writing, so I was a little confused.  I got home and saw that it was from Faith Baptist Church.  This package was very very long awaited.  My home church is very kind and choses to send college kids a care box every spring.  I believe this one was first sent out around Valentine's Day but went to the wrong location.  It was returned to the states and then sent out again.  Inside were a lot of goodies: some envelopes, candy, popcorn, pencils, and some other goodies.  It was very fun to see the items people send around the world for me.

Now I was curious about DW's box.  The mail came and I had a letter stating something about my package.  It was in Finnish and even google translate has some limitations - especially because I do not know how to type an a with the double dots, a very common character in the Finnish language.  I walked to the nearest post office and they told me my box was in Finland, but in Vantaa (the city/region just north of Helsinki).  For the life of me I do not know why it did not come to Helsinki.  Both because it was a beautiful day and because I wanted my box, I continued my trek to the main railway station where I knew they had a customs center.  They also said my package was in Vantaa and that that office was closed.

She gave me a phone number to dial.  Calling those numbered yeilded no result so I found a different number online.  As an interesting twist, I could not find the location of this post office on google maps or the Helsinki Journey Planner so was more and more convinced my goal was to get them to send my box to the main rail station.

Long phone call short, I got an e-mail address which allowed me to request the box come to Helsinki.  One week after my birthday (I realized just today that I can now legally rent a car), I got my box.  I opened it an found a few cards (birthday, birthday in Finnish, and Easter), a bag of Easter M&Ms, and a new watch!  Too much fun!



A couple hours after opening my present I had the opportunity for a phone interview with HGA Architects in Minneapolis.  The woman was very nice and the program sounds excellent.  So we will see if I hear back from her in the next couple weeks and have to option of Minnesota or Montana for the summer!



Spilled Blood and Then the Train

We all met up for our last day of breakfast at the hotel.  This time the three of us brought our bags and checked them for an easier departure in the afternoon.  We headed out in search of souvenirs and postcards.


Sally found a fantastic Russian hat!  She did not purchase it, but did get a lovely watch that is disguised as a bracelet.


Sally bought a little bottle of vodka hidden in a Russian doll for her brother.  As she was thinking about it, the saleswoman offered vodka shots.  It was hilarious to watch Todd's mom and Sally have a morning sip of vodka just as Todd walked into the room and asked what was happening.


Next we headed to the Church of Spilled Blood.  Inside they called it the Cathedral of the Resurrection, I think.  Apparently there are a variety of translations.


If it looks tall to you, imagine a space feeling twice as high and that's more like how it felt.


Those are mosaics.  Completely incredible.



The alter



See - so tall!


The best part about the mosaics for me were their size and clarity.  Churches often mention how the art was used to tell Bible stories to an illiterate congregation, but I cannot tell what they are depicting.  I could identify the passage being shown in at least half of the scenes on the walls of the church.  Here is Lazurus being raised from the dead.


Nearby, the Samaritan woman by the well


"Let the little children come to me"


I barely noticed the chandeliers until Annie looked up at one and commented that they looked a lot like snowflakes.  It's amazing that the church has so much ornamentation that something this detailed could get lost in the space.

'

A model of the church



Across from the church was  a "flea market" where we did more souvenir shopping.  We were all surprised that the poor number and quality of postcards.  Single ones were often unattractive and I simply did not want to buy 15 postcards.  Thanks to the extreme generosity of Todd's mom in buying almost all of my food and entertainment for the weekend I had quite a few Rubles that I did not want to turn back into Euros.  I found an egg charm to wear on a necklace - my own simple version of a Faberge Egg and a turquoise bracelet that I really liked for myself.

After the church we went back to the hotel where Annie and Tom finished packing their bags.  We got in the van and headed towards the Finland railway station.  For some reason, all of the Russians must have really wanted to get us out of the country because by leaving a half hour after they advised we were an hour and a half early for our train.  This is a good thing at an airport, but the security at the train station involved walking through a metal detector which beeped to indicate we did have metal on our person or in our bags, looking awkwardly at a few guards, and being through security.  Our train hadn't arrived in the station yet.

Todd looked for a cafe and thought he saw one near the trains.  We tried to scan our tickets and failed to spoke to a woman who took tickets.  She spoke no english and we couldn't form a Russian word, let alone sentence, so she got a little flustered and just waved us through.  In the cafe a couple next to us asked Sally and I "where are you from".  I replied "America" and got a look that was comical and told "we know that, where in America".  These true were of Russian descent, moved to America and lived there for 20 years.  Now they are in Russia often for business and the wife said "it is so good to hear english again".  It was a little strange, but very interesting.  They were traveling on our train and we actually saw them again in the dining car.

We boarded the train and started towards Helsinki.  I had briefly used the wireless internet in the hotel to download the third (and thankfully for my schoolwork, final) book in the Hunger Games series so I read almost the entire train ride.  Even with this entertainment, it was a little unnerving how long we were stopped on the Russian side of the border.  Perhaps it was because I dosed a little the first time, but I think the train was parked for well over an hour.  

Once we reached the Finnish side of the border, Tom came to Sally and my seats to invite us to a table they had reserved in the dining car.  Sally had been writing her paper and wanted to listen to music and nap a little, but I followed him to the table.  It turned out to be a little awkward because there were already four people there (Annie, Tom, and the 2 Russians we met earlier) so one of us always had to sit on the trash can.  It was really interesting, though to hear their perspective on the government in Russia.

The wife was an eighth generation in St. Petersburg.  She left Russia as it was becoming the Soviet Union.  That essentially marked her as a traitor and they forced her to pay $750 in order to maintain her citizenship.  She could not explain to me what happens if you are not the citizen of any nation, but it seemed that for her (and perhaps anyone?) that is not an option.  Her husband is technically from the Ukraine.  Both because US Citizens.  She described American in 1988 when they arrived as "heaven on earth".  Now they are in the fur trading business and fly quite a lot.  They can only get a visa for Russia for 3 months at a time so usually spend 3 months in America, 3 in Russia, repeat.  The husband travels to Turkey and China often to acquire furs to sell.  One of their sons about 22 and plays soccer professionally in Russia.  She is concerned that "America is going Socialist.  I have seen it before.  I do not like Obama's health plan".  It was interesting to hear how much she still loves America but is concerned about it's future.

After taking pictures of the two couples on their camera phones I returned to my seat and finished my book.  Once we arrived in Helsinki, Sally and I made the trek back to our apartment.  It was strange how getting back to the train station honestly felt like returning home.  I am certain it will be much more true getting to the states, but it still felt familiar and much more safe on this side of the border.


Easter: Shrouded Church to Ballet

Sunday the three of us arrived at the hotel around 8:30am and excitedly gathered and ate our breakfast.  Once Annie and Tom showed up we finished and grabbed bottles of water for the road.  In the lobby was a new tour guide (new to us, but she'd taken Annie and Tom around St. Petersburg on Friday) names Kasini.  She provided a different perspective for the day with her Russian Orthodox heritage.  She brought us Easter presents!  Sally and I each received a fluffy egg creature on a stick, Tom and Annie got matching decorated eggs which they were supposed to hit against each other and "fight", and Todd also got a decorative egg.  We loaded in the car and headed to church.


I should remember the name of the Cathedral we went to, but have forgotten.  One interesting thing is that it was one of the few churches which was not closed down during the Soviet rule in Russia.  I borrowed a scarf from Kasini because while not required, covering one's head is seen as a sign of respect.  

We entered and could instantly tell that this church was more classically Russian Orthodox.  There were minimal windows and many many decorative features.  In the front of the lower level was a priest who was waving something dipped in water and chanting at people.  I assume he was blessing them, but am not certain.  Tom purchased candles and handed one to each of us as we went upstairs.  

Russian Orthodox services typically last 4-5 hours without any seats.  It was interesting to see part of a service in which people were coming and going continuously.  A sermon is not part of their religious service, but it is more of a continual prayer service.  The priest came out chanting and the congregation responded with "Christ is Risen" (in Russian).  Individuals with candles chose a saint's image on the wall, light the candle, and place the candle in a hanging fixture in front of the picture.  While this is probably sacrilegious, it felt a little like a popularity contest to an outsider.  I wanted to know who the saints were and why they were chosen because I felt a little badly for those saints who did not have any candles.

The choir was beautiful.  We were all surprised to find it only consisted of about 10 woman in their own clothes because it sounded like a team of 50 from behind the alter.  If Julia was right on Saturday, there is no way that the woman could have been behind the alter.  I am not certain if she was right, but she said that only the priests go behind the alter and men when they are baptized.  She stated that according to the Russian Orthodox faith, women cannot go behind the alter because they do not have a soul.  I should check into some basic tenants of their faith because that seems odd to me.

Next we got into the car and headed towards Peterhof...the drive was about an hour so most of us got a nap in along the way.


This church is not currently furnished.  We found it interesting how tight security was at Peterhof.  This "suburb" as Kasini kept calling it was the summer palace of the Czars.  When the Germans occupied the area, Hitler planned to hold a party in the palace.  Apparently, this upset Stalin so much that he bombed the building to keep Hitler from celebrating here.  The Russian government has rebuilt the building in the last 50 years which is why we found it strange that photos were not allowed inside and we had to wear protective booties.


If you see a similarity to the winter palace, that's because the same architect designed this building.  It's hard to see in the picture, but the far building (the actual palace) currently has a new copper roof.  This is on the way to having new gold leaf placed as a finishing touch - the roof of the church was recently finished.


It would be fantastic to see these gardens when the fountains are running.  I do not remember which Czar began construction of Peterhof, but I do know that his inspiration and goal was a Russian Versailles.





This is a statue of Samson breaking the jaw of an animal.  I should remember the animal, but all I do remember is that it was a typical symbol of the Swedes...nothing like art to emphasize one's military power.


Scattered around the palace are an array of "cottages" where visiting members of the upper class would stay when coming to see the Czars.



Beautiful view


This particular estate is surrounded by a moat in the summer when the water starts running.  Apparently the lower level was used for dining and housed the Czar and his mistress or the Czars wive and her callers whenever they scheduled rendezvous.  The staff would facilitate with dinner and the one draw bridge could be raised.  Seems very open and strange to me.



This fountain looked like it could easy be a water slide!


Yes, those are dragons on the fountain.  Crazy, right?

Kasini planned on us driving for an hour to another palace, but all of us were ready to move on to a different kind of sight seeing.  We had some trouble with our papers at Peterhof (apparently a stamp is a very important thing in certain Russian situations) and the massive crowds made for a very slow tour.  Instead of another palace, we went to the Russian museum.


Here's everyone photographing the Russian museum.  Inside only contains Russian art.  The most captivating collection, in my opinion, centered on Lenin and Stalin.  It was titled "heros and scoundrels of Russia" and included propaganda, statues, paintings, and videos.  I do not enjoy reading about history, but the display made me hope for an engaging account of the rise of Communism in Russia.

After the museum it was time to get ready for the ballet!  We returned to the apartment to change, met up at the hotel, and hopped in the car to go to the theatre.  The show started at 7pm.  It was the end of the season so the earlier ballets were packed and we were in the cheap seats at an "All Star Ballet".  I was a little concerned about both of those factors, but it was fantastic!  Sally had never been to the ballet before and one of the first things she did when we returned to Helsinki was check out when the ballet was showing in New York.  

The theatre had many tiers, but that meant that all seats were relatively close to the stage.  Todd had rented opera glasses so when I wanted to I could see the faces and costumes of the performers.  The first act was a section from Carmen.  Having never seen Carmen I was a little lost and would have liked the program to tell a little of the story, but it was a captivating performance.  In addition to enjoying the dancing and theatricality, the music was fun for me.  I have played a few collections of Carmen music in band and so recognized a few of the melodies.

We were all oo-ing and aa-ing during the break but did not know what was coming up next.  The second act consisted of 8 scenes from an array of ballets.  The music varied from Tchaikovsky, to contemporary, to Latin, and was really engaging.  Performances were excellent and well ordered to keep being progressively more captivating.  Annie was convinced that was the end because it was so spectacular.  We learned that the third act was still to come but as it was already 10:15pm and we still needed to eat dinner, we found the driver and went to eat.

Kasini had made reservations for us without stating the place.  We all laughed a little as we entered "Russian Vodka Number 1" for our Easter dinner.  The food was good.  We tried a traditional Russian Easter cake for dessert which was not quite as wonderful as I had hoped.  I think I struggle with dried fruit in my food.  We were the last people in the restaurant for our final half hour at least so, while very polite, it was clear the staff was glad to see us go.  We hung out for awhile on the 9th floor of the hotel - this time recognizing and having stories to go along with many more of the sights.  

Thanks to Todd's pushing, we cancelled the boat tour for Monday morning.  Although I would have really enjoyed that method of sight-seeing, we all needed to pack out bags, turn in keys, and wanted to tour the Church on the Spilled Blood all before catching our 3:40pm train.  Bedtime!

Saturday in St. Petersburg

We woke up and headed toward Annie and Tom's hotel.  I had planned on eating cinnamon sugar crackers as breakfast, but was thrilled to learn we were welcome to eat at the hotel buffet!  It was honestly the most beautiful spread of food I have ever seen at breakfast.  There were three kinds of eggs, salmon, bacon, pancakes, french toast, meats, cheeses, croissants, and an array of fruit juices...the list goes on and on.  This came to be one of the highlights of our mornings in St. Petersburg!

Once everyone had eaten we met our tour guide for the day, Julia, in the lobby.  Later in the day we learned some interesting things about her.  

The most captivating part of visiting Russia for me was hearing the variety of perspectives on the Soviet rule.  As an American, I feel I have been taught that Communism is not only a poor strategy which is rarely implemented, but that it is often presented as evil.  During our time in Russia we actually met individuals who felt their lives were better under Communist rule.  In a more free market, prices have risen and one man complained that in order to have housing he has to lives in a communal apartment because rent has sky rocketed.

Julia did not go so far as to imply her life was better under Soviet rule but there was not the sigh of relief about the change that I think I expected.  She is a sixth generation citizen of St. Petersburg.  The fact that the Soviets closed the churches did not bother her because she is at least a third generation atheist.  While I think these were her family's personal convictions she also mentioned that believing differently was not an option for her father who served as an officer in the military under the Communist regime.  

We started out from the hotel in order to meet our appointed time of entry at the Hermitage.  Annie had asked for a 2.5 hour tour of the museum catching all of the highlights.  



We walked past these large human pillars on our way to the river side of the Hermitage.  I believe this is part of the "Old Hermitage".  This museum currently consists of 5 buildings: Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage, and the Hermitage Theatre.  The word Hermitage is related to the term hermit.  Catherine the Great constructed these building to hold her art collection.  Only a few people we able to enter the building on her specific permission because she intended these five buildings to simply be a personal hide out with her art.  She acquired a remarkable amount of artwork; an average of 300 pieces were bought every day during 34 year Russian reign.  This is why the museum now owns nearly 3 million pieces of art.


St. Petersburg is called the "Venice of the North".  It is another city with consists of an array of islands connected with bridges and full of canals.  We were curious why the canals seemed to remain dormant.  Apparently tourist boats are more common starting in May.  The waterways are used to transport goods, but only in the early early morning.  All bridges between the islands are operational and raise to allow barges to pass between 2am and 5am.  This may be why some bars are open in St. Petersburg until 6am instead of the American 2am standard.  If you stay on the wrong island too long, you are stuck there until the bridges go down.


This is the Hermitage Theatre.  When Catherine the Great built this theater the seats were not given numbers, but instead names.  Her friends were the only ones invited to attend and had their names on their seats.



Entering the Hermitage.  I have never seen as much gold plating as I did on my trip to Russia!





One of the ballrooms of the winter palace


If we hadn't been part of the tour, this is the line we would have been waiting in to get to see the art museum.



This is the throne room.  It was amazing and very strange to actually be in the live version of a scene from the animated movie Anastasia!  


The floors in the Hermitage were lovely.  I think Sally took about 30 different shots of the variety of decoration in the flooring.  In the throne room, the floor patterns and light fixtures were related - almost reliefs of one another.  You can see the relationship between the image above and light fixture below.




This is in a unique room in the Hermitage.  I believe Julia called it the "hall of mysteries".  The amount of crystal hanging from the ceiling was incredible.  



Catherine sent some of her artists to Rome in order to look at their mosaics and come back to create a Russian version.  In the center of this floor mosaic is Medusa and other characters of Roman mythology are around the circle.


I don't know where these stairs lead.  To the right of this stair is a particular fountain which was designed to create music in the space.


This is a clock.  Welcome to one of the mysteries!  Apparently this still functions but because of its age they only set it to run on special occasions.  The detail was amazing and it would have been great to see in action.  The peacocks tail moves, nuts and other animals tell the time and date.  I do not remember where the clock was from.


This is a mosaic.  Which looks like a painting unless you get really really close.  Julia called them "micro mosaics"


I found a Monet among the French Impressionists.  According to the tour guide Annie and Tom had on Friday, a lot of the art in the Hermitage was stolen, particularly from German Jews.  I didn't hear the story directly from her and am not sure if it is true.  She did claim, however that for that reason the museum wasn't open to the public for awhile after WWII because if visitors saw the artwork, they might have been forced to return some art to its previous owners.  The was apparently a problem a few years ago when part of the Hermitage was sent as a traveling exhibition to London.  Now they will not send out their art because they had a hard time getting it back.  Julia is insistent that none of the pieces will ever be allowed to leave Russia, "these pieces have been here for 300 years, they are ours".


The wood for this furniture came from Karelia and presents another interesting impact of different perspectives.  Julia mentioned how this wood can only be found in Russia, but a Finn would claim it could only be found in the Finnish lands current under Russian control.  In one of our many meetings with Finnish officials, an interesting woman explained the geography of Finland as a maiden with a big skirt and her right hand raised.  Karelia was the maidens left arm which was chopped off by the Russians in the wars.  So...this furniture was Finnish but is not Russian.  It would be interesting to speak with some people from Karelia to see which country and culture they would claim.


I stopped breathing for a second entering this library.  It's a large scale version of what I always pictured when playing the board game Clue.


Sunshine in Russia!  One concern we had in the museum was how the Russian curators are caring for the art.  I often had to move around a painting to lessen the glare on the oil based paint to see the figures in the work.  Windows were open in almost every room.  The only paintings which were lit well and protected from natural sun were part of a traveling exhibition from...I believe Spain.  Julia explained that there are only 40 sunny days in St. Petersburg so they leave the windows open in the museum.  I would think that could still do plenty of damage to the paintings and I was particularly surprised this was the approach taken with the 26 paintings of Raphael and 2 by Leonardo di Vinci.


I would never make an entire building this color....but the winter palace seems the fitting place for such extravagance.


This river flowed more rapidly that any other body of water I can remember.  The chunks of ice are not from the river itself, but from the lake upstream.  Apparently that  lake just started to melt and pieces of ice will be flowing for quite awhile.


The Eiffel bridge - yes the same Eiffel as the tower a saw about a month earlier!


This island is where St. Petersburg started.  I believe it was Peter the first...but whoever founded the city moved the capital from Moscow and wanted to have a more European city in Russia.


First church in St. Petersburg...I believe Julia called it the John and James church, but that seems odd now.  


This statue was initially hated for it's contemporary nature but now seems to be embraced.  People like to touch the long finger and get their photo taken on the large lap.


St. Petersburg has an interesting fusion of church styles.  At the time this church was being designed there were no architects in the city so the Czar brought in a European.  This is why some of the Russian Orthodox churches in St. Petersburg do not adhere to the typical style, Catholics were the designers.  A Russian Orthodox church is typically dark and very ornate which both gold and a lot of figures on the walls.  Here the space is tall and well lit without paintings of Biblical characters.  


This church is also used as a burial site.  Julia walked us through the history of the Czars (many Peters, Catherines, Nicholas, etc) tomb by tomb.  In one corner of the church is a group grave for the Romanov family.  Their remains were recovered from Siberia and proven to be theirs by DNA (this seems a bit sketchy to me, but apparently that compared it to their english cousins for verification) and brought here to be buried.  

The lives of these Czars, their wives, and children sound a like a really over the top soap opera.  One Czar fell in love with a commoner so had his wife arrested and then forced her to become a nun so he could divorce her.  One woman didn't have any children so adopted her nephew and went to look for a bride for him.  She chose the least important German princess she could find in an attempt to secure her adopted son's safety.  That little German girl became Catherine the Great and assisted in the revolt against her husband.  We all felt the most intelligent of the bunch was one man who was told he was Czar when his brother was killed.  This member of the royal family was in Poland at the time and chose to just stay there instead of returning to Russia.


Saturdays are clearly the wedding day in Russian culture.  Apparently after the ceremony, it is typical for the bride and groom to rent a limo and take the wedding party to part of the city for photographs.  We saw at least 5 brides as we drove around the city.


St. Issac's Cathedral




The light streaming into the space was simply amazing


When Russia was part of the Soviet Union almost all churches were closed down and/or repurposed.  Some churches became swimming halls, others discos, and this became a temple to science.  None of us completely followed Julia's explanation, but a pendulum was hung in the center of this space (all the beautiful decorations were covered with boards).  As the earth moved, the pendulum began to swing.  A few meters away were placed some boards which were knocked over by the swinging weight.  This was apparently determined to disprove the existence of God.  All school children (Julia said this was part of her education) were brought here to be shown science is to be worshiped and God does not exist.


Russian painted eggs!


The various forms of St. Issac's church throughout the years.


This is Julia teaching us about this systems which was used to erect the large columns on two sides of the church.  It is amazing what kinds of things people have been able to do with pulleys for centuries.  We got a little lesson about serfs because they constructed nearly everything of interest in St. Petersburg.


Being a good tourist is exhausting.  My main issue during the day were my feet because my deteriorating boots have resulted in the largest blister imaginable on the bottom of my foot.  We returned to the hotel were everyone sat and enjoyed olives and nuts again.  I tried the wasabi nuts each day and just think I don't enjoy the painful burning sensation others find fun.  We went back to the apartment and Sally and I crashed.  Todd might have slept a little, but mostly was watching the most recent Chronicles of Narnia movie on his laptop.

Around 9:15pm he said we needed to start heading to dinner.  We went to an interesting place - they had sushi and borsch on the menu.  I confused the kitchen because everyone ordered a salad except me so my entrĂ©e came out half way through their salad course.  It was so challenging not to eat up all of my wonderful meat and potatoes but I paced myself so there was still food to eat when my tablemates got their main dish.  We ordered 2 desserts to share.  One was a white chocolate mousse - completely fantastic - and the other was essentially a meringue sandwich with custard.

On our walk back from the restaurant there was a processional of people.  Annie wanted to follow them but the rest of us were a little leery about being disrespectful and were tired so we didn't.  There were priests carrying banners, people carrying candles, and everyone was singing.  We later learned this is an Easter tradition for the particular Russian Orthodox churches (it was midnight when we saw them).

We needed to be reading to head to an Easter church service at 9am Sunday morning, so to bed we went.