On the third and last day of the trip, we got up and headed by bus out of Petersburg to go to Peterhof, a palace and a bunch of fountains originally built for Peter the Great. Yeah, by bus--our guide chatted with us the whole time. I was a little cranky about that as a result of sleep deprivation. When we arrived at the palace, we were swept into the building in front of a huge mass of people who were presumably waiting to get in. No idea why we had VIP status. The place was crazy and lavish and covered in gold like most things I've seen here, palaces and churches both. I think a lot of the more indulgent stuff appeared when Catherine the Great was hanging out there--the woman really enjoyed being royal. She was just GOOD at it.
I didn't enjoy the tour or the palace all that much, but the grounds of Peterhof were wonderful. First we headed to the shore--which according to Wikipedia was on the Gulf of Finland, part of the Baltic Sea--and I found a bunch of sea glass that I'm hoping to use to make pendants. Free souvenirs! I'm very excited about that. I hung out on the rocks along the shore with some friends, and then Steve and I set out to wander the grounds and see the fountains. It's such a beautiful place, it's too difficult to describe. Of course, it's very contrived beautiful--all of the trees were placed carefully, the lawns are meticulously cared for. But I liked it very much. It was packed with people. We had to leave too soon; lunch and then back to the bus.
We all fell asleep on the bus and we were woken suddenly, herded out, and made to walk up like 180 stairs. It was a bit of a shock! But when we got to the top, we were on a platform on a church in Petersburg that gave a great view of the city. It was breathtaking and full of tourists. We went back down to see the inside of the church and headed out again.
The chronology is a bit fuzzy now, but I think after that we went on the boat tour we were supposed to take the first day. We took the exact same route that some of us had been on the night before, only this time there was a very loud narration being provided via PA in English. We felt sort of conspicuous but learned a lot about the buildings we passed. After the tour, we were set free to say grab dinner and say goodbye to Petersburg. Jordan, Andrea, Rachel, Darcy, and I found an Abkhazian restaurant with excellent food and awesome dancing waiters. I finally had spice! After two months of being in Russia! It was glorious--adjika sauce.
We met up again and drove to the train station. The ride back was not as interesting as the ride there.
Here's what I intended to be the closing of my last entry about Petersburg; I wrote it right after I got back:
"Now I have a silly tan where I wear my watch—the sun here is kinder (I didn’t even burn)—and a big empty space where any motivation to do schoolwork once was. When we were in Petersburg I nearly forgot about Moscow and my life here altogether, but being back feels comfortable and right. Of course, this week, when I’m working on the four or five big assignments I have due, it may not be so pleasant. A big part of me would’ve liked to spend the rest of my time in Russia in Petersburg. Without that bus, of course."
I still have the watch tan.
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