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Showing posts from April, 2019

Taking Time Off

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By the time you read this, we'll be gone from St. Petersburg - temporarily. Our Russian visa has expired which means we are out of the country. We are headed for our home service to visit several states and many of our donors in the US. We will be gone for several months to return mid-August. While we are traveling in the States, I won't be writing my blog posts. I'm not sure what will happen when we return. I may be persuaded to continue this blog in fall when we return to St. Petersburg.

From Palace to State Hermitage Museum

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When we first came to St. Petersburg last summer, the question we most often heard was, "Have you been to the Hermitage yet?" Being new in the city, we didn't have any idea what that was. Now we know. The Winter Palace of the Tzars, on the shore of the Neva River, is now the Hermitage, the largest museum in Russia. Catherine the Great was the Empress who first started collecting art for this museum in 1794. The Tsars added to their collection year after year and opened it to the public in 1852. The collection outgrew it's original space in the Old Hermitage until today when it covers six buildings in the main museum plus other buildings for storage of items not on display. If you would spend 1 minute per each item - 8 hours per day - it would take 15 years to see everything in the entire museum. A drawing of the six buildings of the Hermitage as seen from the Neva River Gold embellished stairs We spent about three hours in the Hermitage on one da

Bridges of St. Petersburg, Russia

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The Palace Drawbridge open at night for ship traffic Since St. Petersburg is known as "Venice of the North", it's obvious that bridges are an important part of the city. The city has 342 bridges over canals and rivers in the city limits that vary in size from several lane car bridges to pedestrian bridges. The bridge (pictured above) crosses the Neva River, the main waterway running through the city. Twenty two bridges that cross this wide river are heavily used for traffic by day, but at night they all are raised to allow ship traffic to maneuver in and out of the Baltic Sea and into the Volga River. Between April and November, the bridges raise and lower by a very intricate schedule so the ships can travel, but also allow for emergency vehicles access to both sides of the city. An open drawbridge is a popular symbol of St. Petersburg. The newest bridge built to cross the Neva River is the only one that is not a drawbridge. The Bolshoy Obukhovsky Bridge was

Pushkin - Russia's Shakespeare

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Students reciting a Pushkin poem When Russians talk about their most famous poet, they all refer to Alexander Pushkin. Everyone learns about Pushkin during their school days. My husband, who teaches theology to seminary students, has had Pushkin cited during their discussion. When I was on a Pushkin tour of St. Petersburg in February, the group of Russian students, also on the tour, stood before his statue and recited one of his poems. Born in Moscow, Alexander Pushkin lived at the turn of the 19th century. Early on, his talent as a poet was recognized by the literary establishment. In his late teens, he associated with the intellectual youth culture of St. Petersburg where he graduated from school. These friends influenced his writings to be controversial in subject and style, according to the government. Pushkin statue in Odessa As a result, he was exiled in 1820 from St. Petersburg. He spent the next several years in Odessa, Ukraine where he continued to work. Writte

Postcard from Odessa, Ukraine

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St. Paul's Lutheran Cathedral Last week we were in Odessa for a seminar that my husband presented. I thought I'd share some pictures with you. Odessa is a very European looking city, much like St. Petersburg. It's located on the northern shore of the Black Sea, but is more of a port city than a tourist city. Therefore, the coast line is filled with more shipping industries than beaches. Indoor shopping mall Like St. Petersburg, it was under Soviet control from 1920s until the early 1990s. Much of the downtown area has been restored since freedom came to Odessa. Statue of pop singer in the park  We didn't visit during summer, but I can tell it will be beautiful when the trees and flowers are out in full force. A very unique monument is located in a central park of the city, a chair sitting on a pedestal. It represents one of the chairs from a novel titled "12 Chairs" by a famous Odessan author.  The story is about jewelry, hidden fr