St. Petersburg, part XXV - Upon the Griboyedov canal, and The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood by night

We went to a random supermarket on the Griboyedov canal street - the idea was to buy picnic supplies and have an open-air canal cruise whilst having munchies and drinking wine. In theory it's a nice idea. As I've made abundantly clear at this point, though, I much prefer my solitude to being stuck on a boat with a bunch of random strangers whom I don't like that much.

I have so much to do, and think about, and my brain is either on overdrive or autopilot. The only things holding me back are money constraints, and a lack of a European passport.

St. Petersburg during the night - tender is the night.

More to come.

St. Petersburg, part XXIV - Nevsky-isms and the Field of Mars/Marsovo Polye/Ма́рсово по́ле

I walked out of the Winter Palace and spent some time in the garden pavilion and out and about, then I went back to the assembly point where we were supposed to meet up for our next destination. We retraced our steps through the ul. Bolshaya Morskaya, back to Nevsky prospekt, and down to the Griboyedov channel embankment, where we were greeted with the lovely Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in all its dusky splendour.

We then proceeded towards the Field of Mars, or Marsovo Polye/Ма́рсово по́ле, which had a rather dynamic and interesting, if extremely bloody history - it started out as a public open green space, then was commissioned as a meadow for a royal princess, then became a military drill ground, then a mass burial site for the dead of the February Revolution, and then a gigantic food garden to provide succour to the besieged and starving citizens during the devastating Leningrad blockade in the second World War.

In the centre of the park there's an Eternal Flame to commemorate and honour the many people who died for St. Petersburg, and by extension Russia's cause.

What was it I was thinking yesterday? It's nice to be part of something bigger than yourself.

To be continued.

The Eternal Flame in the Marsovo Polye

Eternal flame, again

Church of Spilled Blood in the distance

Winter Palace, adieu

adios?

More Winter Palace.

This is a Brandenburg Gate ripoff, sorry to say it but it is

Griboyedov Canal

St. Petersburg, part XXI - Nevsky prospect (ii) & Literary Café; Soviet doughnuts, coffee and pelmeni

At this point, it was about 3 in the afternoon and none of us had eaten since breakfast. We were all peckish, and I was ravenous, so Ksenia took us to a Soviet doughtnut-and-coffee shop that was super cheap. I got my first taste of Russian dumplings, or pelmeni as they're called in mother Russia. Dumplings are a staple dish in this part of the world, and I ended up eating loads of them in the Baltics, and actually in all the other countries I went to after Russia. They're generally served with sour cream, or even yoghurt, and are small in size and round-shaped, and are served this way in Latvia as well. The Russian equivalent varies slightly from their Polish counterpart, which is called pierogi and is served with pickled cabbage, or sauerkraut.

Pelmeni. It was love at first taste and I enjoyed it so much that I ordered a second serving, which delighted Ksenia so much that she actually began filming me, narrating delightedly 'Taiwanese girl goes nuts eating dumplings!'

After this, we walked along the prospekt, to the restaurant where Alexander Pushkin ate his last dinner before going off to duel with his love rival. He brought a pen, whilst his enemy brought a revolver. No prizes for guessing who lost.

The restaurant was located at the corner of Nevsky prospekt and Moika River Embankment, at 18 Nevsky prospect, and you can see a wax representation of the famous wordsmith, who by all accounts was not known for his good looks. I should also add that Pushkin is my favourite Russian writer, and I don't mean this is a facetious way at all.