Springbreak!

Its hard to believe half of the semester is over, it seems like just yesterday I was pulling my overly packed bags in my dorm room for the first time. Spring break starts with a weekend trip to Moscow, then to Prague and then to Bratislava. I will have Internet access, but I wont be able to post any pictures until I get back because I'm not bringing my laptop. Well I will post more about that when I get back. he last excursion we went on was to Pavlov's palace, here are some of the pictures.

Notice the bear looking dog in the background


Snow covered palace..as usual

more snow

Lovely celling

This painting was taken by the Nazis during WW2, damage can be seen on it in the middle.

Pink Chandelier!

Me with the dinning room display



Ok, well thats all for now, wish me luck on my trip!

Long time no entries...

Its been a long time since my last entry. Its a combination of me being very busy and reluctant to upload my pictures that is the culprit. So lets see...last time I wrote was about the Pushkin Palace so there is quite a bit of catching up to do.

Political Science Museum

One of Castro's berets




 Former Soviet Union map

Sputnik!

Yuspolf Palace (where Rasputin was murdered)

lovely room

Officers (obvisously wax figures) waited in this room above the basement where Rasptuin was. (sorry it is so dark)



The basement, the story goes that the wine and cakes were poisoned, but it took no affect on him.



Door rasputin used to enter the premise..yeah I know...


Just me



Concert Hall where we saw A Midsummers Night Dream (Opera not the play)




Here is a picture of my stocked western goodies that my mother sent me, it took three weeks to get here...not too bad considering some of the stories I've heard. (By the way almost all of this stuff has been eaten :) )



Russians seem to like to take there wedding photos in historic cites



More to come soon, hopefully not as long as a delay as there was last time. Well enjoy the photos and thank you for reading.

Pushkin Palace

Last Saturday our program to an excursion to the Pushkin Palace. This is also known as the royal family's "Summer Palace" because its location is close to many lovely orchards, gardens and many gorgeous landscapes, however since it is still winter here, none of that was visible.

This is the palace courtyard....burried under snow


The Palace from Outside

Gorgeous Dancing Hall

Again ...

Mirrors lined much of the left wall
















Example Display of a Royal Dinner

Catherine the 1st original Plasma screen television :)...actually this is used to show videos at and such at charity events

A Replics of one of Catherine the 1sts formal gowns

Here is the beautiful "English room"



Well my internet is a but shaky so I will leave it at that for now, in my next entry I'l include more pictures from the Pushkin Palace as well as the political science museum. Thanks for reading :)

The Hermitage (includes "The Winter Palace")

Its been awhile since my last entry, the last week was very hectic with excursions and other activities so I had little time to write. Now that classes are in full swing and we don't have as many excursions things have calmed down a bit. So anyway, last Wednesday we went to the hermitage which includes the well known "Winter Palace" as well as several newer halls and over 300 exhibits, and as a student I got free admission ;). I found out from the tour guide that "The Hermitage" is French for "the refuge for the hermit". Kind of s strange name for a royal palace, but I could definitely see why someone would want to take refuge from a harsh Russian winter. Here are some of the pictures.
A view of "The Winter Palace"from the outside

This is the first hall, it is the only room created in "The Baroque" fashion because during the reign of Catherine the Great, that style was no longer popular. The rest of "The Winter Palace" is done in the Classical style.....I like the Baroque better, sorry Catherine.

 

This throne room was constructed for Peter the Great, though he never used it because he died before this palace was created.

Here is the real throne room that every czar had used until the monarchy was....ended

Here is the "White Room" it is full of beautiful chandeliers

The design on this wall is mirrored by the design on the floor...very nice

The design on this table was created with small stones, it was not painted

This sculpture we are looking at was created by Michelangelo...you can see me!

Russia really loves gold trimming and chandeliers.

and long elaborate drapes

Amazing...

 Ok well this only scratches the surface of what The Hermitage has to over. I hope to go back there again soon to see more of it. My next entry will be about my visit to the Pushkin Palace, thanks for reading.

St. Petersburg!

After 9 and a half hours of airtime and crossing 9 time zones, I finally arrived in St. Petersburg. The first thing I saw when I looked out the windoe when we were about to land was snow covered beige buildings. I can only assume the lack of color is due to the communist phase of Russia and our head director quickly pointed out on the bus that this was not the nicest part of town. The area my dorm is in isn't the nicest part as well either though, there are several factories and departments that can be seen from the window. However atleast there are stores and the booming Netsky prospect is just a metro ride awaay. Here are some pictures from my trip so far.
Here is my dorm

It was pretty fun to watch the ducks get blown around on the partically frozen water

Fortress of St. Petersburg

There is a myth that Peter the Great saw a rabbit in eaxctly the same spot as the statue and decided to name the island rabbit island. People like to throw coins at the base of the statue and make a wish.

Fort from the inside

This section was used as a prision, Peter the Great even imprisioned his own son when he tried to over throw him

Statue of Peter the Great... I don't know why they made his head so small

Frozen Neva

Statue of Peter the great, you can barely even see me!

Amazing even in the freezing cold

An unmarried princess commissioned this monestary to be built so she could live there for her remaining years. However she died before it was completed

Here are just some of the beige buildings I was talking about

Ok well that's all for now, tomorrow we will be visiting The Hermitage which includes the Winter Palace, so more pictures and updates to come.