Санкт-Петербург - Pietari - Saint Petersburg

*****Lopussa on pieni teksti suomeksi!!******

For those of you who don’t know, I went to Russia two weekends ago with around 80 other Rotary Exchange Students living in Finland right now. The trip was absolutely fantastic! We were only in Russia about three days, but it was worth every penny. The cultural differences were very interesting, and now I am lucky enough to be able to compare Russia to both Canada AND Finland. I have actually become so accustomed to the Finnish way of life that some of the things that happened in Russia that shocked me happen in Canada too. This trip has made me a little worried for the culture shock I’m going to have to go through when I go back to Canada. But, one step at a time!

Saint Petersburg is, by far, the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen. Every single building in the city was made with such care. The MacDonald’s looks like it was built to host the Queen of England! Every building I saw in the city was artistically made and decorated. The normal Canadian/ Finnish cities look terrible in comparison! Here are just a few photos of average buildings. These aren’t special, just random buildings in Saint Petersburg:

Though the buildings are beautiful, quite a lot of them are very poorly maintained. I understand why; you can’t spend all your time and money making sure the outside of your building looks just as beautiful as it did 100-200 years ago, but it gives the city an almost creepy feel, and looks a little run down. I saw things like this all over Saint Petersburg:

One of the first places we visited was the Winter Palace and Hermitage. The building was built as, just as the name says, a winter palace, and what a palace it was. I won’t waste our time attempting to describe the beauty of the building, so I’ll just show you a couple out of the ~300 photos I took of this building.

Saint Petersburg has a lot of canals, and is nick-named “Venice of the North”. Also, as we explored the city with our guide, she would list off the architects of the famous buildings and a great majority of them were Italian. There was an exchange student on the trip who is from Italy, and he said that certain places really reminded him of home (except the fact that it was so cold!).

We were also privileged enough to see a ballet while in Russia. Russia is well known for its ballets, and I was very excited to watch. The theatre was beautiful, which was no surprise, and very large. It had five levels of seats and a good sized stage. I saw there was a harp in the orchestra pit and became very excited, missing my harp at home.

While I was in Russia, my brain was still programmed to speak Finnish to store clerks and cashiers, which made for some interesting moments. I would say “kiitos” to everyone then curse and attempt to say ‘thank you’ in Russian, which is спасибо, and pronounced kind of like ‘spashiba’. We went out for lunch at a Russian pancake place and here’s a picture of the menu I had to read:

I laughed out loud when I realised that I would have to order from the menu, and I had NO IDEA how ANY of the words were pronounced. Thankfully, a few of the other exchange students I was with had taken classes in Russian and taught me how to pronounce the terrifying words. I felt totally useless for most of my time in Russia, since I spoke absolutely nothing, and was a real tourist. It felt strange to feel like an outsider all over again.

When we came back into Finland and I overheard conversations of random people that were in Finnish, I almost cried in happiness. It was like I was back home! I knew this language! I would no longer get strange stares from random citizens! (Okay, I would still be stared at, but only because I spoke so funny and made no sense. The normal stares that I’m used to.)

On the very last day, at our very last stop at a market, there were a bunch of Russian soldiers marching around a square. We watched them at first, rather intimidated, even after they were dismissed. Eventually one of the exchange students had the guts to run up to them and say “can I take a picture with you?” All the soldiers beamed from ear to ear and invited everyone else to come in. They were some of the friendliest people I have ever met, and I can honestly say that I did not expect it at all. I chatted a little bit with some of the soldiers who spoke better English, and they were all very interested in where we were from and what we were doing here. This experience with the soldiers was one of the bigger highlights of the trip for me, and is something I will never forget.

And here are some other random pictures for you to enjoy!

I snapped a picture of a Russian police officer from the bus. Pretty sure you're not aloud to, but oh well. He just looks so cool!!

The Spilled Blood Church.

Jos eivät ymmärtäneet, mää kävin Pietarissa kaksi viikoa sitten. Siellä oli aivan kaunis paikka, ja vähän erilainen kuin Suomi ja Kanada. Mää en kääntä nyt kaikki teksti, koska en jaksa, sori. Mutta, kun olin Pietarissa, minä huomasin, että nyt Suomi on minun koti. Minä tulin vähän ikävä Suomesta, ja yritin niin monta kerta puhua suomea jonkun Venäläinsen kanssa. Alussa, heidän ilme olivat aivan mahtava. En tarvitse ymmärtää venäjää nähdä, että ne mietivat ’mitä helvetti se kieli oli?!’ Mutta kohta olin turhautunut, että en osaa yhtää venäjää. Minä halusin mennä Suomeen, mihin kaikki ymmärtää mitä minä sanon (Öö, siis, mihin kaikki ymmärtää ehkä puoli mitä minä yritän sanoa). Minä olin hurmioitunut kun tulimme takaisin Suomeen kun minä ymmärsin ne ruokalistat ja kyltti. Minä tunnin, että olin kotona. Täällä on minun paikka.