My friends didn’t warn me about kasha.  Kasha is the Russian version of grits, and just as flavorless without butter.  Almost every day it is the staple of my breakfast.  Otherwise though, the food here is excellent.  St. Petersburg has a chain of restaurants called “Teremok”  that serve “blini” which are thin pancakes, much like crepes.  I tried one the other day filled with red caviar, cheese, and potatoes.  It was delicious and I washed it down with a glass of “Kvas” which is a drink made from bread and water.  I’m sure it’s not for everyone, but I like it very much.

This week in Russia is called “Maslenitsa”.  It’s a holiday festival marking the end of winter.  Although, the irony of the situation doesn’t escape me, that as we celebrated today outside by burning an effigy of winter, winter fought back with heavy snowfall. 

And so is usually the story here.  Snow, snow, and a bit more snow.  It’s beautiful of course to see the white lining on the many sights here, but it’s discouraging having to trudge through snow that has accumulated on the street since you walked on it an hour before when it was clear. 

As for housing, I live with an old Russian woman named Nina and her dog, name Lyulyu.  Nina is very nice and loves to chat, although my Russian is still very limited and often times fails to propel the conversation forward.  But, what is very nice is that I live just outside the center of the city, in a place called “Petrogradskaya Ostrov”.  From my apartment it’s five minutes to the subway, fifteen to the university, and ten to the nearby attractions at the Petropavelskaya Krepost’ which is an old fort where all of the Romanovs are entombed.    Next to it stands a beautiful mosque that when it was built surpassed all the others in “Europe”.  Europe is a delicate phrase here, especially as Russia is simultaneously European and not, but fully Eurasian.

I’ve also visited a few of the many cathedrals here and the other sites.  There is so much to see.  The Hermitage is, of course, quite beautiful, and stands right across the river, which is frozen solid, from the fort.  It’s a strange thought though, thinking that walking by this Winter Palace so casually as people do now only a hundred years ago would have seemed impossible.  But then again, this country has certainly seen many changes in that century…

Comments

One Response to “Город Герой Ленинград”

  1. Sarah on March 17th, 2010 11:26 pm

    Andrew,
    It sounds like you are enjoying Petersburg! I studied at Nevsky in 2004 and loved it! Reading your experiences brings up wonderful memories! I am really curious to find out how much everything has changed. My recommendation is that you see as much as possible and travel as much as possible.

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