Day 2 St Petersburg
I've got a pretty big day planned today. The Hermitage and an Ice Hockey game.
I've decided that I need to knock off the Hermitage first day in St P since I really have no idea how big it is and I don't know if I'm going to want to spend 1 day here or two.
But first ... BACON. Or not.
I was very much looking forward to my bacon and eggs for breakfast but I was disappointed by my "bacon". Now I was a bit dubious when I bought it because it didn't look quite right but what was clearly labelled and marked as bacon was in fact very thin slices of pork fillet. So I ended up with pork and eggs for breakfast which wasn't bad but definitely wasn't what I was looking for. Ah well.
I gear up and head to the Hermitage to start my day of CULTURE. The Hermitage is supposed to be one of the truly excellent collections in the world so despite the fact that I'm not a museum junkie I am looking forward to it.
The space is pretty spectacular. It's made up of half a dozen buildings or something with a big square separating the 2 main buildings. My plan is to basically cover the main hermitage collection and the special exhibit with all the French masters in the general staff building.
Holy shit the collection is HUGE. They have so much stuff here covering everything you can think of. Part of the appeal for me is definitely the building the main collection is housed it. Architecturally and stylistically it's beautiful. The number of rooms which are pieces of art in and off themselves is awesome and then you add the actual collections.
I'll just post a few pictures.
Eventually it starts to get to about 3pm and I haven't even started in the general staff building yet so I quickly finish what I haven't seen in the main building then get lost trying to get out. Don't laugh! Parts of this place are absolutely labyrinthine and there are not a lot of signs saying where things are. Eventually one of the ushers kindly escorts me out after I walk past with a confused look on my face and map in my hand.
The general staff building itself is a really interesting building as well. The entrance to the collection itself is fantastic.
The exciting thing about this building is their excellent collection of paintings from the big names in the painting world. Van Gogh, Matisse, etc... And they do have a really extensive collection of pieces by these artists. And I can maybe see why they are considered so good (maybe) but honestly I don't think their work is any better than anyone else's and most of the pieces really just don't appeal to me.
It gets to about 5pm and my feet are killing me and I have a hockey game to be at by 7.30 so I decide that I've done my culture thing for the day and it's time to go. I make it back to the hostel and have about 45 minutes to make myself a quick meal and shower before I need to leave for the hockey. As ever someone in the hostel senses you have a timeline so does something innocent (like be friendly and have a chat) to hold you up. Dicks.
I jump on the metro and go to the hockey stadium. With what feels like every other fucker in St Petersburg.
I bought myself a St Petersburg team scarf at the stadium (because you have to show your team colours yo!), grabbed a beer, got told I can't take my beer into the arena, drank my beer, then got escorted to my seat. My seat is awesome! I'm 2nd row from the ice, just to the side of a goal and right next to the St Petersburg official fan section.
I can see all the action and there are fun rowdy people around me which is awesome! Nobody around me speaks any English so I just do my best to fit in.
I had a ball. It was great fun. AND WE WON 5-2!
These fans are just as passionate about the game as the Japanese baseball fans are. And the stadium puts on a great show. Lights, music, big screen and the super fans have a band that gets the crowd going.
A couple of things to note:
1. The whole stadium stood to sing the national anthem after both teams were out on the ice. They turned on all the lights, turned off any music and EVERYONE (except me) sang. It was pretty cool actually.
2. Sexism is alive and well in Russia. The cheerleaders wear nice skimpy outfits and the cameramen love to focus on them or any hot chick they find in the audience and broadcast it on the big screen.
3. It's easier to see the puck than I thought it would be ... most of the time. Most of the time it's fine and you can see it going around. But when they hit it really hard and it goes fast I'll be damned if I can see the thing.
4. No really big hits. Part of the appeal of ice hockey is people getting smashed into the plastic barriers but there wasn't a lot of that. Different style of play in Russia maybe?
The major downer was getting out of the place. Took about 15 minutes of thousands of people shuffling in a giant mob to the metro before I got onto a train but once I got onto the escalator those trains were clearing people out super fast. There were enough coming that I was able to get straight onto a train as soon as I hit the platform and it wasn't even full. Amazing.
You'll notice this is the second sports game I've been to on my trip so far even though I'm not really a sports fan. I really think going to a game like this is integral to understanding the culture. You wouldn't go to Brazil without going to a football match would you?
No comments:
Post a Comment