[ Aug.2017 ] The first thing we did on our cruise holiday from Saint Petersburg to Moscow was a sightseeing tour in Saint Petersburg.
We stayed in the moored ship and went to the centre of the city by bus.
Before that, we had our first breakfast in the boat.
I was expecting something very Russian like the one we had in Ukraine with many kinds of nice salad, but in fact it was ordinary western style breakfast which was disappointing.
Also unfortunately the coffee was bad.
After breakfast, we were given a lunch box and got onto the bus.
80 tour members were divided into three buses and every bus had one Russian guide from the boat and one local guide.
In our bus, we had Natasha from our boat and Vlad, the local guide who spoke fluent American English.
It took quite a long time to get to the centre of the city, so Vlad introduced some Russian anecdotes.
For example, during the Soviet era people could not buy a car even though they had money.
The story goes like this : Ivanov who paid the deposit for a car was told by the person in charge “Come back in ten years’ time”.
Ivanov asked “That is fine, but in the morning or in the afternoon?”.
The person behind him in the queue said “It does not matter if it is morning or afternoon for the day in ten years away, does it?” and Ivanov answered “It does, because a plumber will come in the morning on the day”.
Vlad told us that the Soviet people got over their difficulties by laughing with this kind of anecdote.
Another thing he told us was that there is a long lasting rumour that the original President Putin has been replaced by another one.
Putin is supposed to be fluent in German as he was assigned in Germany during his KGB time, but nowadays he does not speak any German.
Also, people say that his ear shape has changed.
Interesting, isn’t it.
Of course, Vlad talked about the history of Saint Petersburg, too.
Roughly speaking, Peter the Great created this city artificially on the swamp ground early in the 18th century after winning a battle against Sweden.
So this is a relatively new city which was surprising, but also I was impressed that Sweden was a strong power in the past, which I did not know.
I think we did not learn much about Sweden during our history lessons, but then I remember that the story we heard in Brno in Czech Republic that they fought against Swedish army for a long time.
The history of Europe is so complicated and more you learn, more interesting it becomes.
The first place we got off the bus was Smolny Cathedral.
It was built in the 18th century as a convent and later it became a place for women’s education.
The architect was Italian called Rastrelli who also designed the Winter Palace where the famous Hermitage Museum is housed.
Although he was Italian, the building of the cathedral was very different from Italian ones, with the very Russian pastel colour and white and it was beautiful.
During Soviet times, it was used as a concert hall and after 1991 it became a church again.
Maybe that is why the inside was rather empty and not so solemn, but there were some people who were praying in Russian orthodox way (standing, bending and kissing the icons) there.
