Last Day in Dr. Zhivagoland

We finished our second day in St. Petersburg EXHAUSTED. Let me tell you, our guide, Ludmilla, was exceptional. Before we go into the dialogue of where we visited, I would like to tell you about her.

At first we weren’t sure if she liked Russia or not. She for sure did not like Russian men who “do nothing”. I commented that all the women were out raking the Palace grounds, etc. and she said, “Of course. The women do all the work while the men do nothing. They are born and told they are to do nothing.” I wouldn’t say she was derogatory to men only that is how it is in her country.

Today she talked about her apartment and the pride of ownership. She is on the HOA and she tells the people “Don’t complain. If you don’t like something, do something to change it or don’t gripe about it.” She was raised with the strong Russian beliefs bred into her of respecting your elders, taking care of the things around you and if you want something bad enough you have to work hard for it. She is also very educated and bright. She kept telling us, our group of 15, “Come Intellectuals: follow me”.

She pointed out to us a Russian tradition for weddings. We have seen so many brides and grooms at the Palaces getting their photos taken. The standard is there is one “wedding registration” where they get married. They go and get married there and then they have some time to kill before all the families show up for the reception so they go to these famous sites and have their pictures taken on the Palace grounds. It was raining all day today and yet we still saw all these brides and grooms walking around in their wedding attire. Ludmilla says, “They pay so much for their dress they want to use it and be seen in it as much as possible.”

She also told us how hard it is to own your own place. There are still many communal apartments: 4 families have sleeping rooms and only 1 kitchen and 1 bath. She said it is horrible. But the price is so high for people to get their own place that they must live like this. She knows of no Russian who doesn’t own a pet. Everyone, rich or poor, has at least one pet.


Ludmilla made these 2 days a sheer delight. You don’t mess with Ludmilla and like she says, “If you do what I say it will go smoothly”.

You can tell she has had to work hard for everything that she has achieved and is proud of what she has accomplished and of her country now. After 2 days with her we decided that she is a Russian and she wants to let people know that they have nothing to fear while visiting her country. Don’t think she sugar coated everything. On the contrary she told it like it was then and now. But it was only later today that we felt like she really does love her country and is proud of it.

Onto the day. Though we only went to 4 places we covered massive amounts of history which I will try to sum up in a few sentences. Well actually you can’t possibly sum up the Russian history of the Royal Dynasties in a few sentences.

Our first visit took us to the lavish Summer Palace of Peter the Great, the Peterhof. After seeing the French “Versailles” he wanted one just like it. (Okay so Sweden, Denmark and Russia all have their version of Versailles and Russia is the closest to the real thing!)

It took 150 years to complete and many of Peter’s successors. The grounds have over 157 fountains and are as beautiful as Versailles. Much of the palace has been restored as the German Nazis occupied it and removed, stole, destroyed many of the belongings.

It was beautiful but crowded and raining! Ludmilla says that every day a Russian can experience all 4 seasons in one day. We were lucky yesterday to get a sunny day but today rained all day.

After touring the grounds (in the rain) we went to lunch at a “traditional restaurant” that served us a real Russian lunch of: potato/cabbage salad, borscht with the rolls that you dip into the hot soup, and saffron rice with and chicken pimento dish. Of course the cup of vodka and champagne were right there with it all. I smelled the Russian vodka and it smells just like “rubbing alcohol”!

We then went to see the St. Petersburg Metro. Their subway stations are INCREDIBLE! Clean, marble, cut glass columns, bronze artistry, silver, absolutely art pieces in themselves. Now the trains were old and all this is old too but some of the most gorgeous art pieces I have seen. All of this is underground in the subway! We got on, got off at the next stop, walked to another metro, got on, got off and the bus was waiting for us outside. But NO PICTURES! A few years ago a tourist stopped at the bottom of the huge 100 meter escalator going down to take pictures of what she was seeing and it caused quite an accident as people were being knocked down like bowling pins! The police will come up and stop you if you try to take a picture so no pictures of it.

Our final stop was the Yusupov Palace. They were part of Russia’s prominent, royal family and Mr. Yusupov bought the palace because he loved the staircase. The story goes that he asked the prior owner if he could purchase the staircase and was told no so he bought the entire palace instead!

The palace basement is also the site of the assassination of the mystic Rasputin. Prince Felix Yusupov and other nobles thought that Rasputin had too much influence on the Tsar Nicholas. He was lured into meeting Prince Felix’s wife whom Rasputin had wanted to meet. Rasputin was quite the lady’s man and the women flocked to him. But the Prince kept tabs on his wife and Rasputin wanted to meet her desperately. So on pretense he set up a meeting but the meeting was planned actually to poison Rasputin. But Rasputin wouldn’t drink the drink that had the poison so the Prince lured him to the basement where he shot him. But Rasputin didn’t die. He crawled up the stairs, dragged himself on the snow, the men came and shot him again and then they threw him into the River. He washed up 3 days later. Of course it was decided that he was alive when they threw him in and he actually drowned!

All in all our 2 days in St. Petersburg were very enlightening. Many preconceptions were erased and many were confirmed. It truly is a city that has a history of constant change!

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