St. Petersburg is an amazing, surprising city. Not at all as I expected. Although looking back, I have no idea what exactly I expected. :) What is most striking is the huge expansive architechture. The broad avenues provide sight-lines into the far distance. The river at the center of the city is far larger than I expected, and serves as a focal point for the city (or the old part at least). Spanning this river are several lovely draw-bridges (without any kind of tower) which open every night during the summer letting through contsant stream of brightly lit boats. The tsarist buildings are ridiculously grand, much bigger and more ornate than the louvre or versaille. The kind of breath-taking size and opulence that is only possible with the riches from an enormous empire and the work of an untold number peasants. I have never seen so much goldleaf: the walls and ceilings of the palaces and cathedrals, the statues littering the grounds, the roofs of various churches... And what is funny is that the soviets picked up exactly where the tsars left off (only without the delicacy and gold of the previous era). The city is also full of massive soviet buildings and monuments: all concrete, steel, and the earnest social realism that you find in our depression era artwork. It seems that if you are going to do anything in St.Petersburg, it has to be on the largest possible scale. Of course one of the first things that struck me was the dust, dirt and peeling paint covering nearly every building. Windows are broken, facades cracked. The streets are choked with vehicles and despertly in need of repairs. The expansive gardens all seem to be a bit wild, and everywhere the grass needs of a good mowing. But then there are also huge new supermarkets and shopping malls, giant flat screen TVs flashing advertisements, and all the latest of everything. It is just such a shock to see rusted out old jalopies drive next to shiny new stretch hummers. It is interesting to see how capitalism has unevenly spread through the city, the vast chasm between rich and poor is even more obvious there than in NYC. Since it is the white nights, the whole city rang with a festival atmosphere. I must have seen at least 6 or 7 weddings a day. Each trash can was overflowing with empty bottles of beer, vodka, or champagne, and there were just as many people on the street at 2am as at noon. As you can imagine I didn't get much sleep the while I was there. We had very little time to see the city, since we were performing every day and our hotel was quite far from the city center. So we all tied to pack into each day as much as possible. I ran through the Hermitage at a criminal speed. Spent more time on the bus to and from the peterhof fountains than on the grounds. I was constantly afraid of losing the group or missing the bus (remember that all important announcements are made in Lithuanian or Russian), but despite all that I had a lot of fun. :) Because I was invited with Aura as part of a cultural event, I got a really unique view of Russia. For example, our bus was pulled out of the long line waiting at the border and where we were examined quickly and allowed to go without having all of our luggage searched. We performed in a theater easily as large and grand as Lincoln Center (one of two in the complex). We ate "typical" terrible russian food at the theatre cafe. Stayed in a soviet era four-star hotel in the woods (that is four stars during the soviet era). And all the time I was enjoying being a tourist I always had with me somebody who spoke russian, which allowed me to get cheaper russian tickets to all the museums, not get cheated too badly by the street vendors, and find out what random people on the street were saying. We were travelling with a folk dance troupe who sang songs on the long bus ride and kept us company troughout the trip. They even found out my birthday, and arranged for the whole cafeteria to sing and congratulate me. Then later in the day the guys from Aura caught me and threw me into the air seven times before singing, giving me hugs and presents. :) I just hope that I will have another chance to visit St. Petersburg in the future, it is a strange and interesting city.