St. Petes So Far

I haven't blogged in a couple days due to a book I couldn't put down (the benefits of vacation). We have been tromping all over St. Petersburg (when not reading), finding ourselves surrounded by buildings and streets lined in ornamented art nouveau everything. St. Petersburg is a wet dream for art nouveau fans. As you can imagine we love it. 

In bullet format again, St. Petes highlights thus far are:

• -The ART loft! This amazing old bread factory that was renovated into art galleries, a hostel and shops for local artists. It houses the Center for Contemporary Art and you can check it out here at loft project.
• -Foooooooood! All of it is SO good. Pictures below.
• -The canals that line the streets. 
• -The bridges or 'mosts' that cross the canals. 
• -The architecture. Even more beautiful and ornamentally decorated than Moscow.
• -The way the buildings are flood lit at night (or in the morning) so you can see the amazing detail of each of the buildings when it's dark out.
• -The cathedrals.
• -The early moring coffee shops to watch the sun come up at 1030.
• -Walking tours of the town with snow and now finally blue skies!
• -The Hermitage, but of course.

Pictures to follow:

Street art!

Please note the Charley Brown Christmas tree.

Drinking hot tea out of the coaster for instant cool down

A scrumptious dinner at Dom Beat (thanks Lonely Planet for the recommendation).

Chess playing in a cold park right next to an old palace. Unlike San Francisco, public game playing is not outlawed.

An old palace that is currently used for government offices 

Amazing gate ornamentation of said old palace.

Down the street from old palace: Smolny Cathedral/Convent, now used mostly as a concert hall. Here is a link to more of it's history.  We opted to climb the 20 staircases to the top of the bell tower.

The view was worth the climb and shaky legs.

Brrrrrrrrrr!

Special finds at the Art Loft Project

Russian Juniper!

More amazing buildings walking around

Below: Art Nouveau Cafe and Market. They sold only desserts, fancy chocolate, cheese and meats! My own fantasy land!

OMG Cheeeeeeeeeese!

Right?!

These are all made of sugar. Please note the pickles...

bananas

 and mushrooms.

The pictures don't even capture the glory of it all and I was too busy stuffing my face to take good pictures. Sorry ya'll.

Sparkly lights........still!

Exhausted but happy.

The far dish is chicken kiev, a traditional Russian dish I'm told. It was the bomb dot com.  Shai had a chicken pesto and veggies, also good. Side note, whenever we order veggies, grilled or not, we always get eggplant, tomato, zucchini, and bell pepper. All nightshades. Interesting huh?

This little guy was also in Moscow. I couldn't figure out what kind of bird it was, so I consulted my aunt (who asked my uncle the pro birder) and they found it for me. Guess what this guys name is?  Wait for it....
The Great Tit.
Ha! NO wonder I loved him.

St. Petes metro system. Quite a bit smaller than Moscow's, but then again so is the population.  I love a public transportation. 

Metro stop detail.

Singer Building, catty-corner to our hostel.

Detail

more detail.

Can you see all of the lion faces and statues?

Canal and a cold Shai=Shaisicles

Inside the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. Awkwardly named but so so SO beautiful! It's all done mosaic style.

More info and history here.

Cute!

One of the Hermitage buildings 

Double headed eagle. So very Harry Potter, but I think really it's  apart of the St. Petersburg crest.

oooOOOoooo The Main Hermitage building. It's turquoise!

The Summer Castle

And a phallic statue in the middle.

What smoking does to your lungs in Russian
(This poster was placed outside our hostel entrance in the allowable smoking area. Way to try and dissuade through education!)

Sweet bliss.

and more

And finally sweet friends...

Hope you all are well, and we'll post more from the Hermitage soon. 

xoxo

Love 

Em and Shai