Fast Facts:
There are no houses in the city, people only live in apartments.
Not allowed to take pictures in Metro, the police will get very upset.
The Metro has five lines: the red, orange, green, purple, and blue line. The red line was built in 1955.
Some of the depths of the underground stations go as deep as 150 metres below ground.
It took us three minutes to get off of the escalator due to the depth of this particular underground.
All Metros are extremely beautiful as they were built with marble, mosaics, chandeliers, and they are ornate and elaborate.
It is 29 rupels to buy a Metro all-day ticket, which is about R10.
It is well-used by the public, but due to it being a Sunday today, it was not overwhelmingly crowded.
The Metro travels directly beneath the Neva River.
The train doesn't stop for more than 4 minutes. There is a huge rush to get on, and doors do not have sensors.
The deepest underground in the world is in Russia.
The architecture of buildings in the city is very impressive, but not well maintained. They all look very grimy and dirty.
The Emerald ship yard was built in 1794.
There is a statue of Peter the Great in the city that the people call "the bronze horseman". It was built in 1700.
If you are Russian orthodox you can't get married on a Sunday.
So, today we went on a tour of St Petersburg. After going on a furiously fast underground ride to three different stops, we went to a church where we (the women only) had to wear scarves over our heads in order to enter. There were no pews so people have to stand when attending church. There are gold statues and huge paintings of saints and Virgin Mary all over the church. People kissed and rested their heads on these pictures while praying. It was quite a different experience for us as a family. We don't worship anyone besides God and Jesus Christ. To us, you only bow down to one god, and that is God, not any saint or Virgin Mary. It is believed in Russia (and many other places and religions) that St Nicholas is the saint of good traveling. So people will pray to him for good travels. But if we want safe travels, we will pray to God, and God alone. I guess that that is just different strands of Christianity for you, but still an interesting experience. Although, I think my dad's favourite part of it all was seeing us all with "doeks" on our heads.
After that, we went to a cheese, meats, fruit and veg market. Produce was bright and abundant. My mom was intoxicated by the enormous, sultry cherries. Our bus picked us up after the market and took us to one of the most popular restaurants in the centre of St Petersburg called Sentonas, where we were greeted with complimentary tea and pastries. Unfortunately, at the end of our tour, while driving out of the city, we traveled along the better part of St Petersburg. Throughout our tour we felt quite disappointed with the lack of beauty and vegetation in St Petersburg. People were very impatient with us, and became very angry if we walked slowly or stopped to take pictures. Our tour guide was also constantly telling us to be wary of pick-pocketers, and to hide our iPads and various belongings. So much so, we were all a but nervy about leaving the boat at all. However, on our way out we got to see the Neva river, numerous parks, and even some cleaner buildings. Overall the town wasn't as stunning as the cruise staff made it out to be, but at least we left it with an improved overall image of it. Tomorrow, we explore St Petersburg to greater depths by going on a tour that is expected to allow us to enjoy the city's best landmarks. Today was more a look at how St Petersburg people live. Hopefully we will leave with a better perception of this city in Russia. We ended the night with some karaoke, and by we, I mean me...since no one else in my family would dare set foot on a stage to sing. I sang one of my favourite songs by Maroon 5: Sunday Morning.
Oh, and the sun set at 11:30pm. The last few pictures that I took were taken at 11:20pm. During our nighttime prayers, Jules said that she could feel God blessing us immensely during our vacation and that the two exceptional sunsets tonight and last night, have been evidence of that.
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