The Venice of the North

                The initial tour around St. Petersburg was fun, though of course very rushed. I love our tour guide, she seriously has some sass. And she’s a total fire cracker. It was interesting to see how close everything is in Peterburg, and its compactness. It is a very well designed city. Though it offends my slavophilic sensibilities, I really do find it to be a beautiful and charming area. The architecture is also really interesting. I don’t quite know what style it is, but it has an old world touch of class and glamour to it.

                We also passed several cathedrals on the way, which was quite interesting. I obviously haven’t been inside any of them yet, but I’ve got the feeling that they will reflect the charming side of Russia, rather than the sorrow and majesty of Moscow. I also really want to go to the Orthodox synagogue the tour guide pointed out. I’ve only ever been inside a conservative synagogue, and I’d love to see the most ancient form of Jewish worship still extant. Religion is my hobby… and I love the older and more intricate versions. It will be very interesting to see the preserved rituals of Orthodox Judaism, and compare with the liturgical practice of Orthodox Christianity (which derived a large part of its practice from first century Jewish tradition).

                St. Isaac’s was very grand, and I can imagine the inside including a gigantic Byzantine style Pantocrator, with a stern Theotokos to complement Him. This pipe dream is only slightly ruined by the fact that I know the inside to be filled with western style baroque art work (whether or not you can actually call such western style murals “icons” is something I do not intend to discuss. But my honest opinion is that they shouldn’t be).

                I’m also very happy to  note that we are living right downtown, in the middle of everything, very close to a metro station, and near a blini stand (as well as a dozen other restaurants, it looks like). After dinner, Mia and I found a second hand clothing store on the corner that really was a lot of fun. It was a little more expensive than a place like Good Will or Salvation Army would be, but their clothes were also much nicer than anything I would find in either of those stores. They had things organized by gender, article of clothing, and even color! Even better, they had smaller sizes. Thrift stores in America often only have clothing in larger sizes, meaning I could never wear it. It appears thin women actually donate their clothes here. That makes me inordinately excited. I’m so glad we’re near everything, and that getting food will be much cheaper and easier here. Petersburg seems like a much more laid back city, without everyone rushing from one place to another and shoving each other out of the way. Perhaps this means it’s less efficient, but it might be much more comfortable to live here. I feel like it’s more the “latte sipping hipster intellectual” type than Moscow. But we shall see if my suspicions are proved correct.