Yes, the title is also the title from the movie/musical Anastasia, but it seems the most fitting considering the fact that we went to Russia two weeks ago!
When I was looking through study abroad programs this time last year (wow how time flies), one of the main reasons I chose Lithuania was the week long trip to Moscow and Saint Petersburg. I’ve always wanted to go to Russia, but it always seemed so far and difficult to get to. Not to mention the amount of people that would warn me about Americans going to Russia. Nevertheless, the country always sounded incredibly fascinating to me and I even did an entire cultural geography assignment surrounding Russian culture and politics. So having the opportunity to actually visit was something I had only dreamed of. Having a children’s movie about the Grand Duchess Anastasia only fueled the desire to go.
Our adventure began on the last Saturday of October, where we all got on a bus to Riga where we’d then board our overnight train to Moscow. It was already an interesting trip packing for a week in Russia because we were limited to one backpack plus maybe another small bag or two. Those who know me, know that I’m a notorious over-packer. But I managed to fit in the necessities and survived a week wearing shirts over again. Our first stop was the Hill of Crosses near the town of Šiauliai. This is the sight of a pilgrimage where Lithuanians began putting up crosses (and other holy icons) in remembrance of lost ones who died during the Russian occupation in the 1800s. The practice continued, despite the authorities who ordered to have the crosses taken down. It is now a site for prayer and remembrance. It was rather eerie walking through, due to the gloomy day, but I enjoyed visiting and recommend it to anyone who is in the area.
After the four hour bus ride and our lunch stop at LIDO, we boarded our train for the next seventeen hours. The thought was daunting, but at least we would be able to actually sleep in a bed. The train was split into sections with six “beds” (some were seats that flipped into a bed or you merely had to lay the mattress on top of the bench) and I originally thought that we’d all be together; however, myself and three other study abroad girls were in a section with two Russian women. This led to hilarious times of charades and me attempting to speak my few words of Russian (please [pažalsta], thank you [spasibo], and excuse me [izvinite]) over and over again. But I made a friend and she was more than willing to help me when I couldn’t climb into my bunk and she grabbed my hand and pointed at the bench, then patted the table, and then pointed at my bed to get me safe and sound. The actual sleeping on the train was not fun as it was cramped and uncomfortable (at least for me, some people didn’t mind the conditions at all. I made the excuse that I’m like Princess and the Pea and need very specific conditions to sleep), plus we had to stay up and wait for border control. But we made it through alive and eventually arrived in Moscow!
– MOSCOW (MOCKBA) –
From the second we arrived in Moscow, we were off and only stopped to truly rest when we were sleeping in the hostel. To make everything easier, we were separated into Comrade Groups where we had one of the interns, Marija, as our leader and then six students (myself, Angela, Steph, Thao, TJ, and Jameson). My group was called the Medvedi, which means Bears in Russian.
After we checked into our hostel, we got metro passes and headed to the Red Square! Despite exhaustion, our team was extremely competitive the entire week and we always wanted to be first to every location. The metro in Moscow is a piece of work on its own – and that’s both used as a compliment and a criticism. The Moscow metro is absolutely stunning. Some stations have stained glass art work, while others have marble pillars, and statues and chandeliers line the way and I can’t imagine that being a part of my daily commute. However, it was also incredibly confusing. But we managed to navigate (mainly thanks to Marija and her handy metro app) and came above ground.
Walking into Red Square is an experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget. As we rounded the corner of a museum, we approached an archway that perfectly framed St. Basil’s Cathedral and I immediately started squealing like a child on Christmas morning. Slowly the church came in to full view with the shopping center GUM on one side and the Kremlin on the other and a Russian museum behind. Some people even cried when they saw it! Touring Saint Basil’s had to wait as we entered GUM to get lunch (salmon with cream cheese crepes and a coffee) and exchange money. We then walked over to the entrance of the Kremlin for our tour!
There was something very palpable about being inside the Kremlin walls. As I walked through the gates, I turned to one of my group members and said, “I feel like I’m in the heart of Russia.” And I was! Russia is run from the offices inside this fortress and, while we may have not been able to visit Putin or go in any of those offices, it was an incredible experience. The three hour tour allowed us to go into a church inside the Kremlin, as well as visit the museum including artifacts from Catherine the Great’s reign and a collection of beautiful Fabergé eggs.
After the Kremlin, we made our way to the Russian circus! There were over a dozen acts, full of animal tricks, acrobats, and comedians. It was an incredibly fun evening, I only wish that our entire group wasn’t so exhausted from the long travel hours and then walking all over Moscow. Once the circus was over, we split into activity groups where about eight of us walked over to Moscow State University to see it all lit up. After a mini photoshoot in front of the university, we walked down to a viewpoint to look over the more contemporary part of Moscow.
The next day started off with a run to Starbucks, because we don’t have one in Lithuania and fall drinks were still in! After we got our pumpkin spice and caramel lattes and took pictures of all our names spelt in Cyrillic, we got back into our Comrade Groups and took off for Red Square again. This time, we went inside St. Basil’s which I loved. Each room was covered with either paintings, icons, or altar pieces and at point, there was even a quartet singing in one of the naves. After St. Basil’s and lunch we headed to the market. After haggling my prices down, I bought two matryoshka dolls from one of the nicer people. Four of the boys and Kinzie ended up buying the big furry hats and it resulted in it being a lot easier to find people in crowds when they had a brown fur ball on their head. Once we were done bartering, we made our way to the Church of Christ the Savior. This is the tallest Orthodox church in the world and it was evident as you entered the sanctuary and looked up into the dome. It was absolutely stunning inside and we even stayed for about ten minutes of the service in their downstairs chapel which was just as beautiful. Our evening wrapped up with a walk down Old Arbat Street as well as returning to Red Square at night.
And just like that, it was our last day in Moscow! We took a group photo in Red Square and then headed out to our option groups. I went to the Cosmonautics Museum which had artifacts from the Space Race, as well as the first dogs who were sent to space. Once we were done there, we grabbed lunch near the hostel and then headed out to the train station for Saint Petersburg!
– SAINT PETERSBURG (СAHKT-ПETEPБУРГ) –
The four hour train ride to St. Petersburg was absolute bliss. We all got to sit in a warm train and watch movies or nap and after walking an average of 20,000 steps a day, our feet were beat. Aside from the forty minute sprint to the hostel (Medvedi were incredibly competitive, as I’ve mentioned. But hey! We were the first ones at the hostel!), the first night in St. Petersburg was quiet and all we did was go out for dinner at a nearby Georgian restaurant.
The first real day in St. Petersburg started off with a four-hour walking tour in -1ºC weather. But our tour guide was very animated and gave us exciting information as we toured the town. Unlike Moscow, St. Petersburg was much easier to navigate and could typically orient myself as long as I knew where the Neva River and Nevsky Prospekt were located. During our tour, we stopped for lunch and coffee and Kinzie and I even managed to get some photo booth photos! We also got scolded when we tried to take sneaky photos in one of the Orthodox cathedrals. Whoops. We made a pit stop during our tour at the Winter Palace where I was giggling like mad because I thought the Winter Palace was Anastasia’s home. Apparently that is Catherine’s Palace which was about an hour away. Nevertheless, the Winter Palace’s exterior alone had me excited, but we weren’t going to be going inside until Friday. We then finished our tour at the Church of Spilt Blood and were finally dismissed for free time.
About four of us went to Singer Café on Nevsky Prospekt for coffee and to just sit for longer than fifteen minutes. The cafe is located right across the street from Kazan Cathedral which led to a beautiful sunset behind the cathedral’s dome. We eventually made our way back to the hostel so we could head out to Feel Yourself Russian! Feel Yourself Russian was a super fun evening where we ate traditional Russian foods like caviar on toast and smoked salmon. There were also groups of singers, dancers, and musicians and two of our boys were pulled up on stage to dance with them at one point!
Living off the high of such a fun night, a group of us walked down the Neva River in the freezing cold to Palace Square where we took photos with the pretty lights and eventually made our way to a restaurant that served absurd milkshakes. We all shared four milkshakes and we still couldn’t completely finish them.
We started the second day going to Kazan Cathedral for about half an hour of their service. We admired the architecture and listened to the songs before we all split up into option groups. My group grabbed coffee before heading over to St. Isaac’s which was an incredibly ornate cathedral and the fourth largest Russian Orthodox cathedral in the world. We wandered around the sanctuary for a bit before hiking up the stairs for a 360 degree view of St. Petersburg. Eventually, we headed back to Kazan to meet up with the other groups to split into new option groups. This time, we headed to Yusupov Palace which is mainly famous because it was where Rasputin was murdered. Unfortunately, many of the rooms in the palace were under restoration, so we only saw a fraction of the museum, but I still enjoyed all the pretty rooms that were available. Later that night, the entire SALT group went out for dinner and then, once again, broke into smaller groups for dessert at a nearby café.
Friday was my favorite day by a long shot. This was our “free day” but pretty much everyone went to the Hermitage. After a lovely breakfast at a nearby café, we walked over to the Hermitage where we were still early enough that the lines weren’t too long and the crowd wasn’t insane. I mean, I still have people in all my photos, but still less than usual.
Walking up the Grand Staircase and into the Grand Ballroom were two very surreal moments. One of those reasons being, I originally thought the Grand Ballroom was a different room that was currently occupied with a floor to ceiling exhibition. Needless to say, I was very upset and didn’t think I’d ever get over it. It wasn’t until later that someone informed me that the Grand Ballroom was in a different wing and I had to run back in and admire it for what it was. We spent about two hours on one floor of the Hermitage alone and I was mainly focusing on the architecture instead of the artwork, but I was giddy the entire time. We took a lunch break at a random (but adorable) coffee shop called БРАТ (BRAT) and then went back to the second half of the Hermitage where more Impressionist art was. We eventually called it a day at the museum, because that evening was the Russian ballet.
Before the ballet, we had family dinner at the hostel! Kinzie and another SALT lady, Jemi, were in charge of dinner that night and made us a delicious pasta meal. Our coordinators were so excited to share family dinner with us and, turns out, it’s getting increasingly difficult to have family dinner now that everyone is traveling or prepping for projects and writing papers. Once dinner had wrapped up, we all got dressed in our best and set off for the ballet! The ballet and theater were beautiful and it was so fun seeing everyone in their finery as we watched dancers leap and bound across the stage. The ballet had eventually finished and, once again, we all broke into groups for dessert after the show. Nobody stayed out too long though because the next day, we began our journey home!
Saturday started off getting coffee with Kinzie and everyone was amazed that we were still functional after such an exhausting week. I’m surprised they haven’t realized how great of a motivator caffeine is to me. Nevertheless, after coffee, we walked over to the Cathedral of the Savior on Spilt Blood where Alexander II was fatally wounded. They erected the church as a memorial. After meeting up with the SALTy crew, we headed inside the cathedral, walked around and admired the mosaics, before splitting into our groups once again and having one last opportunity of free time. I chose to go to the sauna with about ten other girls. The Russian sauna experience is one that I have never experienced before and am likely to never experience again. Let’s just say that profusely sweating and getting smacked with branches is not in my top ten Russian activities. But what the sauna did do was make me exceptionally sleepy. Which helped once we boarded the train back to Riga.
It was evident on the train ride home that all of us were pooped after such a fast paced week. Almost everyone was in bed before 11pm, which was good because we had to get up twice in the middle of the night for Russian and Latvian border control. But it wasn’t long until we got on to our last bus and eventually, rolled into the LCC parking lot. All anyone could think about was home.
And that’s the end of our Russia trip! I know it was incredibly long, but if you made it to this point, I’m proud of you.
Anyway, I have a project still to do and an essay to write.
Until I write about our other weekend adventures (we went to Prague and Vienna!),
– Kate
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