19.2 Tonnes of Cold Hard Vase

Day 70 - August 2^nd

We had a fairly restless sleep the night before, as it was still quite hot in our hostel room and the Russians seemed to enjoy flying up and down Nevsky Prospect at high speed right throughout the night. 

To add to this, the so-called free breakfast at the hostel never eventuated so we ended up picking up a breakfast muffin and coffee on our way out to the Hermitage Museum. 

As it was the first Thursday in the month, entry to the Hermitage Museum was free so we decided to head there about an hour before opening as larger than normal crowds were expected. This paid off, as we only had to wait about 20 minutes after the doors opened to get in, although we did have to jostle with a bunch of ‘grey army’ specialists to ensure our place in the line. 

What was most frustrating about this group was the leader who kept ducking under the line (in his elderly paranoia) to see what was happening up ahead. On the last occasion, he misjudged his entry back into the queue and head-butted Claire right in the backside! Claire wasn’t too happy about that and had a few words to say to the old pervert. 

Martínez Celaya’s Tower of Snow. Interesting title.

For those of you that haven’t been to the Hermitage Museum, it is one of the worlds largest art collections housed in the old Winter Palace. There are over 3 million artifacts spanning Egyptian relics, Russian Armory and off course a plethora of artwork from Italy, Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, United Kingdom, and so on. 

What was quite interesting about some of the artworks is that they were actually looted by the Red Army from the Nazi’s following WWII and only just released by the Russians in 1994. 50 years is quite a long time to keep paintings by the likes of Renoir and Van Gogh under wraps without anyone noticing.   

Kolyvan Vase - this vase took 11 years to build, is 2.57m tall and weighs in at a meagre 19.2 tonnes. The vase was installed in the Hermitage before the walls were erected and chiseled out inside the room. 

No pressure on getting it right.

Another very stately room and stately woman inside the Hermitage/Winter Palace.

The museum itself was absolutely enormous and being housed in the old Winter Palace many of the rooms were still in their original and very regal (in a tacky Russian way) state, including the huge gold lined ballroom and the chandelier-clad room with the Peacock Clock.

The Grand Ballroom - could of done with a bit more gold I think.

The Peacock Clock and some massive chandeliers.
Despite the 'Peaclock' being in a huge enclosure, the time piece itself was only the size of  a big mushroom. Bit over the top really.

Overall we took about four hours in the Hermitage (at a fairly fast pace) and I don’t believe we saw everything we could. In fact I think you could spend a couple of days in the museum and still not get everything in.

One of the Skylight Rooms adorned with paintings by Frans Synders.
Most of the pictures are of  representations of the meat, fish, vegetable market etc. Just like a medieval supermarket flyer. 

Inside the Italian Skylight Room.
Big vase, but not as big as the Kolyvan.

Being a day of seeing art, we then made our way over to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, which was close by the Hermitage. The church was built between 1883 and 1907 on the spot where the Tsar Alexander II was assassinated – hence the somewhat disturbing name. 

As churches go, it is definitely one of the better ones to look at with its gold and brightly coloured onion shaped domes as well as the 7000m² of mosaics that adorn the inside. We must say that one thing about Russian churches is that they don’t like to leave any space untouched, with floor to ceiling covered in something showy.

For those who like a bit of Spilled Blood in their Church service.

The amazing gold and candy coloured spires of the Church of Spilled Blood - you just want to lick em. Maybe not the spiky one though.

The amazing interior of the Church of Spilled Blood.
These are not paintings - they are mosaics and lined from floor to ceiling.

These young gents must of made quite an impression as
they seemed to adorn a lot of the walls around the church.

Not only is this the ceiling, but it is also dome shaped.
Despite this they still managed to create such beautiful artwork. Big thumbs up to the tile cutter on this one.

While in the church we overhead an American lady make a comment to her husband while standing in front of the altar where Alexander II was assassinated, asking what the altar was actually used for and whether it was for christenings. 

The poor lady mustn’t have read a thing before entering the ‘Church of Spilled Blood’, because the whole thing (altar included) was built to commerate Alexander II’s unfortunate death. Knowing exactly what it was, the husband said nothing, shook his head and walked off in embarrassment.

I guess you can always rely on an American to make an absurd statement at the top of their voice whilst travelling (apologies to my intelligent American friends out there).

With all the artwork and mosaics we had worked up quite a hunger for dinner and after walking through the Mikhailovsky gardens, we headed to our favourite cafeteria/restaurant for a quick snack and a cheap pint outside in the sun, as hoards of Muscovites bustled past on their way home from work.

The new 2012 Lada coming to a showroom near you!

Good luck getting the old Jazz out.

To round off the night we wandered back up Nevsky Prospect to find a suitable restaurant for dinner. As it was the main street & tourist area of St Petersburg, there was a lot of places to eat however they were a lot more expensive than what we had sampled the night before. After going in and out of about 7 restaurants we settled on an Asian restaurant about 200m from our hostel.

The food was on the small side but quite delicious and it’s always good when the cheapest beer on the menu is Asahi. We were also entertained during dinner by watching a Russian man drive his Nissan Maxima onto the footpath and then get pulled over by a cop within a couple of seconds of turning off the car.

I’m not sure what he was doing putting his car on the footpath or thinking he could get away with it, but for the next 20 minutes we watched as the driver got into the police car, some serious words were said, he got on the phone to someone and then some cash was exchanged. Problem solved, however, he still had to move his car.

Serioulsy....how did he think he could get away with this in Russia?