JGoody's Goods: October 2011

Peter and Paul Fortress was the first structure of any sort constructed in what is now St. Petersburg. Built by Peter the Great, this fort served as a deterrent for any entity whom considered attacking the Russian city. Today it houses a church which contains every dead tsar from the Romanov Dynasty (basically 300 years of absolute power in Russia - Quite a feat for a country which averages some sort of revolution every 10 years or so.) These tombs include Peter the Great, Alexander I, and Nicholas II’s family who was murdered. They were shot then stabbed in a basement of a cabin in the south of Russia (Ekaterinburg to be exact) by Bolsheviks in 1917. Yikes… Because of their brutal murder, they were canonized by the Eastern Orthodox Church in 2002. Get murdered, become a saint. A decent trade-off for any religious monarch and his family I suppose. These murders truly exemplified the stance of the Bolsheviks, and portrayed their hatred for monarchies and absolute rule. Three hundred years of being poor and powerless can really piss-off a Russian. Putin better fix this wealth dispersion problem..

Next post will be pictures of Моя квартира! (My apartment) This weekend I am off to Novgorod- one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe.

An elusive sunny day! The outside of P+P Fortress!

Fall in all its glory

Peter the Great is my man-crush

Super-stoked on life

Grave of Peter the Great. Complete with crying Russian babushkas paying their respects. Creepy.

Memorial to the murdered family of Tsar Nicholas II.

Monday sunrise out my window

Okay, perhaps lazy isn't the word. I would prefer "busy". The truth is I have been quite busy, with trips/excursions/school in the past two weeks or so. Four to five hours of class a day can really take its toll on a young college guy's body, especially when that youthful, energetic, and healthy young man is only used to 2 hours of school a day. Boo Hoo. Below are pictures from a Russian Playground that I came across on a walk, and St. Issac's Cathedral.

I found the small children's park quite intriguing for a few different reasons. First off, the location of the park was random to say the least. The park is surrounded by housing complexes and a beauty school. Somewhat strange. Then again, nothing is normal in this country (Or should I say, Narnia.) Secondly, the amount of graffiti in and around the park gave off a modern art exhibit type of feel- more so than any sort of park atmosphere that we are used to in the United States. Despite the Urban decorations and sporadic layout, the park contained children playing, (albeit beating one another with sticks) women walking their dogs, (small little lap dogs with more complex hair-dos than any girls I know prefer to wear) and of course, old men playing chess. (drunk old men, I might add.) Once you look past the small details, it was really no different than Riverfront Park in Spokane or Alton Baker in Eugene!

Future Olympic Fencers

Basketball? Nah. A target for rock throwing? Absolutely.

Exit to Vostanya Ulitsa- The street near my Apartment.

Saw this on the way home. When in Russia....

St. Issac's Cathedral was all in all an awesome day trip. I left Saturday around noon with two classmates and took the metro to Nevsky Prospect- the main street in St. Petersburg. Once here, the cathedral was a twenty minute walk. We had to pay a small fee to access the panoramic view, but it was totally worth it! We could see all of St. Petersburg and the surrounding area, including the docks on the Baltic Sea, a nuclear power plant miles outside of the city, and many other local monuments.