Comments on: I’m going to Russia this year!

By: Karyn Dubravetz

Karyn Dubravetz — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:31:08 +0000

Thanks for all the great advice, Natalya! We’re planning to spend at least a week in both Moscow and St. Petersburg, so a lot of this should be doable! (But we will need time to just take it easy, too…!)

By: Natalya

Natalya — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:51:15 +0000

I would actually recommend the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg (not far from the Hermitage at all) over the Tretyakovka in Moscow for the Russian art. I would even recommend it over the Hermitage if one was short on time: the Hermitage is wonderful, but not particularly Russian, so unless you’re a huge fan of Monet or some other Western painter, it won’t feel much different from the Met or Le Louvre, and just as overwhelming. My favorite part about the Hermitage is the interiors. I just love walking through those rooms that have furniture, carriages, thrones, etc. on display, so if the time allows it, I’d still recommend the Hermitage for that.
Peter-and-Paul Fortress is not along Nevsky, but rather on the opposite bank of Neva, but I highly recommend it. All of the Russian Tsars since Peter the Great are buried there, including the last Royal family.
I’m personally quite in love with St. Petersburg suburbs, but they would easily take a day each. Most tourists in the summer time prefer Peterhof, with its fountains, and it is quite spectacular. But I tend to prefer Pushkin and Pavlovsk (they are close by and you could probably do them in 1 day, although each has a HUGE park). They are less manicured, but more endearing. The nice thing about Pushkin is that the Lyceum where Pushkin studied is right there too, and it’s a fun short tour to take.
Finally, the Summer Garden is lovely and often overlooked, although it can be easily worked into the route, as it’s not far at all from the Hermitage.

By: Karyn Dubravetz

Karyn Dubravetz — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:32:14 +0000

Thanks! we’re syked, too! I will keep ya posted

By: Karyn Dubravetz

Karyn Dubravetz — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:30:55 +0000

Wow – thanks for all the great tips, Heather!
(I did go to Tretyakovsky when I was in Moscow, but at the time, I didn’t know about the Shishkins!)

By: Tess Brooke

Tess Brooke — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:14:56 +0000

I’m super-syked for you!!!!! Keep me posted on details! How totally fun!

By: Heather Torrance

Heather Torrance — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:33:55 +0000

Oh, that’s great news!

I would advise that you do downtown SPB in either one long or two short days. A lot of the monuments are on Nevsky Prospekt or very close to it, and you can see all of them by doing a loop up one side of the street and down the other. (I did this with my my mom in one very intense day of site-seeing.)

Take an afternoon for the Hermitage (also downtown near the monuments). There are Monets and Reniors and all sorts of great Western artists. The admission is pricey for westerners, but definitely worth it.

Then take a day and go to one or two of the suburban palaces – the best thing to do is look online or in guidebooks and decide which one you think is the most interesting and/or pretty. I would advise packing a couple sandwiches, because they have cafes there but they are Russian cafes, so they are always running out of food. The Amber Room is open, but when I was there you had to be on one of the guided tours to see it, so if that’s important you should find out about that first.

SPB also has some fun little side-trips. For instance there are lots of apartment-museums, where artists (like Anna Akhmatova) lived. There’s also a cemetery at one end of Nevsky Prospekt that has some weird headstones of famous people (it’s in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery).

If you can get the Lonely Planet guide to St. Petersburg, it is well worth it, even for only a couple weeks, because it has everything in it and it is also small, so it will fit in your purse. It has walking tours in it, and also information about even the weirdest little things in the city you wouldn’t think to look for.

In Moscow, you should also definitely visit the Tretyakovsky if you didn’t do that the first time you were there. They have the Shishkins (the paintings with the bears) and some other cool things.

By: Natalya

Natalya — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:54:15 +0000

Karyn, you sort of inspired me to start my own blog about Russia, so I thought I’d share it with you, I’ll be updated it rather frequently, at least at first, because right now I have tons of things I want to write about, and I’m going to try and post a general guide to visiting St. Petersburg within the next week or so.
Maybe it can be of some use to you!
http://russiawithoutborders.wordpress.com/

By: Karyn Dubravetz

Karyn Dubravetz — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 23:13:45 +0000

Hi Natalya,

Glad you found me on the meetup site. I would love to get together and talk about St. Petersburg! I’ll send you an email….

By: Natalya

Natalya — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:13:24 +0000

Hi, Karyn! I navigated to your blog from the meetup group that you run and that I’m subscribed to, and I’ll be sure to check back often, it’s not very often that you encounter an American with the “passion for Russian” .
I’m a native Russian currently living in Crofton, MD, recently moved here, and I’m from St. Petersburg, so I can give you lots of tips on the city (just not the hotels, unfortunately, since I have a place to stay) if you tell me how much time you’ll have and what you’re interested. I’d love to meet in person to talk about it, if you want to, as well (are you in DC proper?).
One advice I’d venture is to TRY and go to St. Petersburg in May-June. I understand that might be impossible because of a number of reasons, but if you CAN, it’d be worth your while, I think: it’s the time for white nights, and it’s something that someone with the passion for Russian should experience at least once.

By: Karyn Dubravetz

Karyn Dubravetz — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:21:38 +0000

Thanks for the link! I will check it out!