St. Petersburg :)

I was able to spend a weekend in St. Petersburg in October. It’s a gorgeous city with tons of historical sites and tourist attractions; I could have spent a whole week there. Here are some of the highlights:

T h e H e r m i t a g e

By far, my favorite part of the St. Petersburg trip was visiting The Hermitage. It’s a museum/palace, and everything about it is absolutely breath-taking. The building itself was a piece of architectural beauty. It was so H U G E. I got lost more than once, just walking around and looking at the exhibits. On one of my wanderings, I came upon a huge ballroom where everything glistened with gold. The sun was setting out the window, and I nearly passed out from the beauty. In walking around, I realized that some of the most famous painters in the world (Da Vinci, Picasso, Monet, and SO many more) were featured in that museum, and I had a blast finding all of them and taking pictures with their art. I overdosed on art history and culture that day. It was a wonderful feeling.

PICASSO

DA VINCI

Some Egyptian mummy tomb I found.

Hanging out with Zeus/Jupiter/King of the Gods, nbd.

P e t e r h o f f

Peterhoff is an old palace where Peter the Great used to spend his summers. It was absolutely beautiful, and the grounds around the palace were amazing. The whole place is sprinkled with statues and fountains (which run on gravity, by the way). We were disappointed that the fountains were turned off for the winter season, but it didn’t take away from their beauty. The inside didn’t disappoint, either. The rooms were so grandiose and lavishly decorated. My favorite room by far was the palace library. It was the library of my dreams. If I’m ever rich enough to afford a house with its own library, I’m going to create an exact replica of the Peterhoff library. G O R G E O U S .

Those were the two big places that we hit up, but we went all over the place during this weekend.

Church of Spilt Blood (just like in Anastasia)

St. Isaac’s Cathedral

This is the group of American teachers that came to Russia with me. From right to left: Me, Ardo, Maggie, Jordan, Kelsey, and Jake (down in front). We're a team :)