Ode to Peterhof

Location: St. Petersburg, Russia (this is my last night here!)

My last full day in Russia is officially drawing to a close. That feels really weird to say. I'm sitting up on the pool deck wrapped in my UO blanket and preparing to do some school work before turning in for the night. I'm feeling a bit reluctant to do so, because I know tomorrow will go by fast and I don't really want to say goodbye to Russia yet.

...So in honor of my last night here, everyone gets a history lesson! Yay!

Today I went on another SAS organized trip to see Peterhof palace and gardens. This was the former residence of Peter the Great, a 6'8" Russian Tsar who founded St. Petersburg in 1703. In his desire to give Russia a port, Peter had the city constructed on one of Russia's few access points to a body of water which would not freeze and become inaccessible during the winter. He was a visionary fellow who payed little heed to the fact that the area was presently an inhospitable swamp, and that many thousands of serfs would die trying to construct a city atop it. Peter the Great also waged a campaign to Europeanize Russia, and much of the architecture and layout of St. Petersburg was actually constructed by architects from a number of European countries, including France and Italy.

Peterhof palace was quite impressive, and the gardens were nice. One of the most impressive features were the fountains, the main display of which was actually constructed after Peter's death. I think the most interesting thing about the visit was learning about the place's tumultuous history. During World War II, Peterhof was actually captured and occupied for three years by Nazi troops, during which time much of it was destroyed. The serene forested grounds were riddled with trenches and land mines, statues were broken and toppled, and part of the palace itself was exploded. Our tour guide told us which parts of the castle and grounds had managed to survive the onslaught and which parts were painstakingly reconstructed in the 66 year restoration effort which followed. An impressive number of statues were placed in wooden boxed and buried on the grounds, and some lovely violet glass chandeliers were taken down, hidden, and put in storage in St. Petersburg. I believe they had only three months to try and save what they could.

It was really interesting walking the grounds with our tour guide while watching all these other tour groups from all different parts of the world and thinking "Wow, there were trenches and land mines over there trying to repel Nazi troops" or "Hey, Peter the Great himself was the first to turn on this exact fountain." Another interesting fact (tired of hearing that yet?) about the fountains is that a certain number of them were made to look innocuous until someone stepped on the wrong stone or was in the wrong place at the wrong time, whereby they would be suddenly doused. Peter the Great apparently enjoyed playing practical jokes on his guests.

Also, right up against the opulent golden fountains a set of large temporary structures were being put up for a pretty major event. Can anyone guess? Apparently the G20 Summit is being held right there in Peterhof in about a week! There was extra security and everything. Vladimir Putin will be there, as will President Obama and a number of other world leaders (18, perhaps? I'm not really sure what the G20 Summit is all about.) So if anything about that happens to come up on the news (yes, I'm thinking about you, Grandma and Grandpa!) you can look and think "Hey, Lindsey was there just about a week before this was happening!"

Anyhow, it's getting late again (every night! The nerve!), so I'm going to head to bed. Don't forget to comment!

P.S. Nobody mentioned how weird looking my posts have been! I can't actually see them while I'm at sea, you know. I just checked my blog while at a little cafe (or kафе) with free WiFi and noticed that not only does it reformat the pictures all to the top, but it apparently cut off the middle of the text in one post. I've fixed it now, so if you want to go back and take a look the "Tomato Soup and Peanut Butter" one should make a lot more sense now (it really was named that for a reason, I promise!)

P.P.S I'm just crazy enough to try to write that whole post as a real ode as promised by the post title, but then I would be up until like 4am and I was be cold and tired for my Dacha Community Visit tomorrow, which would be sad, so raincheck on the odes for tonight.