Gah! Ok, eventually I'll figure this out. What did you miss? The hour of trying to figure everything out so I don't look like a retard posting huge pictures or having broken html on the page. Lucky you. Ok, so, without further ado (hopefully), here goes.
This is the St. Isaac Cathedral, one of many amazing edifices (edifi?) around the city. This is pretty close to where I live, and I look for the dome when I get too lost in the area. There is a pretty impressive statue opposite it, and the "square" (Isaacscki ploshod) that contains the statue and cathedral is roughly the size of a decent city block. The trees are part of the random network of small parks scattered throughout the city. Since it's the only thing (I think) keeping the pollution at bay, I suppose I should enjoy them, but this week has been pollen-count-from-hell, so my enthusiasm is a touch dampened. I've already burned through my entire supply of kleenex for the trip, but it finally rained last night and I can breathe again.
A front view of the Hermitage: a combination of the Winter Palace and one of the largest art museums in the world. Needless to say, I couldn't capture it all in one picture, but the wings on either side are similar. We spent roughly 3 hours inside and saw less than a quarter of what there was to see.
Lastly, (as I've a bunch of homework and translation to figure out what the heck the class is doing), here is another random palace that we saw on the bus tour from the first day. While the sky being cloudy is pretty common around here, the first week was incredibly sunny and hot, to the detriment of all of us travelers, who were told to pack for cold weather. Yesterday was the first day I felt it necessary to wear a coat at all, and my sweaters and long-sleeves are languishing, unused, in my closet.
This is the St. Isaac Cathedral, one of many amazing edifices (edifi?) around the city. This is pretty close to where I live, and I look for the dome when I get too lost in the area. There is a pretty impressive statue opposite it, and the "square" (Isaacscki ploshod) that contains the statue and cathedral is roughly the size of a decent city block. The trees are part of the random network of small parks scattered throughout the city. Since it's the only thing (I think) keeping the pollution at bay, I suppose I should enjoy them, but this week has been pollen-count-from-hell, so my enthusiasm is a touch dampened. I've already burned through my entire supply of kleenex for the trip, but it finally rained last night and I can breathe again. This right here is a fabulous thing. The stoplights at major intersections (and some of them are HUGE) have walk timers, showing how much longer you have to wait to get
the next walk light, or to get across the street before you become a target. A minor touch, but as an inexperienced city dweller and pedestrian, I love it.
A front view of the Hermitage: a combination of the Winter Palace and one of the largest art museums in the world. Needless to say, I couldn't capture it all in one picture, but the wings on either side are similar. We spent roughly 3 hours inside and saw less than a quarter of what there was to see.Lastly, (as I've a bunch of homework and translation to figure out what the heck the class is doing), here is another random palace that we saw on the bus tour from the first day. While the sky being cloudy is pretty common around here, the first week was incredibly sunny and hot, to the detriment of all of us travelers, who were told to pack for cold weather. Yesterday was the first day I felt it necessary to wear a coat at all, and my sweaters and long-sleeves are languishing, unused, in my closet.Alright, now that I've figured out how to do this, there should be more pictures on a regular basis. I'll also be creating albums on photobucket, as I don't want to overload my poor little blog here. I'll throw up a link to that once it's up, but that may take a while. Cheers!
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