27 Before 27: fountains

Now I’ll admit – before going to St. Petersburg, I didn’t know much about Catherine the Great other than the fact that she ruled Russia a long time ago. My visit to STP told me all about Catherine and I can confidently say she was one rocking lady! (I should have known. I mean, she has “the Great” attached to her name!) She was a ruthless leader (exhibit A: she had her own husband killed so she could rule Russia), she expanded the Russian empire to include from current-day Poland and Lithuania east to Alaska, and the time of her reign is considered the Golden Era for the Russian empire and nobility. Her accomplishments are impressive especially considering she lived during the 1700s when women around the world had very few rights.

At the ballet in the Hermitage Theater.

I visited Catherine the Great’s Palace during my stopover in St. Petersburg. The Palace is located about 45 minutes from STP and the long-ish bus ride didn’t disappoint. The Palace continues the seemingly standard baroque style of St. Petersburg and is enormous (I’m learned that everything in Russia is big. If you think things in Texas are big, go to Russia – mind blown). The Palace was damaged quite a bit during World War II and has since been refurbished to resemble how it looked when it was first built. Just when you thought St. Petersburg couldn’t get any gaudier, take a look at the Palace pictures below!

The most amazing room in the Palace is the amber room but because it's so wonderful, you cannot take pictures in this room. The room's interior is basically wallpapered in amber, a gemstone found in the Ural Mountains. The whole room glitters and shines with an orangey-yellow glow. Here's some pictures of the amber room for your viewing pleasure.

Continuing on with the Catherine the Great theme, I also attended a ballet in St. Petersburg in the Hermitage Theater which was Catherine’s favorite theater. Just in case you’re interested, Catherine always sat in the seventh row. I missed the opportunity to sit in Catherine’s seat but nonetheless, the ballet “Swan Lake” was very good.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about St. Petersburg as much as I enjoyed visiting. This blog may mark the end of my St. Petersburg posts. We’ll see if I can come up with anything else about STP and if not, I’ll move on to my next country visited: Stockholm, Sweden!