Ringing in the New Year

I'm glad people are reading and enjoying the posts of our trip.  Thanks for your kind comments!  Sadly, this is the penultimate post of the Russia-Finland chronicles, as the trip, much like the entire year of 2012, flew by.  At the time, we couldn't believe that New Year's Eve had rolled around so quickly. 

St. Petersburg has so many beautiful cathedrals that I knew I wanted to add as many as possible to my sightseeing list.  For some churches, we had the pleasure of seeing them both during the day and at night.

We first saw the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, or just "Church of the Spilled Blood," one of the most famous cathedrals in St. Petersburg.  The church was built on the very spot that Tsar Alexander II was assassinated -- hence the name.  With its richly decorated facade and colorful onion domes, it reminded me of a gingerbread house.  No longer providing any services, this cathedral charges a rather hefty fee to go inside, so we opted to skip the tour and see the interiors of churches still in use instead.

The backside, which was easier/better for picture taking

St. Isaac's Cathedral is the largest cathedral in the city and also no longer provides services.  We skipped the interior (now a museum) and only went up the Colonnade, to catch some panoramic views of the city: 

We also saw the Kazan Cathedral, which is dedicated to one of Russia's most venerated icons, Our Lady of Kazan.  It was modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.  The Roman influence cannot be denied, especially when you're standing in the eaves of the church, flanked by the soaring Corinthian columns.  Because it is an active church, we could not take any photographs of the interior. 

We circled around the back and immediately noticed the color contrast due to the church's abandonment of further (expensive) conservation efforts.   

Finally, last but not least, we went to see St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, a Baroque Orthodox cathedral near the Marinsky theater.  I was very much struck by the beauty of the church, nestled like a blue and gold jewel in the gleaming white snow and shrouded by the dark trees.  The entire scene felt magical.   

We were very fortunate to catch an evening service here.  In Russian Orthodox churches, there are no pews or chairs as it is deemed disrespectful to sit; instead, the idea is that everyone remains standing as humble worshipers before God.  During this service (it ran well over an hour), tourists were asked to stand behind a wire chain fence and refrain from taking any pictures.  I mourned the inability to capture the gilded interior.  The entire place was illuminated by skinny tapers and shimmering chandeliers, crammed top to bottom with icons and gold, gold glorious gold everywhere one chose to look. A full choir was present, and the high ceilings captured the sonorous baritones and tenors to melancholy perfection.  Michael and I were quite moved by this spiritual experience.

A fruit stick dipped in sugar syrup, bought from the Chinese vendors.  So good!

Aside from all our tours of these churches, we also visited a Christmas market where all kinds of traditional Russian and Caucasian snacks (cheese filled bread, mulled wine, candy apple, pork patties, dumplings, sausages, etc.) and handicrafts were sold.  There, we found a stand run by Chinese vendors (the man took one look at me and asked in Mandarin, "You Chinese?") and had some fun conversing with them in Mandarin.  Their Northern accents were quite pronounced and I enjoyed listening to them switch between Russian and Mandarin.

We had a little bit of time before we boarded our New Year's Eve train back to Moscow, so we spent it wandering around:

St. Isaac's Cathedral lit up at night

Then we headed to the train station, where we boarded the Red Arrow sleeper train bound for Moscow.   As tradition dictated, a train attendant stood outside of each car, and a song was piped over the train station loudspeakers right before departure.

We departed at 11:55 pm, so it was on the train car that we popped our semi-sweet champagne (we used the pretty serious steins the train provided) and lit a couple of sparklers.  As the train sped out of the station, we saw and heard fireworks all over St. Petersburg and the outlying suburbs.