Russian Washing Machines and Top Pie of Life

Just back from a nice dinner at the Grand Cafe - Nick's apple pie was the best he'd ever had and he asked me to tell the waiter so.  I rendered this as something along the lines of 'top pie of life' (самый лучший пирог в жизни).  Nice few minutes spent figuring out the Russian washing machine in the flat.  It worked, but if only we'd put the soap in the right compartment...

The Great Synagogue

Quick change of denomination.  The entrance to this on Lermontovskiy Prospect was rather forbidding – security cameras, guards – so in the foyer, noticing two people, I said I was a tourist from England and asked if I could see the Prayer Hall.  One of them – a man – ushered me in, telling me to take a photograph, to take a photograph of the bimah, that he would take a photograph of me.  He then escorted me personally to the gift shop, which turned out to sell Jewish matrioshkas and marshmallow fluff.  It was a very warm welcome indeed.

Candy City

St. Petersburg is the city of confectionery colours:  the spearmint-green of the Hermitage, the ice-blue of the Smolny Cathedral, the raspberry of Alexander Nevsky Monastery, the inky-blue of the Trinity Cathedral, the orange of the Smolny Institute, the pale-green of the Marinsky Theatre, the yellow of the Peter & Paul Cathedral.  Sweetshop Town.

Nabokov Museum

And finally, hot and tired, along Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa to no.  45 and the Nabokov Museum.  I read again from Speak, Memory the passage about the chrysanthemum petal falling and imagined young Vladimir looking out of the window, hoping his tutor’s sleigh would not materialise.

St. Nicholas’s Cathedral of the Epiphany

A hot walk along canals to the next Cathedral, swapping deep-blue for ice-blue.  There’s a point on Glinka Ulitsa where you can see the two together.

Anna Akhmatova Museum

 On by metro to the Scheremetov Palace and the Anna Akhmatova Museum, which took some finding (“Далее!  Далее!”).  Akhmatova’s former “House on the Fontanka” consists of a few rooms painted toilet-green, bare and cold.  I stopped in the one described as “Комната Ахматовой” (“Akhmatova’s Room”) and imagined the meeting she had there with Isaiah Berlin.  She entered their conversation with her whole being, she wrote afterwards, and could not later remember whether they discussed death or poetry.  The photographs now left on the mirror are strangely transparent, so that you can look at yourself right through them.

Trinity Cathedral

Back to the metro to the Technological Institute and a walk to the Trinity Cathedral.  The deep-blue domes, covered in gold stars, are inspirational from a distance.  Of all the cathedrals I saw today, I liked this one best, because of the beautiful Trinity iconostasis over the Royal Doors.

Alexander Nevsky Monastery

Managed a bit of the way by bus!  V proud!  This is a wonderful, tranquil oasis: no photos possible, sudden silence as you enter.  I first visited the Tikhvin Cemetery and saw the graves of Dostoevsky, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Glinka, Balakirev and our favourite portrait painter Serov.  Dappled light between the trees.  Then through the grounds to the Cathedral, passing a very old priest being helped along the path.  The place where you buy holy bread was somewhat disappointing (“Нет хлеба! Хлеб будет завтра!”).  Behind the Cathedral is the tangled Nicholas cemetery and the Metropolitan’s House.  By a stroke of luck, I discovered the monastery café and had an excellent borsch and the best пирог I’ve so far tasted.

Smolny

I set off on foot, munching a poppy-seed twist, past the Tauride Gardens, to the Smolny Convent, Cathedral and Institute.  The Institute is of particular interest as I've read of it in such works as John Reed's Ten Days That Shook the World - basically, it was the Revolution's HQ for a while (having been founded as an educational establishment for 'honourable young ladies') and where people like Reed were given their passes.  There's a statue of Lenin in the middle of the grounds and a fleet of sleek black Nissans outside.

Lenin in the Smolny Institute Gardens

The Day of the Locust

Nick took the day off from sight-seeing to catch up on work, so I went at it alone.  Result: 4 cathedrals, 2 monasteries, 2 literary museums, 1 synagogue, 2 exhausted legs ("the strings have gone, Dmitri").