White Nights
I could not sleep. The sun never sets in St. Petersburg during this time of year. It is an interesting experience, but it totally screws with your sleeping patterns. There is also so much poplar pollen in the air...we both had the worst allergic reactions and couldn't breath for the whole week.
Other than this, St. Petersburg is beautiful. Every single building, bridge, statue is a work of art. Dvortsovaya Plaza, the large square in front of the Hermitage is incredible. No, we never made it into the Hermitage. The line-up was always about two hours long wait. But we spent a lot of time there watching a group of pre-pubescent kids dancing what they called "Russian Drum and Base" step.
The most interesting museum was the Kunstkamera, also known as the Museum of Oddities. It is mostly an ethnographic museum with cultural displays from all over the world. It was cool to be able to pass the displays from the countries we visited and say "I've been there, I know all about that". There was, however, one room that scared the crap out of me. Apparently Peter the Great was interested in human anatomy. He collected deformed fetuses which are put into jars of fermaldehyde. I spent many nights dreaming of cyclopes and mermaid babies. I'm getting the shiveries just thinking about it...
We spent two days checking out Pushkin and Peterhof palaces. The newly restored Amber Room in Pushkin was worth the visit alone. The fountains and grounds of Peterhof are a must see. The Baroque decor is so ostentatious, so grandious. All the gold and glitter are so...pretty, for lack of a better word. Gadi was a little mad because he got yell at. He was trying to take a picture of this room when it clearly stated "NO PITURES ALLOW". But everyone else was doing it!
The highlight was a Russian folk show we went to called "Feel Yourself Russian". It was a fun show and they provided champagne, vodka and finger foods with caviar. But this is not why it is the highlight. During the show gadi was pulled up on stage to dance.
August 21st, 2009 - 15:22
Those kids are dancing (called X-outing, amongst other variations) to Pendulum – Blood Sugar, which is classified as Drum & Bass (more specifically Jump-Up DnB for those interested in sub-genres). Funny enough, there’s a debate in the DnB world as to whether they are DnB anymore. Anyways, that song is equivalent to a Britney Spears track in terms of popularity in that particular genre.