Peter, Part II
. . . I strongly advise you to go to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, built on the site of the death of Alexander II. It is not active, but it works as a museum (250 rubles). An impressive tour! Nearby is the Mikhailovsky Garden, where you can take a walk and relax under the canopy of old trees It also houses the building of the Russian Museum. Next to the Mikhailovsky Garden is the Mikhailovsky Castle (one of the wings of the castle is infamous - Tsar Pavel I was killed in it).
Go to the Kazan Cathedral (near the Gostiny Dvor metro station) - an amazing sight, a very unusual building! Opposite you will see the Singer manufactory (the architecture will not leave you indifferent).
Go to the Smolny Monastery (church-palace): Elizabeth I lived out her days in it, so the grandeur of the buildings is appropriate!
On Nevsky Prospect there is a whole series of Catholic, Lutheran churches, the Armenian Church (in the style of the Tsarskoye Selo Palace and the Smolny Cathedral, probably designed by Rastrelli : ))
And don’t be too lazy to go to the Smolensk cemetery! Pushkin’s nanny, Arina Rodionovna, is buried there, but what is more important for us Ukrainians, Taras Shevchenko was buried there (which is reminiscent of a stone block at the foot of the cemetery church), and only after he was reburied in Kanev. But the main thing for which they go to this cemetery is the chapel of Blessed Xenia (a woman with a difficult fate, who performs many miracles both during life and after death! ) Go there. Even the biggest skeptics felt an unusual energy near the chapel!
As for souvenirs (what to bring):
They bring a lot of sweets. Their chocolate is not bad, but very expensive. I was advised to buy Hermitage branded sweets in a briefcase and weighed with portraits of sovereigns in the Hermitage (because there are none else like it anywhere else! ) Do not do this! Such loose candies can be bought twice cheaper in the company stores of the Krupskaya factory (on Vosstaniya street - metro station Vosstaniya square, on Zagorodny avenue - Dostoevskaya / Vladimirskaya metro station). (the difference is this: in the Hermitage a briefcase costs 220 rubles, in a supermarket they bought it for 121 rubles : )). ), you won’t meet separate ones, like in Kyiv (Silpo, Furshet, etc. ). True, there are a lot of Soviet-style grocery stores on the streets, but it was dumb to buy food in them, and the prices in the market are lower. Now, about the prices , they are two to two and a half times higher than in Kiev. But one could swallow it too (in Europe we calmly react to this! : )), but the quality of the products is inferior to ours by an order of magnitude !! ! so the brain is indignant every time at the checkout: for what? ! : ))
I also advise you to visit the porcelain store of the Imperial Factory on Vladimirsky Prospekt (Vladimirskaya metro station). The prices will scare you right away, but when you pick up such a cup, your heart stops. 660 rubles), and we do not regret when we see every morning with what reverence and pleasure my mother makes tea from her.
For lovers of magnets. We saw the most expensive ones in Peterhof (100 rubles). In Tsarskoye Selo (50 rubles). And in the hotel we bought for 40 rubles. So think : ) Yes, here's another thing, there are souvenir shops around the city (we went to one, opposite Pushkin's house on the Moika). There are discounts and you can bargain, and souvenirs for every taste!
Here, perhaps, is all. In general, great impressions! Especially fell on the soul of Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhof! Peter pleased me less (he looks very much like a merchant’s wife, who on a holiday put on herself not only a dress made of gold brocade, but also all the available diamonds... No, you know, some kind of sophistication of the noble, intelligence, about which we so much read, heard, and which I was looking for there all week... )