Peterhof

Like any good visitor to Saint Petersburg, I made a trip out to Peterhof Palace last weekend. Just getting to Peterhof was an adventure in itself as its mabye 50 km out of town in the countryside. Luckily I went with some friends who had been before, phew! First we took the metro - the station we got off at was called Avtovo Stantsiya and was pretty incredible - all done up in bombastic high Stalinist style as a shrine to the war dead of the Great Patriotic War, with roman columns, mosaics, chandeliers, and all sorts of heroic figures marching about on the wallswith red banners flying and shouting exclamated slogans. After the metro we got a ride in a marshrutka, which are strange little vans that act like buses and run regular routes but can stop on request anywhere like taxis. They're cheap and very fast, as they just zip through traffic, and everywhere in this city!

Peterhof is a gigantic Versailles-type palace surrounded by acres and acres (and acres!) of parkland, fountains, majestic promenades, and numerous smaller palaces and pavilions. We actually didnt go in the main palace as my friends were so disgusted that it would have cost us 150 rubles as foreign students, compared to 15 rubles only for Russian students! Even 150 R is only about $6 Canadian, but it was the principal of the matter! Plus there was alot to see anyways. Behind the palace is the famous Main Cascade, with all sorts of gilded figures and fountains everywhere, and unfortunately, huge crowds of tourists. I dunno.. Peterhof in general was nice to walk around on such a sunny day, but it wasn't really all that interesting. For one thing, it was way too crowded (you couldnt walk 10 steps without getting in the way of someone taking the hundredth million generic snapshot of the place) and so commercial, with new fees to visit each building and souvenir hawkers everywhere, that it really turned me off. Besides, I'm not much impressed by extravagant gold leaf and baroque decorating, it's way too overdone. I'd be much happier visiting some grim Stalinist monster building, a battlefield, or a ruined castle! Also, basically everything at Peterhof was just a reconstruction, as it had all been sadly destroyed during the war, like so many things. Everything there looked a little too perfect and although the reconstruction was well done, the place just didnt feel authentic. A little disappointing...

My favourite thing was Peter the Great's modest pavilion, called Mon Plaisir, which he used for entertaining guests privately. It was a really cute little building with just a few cozy rooms all done up in dark wood-panelling, with a very maritime theme, (Peter was obsessed with ships) and a great view through large windows of the Gulf of Finland. There were also trick fountains outside disguised like benches that would spray the unsuspecting visitor who sat down - apparently Peter had a good sense of humour!