Tough Guys

I don't know why I find this so funny, but every few days when I am walking through the main square I see the same "gang" of young people socializing and playing hackysack. This group appears to be a tougher crowd, they wear a lot of leather, dark colors, combat boots and probably fit the international stereotypes around the "too cool for school" group of teenagers or young 20-somethings. But what I find absolutely hilarious is that they all ride mopeds , a.k.a Vespas. You know the 50-100cc vehicles that the yuppie, urban environmentally conscious young person would commute to work on in the western Europe or maybe even in some communities in the states. I almost can't look at their "oh so tough" gestures and mannerisms and take them seriously as they fire up their ride with the high pitched whine of a two cycle engine...

Victory Day

The Banners were hung.

The stage was set.The facades were displayed.The parade route was blocked off.

This view below is from the front of my apartment, It took me about a quarter mile detour and 15 minutes to get to my destination to watch the parade. My destination was the roof of the greenish building on the left of the picture, no more than 100 yards from my apartment, Talk about a long detour just to cross the canal.The morning weather was glorious.

(May or may not be Mother Natures sole doing , to read what Wiki says about cloud-seeding which forces rain in certain locations to temporarily prevent it in others then click here.)The Military Equipment was staged for the Parade. We curious Onlookers assumed our positions to view the Parade.

Thanks to some Victory day parade veterans I found a perch on top of one of the hotels across the canal from our apartment, it was a great view. The Soldiers, Sailors and Public Servants of many kinds marched and proudly counted their cadence.The Veterans proudly displayed their medals.In the Afternoon the clouds threatened,and it did actually rain on our Parade.The Parade continued regardless.

The crowds chanted the words Victory and cheered the trucks of soldiers and socialist alike.

(The sign says "We remember your heroic deed , Russian Soldiers")

I even got to see a T-34 on display in the center square.

The Torches were lit.

(apparently this only happens three days a year)

The day of celebration closed with fireworks over the river. It was an intriguing experience for me to watch, I think I can only vaguely compare the holiday to the 4th of July in the states, but with a lot more emotion, as some of the veterans who experienced the suffering that the war brought to this city are still alive, and their stories resonate with the citizens of the city. If you ever get the chance to see the Vicotry day celebrations in St Petersburg, I highly recommend it.

Victory in Europe day Parade Practice

The parade route runs right in front of my apartment and into the main square behind my apartment, as I type I am listening to the canons and marching grunts of the soldiers, I have not taken pictures but here is a link to someone who has. Its like when we were kids and we would see the Soviet Missle launchers and tanks parade across Red Square on the Nightly News, except I can't turn this off. Linked here is a photo collection from last years parade, some of the pictures are from Moscows parade as well. Pretty Cool, eh?

Пискарёвское мемориа́льное кла́дбище

Over the weekend I made my way to the Пискарёвское мемориальное кладбище you can see what Wiki has to say about the cemetery by clicking on the link above or you can go to the cemetery's official site here. My opinion may be skewed because I live in the city center and have to see all the parade rehearsals for Victory in Europe day but I am amazed at how much of a big deal this holiday is here. Of course when you think about it and imagine the lack of words fit to describe the depravity suffered by the citizens of Leningrad during the siege the significance of the holiday makes a little more sense. The cemetery is not the only one where victims of the siege were buried, but it is the largest. It holds roughly 500,000 of the estimated 1.2 - 2 Million victims of the siege. Arguably the battle of Stalingrad 42-43 produced more casualties, but did not drag on for almost three years with the utter demoralization of the population that occurred at Leningrad.
The memorial was finished in 1960, and was built over the 186 Mass graves that were dug in a gravel pit during the war. Below is a picture of the entrance.Here is the view from the entrance, up front you can see an eternal flame, on the right is one of the mass grave markers and in the distance you can barely see the statue of Mother Russia at the other end of the memorial grounds Below are pictures of the grave markers, the ones marked with the stars symbolize that the grave contains soldiers of the Red Army, the hammer and sickle symbolizes civilian casulaties.Like most monuments and memorials in Russia I was struck by the shear enormity of the graves, look at how far they extend. I know 500,000 victims is hard to imagine. I think today on CNN the pandemic alert is out for a couple hundred swine flu deaths worldwide, I am certainly not marginalizing the fate of victims of this disease, but trying to imagine the suffering of this city.Here is the statue of Mother Russia, holding a garland of oak and laurel leaves. All throughout the cemetary funeral music plays over loudspeakers to hep set the somber tone.

Behind the statue on a wall are inscribed some words, the first paragraph is pictured below, the translation is below the picture.

Here lies Leningraders
Here are the Townspeople (residents), Men Women, Children.
Besides them the Red Army soldiers
With their entire lives
They defended you Leningrad,
cradle of the revolution.
Number their noble names here we cannot
So many there are under the eternal granite guard
But know when honoring these stones
No one and nothing is forgotten.
Engravings on the wall behind the statue.

Soldiers maintain the grounds, I couldn't resist snapping a picture of this one with his water bucket.

File this picture under "so many things cross all boundaries." If I had a dollar for everytime I saw a soldier with a rake I would be able to bail out chrysler..

Long walk

With Nikki off on her business trip I took advantage of some great weather this weekend to walk and explore the city. With Victory in Europe day fast approaching I thought it a good time to make the trek to Piskarevskoe Cemetery, a solemn memorial on the northeast side of the city where approximately a half million of the estimated 2 million victims of the siege of Leningrad are buried in mass graves. After looking at the maps I though I could make it to the cemetery in a morning walk and then walk a little ways back and take the metro the rest of the way home, I should have re-evaluated my own walking motivation. Some of you will remember the last time I competed in an army ruckmarch competition it didn't work out well for my foot (see photo of foot here). But that was with full gear and weapon etc. etc. So I set off at about 9 in the morning and met this blockade out my front door...

You see there was a race course with runners sprinting at top speed, as they run around the corner they cross right in front of our exit onto the street. The race coordinators were so kind as to put up red and white tape across my exitway, so getting out the front door was a lot like playing frogger with really fast people.After about two hours of walking I noticed that the outskirts of the city on the "Vyborg" side are fairly suburban with lots of parks spread out among industrial factory sights.And their was a stark contrast between the very beautiful architecture of the older center city and the utilitarian architecture of most of the housing in the burbs..

Also, some truths cross all boundaries, here are construction workers that I walked past twice, separated by about an hour for each pass, much like construction workers all over the world, why work when their is a pretty park, and a deck of cards....Anyhow I walked for about 2 and a half hours and realized I was still easily an hour from my destination, so I turned back and walked about another half hour to the closest metro stop and took advantage of public transportation to get home, I made a new plan to take the metro as far as I could and then walk the remaining hour or so to get to the cemetery the next day and that worked out much better, My next post topic will be the cemetery itself, after I finally made it all the way there with a little help from the metro.

International Workers Day

Today is the International Workers day holiday in most of the world so it is a day off from school for me, which gives me an excuse to walk around (in the brilliant sun none the less) and snap a few photos. For the festivities the roads downtown are largely closed today, which it is a good thing that Nikki's school informed her of that fact early in the day otherwise I might have been trapped on the other side of town grocery shopping this morning.

First and foremost the festivities here for the holiday were marked by a very large police presence, I did not take pictures of them mulling about with their paddy wagons and get back sticks as quite frankly they scare me. But I did see these hoses set up right next to a large police presence and thought, oh my gosh they have the spray cannons ready to go, this international workers day might get messy, or at least wet....

Once I got closer to the hoses I realized that they were actually connected to these buses, and not the police vehicles, at which point I realized these were public toilets, Wow, that is surprisingly civilized. (For those of you unfamiliar with the Russian alphabet, the sign below clearly says toilet)

Speaking of hygiene one Advantage to most of the downtown roads being temporarily closed for traffic is that it gives the street cleaners a chance to get on the roads in the daylight. Check out this charge of the brush brigade....

The labor movement must have something going with the weather Gods, as I don't think I have seen the sky this clear and blue yet in St Petersburg, what a beautiful day.


Here is a picture of a public rally of some sort developing off the main square, I kept hearing the words "economic crises" over the loudspeaker and decided it not a good idea to get to close with my camera as It doesn't take too many looks at me for me to be identified as a foreigner.

Some young workers showing their pride.


Now as at most toruisty type places people like to take pictures of themsleves posing in front of the touristy destination. We have seen lots of different poses in the center square. From the routine....
To the cute...

To the a little odd,,,,

To the just plain strange... I mean really is this rollerblader trying to get his girlfriend to take a picture of the Hermitage with his legs as the border of the picture,,, I mean really?

Well anyhow I think the large number of tourboats back in the canal should be our sign that good weather is here for a while, so we will certainly enjoy it while we can...