Havighurst Trip to Russia: May 15-June 8
May 16: We arrive in Moscow early afternoon and check into the Rossia Hotel. Before dinner we take our first stroll through Red Square in front of the Kremlin Wall, site of Lenin's Tomb, St. Basil's Cathedral, the great shopping Arcades (GUM), the History Museum and many other beautiful historical buildings, including the arcades built by Yeltsin, where we have our first Russian pivo.
May 17: We tour St. Basil's Cathedral and take a bus tour southwest of the center of town, to the Sparrow Hills overlook. In the afternoon, we walk though the Arbot area, a beautiful pedestrian enclave, where we see the house of Melnikov, the great early Soviet constructivist, and meet his son who still lives there. We lunch at the Mu Mu and have dinner at a Mongolian Grill--apologies to Michelle and Becky, who were not into the pork hearts and liver.
May 18: We take a tour of the Kremlin, past many important Soviet buildings to the earlier monuments and cathedrals (This is Madness!), and finally to the Armory, which displays art and wealth from the imperial period. In the afternoon we have a VIP tour of MosFilm, the Hollywood of Russia, where we see the set of Old Moscow used in Rider of the Night, and visit numerous production studios. In the evening Yana and I go to the Bolshoi Theatre to see Verdi's Nabucco. Flushed with excitement we order French instead of Russian champagne with our caviar during the second intermission, sending us scurrying to the ATM.
May 19: A trip to the beautiful Tretiakov Art Museum, showing Russian art though the 19th Century. We then walked to the House on the Embankment, a famous early modern apartment building where many Soviet officials lived, and from which they were sometimes yanked out of bed during the Stalin era. The small museum features an apartment with much original furniture and a display about Theophano, the author of the short story about the building that gave it its nickname. The museum curator is the author's widow. Next we meet with former prime minister Gaidar, the author of Shock Therapy for the post-soviet economy, followed by dinner at the Irish pub, another form of shock therapy..
May 20: A rainy day at the famous monastery complex at Sergiev Posad in the outskirts of Moscow. More churches and more madness. Sergio and I bail out of the bus ride home and look at some outstanding examples of modern architecture from the post revolutionary period, as well as earlier and later architecture in the area. On the way back to the hotel, the light in red square compels us to take more pictures there. Yana organizes dinner at the Georgian restaurant where, according to the bill, we max out. With a metro like the one in Moscow, why would anyone ride a bus?
May 21: Disasster strikes in the kitchen and there is no coffee for breakfast. On top of that, we discover the one thing wrong with Russian weather. Sergio, Bill, Steve and I bail out of the trip to the Noveidicth Monastery and go to the Museum of History near the Kremlin. A beautiful building with a nice chronological exhibit. Later the sun comes out and we do a walk through Kitai Gorod, an older neighborhood near the Kremlin with buildings from various periods and styles. We learn about turning the corners, rustication and "fast" buildings, among other things. The afternoon trip to Kolomenskoe is sheer madness. Moscow traffic deprives our tour guide of her wits and she begins telling ethnic jokes. What is to be done? We bail and take the metro to the Gypsy theatre, which words cannot describe nor pictures capture. Michelle and John demonstrate various yoga positions for sleeping upright. From the theatre we head to the train station for our overnight journey to St. Petersburg.
May 22: Early morning arrival in St. Petersburg on a sunny day. Oh baby! After settling into our new digs, we take a city bus tour and then visit Peter's fortress, inside which we see a baroque church and a spartan prison.
May 23: We take off for Petredroverts, Peter the Great's country home near St. Petersburg. We spend most of our time enjoying the beautiful fountains and gardens, and tour the palace. In the evening we eat, put on our best clothes and go to the Philharmonic to hear Prokofiev Piano Concerto #2 and Brahms Symphony #1.
May 24: Over to St. Petersburg University for an architecture lecture by Sergio. A tour of the campus by a linguistics grad student, then off to the canal boat ride. The sun comes out just long enough for us to believe it is summer. Woo Hoo! The students organize a champagne and caviar evening, after which we play charades: faculty vs. students. We discover that out students have somehow transcended teen angst without reading Dostoevsky. Among many others we witness moving renditions of War and Peace and Englebert Humperdink.
May 25: A good night's sleep! It's gonna be a great day! Tamara's lecture on 18th C. culture followed by a trip to the Hermitage Museum, for a lightening tour of the collection. I go to the Classical collection briefly, after which we have lunch in the Hermitage Cafe. In the evening we go to the Mariinsky Theatre to see the ballet Bayadere, for which we have excellent seats (perhaps not everyone agrees). Afterwards we go out for Sushi.
May 26: A nice lecture on 19th C. revolutionary figures and movements, followed by a trip to The House of Curiosities, featuring some really weird stuff, particularly those in which Peter the Great was interested. After lunch at the University, some go to the exhibition of the Meaning of the Motherland; Sergio and I go to the Narva Gate area which boasts some of the best utopian architecture in the Soviet Union. This "Workers" Paradise" includes the Univermag and Mass Kitchen, where the proletariat could eat while the women went to work, the Stachek State School, where the proletariat could become literate, the The Housing project across from the school where they could live, the House of Culture, where they could have access to propaganda, and the Narva Gate District Soviet. No more palaces and churches, these modernist buildings are where it's at! In the evening we go to an exclusive musical event at the Mariinsky Palace where we hear Vivaldi's Four Seasons on a Stradivarius violin. Then dinner at the Idiot Cafe and a powerwalk home.
May 27: A lecture on Russian realist art, especially Ripon, whose house near the Finnish border we visit in the afternoon. A late night sauna at our hotel (no pictures!) with pizza delivered by Sergei, Anna's boyfriend.
May 28: A great lecture on Russian literature followed by a trip to the Russian Museum to view Russian art from the beginnings (not quite the beginning: we go right past the icons) to the modern period. afterward a quick trip the the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood, where Alexander II was finally assassinated after eight attempts. The bad kids escape the tour and go to the Summer Gardens where a brass band is playing, then to the new microbrewry Tinkhoff, for dinner, somehow leaving Bill behind. "Don't you know about irony?"
May 29: An early morning departure to Novgorod the Great, a three hour distance from St. Petersburg. This site is the real beginning of Russia. We visit some churches, of course, have honey mead for lunch, and visit the wooden architecture museum, which features many interesting wooden structures brought here from the Russian countryside. Back in St. Petersburg, we have dinner at the Magreb restaurant, which served olives of a kind never seen in the real Magreb.
May 30: I am beginning to get a little homesick. Although I am uncertain about the trip to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery and Graveyard, I go anyway because the amber Jewelry place is on the agenda later, but first we go to the Lomonosov porcelain museum and outlet store, where everyone but me buys something, so we never get to the amber jewelry--Doh!. It is ladies" night in the sauna, but afterwards the charades game does not materialize.
May 31: Some of us decide to bail out of the program for today on the Siege of Leningrad. Sergio takes me to some 19th C. neighborhoods up Kamennoostrovsky Prospect on the Petrograd Side. After viewing the last of the great early Soviet projects in SP, the Karpovka Housing Block for the Leningrad Soviet (1931-4), Sergio sends me back on the metro alone. I have to get on next to the great Soviet mistakes and transfer. Yikes! Who's watching my back? Bill and I shop by the Cathedral of the Spilt Blood until I achieve amber myopia. A late night faculty discussion of our pet peeves over cold pizza.
June 1: This is fine arts day. We go to a studio of the Art Conservatory and meet with Felix, an avant-garde artist who shows us his latest stuff. Many in our group buy an original piece of art from him for peanuts. Then we go to the Ballet Conservatory for a tour and an observation of a ballet class. Next, we visit the Ethnography Museum over in Theatre Square.. In the evening the faculty go to a performance of Glinka's Life of the Tsar at the Mariinsky, a very interesting cultural experience. It is about love and the Tsar. Someone yells "Pajara" (Fire!) during a bizarre ballet scene that seems to be mocking the "new Russians."
June 2: A second lecture on the revolutionary movement in Russia; then an excursion to Pushkin, Catherine the Great's palace, to see why the revolutionaries were so angry: a beautiful place with a beautiful garden. Most of it was destroyed in WWII. Dinner at the Chinese restaurant on Nevsky (ho hum) and a nice late night walk up the Fontanka, where it is still bright at midnight.
June 3: The second lecture on Russian literature, all about Dostoevsky. Then we take a tour of the Dostoevsky Museum and a tour around the St. Petersburg of Raskalnikov with our tour guide Marina. We even see Dostoevsky's Great-Grandson. Afterwards, we go the Music Conservatory, from which Tchaikovsky graduated, among others. We see a voice lesson and then part of the group goes to a communal dinner arranged by Tamara. Yana and I agree to take the tickets of Mike and John, and go to the Mariinsky to meet the Novgorod group, but it is the wrong night, so we end up buying tickets from a scalper. We see a review of Balanchine ballet productions: Apollon, The Prodigal Son, and Tchaikovsky's Serenade. Once again we get great seats (Merci la France). The rendezvous at Tinkhoff sees many MIAs who are prey to cat allergy. However, for those who endure there is clarification through wasabi.
June 4: The final lecture of the series on Putin. Then we go to Smolny, a former girls' school where Lenin set up headquarters shortly after the revolution. We meet with the Minister of Education and Culture there. The dinner plan is to meet the Novgorod students at a restaurant, but after waiting 45 minutes, we bail and take a canal boat trip before heading to Tinkhoff's for dinner.
June 5: A bus trip to Kronstadt, a naval installation most prominent for being the site of a famous counter-revolutionary revolt in 1921. A relaxing day before going to our farewell dinner, where there were toasts and goodbyes. Mike and John head off to Novgorod in the morning; Bill heads to Munich. The two Steves head out with Dan to track down the gay scene in Saint Petersburg; after much wandering we end up at --Tinkhoffs! but too late for food. One of the Steves executes an inelegant face plant just before closing.
June 6: The students set new records in sleep deprivation. We do some more shopping for amber and porcelain, witness some Gypsy attacks, have lunch at Chilly Billy and then head to the Music Conservatory for a performance of Swan Lake, which is our swan song to music and theatre in Russia.
June 7: Our final day in Saint Petersburg. We gather food for a picnic in Petrodverts, but delays in getting hydrofoil tickets (not helped in the least by the surly woman at the ticket booth) compel us to wolf down our food on the ride over. Nevertheless, we enjoy a nice sunny day in the gardens and fountains. back in the city, we have beef Stroganov at the Stroganov Palace and pack up for the morning departure.
June 8: The faculty, who have treated their hotel personnel well, get breakfast and coffee from Anna. The students get nothing and are surly. We meet Ricardo in Paris and no one gets lost or sick on the way home, particularly those who take Steve Norris' advice. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their summer! See you in the fall.
