Saint Petersburg, Russia: We went ashore last night to see ballet - Swan Lake - performed at a nice old theater. It wasn’t a premier company but still very competent, nobody takes ballet more seriously than Russians. The orchestra did a decent job of Tchaikovsky, the costumes were first class, it was a nice evening.
The bus ride from the mooring to the theater was interesting and took over a half hour. We drove past the Hermitage museum and several glorious lighted public buildings, one of which somewhat resembled Bernini’s arcing courtyard of columns at the Vatican.
Old St. Petersburg is modeled on Paris, with a few wide waterways thrown in for flavor. Most of the buildings are 3-4 stories high, and have a large footprint. It is relatively clean, relatively maintained, and because most residents use public transport and don’t own cars, the traffic isn’t hideous.
St. Petersburg is as far north as Churchill, Manitoba, on the shores of Hudson Bay; roughly 450 miles south of the Arctic Circle. Midsummer nights are quite short at these latitudes. In August we are too late for the White Nights St. Petersburg is known for, they happen in June and early July.
Nevertheless we saw people sitting on the grass in parks in the dark as we were coming home around 11 p.m. Our guide said people just like being outside when the weather is warm and not wet, so it isn’t just the White Nights thing we had surmised. This far north the “window” for sitting outdoors is realtively short, I’m guessing it will end in a couple of weeks.
