Mullen Mania: Russian Rendezvous part 1

The next port we stopped at was St. Petersburg, Russia, where we spent 2 days! We were super lucky to have good weather since they only get 30 days of sunshine a year and we had a day and a half of sunshine! Russia was different because you either had to have a Visa or be with a tour group...no going out on your own! You could get arrested and stuck there for a long time, which = no bueno. So we had lots of tours booked so that we could see as much as possible.

Our first outing was to the Hermitage museum with a visit to the Gold Room (a special part of the museum). Boarding the bus at the port and starting our drive, these are the types of apartments we saw (which we later found out were "luxury"):

They were built during the Soviet period, so they were built very utilitarian. New buildings nearby looked just as depressing and sad.
Many of the cars were old, the city buses were rusted out, and everything looked to be at least 30 years old, as if nothing had been done since then. It was really strange.

Then more into the city, we found that the buildings that were built before the Revolution of 1917 had beautiful architecture, and the ones that had been taken care of were amazing. Things built after that were not so nice, or others had fallen into disrepair. Here are some of the pretty buildings we saw on our drive around the city:

There Hermitage museum is a large museum where we could have spent hours, probably days, but we had a short tour, so we flew through it! It's housed in the former Winter Palace as well as many other buildings, so of course it's beautiful!

Just beware walking up to it! Safety doesn't seem to be as big of a concern here, as any construction, holes, or anything are blocked off. I almost stepped into a foot and half deep hole of broken glass, right outside the museum!

Inside we saw art by Michaelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Rubens, Da Vinci, El Greco, and more.
Chris was ecstatic to see the painting "Prodigal Son" by Rembrandt. (Not pictured below!)

We quickly saw a REAL mummy that had been uncovered! We weren't allowed to take pictures though...it was kinda creepy! The museum had many fun exhibits and the parquet floors of the museum were incredible! (I'm guessing because it's the former palace).

We couldn't take any pictures of stuff in the Gold Room, but the most amazing things were Empress Elizabeth's jewelry and ornamentation for her dresses. She had a different bejeweled piece made for each dress and she had over 15,000 dresses!!! We also saw some artifacts from the 4th millenium BC (a thousand years older than the Egyptian pyramids)! They were some oxen that carried poles on their backs to hold up a small, small, tent (or temple)! So cool! We saw a horse blanket with more than 32,000 diamonds in it!

Next we took a canal tour. At night the bridges come up so that large boats can get through, so you may get stuck on an island for the night. Our guide said you make friends on the various islands that make up the city!