Fact

Here are some interesting facts about St. Petersburg. In 1917, St. Petersburg had a population of 2.5 million. By 1920 at the end of the Revolution and civil war, there were only 600,000 people in St. Petersburg. By 1941 there were 3.4 million people in St. Petersburg, but by January 1944, at the end of the 872 day Nazi siege on St. Petersburg, during which over 1 million civilians died and many others escaped the city, there were again only about 600,000 people left in the city. Today the city has about 4.6 million people and is the fifth largest city in Europe, after Moscow, Istanbul, Paris, and London. During the 20th century St. Petersburg's name has been changed from St. Petersburg to Petrograd to Leningrad and back to St. Petersburg.

I hope you all enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend. It was a beautiful morning and I enjoyed taking a morning run through all the parks around my apartment. These morning runs are part of my training to try to run the length of Manhattan by the end of the year (Inwood to Battery Park). Though maybe I’ll bump that back to next year. I’ll have to either make really quick progress so that I can do the run in the fall, or I will end up doing that really long run when it’s really cold outside.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day. After work I went back to the Isaakievskiy Cathedral, both to go up on the outside of the dome and to go inside. I carefully questioned the lady at the ticket booth about closing times and whether I would have time to do both, and after she reassured me that I would, I bought tickets to do both (about $10 each). I went up on the dome first, since that closed first. It was a nice view. I think it’s always fun to see cities from above.

This is looking towards the Winter Palace (the big greenish building). The gold spires are from the Admiralty and the Peter and Paul Cathedral on the other side of the river. You really have to click on the picture to make it big to see what I'm talking about.

This one is looking across Isaakievskiy Square towards the Mariinskiy Palace at the other end of the square. The Palace now houses city government offices.

When I got down from the dome, about twenty minutes after buying my tickets, the cathedral was already closed! I went and talked to the lady that had sold them to me, explaining what had happened, but they have a no refunds policy and she was not very helpful. It tried hard not to let a wasted $12 taint my evening, but it was hard.

I walked a little more and stopped by the famous statue of Peter the Great on his horse. I’ve been meaning to walk to it all week, and today I finally made it.

It was nice to eat dinner at home tonight, instead of at a restaurant, and I have so much more free time before bed than I usually do because I didn’t have to spend time in a restaurant.

For those who are curious, my new niece now has a name—Suzannah Rae. I like it.