Friday in St. Petersburg

Some more pictures from around town:

Hard to translate the second word here, rodnoi. It means roughly "Trust our national bread!" In the U.S. the equivalent would be, "You can trust American bread."

  This is a chain of photo stores. We used to develop all our film at one of their stores near our apartment. I think they mostly do printing now.

 Art supply store on Nevsky where I bought a lot of my art supplies back in the day.

 "Passage" (You have to say it the French way) This is where we bought the cross Helen wears, and some other jewelry as well.

 The famous Eliseevski store, across Nevsky from the Russian National Library where I did research for my dissertation in the 90s.

One of the famous horses on the Anichkov Bridge over the Fontanka River.

Not sure what this building is now, but it still bears the sign of the Society for the Propagation of Christian Enlightenment. (I think that's what it said. It's too small to read, and I'm in a hurry before I leave to catch my train.)

A new building on the Petrograd Side ("our" island) evoking the older style of the city.

The Boris Eifman Dance Academy where Bradn and Natasha's son Martin attends.

 More of the Eifman Academy

We were planning on eating at this cafeteria, but it was not to be.

Another view of the Eifman Academy facade.

Martin joined us for coffee and pastry

The new building of Anglo-American School where our children attended. I stopped by for a visit, but they were closed on Friday for some reason.

The Peter and Paul Fortress from the Petrogranskaya embankment.

The fortress church where most of the rulers of the Imperial period of Russian history are buried.

Another view of the iconic church.

The Birzhevoi (Stock Exchange) Bridge from Vasilii Island to the Petrograd Side.

Couldn't stop taking pictures of the fortress.

 Zebra crossing in front of what used to be the Naval Museum, formerly the stock exchange.

 Lion keystone on one of the university buildings on the Strelka.

Pidgeons in flight toward the same building.

Playing with Spanish and Russian words. "House of Meat" Casa del Miaso sounds better somehow.

Back side of the former stock exchange.

Strolling through the Strelka on my way to the archbishop's  apartment where I was staying.

 Church of St. Andrew "the first-called" (That's what they call St. Andrew here, since according to John's gospel he was the first disciple to be called by Jesus.

Andreevskii Dvor on Vasilievski Island

Lutheran Church of St. Michael, where we attended English services during our first two years in St. Petersburg.

Another view of St. Michael's Lutheran Church at sunset with the moon in the background.

St. Petersburg

Since I had the option, I flew into St. Petersburg just to reconnect with the city we lived in from 1999 to 2003, the year it celebrated its 300th anniversary. Things have changed especially on the outskirts of the city, and that was noticeable as we drove in from the airport. There were lots of new buildings that were not there the last time I was here (2007) and the airport itself has had major additions and renovation. But much also remains the same, except maybe cleaner (at least from a distance)!
The photos I include here are not necessarily first and foremost for general consumption. They are intended mostly for me and my family - familiar places and images from the years we lived here, as well as things that are new (Subway sandwiches, for example). As I was walking around yesterday with my friend and successor, Bradn, I said to him, "I could see myself living here again." In spite of all the change, much remains very familiar, and I feel very much at home here.  I would take a little time to adjust, though. My Russian needs work. I have to concentrate when Bradn's wife Natasha tells me about things at length. She speaks quickly (i.e. normally, the way we all speak our native languages), and I really have to focus, or I lose the thread.

Bradn and Natasha have three children, Matvei (the Russian form of Matthew), 10, Martin, 6, and Lucas, 6 months. I speak to them in English, as their father does, but they mostly answer in Russian.

I wish I had more time to enjoy this city, but I have been spending a lot of time indoors preparing for my upcoming seminars and sermons. I did get out and walk around yesterday afternoon a couple of times, and took a lot of photos. Here are the best shots from the first evening:

 Mr. Lenin still hangs out in the south of the city that bore his name for 60 some years.

"Beeline." The place I got the SIM card for my phone.

People on Nevsky Prospekt.

 Obligatory shot down the Griboedov Canal toward the Church of the Savior on the Blood, built on the site of Tsar Alexander II's assasination.

A couple in the dark on Nevsky.

Angel on top of the Lutheran Church of St. Peter and St. Paul (a.k.a. Petrikirche), the main Lutheran Church in the city.

St. Peter and St. Paul.

 Another shot of Nevsky.

Originally the Singer Sewing Machine building, it became in Soviet times and after "Dom Knigi" ("House of the Book"),
the city's premier book shop. I first visited it on December 24, 1984, and bought the score to Handel's Messiah.

The Kazan Cathedral. Never really liked it. Still don't. But it's a landmark. (I'm not a fan of Neoclassical architecture in general. Yes, even St. Paul's in London.)

Bradn driving by Palace Square.

"Our" market (the one that was a couple hundred yards from our apartment)

Our apartment building. The Cafe Mozart opened when we were living there, and it's still there.

Our street (Kronverksky Prospekt)

Sunset over Vasilii Island.

Gostinyi Dvor

Maksidom! The place we bought a lot of our furniture and household items when we first got to town. It's still there!