Today myself and a group of intrepid explorers ventured into the freezing (ok 50s), wet (ok foggy) and treacherous (occasionally cars like to drive on the sidewalk) streets of St. Petersburg to visit the first museum to be built in Russia, the Kunstkamera! Well technically its called the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography and the building is called Kunstkamera, but I digress.
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| Kunstkamera |
The Kunstkamera was founded in 1727 with the goal preserving "natural and human curiosities and rarities" for science and people to observe. Peter the Great had a mild obsession with finding the causes of human and animal malformations and the majority of the scientific collection is dedicated to examples and documentation about it. He hoped to dispel people's belief the mutations where acts of witchcraft and that instead they happened by natural forces. But the room with 2 headed calves and the skeletons of giants was just a small part of the museum.
It also contained a wide array of anthropological exhibits for cultures all over the world with an emphasis on native peoples of Asia, Africa and the Americas. Interestingly for me at least was their sizable exhibits dedicated to California's Native American tribes. Not exactly what i was expecting to see and learn about in Russia but informative nonetheless.
It was also quite interesting to read the exhibit tags which were translated into English for some of the display cases. Some of the things that were said where either poorly translated or very insensitive about the cultures on display. I am leaning towards bad translation (some of the signs in English here are hilarious) but you can learn a lot about a culture by how they perceive and describe different cultures and ethnic groups as well.
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| Peter Hard at Work |
After a few hours of that, we once again set out along the even colder banks of the Neva River in search of food. We finally found a little Chinese food place with menus in Russian, English and Chinese, decent food at ok prices. (In the downtown and tourist parts of the city food is at least 2 times as expensive as it is out where the university is located). After that we wiled away hours of lovely evening if cold and foggy evening of milk, cookies and Russian studying!
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| The Bronze Horsemen |
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| St. Isaac's Cathedral |
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| Not what I expected to find |
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| Gostini Devor (Very old Mall at the City Center) |
Not too much exciting planed for the week. I think I need to find a better hat to keep my head warm and blend in with the locals and keep my ears warm at the same time. I finally also have acquired, through far too much effort then should be required, the supplies to begin sending letters and postcards to people. Not sure what the best way to do this will be however. The Russian postal system is terrible and letters will arrive months late, if at all. Another option is to send them via a private mail company who then posts them in Finland, at a cost of about 5 dollars per item. I am fine spending this on a real letter full of thoughts emotions and stories, but for a 20 ruble, one sentence postcard this seems a bit nuts (not that the recipients aren't worth millions times more to me)...
I trust in my ability to get it done and send as many postcards out as I have people and addresses to send them to.
Until next time, I am and forever shall remain…
Matthew (hopefully a dry, warm, well fed and not overworked one)
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