Russia Highlights: Swan Lake & A Midnight Sunset

Even though our tour around St. Petersburg was a bit of a bust, we still had an evening of iconic Russian art ahead of us. After returning to the ship to quickly freshen up (I'm talking we had 1 hour to shower, dress up, and shove a snack in our faces), we hopped another bus to take our entire travel party to the Aurora Palace Theater for a performance of Swan Lake. We were all very excited to be seeing such a famous ballet in its debut country...talk about a HUGE unexpected check mark off the bucket list! Upon arriving to the concert hall, we noticed it was going to be a small performance, likely just put on for cruise passengers and private tour groups. This discouraged us a bit, but there was a champagne reception, so we all took advantage of a glass or two and made our way to our seats still looking forward to the performance ahead. After being seated for mere minutes, we noticed how incredibly hot the concert hall was. No A/C and we were all dressed up (boys in ties and slacks)---typical of Europe and Russia, but we failed to take that into consideration when dressing for the evening. You could see the disdain painted across the boys faces. They already weren't happy about leaving a night of cigars and drinking on the ship to join their ladies at the ballet (oh, the horror!). Put them all in ties in a hot, stuffy room at the ballet and BOOM...they instantly wanted to divorce us all. In hindsight, I almost don't blame them.

10 minutes into the first act, we began to realize that this performance might be less than outstanding. While still better than some ballets I'd watched in my many years of viewing dance competitions and recitals (via my lovely dance-inclined sister), it was missing the grandeur, poise, and preciseness that we'd expected. It seemed sloppy and forced, like the ballerinas were all made to dance that night and really couldn't be bothered with it. The side eyes us girls were giving one another through the whole first act were all too frequent and at times, almost had us laughing. It was all we could do to keep from being overcome with disappointment. Yet another point in time on this cruise that we were all SO thankful to be on vacation as a group instead of as solo couples. After the first act was over (it was over an hour long--comprised of 2 scenes), we bum-rushed the bathrooms and champagne stands to unload our feelings on the whole thing. Even though the majority of the performers were students or graduates from the well-known Vaganova Ballet Academy (an associate school to the highly touted Mariinsky Ballet), we still felt like we'd been duped into a sub-par touristic Swan Lake experience. We thought long and hard about complaining to our guide...or even asking the bus driver to shuttle us back to the ship without seeing the second act, but after another glass of champagne and some laughs, we decided to rough it out. We were still in Russia after all! We sat the boys together towards the back of the theater (the place was barely 1/3 full) so they could commiserate quietly away from the stage (re: fall asleep), and the 5 of us girls braved a few rows back from the orchestra pit. 

Interestingly enough, the second & third acts were much better than the first. It's like the principle ballerina found her groove during intermission and returned with breathtaking pirouettes and much more chemistry with Prince Siegfried than ever before. I imagine they were sweating to death, too (it progressively got hotter in the concert hall throughout the evening)...but they powered through the final acts with some lovely moments, slightly redeeming themselves for their iffy first act performance. Would I consider Swan Lake worth seeing while in St. Petersburg? Absolutely. We can still say we saw Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake IN RUSSIA. Amazing. Just make good and sure you know what theater and what company will be performing for you before you book your night at the ballet. See all the good things you guys are learning from our stupidity? You're welcome. ;)

When our ballet experience was over, we made a short drive through the city and returned to the ship to find it in full on party mode. We changed into our White Party attire and slid right into the conga line without missing a beat. Even though we had a rough start to the evening, it ended up being one to remember. Our reward for making it through a night in Russia? A stunning midnight sunset on the Baltic Sea. With the time difference, being so far north, and finding ourselves in the height of the summer, we got to witness a cotton candy pink sunset just as the clock stuck 12am. I've never experienced a natural phenomenon like it! We all grabbed lounge chairs along the bow of the ship and sipped cocktails as we watched the sun sink into the ocean, reminiscing about all the craziness of our cruise...and we still had 3 days left! We may have had some hiccups on that sailing, but we still appreciated the opportunity to travel to so many fascinating places and to experience them with friends that had become like family to us during our time abroad. Next up on our Baltic adventure, my most favorite stop...Tallinn, Estonia!

Baltic Cruise: St. Petersburg, Russia

When we were planning our Baltic cruise, we all agreed one country absolutely had to be on our itinerary…Russia. It's not a place any of us could really visit unless it was part of a guided tour (for job reasons, as you can imagine), so knowing our sailing included an overnight in St. Petersburg made this cruise all the more exciting for our entire group. When the day came for all of us to hop off the ship into a country none of us had ever visited before, we had stars bursting from our eyes! What good fortune to be able to visit such a fascinating, seemingly untouchable country! I had high hopes for St. Petersburg.

 Truth be told, it turned out to be one of my least favorite stops on our Baltic vacation. Total bummer. I'm far from ashamed to say it didn't meet any of my expectations…in fact,  it left me scratching my head a bit. Why, you ask? Well, a few things. First, it just didn't scream RUSSIA to me. I know, what the heck does that even mean? I'm not even really sure I can articulate that to you. I guess I thought I'd be submerged into a world that looked and felt uniquely "Russian"--the touristy Russia I must have painted in my head thanks to TV, movies, and the news (kitschy nesting dolls, a plethora of colorful helmeted cupolas, yadda yadda). I wholeheartedly expected to have that "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!" kind of moment. Instead, I was surprised to see so much European influence ingrained throughout the city. It was like I hadn't left the continent of Europe at all. Had I done my research beforehand, I'm sure I wouldn't have been so confused by St. Pete's architecture (it is called the "Venice of the North", after all). I think I was expecting to be met with more medieval architectural features, but the city was far ahead of my stunted dreams with Baroque and Neoclassical buildings littered around every turn. The only piece of the city that held to my medieval yearnings was the beautiful Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. Romantic, commanding, a nod to nationalism--absolutely stunning! I could have stood there and marveled at its richly decorated facade for hours and hours. If it wasn't for all the cars and foot traffic huddling around the church, our brief 15 minute stop there would have been the highlight of my trip. Leave it to modern conveniences to make iconic areas less appealing. 

Secondly, having to explore the city within a tour group was the total pits. Because Americans must have a visa to visit Russia (and because cruising provides you a sort of automatic temporary visa for the days you're visiting), you must be a part of a guided tour to enter the city and sight-see. We got to experience Russian immigration and were rewarded with that coveted passport stamp (very cool and only slightly unnerving--no smiles to be found in that place!), but having to spend the rest of the day attached to a group of whiny elderly tourists made the experience less than enjoyable for me. We've taken tours in the past and they'd all been pretty wonderful, but this one, SHOOT ME. Par for the course for that cruise, I suppose. Everything felt rushed and we hardly had time to snap photos or read signage before moving on to the next attraction. They tried to stuff way too many things into 12 hours that day. Not to mention…12 HOURS. Longest vacation day ever. Even though we saw a lot, I still felt like I saw nothing. 

The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. Now that's how you name a church! 

The canals were a pleasant surprise. Larger and more industrial than those of Venice and Amsterdam, but it's always nice to have water run through a city. Adds a little charm. 

Because of all my preconceived notions about what Russia would look and feel like, I think I robbed myself of having an awe-stricken experience with St. Petersburg (well, that and the fact that tour groups sometimes suck). While there were some shiny gold star moments (the Spilled Blood church, seeing Swan Lake at the Russian ballet and an amazing midnight sunset--more on those to come!), there was still so much lacking from our short 2 days there. I wish I'd done more research beforehand to give myself more of an open mind, or at least a less surprised one. Take that as a lesson, fellow travelers! Check your expectations at the border! If given the chance to visit again, I actually think I would...but only if I'm able to plan the itinerary myself and have time to enjoy it all without being herded like cattle from one attraction to another. That might never happen, but one can dream! This just goes to show, not every place you visit will be one you hold dear. We all have our failed travel destinations...this was just one of mine.