5/16/09, 11:18 p.m.

on our last day in petersburg
we took an excursion to yet another museum
this one was over by the спаса на крови
a big yellow building [like half the big buildings in petersburg]
the русский музей, the russian state museum

this museum was home to art not collected by the royal family
it was similar to the эрмитаж, but it was much more varied
[i have photos from there, but none from hermitage,
so i can't provide a photo comparison]
regardless, it was incredible
they had a lot of medieval eastern orthodox icons, entire sections of them
as well as having a lot of other early dark ages collections
it was just as immense as the hermitage, just across the city a bit
i gotta say, невский проспект is huge
it's like fifth avenue in new york; it's all encompassing

before we left, we took a quick tour of the canals
they were trying to imitate venice when they made the city,
so they dug a bunch of canals connected to the river
it makes for a really cool effect [and a ton of bridges]
we went around the main areas of petersburg in the boat
passed by the bronze horseman state of pyotr the great
even passed by the марийнский театр again
we also passed by this tiny little statue near one of the back streets
i guess a bunch of university students put it up in the early nineties
some sort of drunken joke thing
anyway, it's become a sort of city-wide legend
and the tour guide described it very officially,
calling it the shortest памятник [statue] in all of petersburg

i really liked petersburg
i'm defintiely going to have to come back here
i can't wait to see how moscow compares