The Rest of St. Petersburg

I was fiercely determined to have some hot chocolate in Russia so that I could compare it to the other European hot chocolates I knew. I was pretty yummy. Not as good or thick as the stuff my family got in Barcelona 10 years ago.

We climbed up to the top of St. Isaac's cathedral where we got a great view of the city. It was a bit of a hike to the top. Here's a funny picture of Luke looking with anxious hope for the end of the stair well.

We made it! And the view was an awesome 360 of the roof tops of St. Petersburg. Well worth the hike.

We got to go to the Hermitage, which was really cool and so full of art that it would take many days to see and appreciate it all. Here we are in front of a few Matisse's.

Me visiting the red room.



Luke: "What on earth is this painting supposed to be?"

While we were there, the city was having their annual festival of White Lights where all the bridges are lit with lights and all the buildings along the river. It was just beautiful, and, as you can see in the picture, still light on the horizon even thought it was 1 am. St. Petersburg is the largest most northern city in the world.

The draw bridges were lifted up one after the other. It was pretty spectacular. There were a ton of people there along the river side and in party boats on the river. One presumably drunk man jumped into the water and swam a bit. A little past us, it became obvious that he was struggling a bit and couldn't get out because of the large, steep concrete embankment. I was so fearful that he was going to drown without any help from the hundreds of people who could see him struggle. That would have been horrifying. I was trying to build up some courage in case I felt compelled to jump in after him, though I was 25 yards down the river. Fortunately, he was rescued by some authorities (and probably taken off to jail, too). I'm just glad he didn't drown. I would've puked.

Here's one of the draw bridges raised a bit (it still went up more!). We only stayed to see this one come up. It was late and we were tired, so we didn't walk to the next one.

Pens!

This is a random post, but I was tidying up our apartment today and I realized that we had a whole lot of pens lying around. Like I picked up 5 or 6 pens off the floor! And then a whole pile of them on our dresser that came from who knows where. It's like they're multiplying. I just went through our pens a few months ago to pick out the bad ones and store the excess good ones. And already I feel like we're getting back up to our original numbers. So, if you're missing some pens, I'm sorry. We may have stolen them.

Have you Heard!

The Langford's were in St. Petersburg!

We spent the most time of our trip in St. Petersburg. It is a beautiful city and definitely feels more western than Moscow. I think Peter the Great would be happy to hear that.


Here is us in front of St. Isaac's cathedral, home of the 4th largest dome in the world. We are a few hundred yards away in this picture and it still looks large. It is an impressive structure. On a later day, we climbed to the walkway at the base of the dome where you can get a great view of the city. The 1/2 statue in this picture is also unique because it is the only bronze state of a man on a horse that is balanced on only 2 legs and no tale. You can't see that from this angle.




Peterhoff is one of Luke's favorite places in the world. He spent a lot of time on his mission in the town and loves the Summer Palace and their grounds. I can't blame him. It was absolutely beautiful. Most of the Russian palaces, including the Summer Palace, were destroyed by the Nazi's in WWII. They have been nicely re-done since then and everything is brightly colored and fresh and new looking. I think made it really easy to imagine how it all would have seemed back in the day when it really was fresh and new. Some older buildings that haven't been destroyed and then renovated just feel old. Am I making sense?

Here's me in front of the Summer Palace and the long canal in front of it. This is in th lower grounds and the canal goes out to the sea. We came over from St. Petersburg via boat, so we saw this view coming in.




This is the grand fountain. I love how it is so close to the palace, like 20 paces. The statues were gold and sparkling and lovely. And the rushing water was loud and impressive. On this trip, I discovered how deep Luke's love of fountains is. He absolutely loves them; he becomes like a little school boy around them.


Luke by a rather unimpressive fountain in the upper grounds, but you can get a feeling of the scale of the palace and gardens.


We visited Peterhoff on a Sunday and walked into the city to find the new building where the Mormon Branch there meets. We found it and there were a number of people who remembered Luke and were very happy (and surprised) to see him. It was a sweet experience for me as we stayed for Sunday School. I don't speak or understand much Russian, but I was able to learn other lessons through the Spirit. I was impressed by the diligence and love of the people in this very small branch (like 15 - 20 people). I could sense that they are true pioneers, on the frontier of Church's reach. I am grateful for their faithful examples. Sadly, we didn't even think to take pictures of these people.

Travelling Woes

After a couple of days in Moscow, Luke's feet were just killing him. Why, you ask? Because of these crappy old shoes.

It became very apparent that we were going to be walking around quite a bit on this trip and that Luke's shoes were going to cause, if not severe medical problems, at least marital contention due to Luke's pained feet and my desire to see more sights. Yes, something needed to be done. So, we went into the GUM (pronounced goom), the big shopping mall at Red Square, to find a new, more walking-friendly pair of shoes. We were successful, thanks very much to Luke's Russian skills. Hooray! These new shoes saved Luke's feet and saved the rest of our trip.

Here's Luke in the GUM.

Our next city to see was St. Petersburg, where Luke served his mission. We took an overnight train from Moscow to get there. It was a beautiful red train and reminded me of the Hogwarts Express. It felt magical to be on that train. That is, until the 3 other passengers (including Luke) in our little room were fast asleep and I was feeling hot and stuffy and unable to sleep a wink. I don't know what possessed me to call the top bunk, but it was a poor call in the end. There was no air up there and I wanted to strip down to next to nothing, but was restrained by the presence of the other passenger who we didn't know. (They don't know it, but they should thank me for my self restraint). So, I was up for most of the night. After a while, I decided to jump down and walk around the train a little. I found that the hallway was much cooler and enjoyed the view out of the window. It was actually quite stunning and for the half an hour (at least) that I stood there writing in my journal and enjoying the Russian country side as the sun rose, I wasn't even annoyed that I couldn't get any sleep. I eventually returned to my bunk and started to get some shut eye, but no sooner had I started to drift away that the others awoke and started getting ready as the train pulled into the station in St. Petersburg. I was ticked.

Here's me sitting on the bottom bunk. I'm smiling because this is when we first got on the train.

At the train station in St. Petersburg in front of our red train. Isn't it beautiful!?

We got into St. Petersburg so early that we could not check into our hotel, so we dropped off our bags and walked around to see what we could. Luke took us to the apartment building where he stayed for part of his mission (we had to take the subway to get there), which was cool to see. Then we walked around a bunch more and eventually, because the subway station we were counting on for our return was closed, ended up walking a number of miles back to our hotel. We were exhausted by the time we got to the hotel and, though Luke's feet were feeling better, my feet had started to really hurt because I was wearing sandals instead of my sneakers. Well, at least we can laugh about it now.

Luke in front of his old apartment building.

Moscow! Pinch me please!

Our first stop in Russia was the grand motropolis of Moscow. Luke's brother, Lance, served his mission in Moscow so we had heard some stories about the city. A few things that surprised us at first impression: the lack of a tall skyscrapers (their "skyscrapers" look more like castles than the western skyscrapers we're used to) and the number of pastel colored buildings. I hate to say it, but I was expecting more gray.

On our first night there, we went to see Red Square. It was a real "pinch me, please" moment as we walked up the cobblestone roads to see the famous St. Basil's cathedral (pictured below) and the G.U.M (which I don't think I knew about until I saw it looking all fancy and lit up) and Lenin's masoleum and the Kremlin walls. Why have only only thought of this little onion domed church when I ever thought of Red Square? Did I miss something in history class? Probably. History (or remembering any kind of facts, for that matter)... not my forte. Par example, I don't remember what the statue in this picture is for.


We really were there! Proof!


Also in Moscow, we went on a tour to see the Kremlin. We had our own personal tour guide who was just the cutest little thing ever and she was so knowledgeable. Most of the buildings in the Kremlin were just beautiful. My favorites were the older Orthodox cathedrals with glimmering gold domes. The insides of the cathedrals are covered (every square inch: walls, ceilings, columns!) in mosaic. It was really an amazing sight to see.


Here are some pictures of very large things. The largest cannon I've ever seen.

And the largest bell ever! Sadly, this bell was never heard! It cracked and broke before any one ever got a chance to strike it while hanging. I wonder what kind of tone such a huge bell would make.

Our Summer: Coming to you In Installments

Despite what I have recently written about not back-tracking, I think I'm going to. I'm fairly new to this blogging on a regular basis thing and thus have given myself permission to figure out how I like to do and what I like to blog about it. And, I am realizing that blogging is different than journaling, so the "no back-tracking" rule (that I firmly believe in for journalling) may not apply to blogging. It may, but I'm not sure and I don't want to jump to any conclusions too early in my blogging "career." So, forgive me if this back-tracking seems hypocritical and/or out of character.

Luke and I had a great summer this year with a 2 week trip to Europe as the main course and a few other trips (for weddings and reunions) as hearty side dishes. We have hundreds of pictures from our trip to Europe (and a few from other trips) and I feel it would a crime to myself, who lugged the camera around everywhere, and to those friendly strangers who took some of our pictures if these photos never saw the light of day. I'm planning to post a number of entries about these various adventures. They will be smallish entries every few days. I don't want you or myself to be too overwhelmed. This blog will be a sort of Pickwick papers of our summer, though I will try not to be as wordy as Dickens.

Coming soon to a blog near you: The Langfords set off to Russia and stop first in Moscow. Will their feet be too sore to continue after full days on their feet? What strange wonders will they find off the beaten path? Stay tuned to find out.

(Note: I am not holding myself to actually completing these summer installments. So you have been warned if I decide to stop mid-way through. As I said, I'm new to this blogging regularly thing. I'm figuring things out. And if you don't like it - tough. My blog, my choice. Um.... I mean "our blog.")

Journals

I have written in journals very consistently since I was 9. My mother went to Utah on a trip and brought me back this beautiful white journal with a picture of a woman in a long flowing dress with long hair, a unicorn, a castle in the background, and a rainbow. This was right up my alley as a 9 year old. To make things better, it also had a lock that only I knew the code to.

I don't remember what it was about journaling at that age that so intrigued me, but I was hooked. I have filled up over 20 journals since that time, writing usually no longer than 2 or 3 days apart. I have written my heart over hundreds and hundreds of pages. As such, I consider myself a bit of a journaling expert, though I have to say that I'm certainly not a writing expert. Some of the journal entries are rather lame or poorly written, but that's okay by me. One doesn't have to be a good writer to be a good journaler.

I've decided to share a few of the things I've learned about the more practical side of journaling.

1. Pick a journal that you like. Lined, unlined, w/ a plain cover or a fancy one, on the computer? etc. I prefer journals with few pages because I can write through them faster and I tend to get bored with a certain one if I've written in it too long. Sometimes I like lines and other times I'd rather have the space to write however I want. (I'm really good at writing straight, though, so if this is a problem, you may want to go with lines).

2. Decide what/who your audience is. What is the greater purpose of this journal? This will guide how much self-censoring you’re comfortable with. My audience is often my journal. I call it “you.” Sometimes I am writing to myself. Sometimes I am writing to other people. You have the flexibility to write to whomever you want – and to switch it up whenever you want.

3. Find and be okay with your own journaling rhythm. Though I think that writing some what regularly has helped me the most in writing, there are times when this means writing once or twice a day and other times when it means writing once or twice every two weeks. If you want to set a goal about writing on a specific basis, make sure that your goal is reasonable and attainable. If you don’t write at all, it may be asking too much to start writing everyday. Or it may be just what you need. Try writing on a certain time schedule and see how it goes. Change it if you don’t like it. Mostly, you should write in your journal when you feel like it. Keep in mind that if you write more regularly, you most likely will want to write more regularly.

4. Don’t worry about following a thought or a story through. If you’re done with it, move on. Stop mid-sentence for all I care.

5. Don’t try to play catch up. If you haven’t written in a long time, it can be the kiss of death to try and recap everything that has happened since you last wrote, even the big things. If you must recap, keep it simple – a brief list will suffice. The reason to not recap too much is that you lose momentum. If you’re too busy writing about the past in your journal, you lose the time to write about the here and now, about the future, about things that you can still change.

6. Remember most of all: Journals are a safe place to explore, problem-solve, vent, clarify, explain, be creative, express yourself, learn, try on new thoughts and feelings, keep stories, be yourself, and to find yourself.

These are just suggestions. I write to share, not to prescribe. Your journal should be YOUR JOURNAL and thus can be whatever you want/need to it be.