Thursday, September 25, 2008

Getting Lost is Half the Fun....

Well, at least today it was. Made a wrong turn as I got off the Metro and ended up walking through a really pretty neighborhood with very high-end shops. The leaves were all changing colors and there were many parks. It was so pretty. Eventually found my way back to the Rumyantsev Manor (which is where I was trying to go). There were three exhibits in the museum: Leningrad during the Siege and Great Patriotic War, Life during NEP (the New Economic Policy in the 1920’s), and the house itself. I started off in the Leningrad area and it was horrifyingly sad the conditions that people had to live in and what they had to eat. But how life went on: they put on plays and symphonies and published books. If you have ever been to a Holocaust Museum that feeling you get when you look at the pictures of the citizens who stayed is overwhelming. They talked about how the scientists created 13 different strains of Vitamin C to help the people live. They had 125 Grams of bread as a ration of food.

The next rooms were about the NEP Era that was much more happy and energetic. There were pretty communist posters with smiling people. Everything was red (go figure). There were a lot of new inventions that they discovered and were able to use. They had cool shoes and clothing from the time period.

The house part only had a few rooms, but they had really cool grand staircases that were newly invented for this place. There was also the biggest mirror of its kind (not sure that there are different kinds, but hey) in St. Pete.

See you around the globe!

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