(Rusia Trip) hometown of the Romanov

On Sunday, during trip to Petergof, I decided that I had to skipped St Catharina Palace, another beautiful palace in Pushkin.

I feel tired but I need time to see the city, get lost, more talking with my kiddos. I realized I’m getting old, they’re getting big and in the next 3 years, one of them will leave my house so does her brother in the following year. *sniff sniff* back in Tangsel, i’m busy between house chores and works, they’re busy with schools, including weekend.

Our train back to Moscow, will be on Tuesday at 11.30 pm as I wanted my kids to have sleeping-compartment-experience.

Then, on Monday, We strolled Nevsky Avenue, window shopping, visit local book stores and off to the north-est part of the city to see Gazprom Arena, where one of the World Cup Match was held. This teen finally had his ear to ear smile since one of his bucket list was checked

Газпром Арена

Then we took different Metro, spending days at the park and we found out there is an amusement park next to Gazprom Arena seems more exciting rather than Universal Studio’s rides.

Amusement Park

One of my sister’s acquaintance, Amy studies here, I dropped her a message she recommended New Holland island, a park, where the local hangs out.

Then later off to St Petesburg University, just for the sake of it. Do you know Vladimir Putin was one of the alumni?

I told my son :

Me : dek, kuliah di sini donk dek. Biar bunda ada alasan ke sini lagi. ( Pursue your undergraduate study here, so I have a reason to go back here again)

#2: ngga mau ah, ngga suka.  (na’a, don’t like it)

Me :  Putin lulusan sini lo dek, siapa tau adek jadi presiden (Putin was one the alumni, probably you’ll be one too)

#2 : Mana enak jadi presiden, disalah salahin terus. Lagian bunda aja yang kuliah disini kalau mau Kan ngga selesai kuliahnya ( being President is uncomfortable, people will always blame you. Why dont you study here, you didn’t finish your school)

Me : #ngok! *facepalm*

The next day, I took my morning walk to totally different route and see the beauty of Neva River.  I love this city on Summer 😉

Unpleasant experience from our rented apartment as the clean lady didn’t show up at our agreed time.

So I just left the key on the mailbox and the owner didn’t apologize either. We proceed to station to drop our luggage. It  was a challenged for me as the locker is small another local helped me how to deal with the locker.

Kyoto station luggage room 10

St petesburg station luggage room 5

Asia wins!

After we had lunch in Nevskya area, we went back to mosque to have our pray then kids wanted to spend the rest of the day at New Holland.

I left my jacket at the locker and summer wind blew unpleasantly. Brrr….My son said, how clean the park, no one left the trash! Things barely happened in the largest muslim country in the world -___-

Had dinner at KFC Nevsky area again, my dad waited at the station, kids and I spent the rest of the evening in Loft Project not too far from the station, also recommended by Amy. It is like market for the youngster, independent brands sold their stuff, café here and there and at the roof top, another hang out place cost Rubbel 100/person.  Kayak Pasar Santa deh!

We are waving at St Petesburg sunset and proceed to the Station.

Good bye St Petesburg, The Romanov’s hometown,  don’t know when we’ll be back again! It was a pleasant stay!

St Petesburg University

Post Card anyone

Selfie during run by the side of Neva River

Sunset from Loft Project

Luggage Room at station

Loft project Roof top

Kereta Malam Argo Mulia

Rusia Trip : Naik Angkot di Petergof

Waktu saya menyusun gambaran singkat jadwal perjalan ke Rusia, Anggi wanti-wanti, ke Peterhof Palace ini sifatnya wajib.

Hampir saja ke skip, karena saya sudah capek banget. Rencana mau leyeh-leyeh saja di hari Minggu. Ternyata pas cek jadwal, Senin dia tutup (bukan harga naik ya! #krik) Ya sudah berangkat!

Memang letaknya jauh, di pinggiran kota St Petesburg. Sampai keluar statisiun saya cari Angkot. Yoi angkot!

Podorozhnik Card (kayak ez link di Singapore) di St Petesburg sudah tidak berlaku di sini.

Tapi berangkatnya sih, tidak menunggu pemumpang penuh -___-

Namun cara supir bawa mobilnya…ho’oh, persis supir D02 Jombang-Cileduk!

Selain naik Angkot, bisa juga naik Hydrofoil (kapal) yang berangkat dari belakang Hermitage.

Karena hari Jumat sudah naik kapal, saya ngga mau keluar biaya lagi.

Padahal sih kalo Jumat ngga naik kapal, ongkosnya sama aja hahah. Naik hydfrofoil ini Rubel 800/trip.

Anyway, begitu masuk saya berpikir, mirip mirip Istana Musim Pana Schönebrunn Palace yang saya kunjungi 2015 ya? Susunan pohon pohonnya juga mirip. Hahahah.

Waktu masuk…ya Ampun maleeehh….orang semua isinya!

Ini pemandangan kalau kita masuk melalui jalan darat

Gulf of Finland at the very end

Ini pemandangan kalau kita masuk memakai Hydrofoil.

The Palace at the top

Seluruh tamannya Indah banget, saya ngga masuk meseumnyanya karena kelewat jadwalnya. Waktu WWII taman ini sempat rusak.

Kalau capek, ada mobil / golf cart sih yang bisa tour taman, tapi lumayan mahal Rub 900 kalo ngga salah plus….tournya Bahasa Lokal. Ya ngga ngerti juga!

Yang saya suka sih, air mancur di beberapa tempat di taman luas ini.

Indah banget, Masya Allah. Perpaduan sempurna hijau, biru dan sinar matahari. Kalau lagi musim dingin, putih semua. Saya sempat cek Instagram nya Pak Albert, orang Indonesia lagi S3 di kota ini. Brrrrr, terasa kaku dan dingin.

Balik ke St Petesburg, sampai daerah Nevsky Prospect lagi.

Saya juga sempat mencicipi Donat Kentang legendaris Pyshecnaya. Yang antri panjang banget, saya pun pesan kopi susunya. Toko ini sudah ada dari jaman Soviet, 1958. Pas saya cicipin sih….ngga istimewa. Hahahaha.

lagi musim panas banyak acara dalam rangka White Night Festivals.

Dibilang white nights, yaaa karena mataharinya lama. Malam itu, ada Scarlet Sails perayaan lulus lulusan sekolah dan ditutup kembang api.

Anak saya sempat liat, saya sudah teler.

Dan minggu depannya (30 Juni 2019) ternyata ada White Night Marathon, event Marathon terbesar di kota ini. Yah!

Saya skip nih! Sayang juga sudah jauh jauh ke Luar negeri ngga cicipin race lucu lucu ahhahahah.

next time perhaps

Angkot

The Grand Cascade and Samson Fountain

Look alike?

gulf of Finland

Marli Palace at the back

Pyshecnaya

Nevsky Avenue at 10 pm

Kota paling utara…

….yang pernah saya kunjungi.

Tapi bukan paling jauh, masih lebih jauh Tangsel-Paris. 😉

Anyway, waktu ada penembakan di Christchurch, New Zealand, sama seperti jutaan orang di dunia, muslim dan non muslim, kita patah hati! New Zealand, negara yang aman damai, ada kasus seperti ini.

Yang bikin sedih dan kepikiran, saya rasa sama dengan ribuan orang tua lain, kalau jalan jalan tetap mengusahakan Sholat Jumat. Kebayang aja, seandainya sedang ada pelancong, lalu tertembak.

Saya sempat deg-degan sih. Hehehehhe. Tapi namanya wajib ya! Saya antarkan anak saya Sholat Jumat, di Mesjid St Petesburg.

Ini saya copy caption saya di IG.

 

The largest mosque in Europe outside Turkey. The construction was permitted by Tsar Nikolay II himself in 1907, built in 1910, by the labor from Southern Soviet ( Kazakhstan, etc)

It turned into logistic building during world war II, not until in 1956, Soekarno, the first Presiden of Indonesia asked Nikita Khruschev to turn the mosque back as it supposed to be. Within 10 days, it turned into a mosque again. Hence, it is also known as Mesjid Soekarno.

The mosque had major renovation in 1980’s.

Dikutip dari berbagai sumber

Mesjid Soekarno

Ini kedua kali anak saya sholat Jumat di luar negeri. Di Rusia, adzannya sampai dua kali dan khutbah menggunakan bahasa lokal 😀 biar sama sama Islam, kami jadi tahu ada perbedaan mazhab. Jadi ya,ngga usah ribut kalau ada perbedaan! 😉

Selama Papa dan anak saya sholat, saya dan kakaknya menunggu di taman. Cukup surpirse juga ada beggars atau pengemis. Where do they live? How’d they survive? This country is soo cold! They asked money, then my dad said “No Rubbel” they replied “Dollar” meh!

 

Kami makan siang di restoran halal sebelah mesjid, runs by a Pakistani.

Kebab and Kefir

 

Lalu kami ke sebrang Mesjid, ada obyek wisata Peter dan Paul Fotress, benteng pertama kota St Petesburg, dibangun tahun 1703 dan pernah digunakan sebagai penjara.

Alih-alih balik naik Metro, saya kepikiran mau naik kapal. Boat Cruise, Venice of the North .

Ingin banget wisata naik kapal waktu ke Praha 5 tahun lalu, ngga kesampaian. Hahahahah

Jadi St Petesburg ini, dibelah oleh sungai Neva, yang menjadikan kota ini terdiri dari “pulau pulau” kecil. Cantik deh. Sungai Neva ini juga besar banget, sebesar sungai sungai di Pulau Kalimantan.

Tapi ternyata saya nyesal karena tour ya bahasa lokal. Bah! Ngga ngerti.

Peter and Paul Fotress

 

Peter and Paul Fotress

Boat Cruise

Boat Cruise

To the North

Next morning, I wanted to run again to Gorky park. But unfortunately I was late, and it was tooooo damn hot just like Jakarta.

To make it even worse, Gorky Park was closed since there would be an event.

Long story short, we checked out from Hotel at 12 pm, the hotel staff ordered us taxi, off we went to Leningradsky Station. Stasiun gambir-nya Moscow lah, and it’s HUUUUUGEEEEEEEEE!

This will be my very first time taking bullet train a.k.a сапсан

We were heading to St Petesburg, the second largest city in Rusia and trip took 4 hours and so.

I booked an apartment in Nevsky Avenue, the busiest district in this city. It is more like the famous Orchard Road – Singapore to me.

It took a while to meet the person who was in charge in my apartemen booking and the owner is not really nice either she complained why we we were so long after we arrived. Gee! I wonder if she travels! Doesn’t it took a while where to go after we reached our destination especially it’s first visit.

The manager doesn’t speak English, thanks God there is such a thing as Google Translate.

I welcomed myself again to Europe when I realized there was no elevator on the apartment and of course, no AC! It was summer and these middle-class tropical kids automatically looking for AC remote.

Anyway, we dragged luggages all the way to 3rd floor. Again, the owner doesn’t pay detail, she only gave us 3 towels.

But the room was nice.

Sunset at 10.30 pm and I woke up at 3 am, sun had raised!

Giling! Gimana yang Ramadhan di sini ya?

In front of Gorky Park

Leningradsky Station

Off to санкт Петербург

Out side Moskvoretskaya Station so hectic

Inside Sapsan

Mamang Galon at Nevsky Avenue

Exploring the city

I woke up with a purpose, I must have my morning run! I checked the map, the famous Gorky Park is only 2.5K away, thus it makes 5K back and forth. That would be suitable for my training plan.

It was 6 am, sunrise at 4 am, seems it is still considered early for local. Seems running it’s not thing for Moscow people, unlike Osaka or Paris when I see runners now and then. I was the only runner on that wide pedestrian Parveletskya, and even in Gorky Park, I saw only 2-3 runners. I ran for 7K that morning.

Back to sightseeing, we visited the largest Orthodox Curch, 100m tall. The wall was beautifully painted up to the dome about Jesus early life until death. We are not allowed to take picture inside. There are 3 bodies of Saint (forget who). I also saw many visitors made a pray close to the giant picture of the holy people and kiss its frame.

Unfortunately, there was no audio guide. I was clueless about the painting and the story behind.

Later we took train to Tsaritsyno Palace, outskirt of the city. You know, I copieD Dian’s friend itinerary. He said there’s a tasty kebab stall outside Orekhovo Station and that where we had our lunch. We continued our walk to the palace seemed google maps gave us wrong direction. Walking under scorching sun in the nature park for ones who live in tropical country went like….duilehhh macam Kebun Raya Bogor aja ini sik! We gave up, then saw a sign that show way to Metro Station. And that where the shortest way to the Palace from Metro Station. We saw many visitors.

Since we were tired, we headed back to hotel And took rest.

Good thing about summer, the day is long.

At 7 pm we went to Zaryade Park, behind red square. It has observation deck to watch sunset.

It was beautiful evening.

PS : my pic on the observation deck, that is Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building. One of 7 high-rises built during Stalin’s era. In 1950’s. Kebayang ya ambisinya Joseph Stalin ini, pantas Uni Soviet pernah jadi negara adidaya.

Take a rest

Chatedral of Christ The saviour

Kebab stall

Tsaritsyno park

Observation Deck

St basil Cathedral