Are male organizations Taboo? – Day 2 in St. Petersburg
Sightseeing in the center of Saint Petersburg
Before we arrived the schedule for the week was not set in stone. A few things changed and a few others were not on the schedule because they were surprises. One of them was the sightseeing walk in the city center combined with some shopping.
One participant from the meeting at the municipality of Russia, Anna and her friend Arseniy and our translator Elena picked us up at the hotel at ten o’clock and took us into the city with a trolley bus. You know one of those busses that run on electricity which is taken from a trail of wires that are connected with the roof of the bus. Both Anna and Arseniy are still attending the university, and have been very active in the teenager + organization that I mentioned yesterday. When meeting the two of them you get even more examples of how cultural Saint Petersburg is, since Anna used to be a tap dancer and Arseniy is an acrobat and sings. Elena our translator is also a very fascinating young woman, as she speaks Russian, English, Finnish and Estonian fluently after graduation from the university last year.
As I was about to tell you these fascinating young people took us on the trolley bus into the must central part of the city and we got off on the famous Nevsky prospect which is one of the biggest streets in Saint Petersburg. According to Bodil and I almost everything in Russia is huge, not on the height but in all other ways it is massive.
Anyway they walked us around to some off the most famous building, statues and monuments and told us about the history of them. We also learned that there are many myths about the statues in the city. One statue was of a photographer with an umbrella with is dog, and the myth about this statue is that if you touch the tongue of the dog it will bring you money. Ofcourse we touched the tongue! On the same street the corners were decorated with cats. The cats use to be seen as protectors as they protected people from diseases carried with the mice. This time the myth says that if you throw a coin to one cat you get a wish.
The Cathedral of the Spilled Blood
We continued to walk around the centre and saw one of the ballet theaters, the biggest museum with Russian artists and my absolute favorite “The Cathedral of the Spilled Blood” it is incredible to look at. When we came to Saint Petersburg we were told that the city is the cultural capital of Russia and I completely believe them. There is culture in every street, building and person from the city. I cannot recall how many times I have so far asked how come they know so much about their city and the reason seems to be that it is because they love it.
The sightseeing walk in the center ended with a lunch at a typical soviet styled café. In the cafe Bodil, Janis and Tuukka tried dumplings, a typical Russian dish, while I got to enjoy yet another meal with fish. I am really starting to understand that vegetarians have a hard time enjoying a meal at a restaurant in Russia, since there is only fish to choose from. We also got to try typical Russian coffee which is very sweet.
Russian market & the water museum
After lunch we went to the oldest market in St. Petersburg. Apparently the square where it is located used to be place for both trade and public executions, not at the same time of course but we were told that the feelings you get from the atmosphere is contradictive because of this. Personally I was too interested in experiencing the market as it is today, to reflect on what feelings the square might have expressed. At the market we got to see how cheap Russia can be for us Scandinavians. I for example bought a pair of real leather gloves for 7.5 EUR.
After the market we continued to the museum of water, which was absolutely fabulous. We began our tour by learning the story of a symbol for how water works that were a part of the floor in the museum. During the visit at the museum we got to see a few videos, the first one demonstrated the power of water in its different forms, such as snow and ice. We got to see how water affects life and death, trough avalanches and floods and the life in the sea etc. The movie was very powerful and you felt it in your heart. We also got to see examples of how research has shown that water has a memory. And another movie with footage from floods in Saint Petersburg from the beginning of the 20th century. There was also a monument for all the floods in the city.
Today’s meeting
The museum visit and the tour around the center gave us a better picture of the city and its history, and I think all of us wanted to learn more. But when leaving the museum, we were not heading home to rest after a long day, but instead to change and get ready to today’s meeting. This meeting was at the consulting group “TEAM.” There we got to meet three very interesting young people with different professions in different spheres.
First we listened to Victoria, a human resource professional who where only a few years out of school, and already lead her own project at the Hermitage. The project was called “Photosphobos” which in Latin means photos phobia. It is a photo expedition by two photographers. One called “new Hermitage” and is based on pictures from the reconstruction, and the other one is called the Hermitage by night and as the title states it is of photos taken of the Hermitage at night.
Next up was Andrey a former art student who now worked with graphic design for the biggest design company in Saint Petersburg. Andrey is an extremely talented artist, and showed us his portfolio which contains both paintings, drawings, sketches and graphics, each more impressive than the other. Although he did not talk about being a painter he most talked about the advertising that they have done. One particular project was a calendar for Microsoft pushing for the use of legal software which his company of course uses.
Last up was another man named Andrey who actually worked as a consultant for the firm “TEAM” that was responsible for the meeting. He talked about a few different social projects that he was involved in. The one who stuck with me was a society for men who have been abusers in the home, and how they support one another to get away from such behavior. Andrey talked about the face that male organizations are very taboo, and that they have to struggle because of this.
When they day was over we were more than exhausted and enjoyed a nice dinner before we went to bed to catch some sleep before the next adventure: Vyborg.
