Tsarskoe selo (Pushkinovo) - tips, tricks, impressions

Many monuments and nice places in Saint Petersburg I visited on my own. I took one free tour, get directions to Pushkin cafe, tips for places to have lunch, interesting facts about Saint Isaac's Cathedral  which was turned into the museum of atheism during communism time, was listening about frozen Neva and heard story about midday shoot from Naryshkin Bastion, which signalized begging and ending of work shift during the Peter's the Great period or  signalized risk of flood.

"Maybe I should pay tour to Tsarskoe selo, and get more information about place where Pushkin was studying and where the  Catherine I of Russia decided to build a residence...", I thought. There are many stands on Nevski prospekt, Saint Petersburg main street, where you can book your tour to different palaces, boat trips and other touristic places. I arrived at last moment, paid 2400 rubles (~32 EUR), woman took me to a guide...and I realized that tour is in Russian! It was too late to ask for money back...if they didn't want to return money, I would stay without money, and the guide would leave, so I would stay without tour as well.

Ok. It was time to focus and remind myself on Russian lectures from Elementary and High School. Serbian is Slavic language as well. At least I will not be so lost on Russian tour as, how Serbian people like to say "piggy in Tehran". Before that moment, I didn't have the awareness of number of Russian tourists in Saint Petersburg. The bus was full, and just few of us were not from Russia.

In front of Catherine palace

The guide announced that someone who knew English could help me and translate some parts of story. Ksenia came. She was there with mum and aunt. And I keep walking with them.

"Я к вам пишу – чего же боле?

Что я могу еще сказать?

Теперь, я знаю, в вашей воле

Меня презреньем наказать"

Little nerd from me shared my knowledge about Russian poetry. 

Then the guide said that we should separate in few smaller groups. I didn't understand well why, but I was following her. Where we found the way to put ourselves in long cue, things became more clear. There is no fast entrance to Catherine's palace. Even when you are in group, you have to wait more than hour!

Greenery all around

I was watching great greenery of park around me, but I wasn't able to walk, I had to stay in cue and wait. Ksenia was beside again and I was listening her story. She said that she was an English professor. 

-You finished English?

-No. I finished Law and Opera singing.

-Opera singing. Wow!

-I was working in our theater for two years, but than I realized that it is better to have your own business. It is more profitable.

Ksenia

I was thinking about all my friends and acquaintances from Serbia, whose main job is to teach Chinese people English on different online platforms. 

-But, could you manage to teach English and sing in opera?

-I used to, when I was younger. But I just got tired.

Short reminder that I took free days on my job for this trip. Shadow of fear passed over my heart. Fortunately, I could soon switch focus from my own soul details to baroque ornaments of rooms and hall, lunch services, luxury of amber room...

Luxury of baroque

The guide were talking about life in time of Catherine The Great, who gave the land to her lovers. I am not sure that the guide said this, but I found on Internet that Catherine's best friend was tester of her lovers. Quality Assurance advanced level! We also heard the stories and saw photos about restoration of the palace after the Second World War. The most famous room from this palace is amber room, which restoration is finished in 2003. 25 years was needed to make this place be again in full shine. 

Ksenia was talking about theaters in her hometown - Rostov on Don. This is the biggest city in Yaroslavl Oblast with more than 1.000.000 inhabitants. She said that there were three theaters in her city - National theater, puppet theater and theater for youth. I was proudly surprised. I live in 200.000 inhabitants city in Serbia. And we have three theaters as well.

I was curious later, searching on Internet a bit about theaters in Rostov on Don. I found that beside theaters Ksenia mentioned, there is 18+ theater in her city. "We were talking about culture, it is normal that she didn't mention pornography", I clicked on link and found that it is not what you thought (and me, I admit). 18+ theater is actually theater of contemporary drama. I found the shows at their website with age limit under 18. Still, this make me thinking about modern theater in general. Contemporary theater today use to be something eccentric, competition who will show more nudity, who will defecate on the scene, who will go step further. That's fine, as long as this serves more to showing the real emotion and the real state, make an artist go to the edges of trance, playing their roles, as in Ancient times. That is acceptable as long as these acts have their purpose - as for example is lighting up the problems of society and the way understandable to wider auditorium that director and his actors. Do you agree?

The tour duration should be 6 hours. But...Ksenia helped me to go out from the bus, leave this tour, which was more than hour late, catch the metro and pass trough city crowd.

I was running on the rain to catch the bus to Moscow, thinking "if I break the leg, at least I have a health insurance". Thanks God, I just ripped my tights. So, if you want to visit Tsarskoe selo, my warm recommendation is to go on your own and take audio guide. You will however stay in line, but you can go back to Saint Petersburg (or wherever you came from) whenever you want.

If I ever visit Rostov on Don...theater 18+ is already added to my check-point list. And I hope I will find Ksenia there to thank her again for helping me not to be lost in translation.