Travelling through Europe, one clinic at a time: St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg (population 5.1 mln; 1 veterinary college)

Photo by Natalja Ignatenko

Back in Helsinki. We go on a bus at the airport and I see my blue checkered suitcase again. Seems like Pilleriin didn’t take it back to Estonia with her. Silvia claims that the owner of the suitcase greeted me, but I don’t think that to be likely. To be sure, I take a closer look a the man sitting infront of me. It’s hard to recognize anyone by seeing only the back of the person, but as it turns out while leaving the bus, it was my colleague Andrei Ushanov, who owns a clinic close to mine. Andrei and his wife are coming back from their vacation in Spain.

Dr. Ushanov and dr. Toomet in Helsinki railway station.

Helsinki - a shop for homeless animals

We take a train to Kouvola. Dr Helene Juola (Jami) is already waiting for us with lobsters and a sauna. Sadly, they joys of a sauna and some good company cannot last long, as we have to be on the train to St. Petersburg early the next morning.

The small animal veterinary clinic of Kouvala’s ELL Helene Juola, where my path as a small animal veterinarian began.

My Finnish home

Our dinner in dr. Helene Juola`s home in Finland

Hupi -dr. Helene Juola’s dog

I am taking part of the St Petersburg fall veterinary conference for the fifth time. Many of my colleagues from Estonia have come with me to give lectures – Dr Sveta Belova (dermatology), Dr Ülle Kell (ophtalmology), Dr Ingrid Hang (gastroenterology), Dr Katrin Mägi (urology); Dr Jan Räihä (orthopedics), Dr Merja Ranta (lab specialist) from Finland; Dr Peter Bedford (ophtalmology) from the UK; Dr Kersti Seksel and Dr Gaille Perry (behaviourists) from Australia.

Today I am giving a lecture about itching dogs. Luckily that’s in the afternoon so I have time to prepare and have lunch with my colleague Markel Mängel from Norbrook.

Markel Mängel (Norbrook), Estonian chocolate and me

1. I have finished my lecture. Next up is dr. Andrei Komolov (a cardiologist at „Belõi Klõk“ clinic)

A banquet is held in the evening. And because it’s the tenth anniversary of the conference, everything is especially festive. The organizers of the whole thing – Svetlana Valeejeva and Svetlana Jakovleva – are truly the stars of the evening. For entertainment, we are presented with two dancing dogs and a russian ’’superstar’’ we know nothing about.

Svetlana Valeejeva - the soul of Baltic Forum

The following day is a day of excursions – the Hermitage and a boatride on the canals. Silvia explains this better, as although I made notes no-one could understand them, including myself.

Silvia on her blog: We had a very interesting private tour of the Hermitage with an assigned guide. I’m trying to dechiper the notes mother has written, but with no luck. So these are some things I wrote down during the tour:

· In 1837 the Hermitage was burnt down by a great fire. All of the expensive and beautiful works of art were thrown out of the windows to save them. Miraculously, nothing was stolen.

· By the end of the 19th century, the Hermitage had electricity. The museum has 700 000 lightbulbs nowadays.

· Peter the Great stood a staggering 2m 4cm in height but wore a shoe sized 36/37. That’s why he had a walking stick, which became a real fashion statement in Russia at that time.

· Catherine the Great was actually a German princess and reigned in Russia the longest – for 21 years.

· We visited the Hermitage conveniently when an exposition of royal garments was on show. We got to see a dress, which was displayed for the first and last time.

· Elizabeth the First (who had the palace built) had a collection 16 000 dresses, of which she wore each only once.

· The Hermitage exhibits 24 Rembrandts, 2 da Vincis, 1 de Goya and many other paintings by famous artists.

The museum itself is tremendous. We walked around for two hours and never saw anything twice. Still alot remains unseen, so we’ll have to visit again.

Hermitage

I do remember some facts (from the readable ones):

Cats have always been very important at the Hermitage (see picture below).

As Silvia already mentioned, they protect the exhibits from rodents. The tradition of Cats at Court dates back to a 1745 decree of Empress Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, founder of St. Petersburg. In a bid to rid her palace of rats, she issued the order "to find in Kazan...the best and biggest cats capable of catching mice, and send them to... the Court of her Imperial Majesty, along with someone to look after and feed them, and send them by cart and with sufficient food immediately". The cats had to be male, and "treated" Today, 74 cats, of both (neutered) sexes, roam the underbelly of the museum, and three volunteers, under the jurisdiction of security chief Tatiana Danilova, spend six hours a day underground, tending to their needs. There are kitchens for preparing their food ("they all have different preferences"), and even a small hospital.

At the end of the 30s Stalin sold 24 of the very famous and expensive paintings. The Hermitage has only gotten one back – a millionaire who bought a Goya generously gave it back to the museum.

The thone where once the USSR map used to hang. A giant ruby stood in the middle, representing Moscow.

A wondrous clock

A picture brought from Cologne, Germany with an interesting name – „Ema“, which means mother in Estonian.

Find the cat. More famous pictures on Silvia’s blog http://silviajatiinaeuroopas.blogspot.com.tr/2014/09/19-ja-20-paev-tere-venemaa.html

Cahterine the Great bought this statue without knowing it was a piece by Michelangelo.

A Rembrandt which became victim of terrorism and our superb guide.

A huge vase

Some attractions outside the Hermitage - my first car

Silvia on her blog: Continuing our trip, we went to see Aurora and later reached the house of Peter the Great. It was quite small, but lovely, made up of red bricks and accesible from an iron gate. Inside the house there was another house. House-ception. It was wooden, very small and approximately the size of a one-bedroom apartement, looking like an average cottage. But Peter continued to live there even after the city around him was built up in all its glory. He could have moved to a castle somewhere, but no. Peter let his wife and children live in a fancy house and stayed in his cottage.

Then we went to see the fortress of Peter-Paul. By that time, I was exhausted and demanded mother to change her 5000 rubles to smaller currency and buy me something to drink. The booth-ladies didn’t want anything to do with a banknote that big, we might as well could’ve given them Monopoly money. I was still dying of thirst (not exaggerating). Next on schedule was a visit to the Trubetsky Garrison, which was once a prison for political prisoners. It was a fairly normal prison – big rooms with a window, bed, toilet and a sink. In the Russian Empire the prisoners lived alone. They could ’’order’’ books, tea and bread to their cells, all for their own money of course. We also found out Trotsky and Gorky had shared a cell, although not simultaneously, each at their own time.

After visiting the prison, we went to eat some dumplings, but they were fancier than anticipated. We wanted something greasy and disgusting, but had to settle.

Then back to the hotel and on to a bus to go on a boat. A boatride on the canals was promised, but in reality we started from a tiny canal, circled Neva and went back to the canal. The sights were beautiful though. The setting sun colored the sky in beautiful magical hues. We were also served some food (which was a surprise) and vodka (which I wasn’t really craving).

The Peter-Paul fortress is built on Rabbit Island

the church at Peter-Paul fortress

Russian fairytale of the blacksmith who pur horseshoes on a flea.

The wall of Peter-Paul fortress with sunbathers surrounding it. NB! 20.09

We were only allowed to take pictures od the outside. The historical house of Peter the Great was inside this house.

Lunch with colleagues Alain Fntbonne ja dr. Elena Kadochnikova

I will use my colleague Natalja Ignatenko’s pictures to illustrate our boat trip. They are simply stunning.

And some photos from Silvia

Dr. Florence Cliquet ( who participated in the international rabies meeting in St. Petersburg) send greetings from France to Estonian colleague Enel Niin, who is dealing with this problem in Estonia. Actaully she has solved this problem already. We don´t have rabies in Estonia any more.

An Ukrainian colleague of mine, Natalja Ignatenko informs me that Aurora is leaving the next day and that she has booked an excursion on the rooftops of St Peterburg before that.

The ad for it was spray-painted on the ground by someone named Jevgeni, cost 1000 rubles and begun at 8 o’clock under the red cube. Of course I decided Silvia and I should join.

Silvia on her blog: A colleague of mother, Natalja from Kiev had told her she would take part of this adventure called ’’The rooftops of St Petersburg’’. Coincidentally, we had seen the same ad in the city and wondered about it. Just our luck – Natalja had already called the number on the ad and everything was in order, so we went along with her.

At 8 o’clock in the morning (waking up at 6.30, everyone) we met Jevgeni in front of the cafe ’’Red Cube’’. He seemed younger than I and a bit mischevious. He guided us into a courtyard and staircase somewhere. I was feeling anxious, although the boy was small and wouldn’t have stood a chance against three tough women. He led us all the way up to the fifth floor, to the attic which was a real nightmare. There was no light, it was dusty, cramped and tiny, probably had rats. But we climbed up from the attic window onto the roof.

It was far from an excursion. I’d say it was dangerous hiking. Although the boy showed us some nice buildings and seemed to have known interesting things about them, I couldn’t understand anything. There were no safety lines or borders to keep us from falling. The only things to hold onto were electric wires and the only things to hide behind were chimneys. We were most likely involved with something a bit illegal because at one point Jevgeni warned us to walk very very quietly. He didn’t say why, but I imagine I wouldn’t appreciate people trampling over my roof every morning. Once again – the sights were beautiful, but it was nice to get down from the roofs afterwards.