ISA Training Day 2: Sunday City Wandering to New Holland Island

I woke up with a fresh feeling on Sunday morning. I reached my phone from the top of the table next to my bed. Checked the temperature. Damn, it's under 10 Celsius degrees outside. The last time I felt this cold was when I did the gold exploration project in Papua. But that was in 2012. Six years before that. I felt relieved that this hotel has a good heater so no shivering under my blanket.

The Aerial View of New Holland Island (copyright: A.Savin)

Read the previous part from Day 1 titled "ISA Training Day 1: Greeted by the chill of Saint Petersburg's Autumn breeze".

I met everyone in the hotel restaurant on the first floor, right behind the receptionist's room. I forget the available menu, but it was a buffet style. We can take any food we want. Each food has its name printed on the laminated paper in front of them. It's in two languages: Russian and English, so foreign guests like us can understand it clearly. The beverages are coffee, tea, and juices. I took a cup of black coffee first. Sipped a little bit and put it on the table, then chose the foods. I know, yeah, with an 's' on the 'food'. It's a plural. Still adapting to Russian food, better put the little portion from each menu, so I can understand which food suits me better.

The weather on that Sunday morning was not that bright, mostly cloudy. The training itself will start on the next day so we practically didn't have anything to do. So, we decided to go outside. Was it Artyom who recommended the place we want to visit or we planned that by ourselves? But we headed south from the hotel main gate. I also forget at what time Isuri came from his country, Sri Lanka. But I do remember she's with us during our first trip that day. Bia was busy with her unfinished business with her luggage (read here for the previous story) so she couldn't come with us. Our other fellow trainee, Rubel, also hadn't come yet that morning. It's only me, Jose, Dolo, and Isuri.

Our destination is New Holland Island. From the hotel, we headed south until we met the crossroads with the Bolshoy Prospekt. We continued to go south until the north bank of Neva River. We walked on the south pavement of the Leytenanta Shmidta embankment. Yeah, that was the name of the street. Really hard for me to pronounce it with my Indonesian tongue. Big pavements with leafy trees along with it and the amazing view of Neva River made walking was favorable. 

The south side pavement of the Leytenanta Shmidta embankment, not captured on that day though. (Captured by me)

We passed the Blagoveshchenskiy Bridge that connects the Vasilyevsky Island (the island where our hotel is) with the mainland at the south. At one particular hour in the night, this bridge will open up to let big vessels pass from or to the Gulf of Finland in the west. Jose has the photos during the opening, I will share it in the future.

Blagoveshchenskiy Bridge above the Neva River captured from the north side. Notice the cloudy weather on that day. (Captured by me)

We walked for 200 meters at Ploshchad' Truda. And that's it. That's the island on the right. The island is pretty small. Only 8 Hectare or 80,000 square meters. You can see the amazing aerial view of the island photo captured by A.Savin on the picture at the beginning of this post. The island itself is artificial, created in 1719. If you're interested in the history of the island, you can read it on Wikipedia page . 

The circular building named Бутылка (Butylka) or Bottle. (Copyright: Dolo)

From the main gate, our eyes are fascinated by the circular building "Bottle". It used to be a military prison, but now this building full of restaurants, coffee shops, book shops, clothing stores, art stores, and anything else.

Jose in front of the information board lists all shops available inside Bottle building. (Copyright: Dolo)

The area inside the Bottle building. What a nice place to just sit with a cup of coffee. (Copyright: Dolo)

There's the playground called 'Fregat'. It is a frame of a large ship. The picture is below.

The playground "Fregat" (Captured by me)

Another spot on the island (captured by me)

One of the beautiful flowers captured by Dolo inside a garden on the island.

Of course, we didn't forget to take our selfie. 

Our selfie during our visit there. From the left: Dolo, Jose, Isure, and Me. (Copyright: Dolo)

And, that's it for today. You can read day 1's story from my previous post here. Hopefully, I can keep writing this series. 

Read the other stories from this post series on this link: http://www.abialghifari.com/2020/10/isa-training-story-complete-list.html