Pre-Trip Reading: Berlin & St. Petersburg

Most of my life, I’ve been a voracious reader. I remember reading Little Women and Gone with the Wind in fourth grade, always having a good book for long flights, and even learning how to write Swedish fluently solely based off of being read to and reading as a young child. But in college, I was always reading books for classes (though as an English major most of those were fantastic), but if I wasn’t finishing up a reading for class, I was doing one or several of a hundred other active projects. I got out of the habit of reading for fun. After more than a year since graduation of my primary reading material being news on my phone, I decided preparing for my next trip would be the perfect occasion to break this streak.

I’m soon headed to three cities that I have never visited before: Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Tallinn. My interest in Tallinn had previously inspired me to do background research on the city online, and last year I spent an insightful evening at the Embassy of Estonia in Washington, DC, so I turned my attention to Berlin and St. Petersburg.

What incredible cities. From previous reading, world and European history classes, and my million miler dad’s stories, I had a sense of the various chapters of history that involved and impacted these cities. But zeroing in on them with a novel each and supplementary guide books was wonderful.

Berlin: Portrait of a City through the Centuries

By chance, I saw this book and picked it up at my local library last weekend, and five days later (with work, the gym, and happy hour in between) it was done. Rory Maclean puts together a series of vignettes in different times and with different views on Berlin’s unique histories, and gives his readers not only details of historical events, but also an unexpectedly strong sense of the city’s character- volatile, resilient, dramatic. His use of language is beautiful from the first paragraph of the prologue, and different literary styles and devices vary the vignettes in addition to their different stories.

The Berlin Wall was taken down just a few years before I was born, the Red Army persisted in the capital until 1994. Inspired by Berlin, I pulled up this 1994 New York Times article on the withdrawal of foreign troops from the city and the country. Germany formally adopted the euro on January 1, 2002. Now Merkel is the most powerful politician in Europe. It’s incredible to think that in what is now the epitome of a modern, Western country, a world leader, that began to take shape in 700 BC, its capital is only newly unoccupied. I knew that as a historical fact, but Maclean gave it a realness that stunned me. Other European capitals are quietly powerful, established for centuries, steeped in history but also removed from it by modernity. Within my lifetime, Berlin has gone from divided and occupied to what a friend of mine calls his favorite European capital. It’s present is also its history. My interest is beyond piqued. What will it be like?

Berlin: Portrait of a City Through the Centuries. Maclean, Rory. St. Martin’s Press. 2014.

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman

While I have every intention of reading Robert Massie’s Peter the Great as well, Catherine caught my interest and imagination first. Catherine the Great, which I am not ashamed to say my mother recommended for me to read, was the book that first helped me break my literary abstention. What better way to prepare for a few days in St. Petersburg than to read about this incredible empress.

One of the aspects I particularly enjoyed about Massie’s biography is that he provides incredibly intimate information about and direct quotes from Catherine, but also zooms out to give a comprehensive understanding about what was happening in the world in each phase of her life. The German provinces, the Swedish empire, France and Versailles, Austrians, the Turks, the Americans- Catherine, to some degree, was involved with world politics (and global art sales) on a grand scale, and Massie gives context to a life that happened long ago but not too long ago.

The depth of research and detail about her life is extraordinary, and the writing complements the content, both leaving me unwilling to read the final chapter about her death and thus ending the book. On the travel side, it is fascinating to follow Catherine as she moves from palace to palace in the book, founding the Hermitage Museum and redesigning Catherine Palace (named for Catherine I, Catherine the Great was Catherine II, though her born/German name was Sophie) as she goes. Complemented with a city guidebook, I feel like I am ready to take on my first Russian adventures. The only question is which passport to use for my visa- I have three countries with rather tumultuous historic Russian relations to choose from.

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. Massie, Robert. Random House. 2011

Additional Reading:

Eyewitness Travel St. Petersburg – an illustrated, informative guide to the city, pullout map included

The Everything Learning German Book – in case you want to pick up a few phrases in advance