Day 3, Saint Petersburg: Hermitage Museum

The museum opens at 10:30 and we got there shortly after… and waited in line to buy tickets for 1 hour and a half. Of course, we needn’t have waited because there are ticket machines at the entrance allowing one to skip the queue, but it wasn’t very clear of they were the same price and allowed to see the same things.

Of course many pictures were taken, including the mandatory couple’s selfie in the throne room, none of which do justice to the beauty of these rooms.

It is a bit like the Louvre, the is so much to see: one day is not enough to appreciate everything.

I chose not to take an audio guide, guessing that it would have to much information about the collections and not enough about the building itself. I was hoping there would be written texts now and again in various rooms. We’ll I was half right, except only in russian. There is virtually nothing in English and absolutely nothing in French.

Oh yes, did I mention the airport-like security where you’re not allowed bottle of water in the museum? I then cake across these cleaning ladies emptying all the abandoned bottles down the drain in the men’s bathroom.

What a waste of plastic ☹

We then decided that we deserved to eat out and ended up on a terrace eating tasty Chinese food.

On our way to the beach to dip or feet in the water (again) we were soaked by guys on jetskis from the river below.

Feet soaked and dried, we took pictures in the sun-setting light on our way back to the hostel.

At the hostel, I got chatting to Anna who’s trying to get into the university to study linguistics. Her level of English puts many Americans to shame. We spoke about geopolitics, Russia, Putin and Trump.