The day began as most do here in St. Pete for our group...too early for our any of our likings. We headed out from the hostel in a generally groggy fashion at around 9:30 A.M., aiming in the direction of the grand (and frankly horrendously painted) Winter Palace. As you may or may not know, the Palace, also called the Hermitage, contains what is quite possibly the largest collection of art in the world, though it's officially listed as being somewhere around the third. The eight of us reached our destination around 10:00 and hopped in line, after a decent wait heading in, getting tickets, checking coats, and so on. We moved as a group up the grand main staircase of the Palace, staring as much at the giant frescoes on the ceiling as the great columns and wall ornamentation. After the throne room shortly after the stairs we decided to split up. Between the three groups we made, roughly 90% of the open exhibits were canvased by lunch time. These included everything from an arms and armor room to prehistoric art, and just about everything in between and after (such as a rather creepy Egyptian exhibit). We all ate in one of the several cafes and spent some time perusing the extensive bookstore and shop. We all met up around this time (with the exception of two of the group who had finished their scoping of the Palace and left) and decided that we had all seen our fill for the day, despite our original plan having been to stay until 4. At this point it was roughly 2 P.M.
The remaining members of the group then headed to a large mall on Nevsky Prospekt, the name of which I can pronounce but most certainly cannot spell, and so will not butcher it with an attempt. At the mall we yet again split into a group of two and one of four. We proceeded to wander aimlessly through this massive old mall, oggling the goods in the large array of shops contained therein. During this stretch, the two girls in the group began checking out jewelry, so naturally Christian and I headed for the nearest table with chairs and proceeded to nap thereon. The mall trip was, for our group of four, just an interesting way to pass the time until a prearrnged meeting at 4:30 with a couple of Russian students from a teacher education college here in St. Pete that we had met on our previous visit there. That said, after our nap/shopping trip we headed back to the Hermitage to meet our Russian peers.
Upon meeting up with our friends we proceeded to take them to the local Carl's Jr. for a taste of good old American style burgers and chili-cheese fries. We spent the remainder of the evening wandering through a few parks and similar places around the city, trying our hardest to speak slowly to our new friends so that they could understand us despite our varied accents and incessant use of slang. Later on, around 8:00 or so, we said goodnight to the last of the Russians only to learn that a surprise "tour/event" for which we were leaving at 9:00 and from which we wouldn't return until the wee hours of the morning. This event was the famous Night of Museums which the city throws at random for one night around this time of year every year. During the night, from about 10 or 11 P.M. to 6 A.M. museums and special historic areas and buildings around the city are open and free to students (and I think perhaps everyone). My night ended around 2 A.M. when I began falling asleep standing on the street waiting for a bus and decided I should probably head "home" so I could be awake for another tour first thing in the morning. Some of the others continued on to exciting events like being evacuated from Smolny Convent by the Russian Police Bomb Squad due to a threat on the building. They all came back and proceeded to pass out around 5 A.M. and that was about it for our group for the day.
I was awaked around 10 the next morning with the message, "Get up, we're leaving in 5 minutes for the tour." But that's a tale for another time...
-Josh
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