Hermitage

The Hermitage is huge. Really, just impressively vast. Maybe I only think this because I've never been in a proper palace before, but to put it in proper perspective: it's actually four palaces and a theater (the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the Large Hermitage, the New Hermitage, and the Hermitage Theater. I keep having to say this, but--not kidding). There are apparently more than three million works in the collection--though most of them are kept somewhere else in storage, which is so large that 200 pieces were stolen from it in the seventies and no one noticed until the eighties. So, yes. It's big.

We have an excellent guide (her name is Natasha) who's, I don't know, on retainer or something with the program. I'll have to ask about that some day, when I run out of other questions--like how exactly I'm supposed to refer to the program. I can give you the full names of about five different institutions associated with this program, but I still haven't figured out a way to tell people about it that doesn't involve using at least four of them. Anyway, Natasha gave us an overview of the Hermitage collection that took from opening at 10:30 am to about 3:30 in the afternoon. That included, I don't know, a couple of staircase, a couple of halls, a few additional notes about the architecture, the small throne room, the real throne room, the 1812 gallery...some Rembrandt, some Rubens, some Botticelli, a couple of da Vincis, some Cezanne, Monet, Matisse, van Gogh, Picasso--at some point I lost track. There was a lot. I probably learned more about art history than I knew to begin with--particularly since Natasha gave it to us in English. That would be rather a lot of Russian to concentrate on, in addition to the actual museum pieces. Apparently only full-time employees of the Hermitage can be licensed to give tours in Russian, though.

After the rest of the group left, I continued to look at the (relatively small) Far Eastern, Near Eastern, and Byzantine art collections. And some stuff from the bronze age in Central Europe, and a little bit of Greek stuff. I couldn't seem to find the main ancient world collection, though. Oh, and there's supposed to be a large prehistoric life exhibit that I couldn't find. Which reminds me--they didn't have a ton of Egyptian stuff (only one room...), but they did have a mummy, unwrapped. That was kind of cool. Unfortunately, I didn't think to buy a photographing license before going in--but those are cheap, entrance is free for students, and I need to go back anyway. Eventually I left.

I had a rather strange walk back.

First: someone approached me near Gostiniy Dvor (essentially a large shopping mall) saying something about the metro; when I explained that I couldn't make out what she was saying, she asked who I was, told me she was an English teacher, patted me on the shoulder, and left without explaining anything.

Second: there was a middle-aged to older woman lying on the bridge over the second canal with what appeared to be a large paper napkin over her torso. She may have been passed out; for all I know, she may have been dead. It seems like usually people have the courtesy to pass out on the side of the sidewalk, but no one seemed to think much of it, either.

Finally: I saw the police checking papers for the first time a couple of blocks away from the apartment. It looked like they were already bothering a couple of darker-skinned fellows, and accosted another just before I got there. Fortunately, a certain amount of deliberately ignoring the whole thing goes a long way.

After that, I pretty much stayed home and read--my feet hurt.

Tomorrow: NYI gathering at Mars Field.

My frisbee may finally see some use.