St. Petersburg- We spent over 4 hours of our first day in Russia at
the incredible Hermitage Museum, which is second only to that other
one in Paris in terms of size and wealth of artistic collection. The
exhibits were incredible, and the decor of the museum was truly a site
in and of itself. Today Russia celebrated some sort of maritime
holiday, so everyone wore sailor hats around town. After the museum,
we searched in vain for food before visiting the iconic Church of the
Resurrection, which is filled with beautiful mosaics and topped with
striking onion domes, which make this church the most photographed
site in the city. We then visited a local souvenir market and picked
out some of those hand-painted dolls with other smaller dolls stacked
inside them (I can't remember their special name). The only gifts we
can take out of Russia are these dolls, vodka, amber, and certain
amounts of caviar... Haha, what? Finally, I was fortunate enough to
get a ticket to see the opera Lucia di Lamermoor at the famous
Mariinsky Theatre, built in 1860 and celebrating its 226th opera
season. This was a wonderful cap to a great and memorable day in
Russia. We are docked in port tonight and will sail out at 5:30pm
tomorrow!

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