{"id":1346,"date":"2016-04-19T07:01:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-19T07:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=1346"},"modified":"2016-08-21T01:27:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T01:27:18","slug":"st-petersburg-wednesday-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=1346","title":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg, Wednesday 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Still finding my feet, but growing in confidence daily, I\u00a0galloped via Uber to Double B coffee. It’s really that good. Lapis lazuli skies and mild temperatures puts all of St Petersburg in charity with the world. The coffee shop is five \u00a0minutes walk from the Hermitage, and everyone I pass\u00a0is wearing shirt sleeves and smiling. I zip in the uncrowded entrance with my trusty Friends of the Hermitage<\/em> card, and set off alarms. The unsmiling security guard\u00a0glances in my bags and just as grim-faced, wave me on. I’d be glum too if the day was this beautiful and I was stuck inside frisking clueless tourists.<\/p>\n

Bee-lined to the Greek and Roman statuary rooms, settled in to draw an enthroned Goddess. Ended up more fascinate by the young artist who set up in a little folding chair at her feet.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The disciple.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ended up drawing the pair of them.<\/p>\n

\"{"focusMode":1,"deviceTilt":1.309675931930542,"whiteBalanceProgram":0,"macroEnabled":false,"qualityMode":3}\"<\/a>
The Acolyte,<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At 2-ish\u00a0I ate my picnic of croissant and\u00a0\u00a0orange slices in the cafe area,\u00a0did a bit of reading, (thanks for The Rogue Not Taken<\/em>, \u00a0Sarah MacLean<\/a>!) and listened to Ludovico Einaudi<\/a> on my iPod. Every now and then I stopped, looked around me, and thought how freaking lucky I am.<\/p>\n

I went back to the\u00a0Greeks and Roman, another room, and drew a nymph holding a shell of water. Behind her was a\u00a0decapitated male head, a fragment of another sculpture. It put me in mind of\u00a0Salome and John the Baptist.<\/p>\n

\"nymph\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I walked around the rooms before I settled in. I had fun sketching the boy on a dolphin in the guestbook open nearby for\u00a0visitor comments. Mim Scala, this one’s for you.<\/p>\n

\"Bully\"<\/a>
Bully<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here’s a tip, y’all. They have a couple of magnificent sarcophagus, including one that tells the (tragic) story of Hippolytus,\u00a0the son of Theseus.<\/p>\n

\"Falsely<\/a>
Falsely accused of raping his (subsequently suicidal) stepmother Phaedra, his father Theseus cursed him, and Hippolytus was dragged to death by his horses<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The thing is, there’s a bit of space so you can theoretically see all four of the intricately carved sides, though it’s a squeeze – you can’t walk around it. But make the effort. The real\u00a0action\u00a0is on the back.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2367\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Around five o’clock I moved to the hall that ‘s near my exit and sketched this calm beauty holding a dove.<\/p>\n

\"{"focusMode":0,"deviceTilt":0.03171996673079924,"whiteBalanceProgram":0,"macroEnabled":false,"qualityMode":3}\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Walked out the door in a great mood and over to my dinner place of choice, Fruktovaya Lavka. Best\u00a0meal yet.<\/p>\n

\"Pan<\/a>
Pan seared cod on tagliatelle vegetables. Divine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Random Observations<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

The rumors of how hot it is in the Hermitage\u00a0are not exaggerated. You could braise a turkey on the third floor. Wear short sleeves, even if it\u2019s snowing.<\/p>\n

No large tour groups slam through the traveling exhibits, because the guides have established routes through the famous works in the permanent collects. If you feel lonely, visit the da Vinci madonnas, the peacock clock room, or Rembrandt\u2019s Prodigal Son. It\u2019s a carnival of crazed selfies\u00a0and frantic posing in groups.<\/p>\n

When even paintings of gutted swine make me salivate, I\u2019m hungry. Time to eat.<\/p>\n

Hey China, who\u2019s minding the store? Cause all y\u2019all are here, swamping the museums in squadron-sized tour groups.<\/p>\n

You want to crack the dour Russia lady guards, watch them interact with any small child or toddler. They melt like butter on a skillet. If you catch their eye and smile, you\u2019re in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Still finding my feet, but growing in confidence daily, I\u00a0galloped via Uber to Double B coffee. It’s really that good. Lapis lazuli skies and mild temperatures puts all of St Petersburg in charity with the world. The coffee shop is five \u00a0minutes walk from the Hermitage, and everyone I pass\u00a0is wearing shirt sleeves and smiling. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[21],"tags":[67,36,32,194],"class_list":{"0":"post-1346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-double-b-coffee","9":"tag-fruktovaya-lavka","10":"tag-hermitage","11":"tag-restaurant","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/god-of-luck.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OBxc-lI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1346"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1363,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions\/1363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}