{"id":1956,"date":"2016-05-17T23:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T23:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=1956"},"modified":"2016-08-21T00:59:48","modified_gmt":"2016-08-21T00:59:48","slug":"wednesday-may-4-part-three-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=1956","title":{"rendered":"Wednesday, May 4, part three. Finale."},"content":{"rendered":"

How can this be over? I didn’t get a chance \u00a0to mention the hurdy gurdy man with the raccoon on a leash, or the woman who was texting with one hand and holding her toddler’s hand with the other, slowly circumnavigating\u00a0a fountain while her child walked along the rim.\u00a0This illustrated lineage\u00a0of the doomed Romanovs, which made ‘end of the line<\/em>‘ a visual\u00a0truth.\"end<\/a>A display of court dress for a trio of lordlings.\"court<\/a><\/p>\n

So much I had to leave out, but\u00a0don’t want to forget.<\/p>\n

I’d Ubered back from the Hermitage Storage facility around 3:00, and stopped for\u00a0a farewell meal at Fruktovaya Lavka<\/strong>.\"va<\/a><\/p>\n

Meatballs with pureed peas and cranberry sauce? Da!\u00a0\"meatballs\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Finished with a\u00a0raspberry custard tartlet.\u00a0Not too big, not too small, not too sweet, not too tart. Just right.\"raspberry<\/a><\/p>\n

Turns out my favorite server\u00a0had\u00a0an avocation as a clown. Here she is,\u00a0ready to do a show\u00a0in her bride costume. She was unfailingly patient and kind to me.\u00a0\"red<\/a><\/p>\n

I walked the few blocks to the Hermitage. The route – through gated courtyards, down streets alongside canals, and over bridges – was\u00a0familiar now. I passed by the Hermitage Theater with its supporting cast of mighty\u00a0men, holding up the portico.\"Hermitage<\/a><\/p>\n

There was scaffolding going up on three sides of the palace square, and Victory Day banners hung. \"victory<\/a>Catherine the Great was arguing with someone on her cell phone.\u00a0\"catherine<\/a> I raced through the maze of the Hermitage to their\u00a0post office,\u00a0but it was\u00a0closed,\u00a0which\u00a0meant the last two dozen postcards would\u00a0have to be mailed by the Astoria*. The Hermitage was open until 9pm, the tour groups were gone and\u00a0\u00a0I was free to wander. First, a long slow walk down the length of the Loggia.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

I sat in\u00a0the room of paintings of\u00a0tables heaped with plenty, produce and game, fowl and seafood. Out of context, this a pair of turtles look romantically inclined.\"turtles<\/a><\/p>\n

I blew kisses to Rubens and and solemnly bid farewell to Rembrandt’s Prodigal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

My final destination was the Crouching Boy<\/em>, the only work by Michelangelo in Russia. It\u00a0 was hewn from a cramped cube\u00a0of marble no one else wanted.<\/p>\n

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

\"c<\/a>I said hello to him for my nephew, William Rich, whose encouragement helped me\u00a0summon the courage\u00a0to\u00a0visit St. Petersburg. I said goodbye\u00a0for me. It’s unlikely I will ever return. Leaving the Winter Palace was wrench, but with a 4am departure to the airport scheduled, I couldn’t afford to stay to the bitter end.<\/p>\n

Well and truly tired, I walked back through the now familiar streets to the hotel.
\n\"statue<\/a>Last days are like first days;\u00a0 you are wide open, unwilling to miss a moment, keenly aware of your surroundings,\u00a0and what a marvel life itself is.<\/p>\n

My view of Russia has changed,\u00a0from notions created secondhand\u00a0by propaganda and politics, to a reality\u00a0experienced firsthand.\u00a0\u00a0St Petersburg has its own distinct shape in my memory, with a slant\u00a0of light all its own.\u00a0Cultures are infinite in variety, yet the same across all geopolitical \u00a0boundaries –\u00a0everyone wears denim and everyone carries cell phones.<\/p>\n

So, where to next? The smart money is on Rome, if I can wrangle some kind of pass to the Vatican Museum. But I am open to suggestions.<\/p>\n

*I handed over the postcards to the front desk at the Astoria, who promised to mail them. They still haven’t arrived. But it’s only been two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How can this be over? I didn’t get a chance \u00a0to mention the hurdy gurdy man with the raccoon on a leash, or the woman who was texting with one hand and holding her toddler’s hand with the other, slowly circumnavigating\u00a0a fountain while her child walked along the rim.\u00a0This illustrated lineage\u00a0of the doomed Romanovs, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2015,"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":[36,32,194],"class_list":{"0":"post-1956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-fruktovaya-lavka","9":"tag-hermitage","10":"tag-restaurant","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/va-cboy-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OBxc-vy","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956","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=1956"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2033,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956\/revisions\/2033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}