Hermitage!

Today, after a lovely 3 hours of Russian classes today (consisting of conversations and phonetics) we had our first trip to the Hermitage Museum at Palace Square.

For those of you who do not know, the Hermitage is one of the largest and best museums in the world and is built in the former palace of the Russian royal family. It was one of the coolest buildings I have ever been to, and that’s not including the excellent art inside. They have floors that included 15 different kinds of wood, throne rooms gilded ceilings and marble staircases to everywhere. And inside are tens of thousands of classic works of art including multiple paintings from the greatest artists of all time. They have the largest Picasso collection in the world outside of France, largest Rembrandt collection outside of Holland, 2 of the 11 known DaVinci paintings and countless other classics of all art forms.

I will have to return to this place as many times as I am able to and what is more… it is free to Russian students (ME!)

Today we were also able to have fun time again going through the metro system at rush hour, with its packed trains and even more full stations. I can see how it moves millions every day, but I also don’t see how people can get used to it.