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      SCAND2003 #40  The Hermitage    

July 10, 2003 (cont.)

         We started through the Hermitage at 5:00 and our guide, Rialemma, rapidly raced us up and down and all over the place to see the most famous works of art and within an hour the museum was closed and we were out of there. She really knew her stuff.  This place was huge with multiple floors. 

            We looked at the museum shop offerings and Marcia bought some earrings and by 6:00 Polina had driven us to her favorite souvenir shop.  It had just about everything you could imagine at reasonable prices.  I bought the set of the familiar Russian nesting (or stacking) dolls which they call matryoshkas or in English “matrushkas.”  The set I got were of US Presidents from Bush to Carter which I thought was unusual.  Maybe I should have gotten the Russian leaders from Putin to Kruschev.

            After we left at 7:00, we got stuck in traffic again but by 7:30 we got to see the exterior of the Church of Peter & Paul where all the old leaders are buried.  She then took us to dinner at 8:00 at the Karavan [Voznesenskiy Prospkt 46, 310-5678 or 311-2800].  After helping us order, she took off while we had dinner.  The motif of the restaurant was a desert caravan with designs of oases and statues of camels.

            Marcia had Georgian red wine and I had Botchkarev (bushkya) beer.  We then were served this large platter of dolma with a vegetable mixture followed by potato pancakes, Lebanese lamb, Kutab (crepe with lamb, tomato & cheese), creamy pumpkin soup, borscht c lamb & egg, kebob of lamb chops, and chicken wrap, and finally veal kebob.

            This was a lot of food.  For desert Marcia had hot chocolate cake and I had ice cream with fruit. All this was recommended and selected by Polina before she left.  The dinner was excellent and it was absolutely the best borscht I had ever eaten.  I will definitely want borscht again.  The entire dinner and drinks came to 3320 rubles which is about $115.

            Polina showed up right on time at 10:30 and drove us back to the hotel.  I was surprised she hadn’t joined us for dinner but she explained she wanted us to have some time alone and she wanted to have dinner with her son.  She is a single mom and her mother watches him while she is working.  After she dropped us off at 11:00, I had a cappuccino at the Borsalina Bar at the hotel, worked on Palm expenses & Video photos and got to bed at 1:45 AM.  The apprehension we felt originally about not being under Western European laws was gradually beginning to wane.  We still had to be careful as Dimitrii had warned us.

            All and all, an exciting day for our first day in Mother Russia.

KJH                                                                                               Go To -> NEXT DIARIO #41 

Kenneth J. Hoffer, MD

KHofferMD@AOL.com                       

Ken@Hoffer.US

St. Petersburg, Russia

Sent 11-12-04

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