Picture of the Day: The Chronicles of Russia

St. Petersburg, Russia -- May, 2011

One of the few decent pictures we have from inside the Winter Palace. I bought tickets to the Hermitage Museum online just before we left Tallinn, expecting to receive the e-tickets instantaneously in my email. But, when finished with the payment, there was a note saying we would receive them within a couple of days. So, when we left, no tickets. Then, at our bed and breakfast just before we were leaving to go to , I asked if I could borrow there computer for a moment to check my mail -- still nothing. We decided to just go wait in line. One of our classmates told us they got in for free with their student ID (the good thing about buying ahead of time was that we could jump the long entrance line).

However, the line went far more swiftly than I would have expected. We waited for 20 minutes, showed our student IDs, and got in for free. We spent a couple of hours roaming through the museum, admiring the building as much as the displays themselves. And, when we got back to Tallinn, I still had not received our tickets, so I wrote them and asked if they could cancel them, which they so kindly did! So everything worked out quite well!