Next on my walking tour after the Peter and Paul Fortress was the State Hermitage Museum. This is probably the most famous attraction in St Petersburg, and I was to see, most popular, and chaotic when it comes to ticketing.

The Hermitage is not included in the tourist pass I purchased. I read on wikitravel how to line up to purchase tickets, or you can buy it online at higher cost. Originally I was going to opt for the cheaper option in person, but by some paranoid stroke of genius I paid more for the online tickets at $18, since tickets are limited per day.

Wikitravel says if you buy the online ticket to walk past the queues and go straight in. This was low season in April and there were already two hour long lines which were not moving. As wikitravel said I waved my printout and was ushered straight inside to the information desk bypassing all the lines. I wondered why more didn't buy the online tickets and I seemed to be the only one?

Next there was a mandatory free coat check which was to become the norm in all Russian museums. You are first greeted by a grand majestic staircase leading up although there were galleries on the ground floor.

I was given a floor plan but it was hard to make out and navigate at first. Eventually I realized small room numbers were posted above some doors to correspond to the floor plan so I was able to navigate my way around.

The Hermitage is not one building but several adjacent buildings connected inside. It was one of the Palaces of Catherine the Great and housed her collection from around the world.

Everything was on a grand scale and there was every form of art imaginable. The upper floor
housed the Russian collections. The third floor housed artefacts from India and the Far East so I felt more at home having been to so many Asian Temples.

Back on the ground floor were the classical works from Greece, Rome, and Egypt, but to get to those I had to find my way back to the grand red staircase I entered from on the other side of the adjacent building. I didn't want to navigate thru all the corridors so I thought I could go down and back round.

It exited me thru the turnstiles so I tried to go back to the main entry point. When my ticket wouldn't scan the lady banged her pen very ******* the sign which read no re-admittance. I'd paid more for a one day pass so I thought I could but they didn't speak English so it wasn't worth arguing.

My ticket also allowed photography as there is an extra charge for this but nobody was checking which ticket I had. Outside the lines were just as long so I'd probably gone all around inside while the same people were still waiting.

Then I noticed automatic ticket machines which were empty. Later I asked in the hotel why people don't use the machines or buy tickets online. The answer was a mix of they don't know about or trust machines/online purchases, and its a social activity/part of local culture to spend time in queues???

I was just glad I got the online ticket and suggest anyone visiting do the same. It was photographers paradise inside.