May 17

Our room at the Art House Hotel is on the small side, but has all the comforts one would want - two beds, a TV, a desk, a place to store clothes, and a small bathroom with towel warmer, shower, and hair dryer. Michael has retreated to his "private office" and asked me to hold his calls, so I am using the time to write this.

We started the morning with breakfast prepared by Lena, the non English speaking housekeeper here and ate in the small, but cheery breakfast room. We had an 8:30 AM breakfast, eggs sunny side up (changes each day) with yoghurt, juice in a box, cheese and salami, and the option of oatmeal, cold cereal (corn flakes or cocoa pebbles), and toast.

Once finished, we left and walked about a mile or so to the Russian Museum, arriving just before the 10 AM opening. This museum has a huge collection of Russian art starting with medieval icons and continuing through contemporary times. I finally finished a few days ago the almost 600 page book I was reading, Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History or Russia, so I recognized a few more artists and saw one picture that was highlighted in the book of barge haulers on the Volga River. The art included many religious pictures, portraits of many Russians, some famous and some unknown to me, scenes of Russian life, and some soviet era "worker" focused art. There were a few pictures of Jewish people, one of an old Jewish man very similar to a picture I had seen in Moscow, a sculpture of Spinoza, but also two small pieces of art in a display case, one described as the "stingy" Jew which was troubling. As were attempting to make our way out, we ended up in a temporary exhibit that had to do with flying and included stuffed birds, pictures of insects, mechanical insects, and insect sculptures and robots. There were a few large tour groups there, but mostly groups of schoolchildren. Michael used his phone translation program to communicate with one of the gallery "guards" who apparently was quite annoyed with the children because they were touching the art. This museum had gallery guards that were actually human, several volunteered assistance, all were awake, and several smiled. This is in contrast to the usual museum gallery guard, who would be an elderly woman sitting on a chair, often asleep, but if awake stone faced and unable to make eye contact.

It was about 1:30-2:00 when we finished and we then walked about ½ mile to a restaurant Michael had identified as our lunch destination, Dhanchiki. It was below street level, and the interior was mae to resemble a log cabin. Lunch was ok, not great. Michael had a hot soup and I had cold beet borscht which was good. We shared an order of cherry variniki (like raviolis with a cherry filling). I had these before at a vegetarian restaurant and they were excellent, but these were just passable. Michael's choice of food to share was a plate full of fried smelt (fish). He had "birch sap" to drink and I had a fruit flavored water.

As we exited the restaurant it was raining and we decided to take a bus back to the hotel as we needed to change for our 5:00 PM opera performance. Michael walked faster than I after we got off the bus, so when I got back he was in the kitchen having a cup of tea with a woman. I had just obtained bus direction to the concert hall from the receptionist, but it turned out Michael's companion was not only the owner of the hotel, but was also going to the opera and offered to drive us. We changed our clothes quickly and once her friend arrived we all departed at 4 PM for the opera.

The owner spoke a little English and had been the U.S. Her friend did not speak English, but could converse in French. So I dug deep into my brain and my past and pulled out my high school and college French and had a bit of a conversation with her. Turned out she is a doctor here, specializes in infectious diseases, and works in a laboratory. The traffic (Friday afternoon and the rain) was horrible and this 1 ½-2 mile drive took us about 50 minutes. However, we got to the opera with time to spare and were most appreciative of the ride and the help in getting into the theater.

The opera was Tosca. It was performed more as a concert than a full opera - that is, no costumes, no stage sets, not much "acting." However, the music and the singing seemed quite good and were well appreciated by the audience. As in the U.S., the dress of people varied from almost formal to jeans. There were quite a few young adults, many more than one would expect to see at a similar type of show in the U.S. At intermission, one could buy a variety of drinks or some little open faced sandwiches for about $9-10 (pricey). Michael and I shared a soft drink .

The opera was held in the new Marinsky II hall which just opened earlier this month behind the original Marinsky theater which dates back to the 1800s. The new theater has a glass and steel and concrete exterior and does not fit in with the architecture here at all and is not liked by the local people. However, the seat layout inside is similar to the original Marinsky with floor level seating and then about 4 U-shaped tiers of "stalls" along the side and back walls. We met our companions after the concert; they had third friend and we all piled in the car and they drove us to Nevsky Prospect, the main street here. We could have gotten a ride all the way back to the hotel but we asked to be let out as we wanted to eat dinner and the rain had stopped.

Michael and I regrouped and decided to walk about ¼ mile to a restaurant called Tsar, one of the more high end fine dining Russian restaurants, reported to have décor that carried over from the 1800s and the time of the Tsars. The décor was quite lovely and there was a Russian saxophone player playing contemporary American music which was quite enjoyable. We shared dishes including a cold and hot soup, stuffed cabbage, beet and herring vinaigrette salad (our least favorite) and duck breast with sauerkraut side and a cranberry glaze and sauce. Michael finished the meal with crème caramel which he stated was the best he had ever had; my little taste supported that. This restaurant had really elegant "toilettas". As is the way in many places here, they have individual toilets, and then a common shared area with sinks to be used by men and women. Each of the three little rooms with the toilets had the seat mounted in a "throne" and the sink area had the water coming out of samovars. As a courtesy, we were given postage paid picture postcards of the restaurant that we could complete and mail.

After a lovely evening, we exited the restaurant and immediately as we turned from the front door to walk down the sidewalk, on our left there was a storefront window with an exotic dancer dancing and then another a few more feet down. So the restaurant is next door to a "club" for late night entertainment. Once we recovered from that, we continued our walk and walked about a mile or so back to the hotel. (Since I started this, Michael did come out of his private office, but he seems to be back in it now.)