18 September

The last day on the ship – and at the present, the wrong length. After getting up at the now usual time and doing the now usual things, it was funny to go to the dining room and notice quite a few missing. I saw one of the reception ladies and asked about Katya, but she wasn’t around yet. I had breakfast and then went back to my cabin and finished the ablutions for the day and was just about to finalise my packing (the cabin had to be emptied by 0915 so the cleaning crew could ready them for the next load of passengers (the ship returns to Moscow and then sails to Rostov where, if I understand it correctly, the ship will winter)) when Katya arrived. I asked if I could be picked up either earlier or later in the day and, after a quick call, the answer was later.
My mind was made up – I would be off to the city and revisit the Hermitage, to have a look over areas we didn’t visit and to get a catalogue for Ash. The packing finished apace and the suitcase was left outside while the backpack went into a cabin for storage. As I headed out I caught up with Scott and Carmel and we said our last goodbyes (and I’ve misplaced your email address, so if you read this, can you email me please!) and then I was down to the Metro station, purchased four tokens at seventeen roubles each (I will be using some tomorrow) and within a few minutes I was into the city of St Petersburg.
Here I walked from the Metro station to the Hermitage and was ready in line within a few minutes of opening time. The line moved (but not quickly) and by 1040 I was in. The first order of business was to get this catalogue (mistake!) and I headed around to the museum shop (or shops, as I found out, by trying two who specialised in selling other things before I got to the booksellers) and found … they only have one book covering all the painters, not one for each section. I ended up carting a boot which weighs about two kilograms around with me (and by 1400 it weighed about ten kilograms). I went to the ancient Egyptian display first, which was overwhelming. Perhaps I had better save that adjective for the Greek and Roman display, which was like a walk down a street in ancient times (except they probably didn’t have so many statues in so small an area). I had only spent a short time looking at these (or so I thought, finding it was now 1230) before I moved on to medieval armour and a general look at the Hermitage. One thing amazed me which I hadn’t noticed yesterday – the ceilings were all art works in themselves. You could scoot around on a mechanics’ trolley and see them all, but it would take so long. As I said later to another, the best way to see the Hermitage (in my opinion) is to get there at opening time, spend an hour and a half looking around, have morning teas (before they others all have lunch), then look around for another one and a half and have lunch, then do the same and have afternoon tea and leave when you get thrown out. I retired, defeated at about 1400 and caught the Metro back to the ship (but weakened and called into McDonald’s on the way and found the prices about the same as in Australia). Walking back from the Metro, I was surprised by how short the walk was.
Back at the ship I ran into the two Scots ladies and the Dutch couple. However, soon all our transport arrived (all separate of course) and I was in a Ford focus with a young man studying to be a motor mechanic driving to my hotel. He was using a mobile phone SatNav to direct him and we were soon there. I had to wait to check in and … first hitch! Internet access now charged. After some tooing and froing, I got my access (included) and went up to my room (incidentally 211, as was the cabin number).
Eventually I set everything up and went on the Internet, posting blogs and photos. I found my loyal fans had deserted me (with no postings, my views were down to as low as two a day) but they were back with a vengeance, as some had selected photos as favourites before I had finished uploading the set.
I felt too tired to write after answering a few emails which had piled up, so I was soon off to bed (after I had done some washing) and, soon after that, to sleep.