I first visited the Hermitage in 1987 when I was 18 years old, Gorbachev was the leader of the USSR and the city it is located in was named Leningrad, not St. Petersburg. I was part of an exchange program called Project Harmony that brought high school musicians from Vermont to meet their peers in the Soviet Union in an effort to foster interpersonal connections between the youth of what, at the time, were geopolitical adversaries.
A lot has changed in Russia over the ensuing 30 years. Despite its impressive architecture, the legacy of the opulent Tsarist regimes that were toppled by the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Leningrad was not the cosmopolitan city that St. Petersburg is today. The Soviet teenagers I met in 1987 expressed to me their dreams of being able to travel as freely as we Americans could, to listen to the music they wanted to, to express themselves as openly as we could and their hopes of a better future. Despite its regal, colorfully painted buildings, Leningrad was a grey place.
The Iron Curtain also assured that tourism was much more limited in 1987 than it is today. Nowhere was that more evident in the Hermitage, whose magnificent halls we shared today with throngs of visitors. National Geographic Orion was clearly not the only ship in town, but it was certainly the smallest.
Our excellent local guides maneuvered us patiently through the crowds, but by the time we reached the stairs to the coat check there was an impassable blockade of humanity trying to go in every direction. The Lindblad team was forced to rise to the occasion, turning their well-honed crowd management skills to create a path to break the gridlock. After that, we easily left the museum, just in time for lunch. What an adventure!
The rest of our day in St. Petersburg was more relaxed…and the three shots of vodka I had at lunch certainly helped calm the nerves. After a fine repast of caviar blinis, borscht and beef goulash at Pushkin's legendary hangout the Literary Café, we enjoyed a relaxing canal cruise, visits to the awe-inspiring Spilled Blood Cathedral and the Peter and Paul Fortress.
After a sad farewell to our local guides to whom we had grown close after two days exploring the city together, we made our way back to the ship where we compared notes over dinner and a lively evening of cocktails, music and conversation in the lounge.
