Friday, and what can go wrong with a plan of action

Ok, so I’m up at 8 and out the door shortly before 9, which is when the pastry shop next door opens. Grab a cup of tea and some croissants to go and take the bus to the Ermitage. I get there at 9:15. It doesn’t open until 10:30 and the line is already 500 feet deep. I get in line and read my book. It snows, it blows, I freeze. Then finally let us start moving into the courtyard at about 10. There are ticket machines right at the beginning of the courtyard that say if you buy tour tickets here, you can go to the head of the line. But I’m pretty much at the head of the line, because no there are hundreds of people behind me so I figure I’m good. What can go wrong with that? Well, it was 11:30 and they still wouldn’t let us in the the ticket offices because the people who bought their tickets at the machines got to go in first! aaargh! And it snow again and I froze again. Screw it. I’m leaving and will try again tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’m so cold, my blood pressure tanked. I was feeling dizzy whe. I got to St. Isaac’s but only had to stand in for about 15 minutes. So they first thing I did when I got inside wa sit down on a bench and read to warm up.
And I saw a funny thing on the way over to St. Isaac’s. There’s a car parked near a crosswalk. A policeman is standing ther3 with a measuring tape, checking if he is parked too close. He is!!! The policeman takes a picture of his license plate. I’d love to see that driver’s face when that surprise comes in the mail.
In any case, I’d warmed up enough inside to start milling around and taking pictures. The opulence in many historical churches is just overwhelming. And, boy, I think Jesus would have beat the crap out of some of this people. There was just one “gift store”. At every pillar there was a stand selling some sort of religious relict. Talk about Jesus throwing the money changers out of the temple! Some things don’t seem to change at all. Yes, I understand it’s a tourist attraction now. It just seems to have lost touch with its original mission.
I was done inside and I had also bought a ticket to climb up the colonnade but I decided to go back to that Indian restaurant I had seen yesterday and have a nice lunch first since I was hungry still a little cold and I didn’t want to feel dizzy when I climbed. I was glad I did. The food was great and I took a long leasurely lunch read.
I headed back to St. Isaac’s and went through the entrance to the colonnade and started climbing. At first it was inside a circular tower, then you had to climb another 50 or so steps outside to the platform. And the wind was blowing. Hard. I made it up and held tight to the railing for a quick walk all the way around, glanced out over the city and came back down again.
I caught the bus back home and crawled under the covers for a couple of hours to warm up. Then I took a walk around a lesser frequented part of the city before calling it a day. Tomorrow I’d like to see the Ermitage and the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Faberge Museum. Wish me luck.