How I Explored the Largest Country in the World (Russia) Solo, by Train, in 30 Days – St. Petersburg (2)

31/7 to 2/8/2019. Russia is big, powerful, and has a long history, the Hermitage Museum is the embodiment of that. It is a museum, it was also the palace of the Romanov, the last emperor of Russia. From the outside, it was already showing to be massive and grand. I tried to capture the entire length of the main building with my phone camera but with difficulty. It was long as a train. I walked up wide staircases reserved for dignitaries to make their grand entrances. I should keep moving, or I would be here for days to go through the extensive displays. Only congestions, crowding around renowned exhibits, or when I took a selfie with Lenin, slowed me down. I was dazed by the lavish halls and rooms, the Throne Room, the Armorial Hall, gilded to be resplendent; and exhibits like the Peacock Clock, and the so many painting collections by masters in the past. I walked for about five hours until my leg turned into jelly, and I barely scratched the surface.

The subway system was a novel experience. It was an easy-to-use, idiot-proof system until it met me. They keep it simple here – one fare for any distance, so just clock in, and no need to clock out. You could go chasing your tail forever, nobody cared, so long as you did not surface. The subway was built really deep down, so deep no bunker-buster bomb could reach it. When I descended on an empty escalator, I could see it continued to the center of the earth, it was kind of unnerving. The ancient subway trains plowed ahead like noisy, old-fashioned trains, solid and well built. It was archaic, vintage; it was probably deliberate, to remind the people where they have come from and where they could be going.

In many countries, the subway system is designed to be efficient and functional. In St. Petersburg, it is also artistic. The people rushed to work at the beginning of the day, went about the most mundane of activities, then dragged their tired bodies homeward at the end of the shift, every day living everyone’s life except their own. Underground and enclosed, deprived of sunlight and stifled with stale air, how could they be helped to see the light and breathe a little easier? They decorated the waiting stations each with artistic design, each unique, so these become the people’s refuge from the rat race above. Their lives, their daily lives, infused with art. They got it!

^{31/7 – 2/8/2019 参观了两个博物馆，其中圣彼德堡冬宫，两脚开了马达般不停走了五六小时还看不完，最后身体拖着两条腿走。看了这么多出土文物，以后我入土时会更有归宿感。}

^{乘地铁也是新奇体验。地铁造在地下深处。小时体育老师说地狱有十八层那么深且很烫，这地铁比十八层楼还深，还挺舒适的。造得那么深，不会也为了防弹吧？站台设计别具风格，每站风格各异，很有艺术感。一个价，不计站，只要不把头探出地面。可在里面，追自己尾巴团团转。地铁本身就有点老态龙钟，往前冲时就像老火车气喘呼呼拼命往前撞的感觉，但是金刚之身，很实在。}