Where Were You?

Do you remember where you were on this day twenty years ago?  Thanks to this photo and a ticket, I know exactly where I was.  I was visiting the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.  A person in my group took this photograph of me descending the amazing staircase.  I'd taken two small cameras with me and the one I'd mostly used was pickpocketed at the Peter and Paul Fortress earlier in the day so thank goodness she took the photo and sent it to me.  I have very few photos of that amazing trip, but I've added a collage I made of some of the black and white photos in the extras, two Russian school children and an Orthodox priest near St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square in Moscow.  The Western and Orthodox Easters coincided that year and I was able to watch the candlelight parade around the cathedral on Holy Saturday.  Amazing memories.  We also visited the newly opened reconstruction of the Amber Room which had been looted by the Nazi's during the war. Absolutely stunning.  I'm so glad I visited Russia then because it would not happen now!