Farewell St Petersburg

It was lovely sunny weather after the dig and the canals of St Petersburg looked their finest.

Many of the buildings are brightly painted.

I managed to go to Conchita Bonita with Lena from the hostel in honour of the old days, tasty as ever, particularly after the dig food (which is special in its own way and I'm even eating rye bread now to remember...)

Nord Hostel front door on Bolshaya Morskaya.

Diksie supermarket, not the most obvious looking supermarket, no pictures of fruit or vegetables. Signage is quite discreet in St P (a throwback to the past apparently).

More beautiful weathered buildings, I won't ever tire of seeing them.

I dropped into the Hermitage volunteer service to say hello. They agreed to me visiting in 2010 (for 3 months which became 5 months), and from that all of this grew. 

I am with Lyudmila and Andrew (the new office manager), Mikhail who is in charge was on holiday.

It felt right to end my trip back at the Hermitage. But I didn't have time to go in, lucky I have a one year visa for multiple visits.