Awareness of the outside world. Travel Advisory, “Level 4 – Do not travel.” Travel.State.Gov: Russia. For perspective, “Terrorists are very likely to try and carry out attacks in the US.” Gov.UK: USA>Safety and Security.
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“Seventy-five percent of an experience was better than never having the experience.” [Going Virtually]
I was having a text exchange about The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (waves hi!). Given the state of the world, IRL tourism is not an option. So, I got to wondering what was online. Here’s what I found. Thought you might be amused.
The main site for The Hermitage includes a page of Virtual Visits, listing collections of panoramas, including The Manege and Stables of the Imperial Residence. 1846–2025, six panoramas with information tags.
There is at least one long YouTube tour. However, art museums are not my thing, so I did not watch it and cannot attest to the quality. Easy enough to find if you are interested.
A short post that I enjoyed, Rick Steves Blog: The Hermitage Museum. You may also be interested in the sidebar link to Comrades No More. I continue to be an unexpected fan of Mr. Steves. [Cairo Travel, Confession]
Since the TV shows are available online, RS: Watch, I looked to see if there was one on St. Petersburg. No. A post on reddit discussed possible reasons, which boiled down to permits &/or business model. r/ricksteves: Why has Rick never made an episode for Russia, Belarus, Serbia, or Ukraine.
In general, I am fascinated by the extent to which you can bring the world into your living room. I have joined live walking tours, taken hybrid classes, and livestreamed multiple horse shows. And this is me out in the boonies with video that is only slightly faster than carrier pigeon. I can only imagine what is possible at high speed.
In some ways, it has been an evolution from telegraph to radio to television to digital chose your own adventure. Imagine what could be next. Interactive livestream where we can choose which horse to follow? I have heard the theory that science fiction lost market share to fantasy when it became clear that we were not getting hovercars and robot butlers. We foresaw the wrong things coming.
Speaking of things we didn’t see coming.
A forum message came up in my search, RS Travel Forum: Private guide for Hermitage. In the message, a person is looking forward to visiting St. Petersburg at the end of April. The message is dated 2/07/20. We really had no idea the size of the rock that was rolling down on us. [Exploring The Rabbit Hole]
Name not redacted since it is a publicly-posted forum.
This all started as a conversation that I had no intention of blogging. However, possible blog posts are never far from my mind. To know me is to be blog material. I will never reveal personal data without asking. Everything else is fair game.
“5. Use everything. My friends find text from my emails reappearing on posts.” [10 Tips for Daily Blogging 2012]
“If you felt strongly enough to type a message on the subject, then you feel strongly enough to get a blog post out of it.” [10 Tips To Help You #bloglikecrazy 2017]
Where have you been virtually?
Onwards!
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 