Don Curry is being monitored

Don Curry loves his freedom. Even when he meticulously plans his daily schedule while traveling, he always takes the freedom to change the program and do something different spontaneously. As long as he is completely in control, everything works wonderfully. But what if he has to meet other people's requirements? What if his every move is being monitored? If the state - of course, for the safety of its citizens - wants to know everything about him.

Don Curry has experienced this several times in Russia: when he wants to log into a free Wi-Fi network in a hotel or restaurant, he has to provide his mobile number and either receive an SMS with an unlock code or dial a Moscow telephone number and immediately hang up. In both cases, his phone number is stored somewhere and accessible. The reason for the action is always given as the Russian legal situation. You can use the internet for free, but please make it controllable by the state.

Don Curry also felt a bit uncomfortable in the metro stations. During the endless rides on the escalators, cameras were directed at him at regular intervals. At the end of the escalator, a security officer has her guardhouse, where she continuously looks at the faces of those rolling down or up on several monitors. Big Sister is watching You!

Don Curry was also confronted with comprehensive surveillance at his first destination. In pouring rain, he made his way to the Resurrection Church, which still disfigures the environment with its brutal mutilation. Long lines had formed at the ticket counters, but Don Curry decided to use a ticket vending machine for the first time here. He already had his ticket in hand and bypassed the queue. Queuing - that's so yesterday! - he thought. When entering the church, a first sign in Russian and English indicated that chewing gum and ice cream are prohibited in the church. The second sign announced that video surveillance would be in place.

But when Don Curry saw the crowds of people who had taken shelter from the rain in the church, he wished the video surveillance operators lots of fun in identifying individuals.

But he didn't have much time for such banal thoughts, because the interior of the church captured him without resistance. It is completely decorated with thousands of colorful wall mosaics. Not a single spot is left empty! A completely unique interior design in Russia, which also allowed the shameless flash of the crowds of photographers. For the first time, Don Curry understood why active Orthodox churches prohibit photography. In the Resurrection Church, there is now a morning service, but officially it is considered a museum and is therefore defenseless against tourists. Flashlights everywhere!

Someone is posing everywhere in the most bizarre contortions to be photographed or to do it themselves with a selfie. Several groups of Chinese people were currently populating the building and relentlessly exposing everything that was somehow visible. Don Curry longed for the reserved Japanese of previous decades, who also captured everything on photo or film that could not escape them, but at least they were quiet...

Ambivalent, but mostly delighted - and with many photos! - Don Curry left the externally ruined church to devote himself to the "lunch" project. One of his culinary destinations in St. Petersburg was definitely a Georgian restaurant, of which there are remarkably many. Don Curry chose the 'Mamalyga', which was still relatively empty at around 12:30. But that was about to change quickly. After Don Curry had placed his order, the restaurant filled up to the last seat, including a large Chinese group that increased the noise level in the restaurant significantly.

But Don Curry was looking for culinary pleasure, not acoustic pleasure - and he found it: he was first served a black currant juice at the expense of the house, then he ordered fried eggplant rolls with a walnut filling and pomegranates, and finally a Chakhabili - fried chicken in a creamy onion-tomato sauce with very spicy Georgian herbs and fresh cilantro.

The eloquent waiter recommended a Georgian lavash bread, which was served with a spicy dipping sauce; Don Curry also ordered the only draft beer in the restaurant, a French Kronenbourg. In the end, the beer was the most expensive part of the lunch, not because the food was so cheap, but because the beer was outrageously expensive at €7.92. Nevertheless, a highly recommended restaurant and an extremely delicious national cuisine.

The crowds on the dome were much stronger, even though it had to be climbed up countless steps. Despite the gloomy day, wide views opened up in all directions.

From here, Don Curry could also see his next destination: the queue in front of the Hermitage was significantly shorter today.

After a successful descent and a short visit to the famous monument of the Bronze Horseman, Don Curry lined up again.

But the queue in front of the Hermitage this afternoon was only one third of yesterday's length.

And when Don Curry reached the ticket vending machines after a 20-minute wait, he simply left the line, printed out his ticket himself, and entered the museum. Here, there was another queue in front of the security checks, but then Don Curry had access to this absurdly enormous museum, which offered an immense spectrum of human creativity and the desire for representation, from stone tools of ancient humans to Egyptian, old Siberian, and Caucasian art, medieval paintings and furniture from Germany, Italy, France, etc., Russian home culture through the centuries to the palace rooms of the Tsars.

Don Curry tried to limit himself and initially walked through the rooms of the old Winter Palace, always followed or overtaken by numerous Chinese groups. Don Curry knows many palaces of past rulers of this world, where the wealth and claim to power of the respective monarchs are extensively and enchantingly displayed, but the unreserved wastefulness of tsarist Russia surpasses everything: huge vases made of malachite and other semi-precious stones, rooms with completely gilded walls, precious wall and ceiling paintings, tapestries of the finest quality - each subsequent room should surpass the previous one.

One highlight is certainly a gigantic mechanical clock, on which a golden life-size dragonfly, owl, rooster, and peacock display the passage of time in lifelike movements.

After three hours in the Hermitage, Don Curry's brain signaled information overload and further refusal to absorb anything. Satiated with art, he left the Hermitage. For his dinner, he had made a simple plan: he would go to the famous pierogi bakery 'Stolle' on Nevsky Prospekt and get a piece of rabbit pierogi and a piece of potato-mushroom pierogi, and consume it all with Russian strong canned beers in his hotel room. At least here, no one would monitor him - or so Don Curry hoped...