Change in plans = Great day!

Today has been wonderful! We were all up at a good time (it's very hard to get up early when the sun doesn't rise until 9:30 AM) We planned to go to the Hermitage again once we found out that the first Thursday of every month is free! We arrived there to find out that they had closed the doors because the museum was full!! We decided instead to go inside the Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood. So! Pictures!!!

First, on our walk from the Hermitage to the Church… a glimpse of downtown St. Petersburg. I love the old, imperial style buildings mixed in with the Soviet buildings.

It is impossible to evoke the beauty and awe-inspiring designs through pictures. I do my best!!!

All the scenes on the walls are scenes from the Bible. Everything on the walls is made of mosaic!!! It's AMAZING!!!

Proof that it's all mosaic :)

The little canopy in a picture is a monument to where Emperor Alexander the Second was assassinated. Yes, in the church. 

It's very tall!

The church was destroyed in WW2, but after that it was slowly restored to it's current beauty. When we were here in 2006, it was just opened after the final restorations. It is absolutely amazing!!!

FUR!

Today we went out to a more northern part of the city to find some knitting wool for Sofi and a fur hat for me! :D We went to the metro station Ploshad Lenina and who greeted us?

A mosaic of Lenin. The Red line on the Metro is full of all the communist symbols, figures and leaders. I really enjoy going to those stations!

Hats everywhere! Once we walked in and tried a few on, all the other ladies selling were showing us different hats, making me try them on and asking me if I liked the current hat or not. It was a bit of a stressful experience!

Some big furs. Two bears and a wolf! They are amazingly soft! The large black thing is also a bear pelt. It's amazing… there were also tons of fox and rabbit pelts too!

The whole market, not the fur part, the food part! :D

And, my fur hat! It is made from Polar Fox!

Don Quixote: My Own Review

Sunday morning at 11 AM we (Mom, Sofi and I) arrived at the Mariinsky Theatre for the 11:30 performance of Don Quixote by the Kirov Ballet. (also known as the Mariinsky Ballet company) We arrived in the theatre, a bit confused with the layout, we soon found our wing and our coat check. I looked over the program to see who was dancing, I was disappointed to see that none of the principal dancers were dancing. (Vishneva, Somova, Lopatkina)
The curtain opened and I was taken into the story by the beautiful music. The first moments were wonderful. When Kitri, the main female character, entered the stage, she lost her timing! For the first few variations she was just slightly off on her timing, making me cringe. Thankfully she gained it quickly.
The production was wonderfully done, the costumes elaborate and detailed. The sets were perfect, not cluttering the stage and yet not too bare.
Though the dancers were the less celebrated ones, they were still amazing. Anastasia Matvienko, Kitri, did an incredible job. Her footwork was flawless, every jump and turn impeccably balanced. She was light on her feet and jumped effortlessly. Denis Matvienko, Basilio, had some of the most powerful turns I've ever seen. His jumps were explosions of power and not once did he lose his time or vigour. There was one dancer, Kumiko Ishii, who made her debut that day. Unfortunately she looked very nervous and wasn't steady on her feet. Her dancing was not impressing. :(
Overall, it was an incredibly inspiring performance. I really enjoyed it. Russian ballet is by far some of the best in the world. It was an incredible blessing to see this one!

Some pictures I was able to take at the bows… and of course of the inside of the theatre :) The past few days we have been trying to do some schoolwork. With Term 1 submissions due for me, I've been getting a lot done. Otherwise, the "to bring back" list of gifts is almost complete! Time to get purchasing! That's all for now, have a wonderful day!

Pilmeni Making

While at our Grandmother's on Wednesday, we helped to make Pilmeni. They are a dumpling filled with meat. They are very very tasty! I shall explain the process for you!
 Step #1 - The meat needs to be prepared. Ground meat mixed with some herbs for flavour.

 Step #2 - The dough needs to be prepared. The dough consists of four, egg, water and salt to taste. It's difficult to get it to the right texture, it must be flexible but not too thin or crummy.

 Step #3 - The dough is rolled and cut into circles. 

Step #4 - The meat is placed onto the dough circles.

 Step #5 - The circles are pinched together to form a semi-circle, and then pinched again to form another circle. In Lucy's words "a hat."

 Step #6 - The Pilmeni are boiled. Step #7 - Ready to eat with sour cream and butter!

Zoological Museum and Downtown Again!

Yesterday, we went to the Zoological Museum. It's a fantastic museum with thousands of animal specimens (not alive). As I have been studying Biology lately, I found most of it fascinating... after a while, when you walk through the hundreds of birds, you get a bit tired. But here are some pictures! They aren't the greatest quality because everything is in glass cases.

Some interesting skeletons :)

Some animals…

Just part of the Blue Whale Skeleton!!!

Butterflies, Butterflies, Butterflies, Butterflies! I am so amazed by how many different varieties of butterflies there are!!! It's incredible!!!

Walking around outside after… It was a gorgeous day! (These four are Papa's pictures by the way… I'm not that good yet)

And of course, we were close to the Peter and Paul Fortress, so we walked for a bit in there… Blue sky, white clouds and a yellow building = a photographer's paradise!!! Also this time of the year the trees are really cool looking… I was a bit obsessed with the 'through the trees' look. :) Well, that's all for now! I'm off to my ballet class now, tomorrow we are going to our Grandmother's again… Sunday we are going to see the ballet Don Quixote!!! YAY!!! I can't wait!! I shall be more diligent with my blogging!

Apologies!

I am sincerely sorry for not keeping up with my blog lately... It's been a while since I've posted. I haven't yet posted about the Russian Museum, unfortunately in my favourite exhibit that we saw, we weren't allowed to take pictures. I can say though that it was an artist, a painter from the soviet era. I really enjoyed the paintings, some of them were very moving. I was able to find a few of my favourites on the internet!

Kolkhoz Holiday -- my favourite

The Germans are Coming

First Snow

The Fascist Flew By

 These paintings are very intense, a lot of Plastov's were. I really like them!