Russia: Red Square

Saint Basil's Cathedral's kaleidoscopic onion domes, seen above and peeking through the archway below, were our first encounter with the signature oddities of Russian Orthodox Church architecture. Watching these psychedelic twist-ice-cream-cone structures rise up from the cobblestones felt like stumbling across a character from a fable story in our mortal realm. It is awe-inspiring to see something in life that would definitely be at home in illustrations of imaginative tales like Gulliver's Travels or Arabian Nights, but isn't something you think anyone would actually build, especially not as early as the 1500's, and certainly not outside of Disneyland.

The fact that this whimsical edifice is dedicated to something as serious as God creates even more dissidence and makes the monument all the more bewildering to behold. But there it is, its frippery adding a diverting, almost light-hearted quality, to the Red Square's more grave overtones - where political protests have been held and Communist leaders have been entombed.



Below is a fuller view of Red Square - sans Lenin's Mausoleum (it would appear off to the right if this was a wider shot). As a history aficionado, I was actually very excited at the prospect of seeing Lenin, but then, when it actually came to it, I chickened out. Perhaps if I'd done it quickly without thinking it may have happened, but as I stood there deliberating, my mom mentioned reading about how he's occasionally besieged by fungus. I believe that's when the gruesome reality of the pilgrimage set in, after which, I just couldn't stomach the idea.






Just outside of Red Square . . . my dad is standing in the spot that denotes the very center of Moscow.



You can make a wish if you stand at the edge of the golden circle and throw a coin over your shoulder into Moscow's center (as my dad and sister are about to demonstrate).



There's a crew of little babushka gypsies who watch the coin's trajectory.



They unabashedly scurry around picking up the spoils of superstition.




Then the comrades gather 'round to examine and show-off their plunder. (I wonder what their stance is on the wishes . . . )

Russia: Little Soldiers

This guard was not enthused about having his picture taken. He began pacing, turning his back, and glaring as soon as he noticed me and my photographic intentions. What you see above was managed in a moment when he was forced to look smart as a dark executive sedan passed by. I felt a smidge of victory in capturing this because while Russia's men (and women!) in uniform aren't the easiest or most willing camera subjects, they are ubiquitous.

Granted, some of the servicemen sightings were because the Russian equivalent of Fleet Week was going on in St. Petersburg during part of our time there, but Fleet Week or none, there were people in arresting outfits nearly everywhere. It almost seemed like a throwback to what I would imagine the Soviet-era to have been, but I suppose, a lingering sense of a police state should not have come as a complete surprise.

At any rate, I was so unnerved and struck by the number of regimentals diffused throughout the former U.S.S.R. that I made an effort to get a few good shots of them without being overly conspicuous (after all, when a place takes security this seriously, I'd rather avoid arousing suspicion if I can help it). Enjoy.




I love it - the quintessential troika of sailors with brewskies in hand.













Come to find out later, I could/should have been fined for taking this pic. The use of cameras anywhere on the metro is strictly prohibited.















St. Petersburg - just outside the Hermitage. Look at the height of these round crescent-moon hats!















Two serious soldiers walking near the Kremlin in Moscow.









Sleek and sophisticated - there were also plenty of women in this particular getup - doing a sassy strut that accentuated the fact that they each had a dagger hanging from their hip.



And here's Kasey and me modeling the distinctive Russian soldier hats (just so you get the full effect) at the Izmailovsky market in Moscow.