Page 8 of 10
Moscow, Russia
I haven't been gone very long but it feels like a lifetime
The heart of Red Square (especially if you don't count the Kremlin or what's left of Lenin), one of the most famous buildings in Russia and the driving force behind my desire to go to Russia, Saint Basil's Cathedral is everything I always thought it would be, at least from the outside.
A quick tour of the exterior, where admittedly the orange trim (though little else) came as a surprise.
The balance of inside of Saint Basil's Cathedral is confusing at best. Unlike some of the churches at the Kremlin, the inside of this one was a series of tight little rooms on two floors. Just about every available surface, whether column or ceiling or wall was painted and decorated, apparently in Russian Orthodoxy too much just isn't enough.
The closest thing to a dramatic space inside the Cathedral, this what you see after successfully navigate the lower labyrinth and finally find its central space. There are several like this (although not as nice), with one of the chambers during my visit containing a quintet of singing monks- their echoes and reverberations in that side chapel were almost indescribable, it is something that needs to be heard to be believed.
Just how labyrinthine is the interior of Saint Basil's you ask? Well I probably spent as much time trying to find my way out as I did enjoying as much as my admission ticket (for both myself and my camera) would allow.
Standing right in front of Saint Basil's (which explains the people taking pictures right in front of me), this is a quick orientation to Red Square and a preview of the next page’s slides. Clockwise from Saint Basil's we'll start with the Kremlin (on the left behind the evergreen trees), Lenin's Mausoleum (the low red stone building in the center), the Russian Historical Museum (on the right) and the Gum Department Store, just out of view on the right. It will all make more sense when you see the other pictures. Probably.
Even when Moscow was the head of the Soviet Union (as opposed to now just being the head of the largest country on earth by size), the Gum Department Store was still a department store, although it wasn't filled with the high quality, somewhat familiar expensive boutiques that capitalists have come to know and love. Still, it is on Red Square and remains a great place to get a damn tasty blueberry ice cream cone from the little old lady with the pushcart.
