24: Van Gogh

09.06.2011 – 09.06.2011 rain 19 °C

 

Had a really great sleep in this morning after an extremely late night.. It’s amazing- the sun doesn’t go down til at least 10.45pm so you find that you don’t feel tired when you would normally feel tired! But geez you pay for it the next day!

Anyway the plan for today was to go to the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum. I have to say at the outset that I wasn’t super excited about spending the morning wandering around an art gallery. But I have to say, that I am definitely an art convert! It was amazing to wander thru these hall ways that contain so many works of art that are by some of the most famous artists ever. The Pushkin has works by- Monet, CeZanne, Van Gogh, Matisse just to name a few. The Van Gogh’s definitely had the greatest impression on me. The Pushkin owns 5 Van Gogh’s and one of them (Prison barracks) was my pick. The colours and the brush strokes are just amazing! I also really quite enjoyed the CeZanne’s. I understand now why the masters are so talked about and wanted.. The colours and the details are just awesome!

After enjoying the museum for a couple of hours we went hunting a photography museum that was supposed to near the Pushkin. We’re not sure if we ever actually found it but we did find a totally modern, abstract museum which was “god-awful” to use one of Bookie’s expressions. Absolute waste of money! I mean how can you sell a piece of stretched canvas inside a glass case that has no paint, picture or anything visible??? Or what about a piece of green tent canvas that has some salt crystals visible on its surface????? Anyway half an hour later I was back out on the street and looking for lunch.

After lunch I took off to find St Basil’s cathedral. St Basil’s is surprisingly small on the inside! It is actually 10 churches that are all combined into one building (each of the onion domes represents a separate church). Each of the churches wouldn’t be large enough to accommodate 40 people standing so you can get an idea of how small they are. St Basil’s still operates as a working church a couple of times a year on major orthodox holidays but in the main is just a tourist attraction. You can see the relics from St Basil (a Muscovite in the 1500s who apparently performed miracles for the poor and sick in Moscow) but the highlight is the painted interior. Every wall is covered in frescos, depicting parts of the bible. St Basil’s is quite a rabbit warren.. you could play an amazing game of hide and seek.. The many onion domes lead to heaps of small passage ways going each and every way! I’m so glad I made the effort to see St Basils as it has such an interesting and beautiful interior!

We started to head back towards our hotel around 6pm as we needed to have dinner etc to get ready to catch our last overnight train to St Petersberg at 12.45am! Fingers crossed the train is on time and we can get to sleep quickly tonight!

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