Miniature train Russian Style (Grand Maket)

While the initial entrance to the miniature train lay-out has a lot of cloak room attendants, "gift shop" and people with metal detector wands. ( Question of the entire trip to Russia, why with the metal detectors in places were you would find metal? Are gun shooting/knife stabbings at children's museums that common?) 

While I thought this was an odd looking punishment of a school child, it turns out it was just a dummy. Why was the dummy faced this way, because I guess the punishment at Grand Maket is pretty hardcore. By the way the Grand Maket, had a lot of video cameras every where all the time. Which brings me to my next photo. 

This is the initial video monitors in the main room for the layout. The left side says west, the right side says west. The middle is Ural mountain region(?), focusing on the areas near Latvia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan. 

The reason why it is dark, because periodically the "sun" would rise from the east to the west. Eventually, it would set from the west to the east. 

It looks very dark, but it was pretty bright, this region was the north eastern side of Russia. 

Here is some of the detail, they are enjoying a pleasant day at the dirt mines? 

Sheep and cars, a very common scene in rural Russia. 

While listening to the paddle that gives an English tour, You can appreciate the fine detail in the thousands of sunflowers. Now why the sunflowers? Because the Russian people consume large, large amounts of sunflower oil. At some meals, they would pour the oil on their food like one would at a pat of butter. 

Sheep, sunflowers, and farming equipment. Is that a John Deere I see. I don't know because as I was trying to listen to my English "tour guide" I would be interrupted by school children, or my child. Gosh, can't you just go on a tour/vacation without being interrupted by your family? 

So here is Loki and Grandpa Sergey. As you can see the lights above are "layered" with different colored lights, blue/orange/red/yellow. These are to create the look of sunsets/sunrises. As you can see, the area is huge. 

Here is Lake Baikal,  о́зеро Байка́л, the lake is the largest deepest fresh water lake in Russia, possibly the world. So to equate it to something in Oregon, it's like Crater Lake. It is located up towards Siberia. Though the display is cut off, you can see it's very large. I don't know very much about Lake Baikal. But I do have more pictures of the train lay out to share. Including school youth with those gawd awful hair cuts I keep trying to explain to people. (Including matching parent child hair cuts!). While These photos were taken around the 13th of February,  I still have more photos to share! 

Around the town

I have had some conversation and questions about what the apartment/outside was like that Sergey and Larisa live at. They are apparently referred to as the Twin Towers kind of a homage to 9/11. 

This is the opposite apartment from the one that they live in. They are practically mirror images of each other. The place that Loki is walking to is a play area for children. I think there may be underground parking. This is an area for Limited parking in a circular shape. 

This is looking directly up towards the apartment that Sergey and Larisa live in. There are 23 floors, Sergey and Larisa live on the 17th floor, in the 117th apartment. I think the open window that you vaguely can see is the window to Sergey and Larisa apartment. I could never really tell which one was there "unit". 

This is the train yard in Saint Petersburg, I don't know if it was just commercial train yard, or trains that were for transporting people as well. The train system in Russia is different from Western European trains, and American trains. I don't really know how to explain how they look. I will have to google around it. 

Here we are riding in a Taxi. I think we were in a Nissan, but I can't remember, it could have been a Hyundai. This was one of the few times I could convince Sergey and Larisa that Loki could leave the house with a pair of sneakers on. I became extremely tired of fighting over boots, also you can see how much of his ankle is peeking out of his clothes. 

This was another section of the shipping yard(s). 

I thought this was a very interesting image because we were driving to a store or activity. We went through lots of shipping or distribution sites. I thought this very cosmopolitan building juxtaposes against the squalor around it. I think we eventually went around the building. 

Oh look, we did! The yellow square thing is used to move around train boxes cargo. I had heard that if a train was traveling from Western Europe to Eastern Europe they have to switch the wheels. It is pretty complicated.

I have almost completed my series of photos from Russia. These were taken around the 10th of February. I still have a a dozen more or so posts that I get to share with you! I guess I will have to go back to Russia. 

Museum of Russian History Peter Paul Fortress 3!

So we were only there for 1 day, and in the middle had to run through the second story of the house/palace/mansion to the bathroom. I was as always, trying to take a ton of photos to document the whole of our time in Russia. Because that's what mothers do, they take photos and ignore everything else that's going on. 

Here is Sergey and Larisa, and the bags that we toted on a constant basis. We are trying to determine which image of the train is the best image to amaze Loki with. 

These were placards, that displayed images, from early films made in Soviet Russia. 1917 was the year that the country tipped into communism, or socialism or marxism. Some -ism, the images of the posters are pretty amazing, as to what they are trying to sell as a film. 

For instance here is a lady, sitting in her oriental style window (or not) with a octopus devouring the city, (or not) maybe it's just moving around, looking for a cool place to hang his tentacles. The lady, she's just relaxing, maybe she's alerted to the incoming tentacle attack. The first word is stolisomething or such. I never really did learn Russian well enough to read signs. I did learn the word for sit, sadiz, and yest, eat. 

Here are some of the designs of the city of Saint Petersburg initially. I think, since it's Russian History museum, but with a focus on Saint Petersburg. Moscow is a mess within itself. 

Here's the special things about Russian Museums, people. People who are dressed and hanging out doing types of activities, such as driving early style Russian horseless carriages. That look on his face is just priceless. Fear frozen in time, he was trying to honk his horn and let people know, "look out! I am riding my Horseless Carriage my modern machine! " Beep Beep! 

This model/statue/taxidermied early car driver has feet and shoes and hands. It's creepy! Loki is only slightly scared of these. When we went to the military museum same concept, they even had those Knights amour stand things. He was pretty darn scared of those and wouldn't come near them. 

Here I am looking out the second story window towards another palace/mansion/building for something. What are these buildings for?! I could never quite determine because something in the Mordashev family blood just refuses to allow strangers to a foreign country the time to enjoy their surroundings. Or really listen to those talking paddles they give you in the language you speak so that you can fully understand your surroundings. 

But this I can totally understand, history of toiletry in the country of Russia.  Here is a sitting toilet, and a mans standing toilet thing. So that's worth noting. And look at those copper flushes! Toilets! 

Here is typical late 19th, early 20th century housing in Russia. Here's a list of things that have changed, literally nothing. Maybe more people have television these days. 

Here's Loki handling the "doll house". It has a plexiglass over it, so that you don't manhandle the small items in the house. It also has a lady security guard who will pounce so fast on you, you won't have a chance to tell your child that he isn't supposed to touch the plexiglass. 

Here we are trying to quickly explain to Loki that he can't touch something that people have had their hands all over for the time it was made. 

A closer detail of the "doll house" again nothing much has changed from when these buildings were initially made. While this had more details, there were still Anteka every where (actually pronounce Apteka) and ladies clothing stores. The majority of the time, 99.7 percent of the time, ground floors of apartment buildings have retail stores, or restaurants. The stores ranged from pharmacies, to pet stores, to honey stores. 

Here are some smoking advertisements that were on display in Russia. This one seemed exceptionally Racist for some reason. Though I could never put my finger on what made it inappropriate. Maybe because I can't read what the sign says. 

Here is the cigarette advertisement above the the previous advertisement. What I enjoy the most about this one is the young man child smoking behind the old man. Poza is the word on the top. Because I am not really sure how to read Russian. There is so much going on with these smoking advertisements. I can't explain to you how inexpensive it is to smoke in Russia, (less than a dollar a pack sometimes, and it's not the crappy smokes) how many people smoke, and how accepted it is to smoke. The Marlboro company is still using the image of a cowboy to sell cigarettes. So that's horrible! 

Museum of Russian History II

We tried to spend a long time in the Museum because I find history so interesting. Also I love seeing the "guards". But Loki wasn't his usual self that day. 

This was a display with mens items. 

This was images of soldiers probably about the time of 1812. 

My photography skills to capture the images of the soldiers and their facial expressions very well. There were a lot more images of dead soldiers, hurt soldiers, and soldiers standing at attention. 

Here we are watching a very interesting video on how the Alexander column got in the upright position. It is all one piece, instead of pieces like the statue of liberty is. I thought that this was an interesting video, mainly because there was limited talking and more images. Because everything is in Russian. 

Continuing our tour of Peter Paul Fortress to the Museum of Russian History

The museum of Russian History is housed inside of Peter Paul Fortress, compound. While the Russian Museum isn't actually full of Russian History, it's full of art, largely made by Russian/Soviet artists. So while that's very interesting, it's not Russian History. When I think about it, there really isn't much to Russian History, a lot of it is "sanitized" to portray what they want you to know. (Good example of that coming up...) 

These are part of the first part of the museum, that includes how the Fortress was built and who initially inhibited the area that is now Saint Petersburg. 

Glance upon my marginal photo skillz. The dress was really ornate and brocade-esque. There was also a mans outfit, but meh. Dresses. 

This is, the initial and not much changed layout of Peter Paul Fortress. Notice the island, it's maybe not exactly an island. Lot's of Saint Petersburg is manmade, and by man made I mean slaves scooping mud with their own hands to lay foundations. Peter the Great's overall vision/dream of creating a door way to the west, was basically funded and created in a pretty tight headline, though he died before it was completed. Many people have this vision, that Saint Petersburg has been around since the 1500's or 1600's. It was the mid 18th century, almost into the 19th century when it was inhabited by people who had "money". So because of this, the city has hardly changed, meanwhile Moscow keeps catching on fire and having to be rebuilt. 

Here is a boat anchor, the grandparents and Loki. It was either too hot, and too cold all at the same time. Most palace museums are either too hot/too cold and drafty all at the same time. The lady in the maroon vest, is the "security guard" who prevents you from touching things. Because nobody should touch anything that's been groped for 300 years. 

Here is Loki with his sucker, looking at some of the early "cabinet members"/friends of Peter the Great who helped to create the country that is Russia during the time he was reigning. To say that Peter the Great completely modernized the country is true. According to the children's book I read the country was pretty backwards, and he moved everything in to the 17th century. He worked with Western European countries to learn what is the best of everything, and attempted to bring that back to Russia. 

Peter Paul Fortress with a little more attention to detail

Peter Paul Fortress is the oldest compound/series of buildings in Saint Petersburg. Saint Petersburg only became the city it is because of Peter the Great (June 1622-February 1725). Before most of the Russian people and royalty lived and hid in Moscow. Most Europeans didn't go to Moscow, and most Muscovites didn't leave Russia. All that changed with the creation of Saint Petersburg. 

This was a tourist booth, that had two black cats sitting outside of it. The black/red/white stripes signify something. This was the second set of cats that I saw at the fortress. 

The photos are out of order for some reason. I thought this was the first image I took. This is the entrance to the fortress somewhere. That's the Russian symbol, and some images of a religious experience or something. 

]

So here is a longer shot of the cats. So the snow is starting to melt a little, but then it would freeze at night. So it was a bit slippery. A lady fell and she was older and okay.  

So here is the symbol and the wall thing. 

I would like to think that these sculptures (larger than life, my life at least) I would like to assume is of the goddess of wisdom and plenty. Athena and Hera probably. They were huge and impressive. Also I couldn't climb up to get my picture with them. 

Athena, Hera, or something like that. 

This is like a panorama from the Fortress. We were freezing, and I was trying to get some nice pictures. I had to shuffle out there and not slip and break my leg. 

So there you can see, some of the fortress, the bridge and the frozen Neva. The river is pretty darn frozen. 

This is a another shot. Apparently in the 1850s the river flooded into the fortress. Though you would think something like that would happen more frequently. Especially since it floods in Oregon constantly. The flag is of some significance because it is to honor both Naval and Land soldiers. 

Here is where I kind of almost peed my pants. I don't know if you can see the gun to the left of the photo, maybe you can't but I am telling you it's there. Well apparently they shoot the gun off frequently. In the history of the fortress the cannon(s) have gone off at noon regularly. Then they would shoot off on arrival of dignitary, death, birth and whatever else they thought was a good reason to fire it off. Then around 1936 they stopped the daily noon time boom, long enough to stop before WWII. 

Okay, here it is the giant gun. It's a land to air missile launcher, and it was so loud I clutched the stroller that Loki was sitting in and cried out because I didn't think it was as loud as it was going to be. Because I thought fourth of July boom shell, and they bring it. Also I remember there being a huge kick back and people being up along the ramparts(?). 

I will conclude the post with a video of the gun being shot off : Peter Paul fortress Gun please enjoy the car alarms. 

Took a break, flew back to the states.

We left Russia on 2/18, those photos will come soon enough. The last thing I shared was the images from the "Deepest Aquarium in Russia". While it wasn't very large, it did have a lot of interesting animals. There were some manta rays that would flop their fins out of the water. The aquarium was enjoyed by all. 

This is an image, though not a very spectacular one of a dachshund, in a doggy snow suit. I think this dog also had a scarf, and a probably a sweater. He was very friendly and seemed very comfortable in the dog suit. This was not the first dog that I saw in a snow suit. Larger dogs were generally unsuited by smaller and medium sized dogs were suited. Loki complained so much about his suit, I wonder what the dogs complaints are. 

Here is a lovely image, of the temperature (in celsius 0 degrees, in Fahrenheit 32 degrees). The gas station has a Burger King attached to it and is across the street from Peter Paul Fortress, behind the gas station is a huge beautiful mosque. The price is 35 Rubles (1.15$) 31.70R (1.04$) 28.90R (.95$). Of course the prices are per litre, so it's about 4.60 for a gallon That's a taxi, I can't tell what kind of car it is, and it's not one that we took. But we rode very interesting cars through out or time there. Hover was my favorite. 

Here is a lovely image of my camera strap to the right. These men to the center, are not ice fishing because why would you use a giant chain saw to ice fish with? I never did figure out what exactly they were sawing up. I would think that it was to help from the frozen river cracking the bridge, or getting caught up around the bridge. Also that's bright yellow snow, I am not sure why they would pee so closely to where they are working, but that's their choice. Also that's a giant sledge hammer, to hammer each other with. 

These were the images I caught before we went to Peter Paul Fortress for the second time. More on that later.