Tretyakov Gallery and Making the Burrito of Russia

Last Wednesday we went to the Tretyakov Gallery. This place is full of beautiful classical Russian art. Alas, no pictures could be taken there. The front of the gallery is littered with giant painted eggs, each being their own beautiful work of art. As I wrote in my last entry, Russians are very fond of their icons and I was excited to see something other than icons (although we did end up going to the basement where they have more. Surprise!). It was really interesting to see how Russian art developed from icons to paintings of the west. There are some pretty awesome things in there, and while our guide was very informative she went faster than I would have enjoyed.

One of the Gallery's most famous painting is this one of Alexander Pushkin by Kiprensky. It has it's own spotlight making it glow among all the other paintings. Pushkin liked the painting and said that he thought it represented himself better than looking in a mirror. This means that Pushkin's mutton chops were just as awesome in person. Men should take note.

One of the most amazing paintings there is The Appearance of Christ to the People by Alexander Ivanov. This painting is giant and takes up the entire wall of the gallery, with sketches of various characters on the surrounding walls. St. John the Baptist standing there is life size in person. It's absolutely nuts. Ivanov took 20 years to paint it and nobody liked it until he died. Poor guy. The following are also famous paintings/paintings I like.

Kuinji. They thought this guy was using phosphorous in
his paints to achieve this. I think he saw too much of the green fairy.

Shishkin's Morning in a Pine Forest. The children love this
painting because the bears are on bars of chocolate.

Gay's What is Truth? I'm not a religious person, but
this painting is really striking and philosophical.

Bogatyri by Vasnetsov. Their eyes supposedly
 follow you around the room.

This was my absolute favorite by Vorobiev.

After the Gallery many of the people in my group were going to the Conservatory to listen to classical music. I like classical music, but I didn't feel much like going, so I didn't. Instead me and two other people went to Gorky Park because my guide book says that there was a space ship you could crawl inside there. The USSR lost funding for the program behind the rocket and just put it in a random park. I like what Russia does with their things. Gorky Park is being renovated, but the spaceship was there. There was a rope attached to the door, but no ladder. If I had any climbing skills, and there wasn't a camera attached to the damn thing, I would have jumped on this thing like a spider monkey.

It might have lost funding because it was built out of Legos.

After that we we up close to the much hated statue of Peter the Great.

Don't worry, it's much uglier in person.

Didn't really do much until Saturday. I went with a guy from the group to Victory Park where there's a tank museum (he loves that shit(. You had to pay extra to take pictures at the open air museum, so of course I didn't take pictures. They had some sweet ass military planes, a giant railroad tank, cars, and of course TANKS. The entire park is littered here and there with monuments dedicated to Russia defeating Nazi Germany in what's known here as The Great Patriotic War, and also to the defeat of Napoleon. Russia is just so big it absorbs any attack thrown at it.

This pic would be so awesome if I knew
how to crop it. 

We then went to Dom Knigi (House of Books). It's huge and I wanted to read some Russian Literature since I haven't really read any. I picked up The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. After learning I was going to Russia, one of my philosophy professors recommended the book for it's philosophical content. It also happens to be one of Dostoyevsky's longest. After reading the first chapter I've already been struck with a quote.

В большинстве случаев люди, даже злодеи, гораздо наивнее и простодушнее, чем мы вообще о них заключаем. Да и мы сами тоже.

As a general rule, people, even the wicked, are much more naïve and simple-hearted than we suppose. And we ourselves are, too.

After that I went home and decided to go out with other people in our group to a night club. That club ended up being closed so we ended up going to another one called Propaganda (ironically named). In Moscow, the metro closes at 1 AM and opens up again at 6 AM. We met up at 11:30 PM. We stayed out allllll night. It had to happen at least once. I was a little bored at Propaganda because 1. Tessa doesn't like to dance. And 2. No one would dance/talk to me. We have been jokingly blaming this on my babushka who blessed me before I left the house. Gotta love those babushkas.

Yesterday I learned how to make blini! My host's niece Dasha, who is the sweetest person in the world, told me she would teach me how. For those of you who don't know what a blini is, it's a really really thing pancake. It could be compared to a crepe BUT IT'S NOT! It's still fluffy! It's a pancrepe (crepcake?). They eat blini with everything. They roll it up and put caviar, meat, cheese, chocolate, whatever you want into this thing. It's the burrito of Russia.

It's more difficult to make than it seems. First you take some eggs and beat the shit out of them. She told me I had to do it forever because it was my first time, but Jesus it was torture. Then you add salt and sugar to the eggs. Then you add in some milk, beat the shit some more, add some flour AND DO NOT BEAT IT! If you beat it too fast the flour clumps (or something). After that add baking soda, lemon, and oil, beat it some more, and your ready to put this on a hot pan. You have to take the pan off the burner and spread the batter around so it's as smooth as possible. I'm not very good at it because my wrists hate me (I blame working at Walmart). Then you have to use your Spidey Senses to know when the blini is ready to be flipped. She had me make the entire thing and they were freaking delicious. Dasha thinks that I have the blini sense and can feel when it needs to be flipped. She's probably being nice, but I'll take it. Dasha claims there will be a next time where I'm going to make blini all by myself. Challenge accepted Dasha. Challenge deliciousness accepted. Do svedanya bitches.