Here's a quick summary of what exactly The Hermitage Museum in Russia is because I know it's not exactly the type of information one would keep in his or her head. So...
The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is, as you can see, a musem. In fact, it is one of the largest museums in the world. The royal Winter Palace of the Romanovs is also now part of the modern day Hermitage. It was started by Catherine the Great, one of the Tsarinas (female Tsar) who was one of the greatest Tsars in Russian history. She had brought the country much success and did a great deal in pulling them together (hence the name Catherine the Great) She wanted Russia to have something to show off, something the people could be proud of, thus she proceeded to construct and create the largest Museum in the world. When I say large, I mean humongous, gargantuan, colossal, Stratospheric!
A documentry once showed a videographer simply walking through the entire place wthout stop from room to room just to show every single room in this palace. It had taken almost 4 hours without stop for them to cover everything. During the revolution when Lenin's men had stormed the place looking for the royal family, they charged in shouting and carrying all sorts of weapons with the purpose of enprisoning the royal family. However they ended up charging from room to room for an hour looking before actually finding the royal family. How anti-climatic is that. Plus, it's filled with such an array of exhibits, purchased from different corners of the world which numbers up to 3 million. It would take 8 years to see if you spent 1 minute on each exhibit everyday. We didn't find it really interesting because most of it was art pieces, I even got to see Da Vinvi's! However it was the history of the various art pieces that really got me listening. I mean, I will never get what impressionists or surrealists are doing.
Here's my sister's way of keeping warm in cold Russia - Bao-ing a spare shawl round her belly.
As you can see the interior of the museum/palace is absolutely splendid. The opulant interior architechture was overwhelming (Tourguide's favourite word... Opulant) Parts of the museum were actually copies of Italian or French or whatever country's museums and churches because the Tsars during that time were damn competitive. Kinda like mordern day Ch-eye-na. (oops)
This one is supposed to be a copy of a church or something in Versailes I think.
This is an entire gallery of war heros. One is taken by me and the other one is stolen from google. You can guess pretty easily because of my mum's head in the picture. HAha.. We were the only Asians around man...
And I simply love the fact that when I see this picture online, I know that I've been there. So cool!!
Talking about Russia links to Communism right? That's what everyone says when I mention Russia. In case you don't know, USSR is long gone and they have a new monarch on their hands. haha. Lenin & Co. weren't happy that the Tsars were enjoying such lavish lives while they were starving in ghettos, just look at their chandeliars. Most of them are gold plated cast iron, some are silver coated, some are diamond studded, but there was one pretty funny one, it was plaster of paris or styrofoam or something like that painted in gold. Ever wondered how they lit the chandeliars in the past? These babies were mostly more than 15 feet off the ground! Plus have you ever seen the ladders that we use today in history books? No right. Trick is, the chandeliars were retractable! They were released down ever morning and lit, then pulled up by a rope after that! Smart right.
Anyways, to end off, the most hilarious painting I saw during my entire trip. Don't you think he looks like some cartoon? Btw these photos were illegally taken. We had to pay 100 rubles to take photographs and 200 to take videos. (We never paid anything... shhh!!)
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