Waltzing in ‘War and Peace’

30 March 2016 // No Comments

Thanks to my friend Svenja at Castleholic.com, I have been rewatching the waltz scene between Natasha Rostova and Prince Andrei Bolkonsky in four film adaptations of Tolstoy’s War and Peace (I’m not including the 1972 BBC adaptation). [pullquote]’They must know how... Continue reading →

Moscow: Kremlin

6 March 2016 // No Comments

We’ve come to the last post in my Russian travel series! Today’s post is on the Kremlin, the fortified complex in central Moscow. The Kremlin was a film location in Russia’s War and Peace (1966) film, which featured the Novodevichy... Continue reading →

Moscow: Red Square

28 February 2016 // No Comments

On our last full day in Moscow, we spent an hour or so at the Red Square. It was partly sunny but it was the best day, weather-wise, for taking photos. The Red Square, along with the Kremlin, is a UNESCO... Continue reading →

Moscow: Radisson Royal Hotel

22 February 2016 // No Comments

On our last evening in Moscow, we visited the 5-star Radisson Royal Hotel, on 2/1, Kutuzovsky Prospekt. Originally known as Hotel Ukraina when it opened in 1957, the hotel is the second tallest of the Seven Sisters, Stalinist skyscrapers that are a combination of Russian Baroque... Continue reading →

Russia: My Thoughts on Moscow

16 February 2016 // No Comments

Dear readers, I’m back with a new post on my first visit to Moscow in October 2014! My thoughts & observations on Moscow ‘Only fools smile without any reason’ – Russian proverb Had I known this, I probably would not... Continue reading →

St Petersburg: The Hermitage / Winter Palace

7 February 2016 // No Comments

My favourite place that we visited in St Petersburg in 2014 was the Hermitage Museum / Winter Palace. Less than a decade before visiting, my family and I watched Russian Ark (2002), a 96-minute historical drama by Alexander Sokurov, filmed in one... Continue reading →

St Petersburg: Peterhof Palace

31 January 2016 // No Comments

Peterhof (also known as Petrodvorets: Peter’s Palace; Peterhof means Peter’s Court) at Petergof, St Petersburg, is known as Russia’s Versailles. Its namesake, Peter the Great, had designed a summer palace for himself. The original palace, Monplaisir, was completed in 1723. After his visit... Continue reading →

St Petersburg: Gallery

24 January 2016 // No Comments

Today’s post is a gallery of miscellaneous photos from around St Petersburg, aside from the Winter and Peterhof Palaces, which I will post in the next two weeks. St Petersburg is one of my favourite cities and I wish I had... Continue reading →

St Petersburg: Mikhailovsky Palace

18 January 2016 // No Comments

During my short visit to St Petersburg, our tour group managed to visit only 2 art museums (not counting the one inside the Winter Palace). Today’s post will focus on the Mikhailovsky Palace, which houses the Russian Museum of Russian... Continue reading →

St Petersburg: Peter & Paul Fortress

10 January 2016 // No Comments

This Sunday’s Russian series takes my readers to the Peter & Paul Fortress in St Petersburg. This was one of the film locations for the War and Peace TV mini-series from 2007. I apologise in advance to my readers for the... Continue reading →