Romanov Palaces

Russia has such an interesting and at times brutal history, which is one of the reasons I suppose I find it so fascinating. Before heading back to visit this time I read a lot about the last Tsar and his family. While reading I learnt about some of the palaces in which they lived...they seemed to be endless! There were a few in particular that I wanted to visit.

The Winter Palace in St Petersburg is so accessible and worth a half day or full days visit as it houses the Hermitage museum. It is enormous and my favourite parts were the rooms of the palaces which were as they were during the times of the Tsars.

We did a daytrip to Peterhof, which is very easy to get to from the city by hydrofoil. It is very formal and what I imagine Versailles to be like. It gives you an idea of the riches of the Royal family. The grounds are huge and you can get a little train around them if you are feeling a bit lazy like we were. Otherwise you could spend a whole day wandering around here and bring a nice picnic to eat on the river or in a pasture.

The palace I most wanted to visit was he Alexander Palace at Tsarskoye Selowhere the last Tsarina was captured and taken from. Unfortunately we didn't make it there because some of our travel party were sick of palaces ;p Hopefully I'll get the chance to go back and finish my tour of palaces...St. Petersburg is a wonderful European/Russian city and now it is possible to visit from Finland without a visa it will make it easier to get back there.

Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood

I first saw this church a few years ago at the end of my Trans-Siberian trip. I hadn't read anything about it before the trip. I had seen St. Basil's in Moscow which is a well known and easily recognisable landmark, but this was something I was not expecting. I was blown away...we turned a corner looking for the market to buy some souvenirs and up pops this onion domed beauty! It is quite different from St. Basil's with it's enamel domes and elaborately ornate mosaics and tiling...and in the competition for my favourite onion-dome Russian church, this one is the winner so far!
This Church was built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and was dedicated in his memory. There is a small gazebo over the place where his blood was spilt. On March 13, 1881 (Julian date: March 1), as Tsar Alexander's carriage passed along the embankment, a grenade thrown by an anarchist conspirator exploded. The tsar, shaken but unhurt, got out of the carriage and started to remonstrate with the presumed culprit. Another conspirator took the chance to explode another bomb, killing himself and mortally wounding the tsar. The tsar, bleeding heavily, was taken back to the Winter Palace where he died a few hours later.

Tartu

After Talinn we headed for Tartu whihc was hosting this years Europeade festival in which I was dancing. Tartu is the second biggest city in Estonia and is a University town. It is a really fun and beautiful place to visit. The wooden architecture reminded me of the houses in Siberia, and the countryside during the bus journey was scattered with little wooden houses and storks nests on the electricity poles, lovely.

Ye Olde Times

'Ye olde' medieval times seems to be all the rage in Estonia's capital...that and stag parties! The old town is absolutely beautiful and it's narrow winding streets are a joy to get lost in...

Old Hanse is a major ye olde hangout near the town square with all the staff dressed in medieval outfits. It's pretty touristy but worth the visit for the cinnamon beer alone!

Talinn...first impressions.

We took an early flight to Talinn, Estonia, with Ryanair. I don't know about everyone else but I never manage to go to bed early before one of these flights, always resulting in having about 2 hours sleep and a complete waste of the first day at my destination...famous last words, never again!

After a mega sleep in Old House Hostel, we explored the city. The supermarket was easy to find for a nice cheap brekkie in the hostels super cute kitchen. Across from the hostel was a bike rental place where we got a tandem...a life long dream come true!!! It was a bright red Schwinn, so beautiful and so much fun! We also got a single speed city bike that I wished I could bring home with me.

We had an adventurous cycle around the city with me leading the others onto motorways and dual carriageways...ooops! You don't realise how dangerous it is until you think about whether you would do it at home or not, eh, definitely not!

Here are some of the sights we saw along the way...

Coolest tree house ever!

Kumu new art museum in the palace grounds. Really impressive building.

The presidents house. You could almost walk up and knock on the front door! Apparently it's very common to bump into him or his wife!

The palace and its beautiful gardens.

The shady forest on the way to the beach.

And the best beach seating ever!

Craftitecture competition

"The Crafts Council of Ireland and the Irish Architecture Foundation in association with the Electric Picnic, Greencrafts and Cultivate announce a new competition:

‘CRAFTITECTURE - A Pavilion for Electric Picnic’

The competition will realise the design and build of a re-usable temporary structure at Electric Picnic 2011, the annual arts-and-music festival held in Stradbally, Co. Laois.

The pavilion will house small intimate events during Electric Picnic and through its creation raise awareness and demonstrate the links between architecture and craft.

Joint submissions are invited from Architects and Craftperson teams and must represent equal input into the design and development of the pavilion.

The competition forms part of a dynamic programme of events to celebrate Year of Craft, 2011 on the island of Ireland, which marks the 40th anniversary of the Crafts Council of Ireland (CCoI)."

This sounds like such a cool project...get your noggins thinking, deadline 12th May...good luck!

Wavehill House

A few months ago, sitting at home in Dublin, while reading Design Sponge (my must read blog for the weekdays), I saw a post about Wavehill House. At the same time I was planning my escape to New York, but had not planned anything to do there apart from sit in café's and watch the world go by. I clicked on the link to the Wave Hill House website, searched through the events and found that they would have an embroidery workshop on while I was there, so it was the first event to go into my diary for the trip. The place has an amazing history and I was looking forward to checking it out.

The day came around for the embroidery workshop and it ended up pouring rain. I dragged a friend along with me and we taught ourselves embroidery in very Jane Austen style surroundings in a mansion on a rainy day.

I was so disappointed with the weather because we literally had to run from the gate to Glyndor House and still ended up soaking wet, so there was no opportunity to look around the grounds. I vowed to go back.

When my beau came over I asked him would he be interested in a trip to the Bronx and we penciled in another viewing of Wave Hill weather permitting. Luckily we did it the day before it started snowing again in New York, and we had a gloriously sunny but cold day to enjoy the grounds. We almost had the whole place to ourselves, our own Secret Garden.

I hadn't realised until my hosts in City Island told me that what I had embroidered was the Wave Hill House chairs, which I found when the rain wasn't obscuring my vision...

Wouldn't it be so lovely to bring a book, some knitting or just a cold drink and sit out on these in the summer looking across at the Palisades...heaven.

While at this stage of the year there wasn't huge amount in bloom and very few trees with leaves on, we still found beautiful grounds with a covering of bluebells and plenty of birds and squirrels rustling around...a little bit of heaven in the Bronx.

If you are planning a trip to New York I would highly recommend a half day out at Wave Hill, you can get there by subway and they pick you up at the station (details on the website). The area around the grounds is also nice, Riverdale, with some amazing houses and views across to the Palisades.

Goodbye City Island...i heart you...

City Island is a little-known part of the Bronx that is connected by bridge to the east Bronx. A lot of New Yorkers I have met couldn't even point it out on a map! It is such a beautiful part of New York City. It is a small island that has one main avenue running down the centre, with streets on either side leading to the beach, I never thought there was such a place still within the bounds of the city. I was lucky enough to get a chance to spend just over a week here with a wonderful family. The domestic architecture is so attractive, and I can only just imagine what it is like in spring and summer with the gardens in full bloom and the beaches alive with day trippers and locals alike, there is also an abundance of wildlife that you can see in all the greenspaces and interesting characters roaming the streets!

For more information on the island check out this.
There is also a movie out of the same name, starring Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies (ER) and lots of other great actors!

These photo's were all taken while rambling around with the beautiful pooches belonging to the house, photo's of which I promise will follow soon x

P.S. One of my pet hates is how hard it is to photograph a house without a car outside! Grr!