On Monday morning, we planned a visit to the Belvedere Summer Palaces and park.
I thought that Belvedere would be mostly about architecture and interiors (same as many summer palaces around St. Petersburg). But it turned out that only a few rooms in each palace are restored in all their baroque glory, and there was more art and more information to process.
I will still start with the architecture, though. Everything would look better during summer, but I imagine there will also be hordes of tourists when the weather is nicer (same as in Paris, Athens, and other big tourist attractions, so I am counting my blessings.
We started with the Upper Palace and the park, which actually looks a lot like the Peterhoff Uppaer Palace.
Paul KleeBoris Grigorjew. A couple: Thief and Prostitute. 1917
Once again, I didn’t know anything about this artist, so I saved some notes from the exhibit:
Boris Grigoriev is one of those artists who, despite the omnipresent search for new forms of avant-garde expression in the contemporary Eastern European art centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg, stuck to figuration and the classical genres. A brilliant draftsman, he initially worked as an illustrator for magazines and made a name for himself as a recognized portraitist of well-known personalities. Self-Portrait with a Cigarette is one of these powerfully expressive portraits.
Grigoriev’s portraits thrive on a direct confrontation with the sitter and the exaggeration of gestures and facial features, as well as the expression of an emotion that captivates the viewer. In this sell-portrait Grigorier presents himself in a defensive posture: the raised shoulder and the skeptical, grim gaze suggest a defensive aloofness; in addition, the figure is viewed from below, by which the artist elevates himself while subordinating the viewer it is through such powerful means that Grigorier lends this traditional genre o modernity that a comparable and roughly contemporaneous with the visoalizations of Expressionism and New Objectivity. Not lost because of the criticism of his “European style,” the artist left Russia in 1919 and settled in Paris in 1921
I recognized Deineka, and was wondering how he could possibly paint a baseball game, and it turned out that he was “awarded” a trip abroad, including the USA, approximately at the same time as Ilf and Petrov Continue reading “Albertina Museum In Vienna, Part 2”→
When we planned this trip, Boris was sure it wouldn’t be that cold in Vienna in January, definitely not colder than in Helsinki, and it will bw nice to walk around. As our departure approached, the weather forecast kept talking about “severe weather conditions,” and we couldn’t figure out what the fuss was about, since it was still showing a little below 30F.
On Sunday, we planned to visit both Albertina and at least some of the Hofburg museums, but we ended up spending the whole afternoon in Albertina (including lunch, which took longer than we expected for a museum cafe).
This very unconventional piece of furniture was made for Archduke Carl, who got tired of the constant presence of the staff who didn’t allow him to do anything by himself. Having this very modern looking, and for his time, revolutionary, this stand allowed Archduke to put things on it and take them off independently (do not ask, that’s what the exhibit description says!)And that’s how Archduke Carl lookedOn the opposite side of practicality – a porcelain tableContinue reading “Albertina Museum In Vienna, Part 1”→
About the travel. British Airways decided to gift me a free business class upgrade, and they notified me when I was dropping off my luggage, not at the last minute. That was super-nice, because they are not my primary carrier, and I didn’t expect it. Also, that meant that I could sleep horizontally and try to get my sleep back on track. But now, I had a dilemma. Originally, I booked premium and planned to skip the meal and try to sleep right away, but now, there was some fancy food in sight, and at the same time, the flight was delayed even more.
I ended up having dinner, which was a mistake, because although we departed almost an hour late, the captain made up for it and we arrived almost on time, which meant I had less than four hours of sleep. My Apple Watch was going nuts about my lack of sleep.
I had a very long connection in London, which I was hoping to use to catch up on my community-related work, but I wasn’t super productive because I was so tired. My arrival in Helsinki was very late(as expected), and we had an early flight to Vienna.
To be done with the topic of sleep deprivation, we also had a late dinner with one of me peer on the first night in Vienna, and I finally caught up on sleep on Tuesday :).
I spent a very long time choosing a hotel to stay in Vienna, and it was OK location-wise, but there were several unexpected twists. First, although they said on the website they had a fitness center, it was… not really. To be precise, it meant a corner in their pre-sauna room, so you could technically exercise after you get out of the sauna, but not like you could come in the morning and do the weights. Second (and that was the first time ever I had such a problem) – there was no closet in the room. Nothing. Even a small one. Instead, there were two hooks with a bunch of hangers, and good luck hanging both the coats and the clothes! I would never thought I had to check for that!
Anyway, we survived, and are about to leave now, but I will definitely mention it in my review 🙂
It might look like schnitzels, desserts, and coffee, and lots of entertainment, but this visit provoked a lot of thought about the parts of the history I didn’t know. I how I will have time to tell al about it, but for now – just my Instagram feed 🙂
I will show more pictures shortly, but for now, just one. I am trying to spend my birthday in a new country every year, at least for another couple of years 🙂
I didn’t upgrade my return flights because I didn’t need to sleep on the long flight back, and I figured I could purchase the lounge access separately. What surprised me at Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport was that they had a 24/7 duty-free store and a 24/7 business lounge.
I bought some (a lot of) chocolate, chocolate-covered dried fruit (and the only reason I didn’t buy dried fruit without chocolate was that I had three bags from my host), some flavored coffee, a bottle of pomegranate wine, and a set of three miniature Armenian brandy bottles. I really wanted to buy a bottle of Akhtamar, the best local brandy, to give it to Vlad, but there were no medium-size bottles, and my purchase was already heavy and bulky enough, and I still had to squizz everything in my carry on (not like they won’t allow an extra duty free bag, but I didn’t want to have an extra bag heavier than my luggage :).
The business lounge in Zvartnots was … strange, and they were surprised I was willing to pay for it rather than claim my credit card holder benefits, but having that the flight was forty minutes delayed, and that, due to many flights departing in the early hours of the morning, the international terminal looked like a Soviet Union era railway station, I believe I made a right decision.
I also paid for lounge access in Frankfurt, and everything there was as expected. I charged all my devices for the long daytime flight, and spent the time productively answering tons of unanswered emails and documenting my trip.
I’ve already mentioned that the arrival process had become exceptionally easy after the new passports were introduced, but this time was a record, especially because I didn’t have checked luggage. Thirty-five minutes after the aircraft stopped taxing, I was already on the Blue Line train (that includes the airport transfer to another terminal), and two hours and fifteen minutes later, I was already at home (yes, I took the L again, and it is becoming more and more acceptable, especially without the heavy luggage)
Even though I stayed with locals, it’s impossible to draw any conclusions and/or form any opinion about the country after a three-day stay. Still, there are a couple of things I wanted to mention.
Armenia is a relatively poor country, still, the level of mutual trust is surprising and runs counter to my idea that you need a society of splendor to achieve it. One can say that the priest was comfortable leaving his belongings in a wide-open temple just because there was nobody around who could take advantage of the situation. But in the building where my friends live, the front door has no lock and no buzzer. Moreover, they only lock their apartment at night or when everyone is out, just like I do.
Another thing that I noticed was the way people talk to stranges. It was not our regular over-cheerful/annoying American talkativeness, but very calm and respectful willingness to support a conversation, whether it’s a smalltalk, or a meaningful discussion. No pressure to buy anything at the souvenir shop. Only the cab drivers at the airport, looking for clients, were annoying, but cab drivers are always and everywhere cab drivers. By contrast, during the actual rides, cab drivers were remarkably silent.
Calm, peace, and respect – these words defined my stay in Armenia.
Hettie's Reflections 