Museums overview

In this post I decided to write about museums that I've visited. I took this idea from my friend Christina. She wrote on her blog about museums that she liked most, so I got excited to make my own list. Thinking of which ones to choose I end up with 6 ones.
Those museums helped me to gain some insight into the history of different countries and find out more about art and architecture.

First of all I would like to tell about museums of Saint Petersburg. I visited them 5 years ago and it was pretty overwhelming for me to see these places. I would really love to visit them again and surely I will be back one day!

Catherine palace, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Catherine palace is a former summer residence of the Russian monarchs. The facade of the palace amazed me with its splendour at first sight. It shows all the magnificence of the 17-18th centuries in Russian history. Museums that were someone's houses in the past are my favourite type of museums because they give me a clear view on the way of life in a certain century.
Inside the palace there are gorgeous ballroom with a painted ceiling, luxurious bed chambers, dining room and, of course, a famous amber room. I really enjoyed watching all the sumptuous stuff of the tsar's family.
Luckily I have loads of nice pictures from it, here are some of them:

Beef and broccoli puff pie recipe

I've just cooked a beef and broccoli puff pie for my boyfriend and thought why not to share the recipe on my blog :) So here it is! 

Main ingredients that I used to cook a filling for the pie were minced beef and shredded broccoli. I stewed them in a double cream for about 30 mins and added a pinch of salt, some black pepper, a clove of garlic and 2 eggs (to make it thicker)

For the pie I used a ready roll puff pastry from the supermarket (quick and easy:)) All I needed was to put a filling on it and wrap it up. To make the taste more complicated I decided to put some cheese on top. (I had kidderton ash goats' cheese)

The Orient

Hello!

I've been busy with my summer exams, but now they are all passed and I have some time to write about one of my biggest interests.  

After spending this much time in Asia I've become obsessed with oriental culture and their way of life. Suddenly I realized how little do we know about other religions, traditions and history. Even after visiting a great number of museums, temples and other ancient places I didn't manage to appease my curiosity. As I am home now, my obsession took a form of gaining some information from books and films. I would like to share my opinion on some of them! 

Raise the red lantern

The story of this film tells about China in 1920's... Songlian is a 19 year old girl (same age as me!!) was forced to marry a rich 50 year old man (Chen) because her family was struggling after her father's death. (Her family actually sold her!!) That man had already had 3 older wives and each lived in her own apartment inside the big house. There was a tradition that every time Chen had to choose in which apartment he wants to spend a night and servants of the house set fire to the red lanterns in front of it. The rule of the house was that all women were supposed to accept the fact that living with one man in his house makes sisters of them. Nevertheless, all the wives were fighting to be the most beloved and have the lanterns lighted.. They created a little world where they tried to be in a husband's favour by all means and secretly schemed against each other. Only the youngest wife wasn't crafty enough to bare the atmosphere of the house and end up being crazy. Later Chen took a 5th wife to his house.  

I should also mention that traditional Chinese costumes and the interior of the house are gorgeous! And one of my favourite asian actresses Gong Li starred in this film.

Similar storyline can be traced in a book "The waiting years" which I finished to read a couple of days ago. The author is a Japanese woman Fumiko Enchi. In her novel she describes a life inside the house of an opulent japanese man. In the beginning of the story Sirakava Yukitomo (that opulent man) sent his wife Tomo to buy (!!!) a young mistress for him to live in the house on a regular basis. That day when she found the young girl Suga and took her to the house, she also found a new purpose of her life. If she couldn't be liked by her husband anymore, she still had to remain authoritative among the other members of the big family. In the end of the story she realized how pointless her life was.

These two stories are both about women that had to settle for less and accept the fate whether they like it or not.

Yea I really found that exciting, and I can tell why! It's completely different to something I got used to and it actually seems like another world to explore! I will enjoy to know more about oriental life nowadays and in the past times.

My little review on a big film

Hello again :)

The reason why i reopened this blog again is a desire to share my thoughts and opinions, and probably some pictures. I am 

not quite sure if it works this time, but it would be interesting to make some entries occasionally :)

Today I want to tell about the film "Courier" that I watched yesterday. Being originally russian, I was never interested in a russian cinematography...didn't even watch the most famous ones.. (shame on me!), but one day, switching over the tv channels I chanced upon a program, where people were discussing films of the ussr times and i got so curious about some of them! The "Courier" was the first in my watch list because of the storyline. It tells about adolescents of the post perestroyka time, how they get on with each other and their parents. The main characters are Ivan, who didn't get a chance to enter a university and is working as a courier whilst waiting for army and Katya, a first year student at Moscow State University. They met by chance at girl's home, when the courier Ivan delivered documents to her father. Katya didn't like this cheeky boy at first sight, neither did her father. But the courier kept on delivering documents, and suddenly Katya started to sympathize with his amazing impudence and nihilistic nature. The young people became good friends and everything could turn out the other way if there were less unweighted actions and youthful hastiness.. Not only this, but also parents influence, difference in social classes, caused by perestroyka and the other life's circumstances played an important role in their lives. Sounds like a drama? Nowhere near! This film is packed with funny moments, full of kindness and it perfectly shows how vulnerable, sensitive, mature and clever the youth can be.