Tripod-ing in Tsarytsino

Last Sunday I put my tripod into action. It's the best acquisition ever, because all three legs are flexible and made with non-slip rubber. Therefore, I can wrap it around lamp posts, garbage cans, placards, etc... Here's a pic I pulled from the manufacturer's website, which illustrates what the tripod is capable of.

I went to Tsaritsyno on that day. The place has a a pretty interesting story: Catherine the Great bought the land and hired a kick-ass architect to build a kick-ass palace that would rival any palace from St Petersburg.

She approved the plans, but during construction (i.e., 10 years later) she visited the construction and hated everything she saw. She fired the kick-ass architect and hired his apprentice to fix it. After another decade of construction, the whole thing was halted because the empire ran out of money due to wars with the Turks. So in the end, nobody ever lived there and the buildings were just empsty shells.

The place was left in total abandonment until the City of Moscow built a park in 2004 and started remodeling the buidings. On to the pictures:

Entrance to the park, with the palaces and the church on top of the hill:

Me, by one of the bridges.

Me, by one of the decorative arches.

Me, by the kitchen and one of the arches. The kitchen is the largest building to be restored to date, and there was a beautiful exhibition there: old vases and china, pictures of a run-down Tsaritsyno during the 1930's and 1950's, and very interesting maps from old Moscow.

Me, by the Trinity Church

Me, by the Grand Palace, which is under renovation now. I was against the sun, and this was the best picture I could take...

A smaller palace being restored. It had a beautiful view overlooking the lakes.

Trail in the fall

Me, by the promenade

Me, laughing because 10 people gathered to see my tripod while I was taking the picture. The thing is that the tripod was wrapped around a tree branch...

I was starving after I left the park, so I stopped at an Uzbek kiosk and bought some fried pastry filled with grounded pork (or cat) meat. I survived!