Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin

This is one of my favorite buildings in the city, and I go past it almost every single day. I go past it on my way to work, and it's also between my and A's apartment. Can you believe that I see it almost every single day and this is the first time I've taken a picture of it? Actually, I remember one time last year the road in front of this church was blocked off and I was so mad that I never went back to take advantage of it. Then the day before Easter A mentioned that the road was closed again, and I was so excited, like I knew I waited for a reason. Unfortunately, even on my way to my individual lesson early on Easter morning, the road was open again. I still decided it was an excuse to finally get over there and take pictures.

One of my favorite aspects of this church, besides it's amazing color, is that you can see it from the end of Kirova street. I love a good distant view, which is probably why I love mountains. I posted a photo of this church on my Instagram and a friend mentioned that it used to be a movie theater in Soviet times! How cool is that? If you aren't familiar with Soviet history or communism then it doesn't make sense why this church would be converted into a movie theater, but practicing any religion was illegal during that time. Only recently has the Russian Orthodox church been working to reclaim its confiscated churches. I did a little research in order to find out more and found this article (in Russian) and I came across this picture of the church before there were apartments next to it. You can see the apartments in the second to last photo.

I love the diverse history of this church. It's why I am drawn to abandoned buildings. I try to imagine what it was like to be in that place in the past. It was cold that day, and it was Easter so there were a lot of people walking around. I felt kind of weird being there, so I didn't manage to get my close-up photos of it. Maybe before I leave I'll take a look inside. It's unfortunate that many churches don't allow you to take photos inside.

 If you could go back in time, where would you go?

Churches of Ufa V.1

Last summer (as you can tell from the lack of snow) I took these photos with the intention of doing one big post of churches in Ufa. It's really no surprise that I love the Orthodox churches. Even if you aren't a religious person I think you can agree that they are beautiful. I forgot about these photos, and the other day it hit me that they were still on my hard drive waiting to be edited. I decided to post these two because there are a lot of churches in Ufa, and one post will be too long. Plus, I'm really slow at going out to find them so it will take a while for the next ones to come.

Russia-Bashkir Monument of Friendship

When I was living in Ohio, I used to sit in my parents' backyard and think, "I wonder if there is a place in this yard where no one has ever stepped." In the millions of years of planet earth, is there one centimeter of this yard that has never been touched by single person? I also spend a lot of time thinking what happened in my yard 100, 500, even 1,000 years ago? It's interesting to think about, right? Of course, it's easier to imagine when you have evidence of these historic places, like Angkor Wat in Cambodia, but even without the physical evidence from the time, it's fascinating to imagine what the place was like in ancient times.