Russia: Day 6

So far my quest for a nice little summer home has been unsuccessful. The Hermitage was a good size, but the rooms were too simple for me. I like a bit more pizzaz in my life. Today, I checked out Catherine's Palace, which was a bargain, by the way, but is was too small. I only looked at a few of the rooms, but I could already tell I would feel claustrophobic living there. The architect tried to hide how tiny the rooms were by adding mirrors and little decorations here and there, but I could see right through what the mirrors were hiding: a living area that is too small to fill the needs of any decent person's life.

I think everyone will agree that this is simply too small. 

And the entry is not nearly grand enough.

I suppose there were some parts that were charming, in a cozy way. The color rooms, for example. There was a room with red accents, one with green accents, and one called the amber room, that was decorated completely in amber. Perhaps if it were diamonds I would have been more to my taste. 

The paintings were decent, and there was a room with 140 of them covering the walls. Too bad the small windows did not let in enough light to truly appreciate them. The furniture was so old and dated, too, and the stoves used to heat the rooms were much too large. That space could be used to store shoes (and they made me cover my lovely shoes while touring the house, by the way)!

This stove is much too big

I could hardly fit all my friends in here.

I suppose the splash of red is alright.

One of the walls in the painting room.

Booties!

The grounds were lovely, but also small. I did ask for the number of the landscape architect, though. I feel given a bigger canvas they could really develop their talents and reach their full potential. The sledding hill was a nice touch, though.

Such potential.

I suppose I shall have to continue my search for a summer home. Maybe I will find something suitable before I leave Russia.

After the complete failure that was house shopping, I went out to dinner with everyone in the program. We went to a restaurant near our hotel. It was good, and every hour they had dancers. We got to see them perform twice. The first time to traditional Russian music and the second to not-so-traditional music. After we ate, one of the girls was nice enough to buy vodka shots for everyone. 

Dancers

Librarians taking shots