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Janaline's World Journey “To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.”

Collecting autumn leaves at VDNKH the All-Russia Exhibition Centre

RUSSIAN FEDERATION | Wednesday, 17 October 2012 | Views [1814]

I just love the colours of autumn

I just love the colours of autumn

 

When autumn arrives and all the leaves turn yellow and orange a chill enters the air and you realize there’s only a couple of more weeks left before the big chill descends on Moscow.

 The cosmonaut museum!

Wrapped up warm against the chilly autumn wind I took the metro to VDNKH. From the metro station I passed the big cosmonaut monument and museum on my left.

 Me and my dad in front of the cosmanaut monument

When my parent visited me we went to the museum, it was great!

Me clinging to the side of the cosmonaut monument 

On the side of the cosmonaot monument

All along the walkway approaching the exhibition centre I passed row upon row of little market stalls selling everything from scarves to cats.

 On the way to the exhibition center you can even buy a cat!!

The All-Russia Exhibition Centre is a permanent general-purpose trade show in Moscow, established on February 17, 1935. It is a huge market area with a big amusement park inside. When I reached the exhibition centre I entered through one of six enormous entrance gates. On top of this huge archway is a statue of a tractor driver and a farm girl brandishing sheaves of wheat.

 The main pavilion when you enter the exhibition center

The park is filled with tree lined lanes and pavilions. Each pavilion has been dedicated to a particular industry or a field. Outside on the walkway between pavilions I found hundreds of honey and mead sellers. I walked around tasting different kinds of honey and ended up buying a couple of different ones.

One of the many honey stalls that are dotted all over the place

 Some Russian police officers sitting around enjoying the lovely autumn day

I was busy with an oil painting at home with Russia autumn as the theme so needed some autumn leaves that I planned on adding to the painting. I walked between the trees and picked up loads of beautiful orange and red coloured leaves for my project. I must admit that the people around me were all staring at me and a few even laughed and walked on.

My parents sitting in front of the Fountain of the Friendship of Peoples 

The golden Fountain of the Friendship of Peoples

For me the most beautiful part of the exhibition center was the Fountain of the Friendship of Peoples, with its golden gilded statues of maidens in the national costumes of the sixteen Soviet republics encircling a golden wheat sheaf. There is a huge fountain between the golden women and it’s definitely worth coming to the exhibition center just to see this!

The “big constructivist pavilion”

One of the many beautiful pavilions in the exhibition center

Autumn colours are just stunning!!

This pavilion is huge and filled with electronics and Russian

All the pavilions and the fountains in the park were planned by Soviet architects and the fountains were designed by Soviet artists. All designed in Stalinist architecture, some pavilions were built in wedding cake style like the "central pavilion" that was famous in the communist states in that time.

The hammer and sickle in mosaic on the front of the pavilion

Another pavilion at VDNKH

One of the other pavilions in the exhibition center

I love that each pavilion is unique

The “big constructivist pavilion”

In 2008 the "big constructivist pavilion" was built as a replica of the original Soviet pavilion of 1937 Expo that stood opposite the Nazi pavilion. In 2009 the renovated Statue of Worker and Kolkhoz Woman was erected on top of that building.

A copy of the Vostok rocket Yuri Gagarin circled the world in 

At the far end of the avenue on Industry Square, there is a copy of the Vostok rocket Yuri Gagarin circled the world in - on April 12, 1961. It is suspended from an enormous crane. In front of it is a huge airplane painted red and depicting Russian soldiers on it.

 The Russian “war” plane

Love the soldiers painted on the plane

To the left of the entrance there is an Amusement Park with the Moscow-850 Ferris wheel, built in 2004 as part of Moscow's 850th anniversary celebrations. I am very scared of heights but on another visit I was convinced by a friend to join her on this Ferris wheel. I spent most of the trip holding on for dear life and trying not to look down!

Far in the background is the huge ferris wheel in the amusement park

Tags: autumn, exhibition center, janaline smalman, moscow, photography, russia, travel

 

 

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