CHESME CHURCH...I WANT TO EAT YOU...

And now for something completely different...

Yes, thats right...drum roll please...another spectacular, candy coloured, mouth-wateringly pretty church!
This ones the Russian Orthodox Chesme Church in the southern Moskovskaya district of St Petersburg. Looking like a delicious wedding cake that might grace the ostentatious table of Elton John's civil partnership reception, the church stands all alone, set back from the street and surrounded by unnamed graves of the casualties of Russian wars.

The church's beautifully intricate design is delicate and feminine, completed in 1870 for Catherine the Great. The bold salmon pink exterior accented by pale grey detailing and stark white stripes complete with twiddly edges looked just like your great grandmother's antique Russian wedding veil. Chesme truly is a little girl's fantasy church and its sparse, elongated pastel interior drenched in a warm, dreamy light really created an atmosphere of holy serenity.     

A few huge (we're in Russia remember) blocks away from Chesme stood the impressive Moskovskaya Plochad...thats Moscow Square to you peeps...featuring this iconic and effing well enormous statue commemorating Commie Good Times below. Lenin's defiant stance and the monument's cold, secular arrogance provided a sharp contrast to the church's protective charms. The power and immensity of the Communist state's iron grip remains embodied in the square's design however, the creepy, authoritarian Stalinist architecture of the House of Soviets (built for, but never used as government headquarters) backdropping Lenin's dramatic overtures. Thank god there were a few of the ubiqituous affectionate young couples in situ to modernise the place - mooching around, sipping pivo and watching the old ladies in colourful headscarves selling vegetables to local volk. Thirty rubles for a turnip you say? Bargain.