Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Lenin Square

We went to Lenin Square today to check out the ice sculptures and the Christmas decorations. Russian Orthodox Christmas is tomorrow (Jan 7), so technically we went on Christmas Eve. The ice sculptures are done in both Lenin Square and Victory Square for the New Year/Russian Christmas celebrations.  It was pretty cold out there today...around 10 F when we left the house.  In addition to the ice sculptures they were offering pony and sleigh rides for the kids, but Adam wasn't interested...at least not until we were on our way home and he asked to ride in the sleigh.  Crazy kid!

Christmas tree in Lenin Square

Amanda freezing her butt off!

Adam with Father Frost

Statue of Vladimir Lenin

People put Kopecks on the sculptures...not sure why

Adam

Memorial for the earthquake victims of Neftegorsk, a small village on Sakhalin Island

Sakhalin hasn't let go of their communist roots it seems...

7 comments:

Jason said...

Cool pictures.

Anonymous said...

Nice pics...I was there myself with camera and tripod last night, when the crowds were out and a soft snow falling. I'll post some of the pictures tonight.

I never knew there was a memorial to Neftegorsk behind the statue of Lenin. I'll have to go and check it out.

Pavlas Family said...

Thanks! Can't wait to see your photos...all I had was my point and shoot...

I googled the Neftegorsk story when I got home and was really saddened by it...what an awful thing to happen to a community...

Connors in Doha said...

So what are Kopecks anyway?

Pavlas Family said...

Kopecks are the change for the Russian currency. At a 30 Rubles to 1 USD exchange rate, you can imagine that they aren't worth much...

Anonymous said...

Copecks are here just for the sake of fun.
You put the warmer coin on the cold ice so the ice melts like a metal under your fingertip. You don't have to press on the coin, it sticks to the sculpture.
It's like the doodles-drawing on the walls :)

Albina said...

Hi, I am from Sabo - a village 20km form Neftegorsk. It was not a small village. The settlement was taking a shape of a small town when I left Sakhalin in 1983. Where is this memorial - in Yuzhno- Sakhalinsk?
(akoumirova@yahoo.com)