This one is for you, Tash Reid!

When we were in Moscow we visited Red Square several times. The thing that drew us back to Red Square again and again was St Basil's Cathedral. We didn't even go inside it. It was enough just to look at it from the outside.

I think St Basil's Cathedral is probably my favourite church in the world. To me, it looks like something out of a fairy tale. Like the type of castle a wizard might live in. I think if all churches looked like St Basil's then more people would go to church. Don't you think that St Basil's looks like a fun place to go?

On our first night in Moscow, we wandered down to Red Square late at night. Standing in Red Square, looking up at St Basil's was one of those pinch myself moments. It happened on a lot of our travels. I couldn't believe that I was actually getting to visit places that I've dreamed about visiting since I was little.

On our third day in Moscow, we walked through Red Square in the afternoon. It was the golden hour and the light was this beautiful honey colour. It's impossible to take a bad photo in such light.

It was here that I took my favourite photo of the whole trip. St Basil's and a heart shaped balloon. I heart St Basil's too!

More photos (slideshow) of Moscow on Flickr.

Our visit to Red Square was part of our Taste of Russia tour. We did a 9-day tour, travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg, with Intrepid Travel. Other entries from this trip include: Travel Pensieve: Novodevichy Cemetery.

Finally got around to editing the photos from Clare and Brendan's wedding.

Andrew was lucky enough to be present when the professional photographers were taking the arty photos. Well, not exactly lucky. To take the professional photos, the bridal party went for a bit of a wander down the road and I was wearing ridiculously high heels. I called Andrew to come and rescue the bridesmaids. He drove down with flats for Ange and I. He stuck around too and drove the ladies back up to the ceremony. He's such a nice boy.

Here are some of my favourites from Andrew's photos. Andrew says it looks like I'm trying to eat the frisbee in the last photo.



More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

Is anyone else afraid of pigeons? I don't know why but they just seem dirty to me. I'm sure they have bird lice or something equally itchy. Or maybe it has something to do with me watching the film The Birds at a very young and impressionable age. Whatever the reason, I don't like pigeons.

St Mark's square in Venice is crawling with pigeons. You can pay a man for some seed to feed to the birds. While we were in Venice we saw lots of people doing just that. Feeding seed to the birds. The prospect of free food made the pigeons awfully excited. They'd fly up around the person with the seed and land on their arms or on the person's head. Like the people in the photo below. They are engulfed by pigeons.

Ugh! I can't imagine paying for that privilege. While we were there I even made Andrew walk in front of me to clear a pathway through the pigeons. I'm sure there would have been girly screams and shrieks if a pigeon landed on me. My skin is crawling now just thinking of it. *shudder*.

In Venice, the pigeons in St Mark's square are a tourist attraction. In Trafalgar Square in London a concerted effort was made to rid the square of pigeons. (Not kill them, just make them go somewhere else.) There are "Don't feed the pigeons" signs everywhere. At 11am everyday a trained falcon circles Nelson's column and the square to scare away any persistent pigeons. (Is this a scent or sight thing I wonder?) I think Trafalgar Square is a much nicer place without the pigeons.

Andrew and I travelled to Venice in March 2007 to celebrate our 2nd Wedding Anniversary. More photos (slideshow) from the trip can be seen on Flickr.

In between uni assignments (3 down in 3 weeks, 4 to go!) I managed to fit in some Easter baking. Bakerella.com is a great inspiration for all things cupcakes and her Easter ideas are very cute. I decided to try out her Easter basket cupcakes to take to our Good Friday family gathering.


I'm not 100% happy with how they turned out. I searched high and low for a lolly that I could use for the basket handle. The closest thing I could find were cola lassos and they weren't stiff enough to stand up on their own. So I guess they aren't really Easter baskets.

The boys didn't care though. Anything to do with chocolate and lollies was welcome. Oscar and Leo ate the lollies off the top of their cakes. Leo ate some of the icing on his (Oscar doesn't like icing... weirdo). Then they both put their cupcakes aside for later. They had been overloaded with sweet stuff throughout the day. The adults were less discerning.
More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

As you drive through Ireland, sometimes you can see stone walls off in the distance. Nothing too unusual I guess; there are heaps of stone walls that surround fields in England, for instance. However, some of these Irish walls traverse impossibly steep mountains or separate fields of rocky nothingness from other fields of rocky nothingness. These walls are known as famine walls.

In the 1800s, Ireland suffered the Great Famine. The cause of the famine was a potato disease called potato blight. The potato crop failed and because it was the staple food for poor people in Ireland, a lot of people went hungry. Over one million people died and one million people emigrated; Ireland's population dropped 20 - 25%.

The English were in charge at this time and they didn't just want to give people food for nothing. Instead, they made those who needed charity work on public works such as the famine walls. Walls that were built for no reason other than to give people something to do. Talk about a lack of job satisfaction. Akin to spending the day digging a hole and then spending the next day fillling it in.

Recently there has been discussion on whether the government's response to the potato famine constitutes an act of genocide. During the potato famine there was enough food to feed everybody, but a lot of it was being exported to England. Exports of Irish livestock actually increased during the years of famine. It is now being said that lack of response by the English to the famine was used as a form of population control.

The famine changed Ireland's political and cultural landscape forever. It's the reason for the large Irish communities in America and Australia. On our tour around Ireland, our tour guide sang some Famine folk songs to us. The haunting Fields of Athenry, an unofficial Irish anthem, is now a favourite on our iPod.




More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

This post is part of the Paddywagon series. We did a 6-day tour around Ireland with Paddywagon. It was grand; the craic was great. Other entries from this trip include: The Gift of the Gab, Manworld: power tools and beer, Bombs away..., Cliffs of Insaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanity and Jaunty rides and hangovers don't mix.