Do you have a bucket list of places you like to visit?
I do, and I'm checking it twice.
Russia had been on the top.
Ever since I read about Yuri Zhivago, a man torn between his love for two women while caught in the tumultuous course of twentieth century Russian history.
More so, when I saw the James Bond movie From Russia With Love where the main character battles a secret crime organization known as SPECTRE.
But it got checked off my list that summer when we tzar-trekked on Russia, largest country in the world.
A dream-come-true.
The sights were awesome but for me, more than the Kremlin or Lenin's tomb, nothing tops the utter magnificence of this Russian icon that was at the southern end of Red Square in Moscow.
St. Basil's Cathedral.
What a crazy confusion of colors, patterns and shapes.
Eight onion-shaped domes.
Like an assortment of handmade Hammonds Christmas Classic hard candies. Pillows, straws, art candies, and mini ribbons.
A masterpiece of quintessential beauty.
I was starry-eyed.
Legend has it that Ivan the Terrible had the architects blinded so that they could never build anything comparable to this landmark church.
выражение горя!
(An expression of woe, transliterated Vyrazheniye gorya!)
I didn't know what else to say. My mind wasn't making sense, my thoughts mixing up words and language. Like Yuri, I was devastated. Like Bond, I would have battled Ivan's dreadful phantasm.
Hands thrust deeply into my coat pockets, I strode along a path on the square.
The air went from cool to chilly as the sunlight vanished.
