Getting Green With Envy At The St. Nicholas Cathedral In Almaty

Around the same time the famous yellow Ascension Cathedral was being built, a similar, green, Russian Orthodox church was being constructed in another part of Almaty. Pick color.

Behold, St. Nicholas Cathedral.

View of the steeple and a statue of a confident priest. Is he holding a carrot (church model) and a stick of death (sword)? Tough choice. Heading inside.

Ba-bling. Gold everywhere, endless painting on the walls.

Getting a little creepy with an open casket coffin, containing a saint not named Nicholas. Thanks, just a quick glance. Or maybe stick simply to lighting a candle by a portrait of the main man.

Gazing upward. Seems heavenly.

Antakalnis Cemetery

If you're looking for patina and a bit of Lithuanian history, head to one of the main cemeteries in Vilnius: Antakalnis. It's classic European, tucked into a hillside, full of meandering grave sites and sections devoted to past wars and conflict.

The layout.

A couple of nice details. Left, the Russian Orthodox cross and on the right, adding a little color to a gravestone.

One of the special sections of the cemetery is devoted to the victims of the "January Events" from 1991, the last gasp of Soviet control of Lithuania.

There's room for artistic expression. Several sections of the cemetery are organized by profession. Doctors with doctors, authors with authors. If you don't get the connection or have an idea what the profession is all about, the graves are happy to act as reminder. Yup, this man was a heart surgeon. On the right, plenty of traditional wooden carved statues are present.

Past wars are well represented. The monument to Red Army soldiers from WWll.

More war-related graves, this field is devoted to Polish soldiers who died in 1919-20.  Overall, a nice Halloween feel to the place.

Back in the WWll section, the dignitaries get their own busts. In a box.