The Twilight Zone

Another positively surreal day has now passed.
Took a trip (more like a 20min drive) to VDNKh (All-Russia Exhibition Centre) with Gudrun today.
VDNKh was originally one of them Soviet leader's idea of building a massive park showcasing the might and power of the Soviet Union, including buildings and pavilions erected in styles reflecting the various regions that made up the USSR. Thus there are pavilions ranging from 'Armenia', 'Uzbekistan', 'Karelia' and many many more. Not only are there ones showcasing the beauty of those regions, but also pavilions dedicated to the technological and sociological achievement of the great USSR, leading us to pavilions named 'Electricity', 'Literature', 'Space' etc.
In the old days (pre-1991) the VDNKh was a magnificent sight (so I'm told), but today, instead of the displays inside the buildings dedicated to their names we now have stalls selling electronics, hideous flower arrangements and cell phones. Quite sad, but this is the new and improved Soviet Union after all.

So, as I said today was a prime example of how surreal and just plain random this city can get. The background to the day was this eerie light that bordered on yellow without it being sunny, infact it was heavily overcast, and it kinda felt like there was a thunderstorm approaching but then again not really. Just really hard to describe. Then, upon entering VDNKh, through the massive gates topped with a huge statue of a male and female collective farmer together holding onto a bundle of wheat racing towards the sun (oh yes!), we were met by an array of plastic inflated fun-fair type rides, accompanied by the ever-present heavenly russian techno 'music' (I'm normally ever so tolerant on music varieties, but this stuff can really get to me, and that in a bad way).
Beyond plastic fun heaven was the vision frame of a life time: the background was of course the before mentioned yellow hue the sky decided on displaying today, in front of the magnificent Russia pavilion is a statue of comrade Lenin. Now, this is pretty standard Sovietesque scenery. But not when you've got a camel (yes, a CAMEL) and a couple of disturbingly small ponies standing in front of Lenin! Not to mention, I will of course be posting a photo of this Kodak Moment on my FotoGallerie very soon indeed, although a photo only does the scene half the justice as one's got to feel the kind of B-grade horror movie atmosphere I felt, sort of expecting Freddie Krueger to come prancing around in-between Lenin and Osman the Camel.