Wednesday Walk: main streets and hidden corners

Griboyedov Canal Embankment near the entrance to Mikhailovsky Garden

At the end of last week in our city there was the 17th International Book Fair, and @qwerrie and me agreed to meet up and wander together between the book stalls. But before I left home, I looked on the Internet and discovered that there was another very interesting event going on these days: a festival of retro vehicles. We checked in with @qwerrie at Discord and promptly adjusted our plans so that we wouldn't miss anything.

Street painters on the embankment of the Griboyedov Canal

The final program for the walk looked like this:

1. Meet on Nevsky Prospect.
2. Walk to Manezhnaya Square, look at old cars, streetcars and trolley buses.
3. Walk to Dvortsovaya Square (it's about 1.5 km, or a little more if you choose the most interesting route).
4. To have a rest in one of coffee houses we meet on the way.
5. To walk between bookstands on the Palace Square, enjoying the beautiful weather, to listen to the writers' speeches, to browse through book novelties.

Girl on the steps of the Museum of Ethnography

A cat, a girl with a smartphone, and a reflection of a photographer

In reality the mile and a half between Manezhnaya Square and Palace Square easily turned into five, because first we decided to walk along the embankment of Griboyedov Canal, and then we turned into a yard and suddenly found ourselves in the last century - at least that is how we perceived this realm of ruin and desolation. Old brick walls, melted asphalt, many meters of graffiti... yes, it is not easy to find this kind of nature in the heart of the city, but we made it!

The domes of the Church of the Resurrection can be seen above the low roofs; we had just passed this church, looking at the work of street artists and photographing street performers. But this is a different kind of place: there are not as many people walking around, but there are many artifacts of a bygone era.

Text: "Help Yourself"

The yard is much larger than a cursory glance would suggest. It seems to be a dead end ahead, but if you walk a little further, a narrow passage opens up to the next location, littered with multicolored empty barrels, and a door in the wall that leads to the rehearsal grounds.

Text: "You are full of faith in yourself, your surroundings, and your loved ones"

In another corner of the courtyard is a brightly colored poster suggesting a visit to the museum. The museum is called "Hollywood Car Legends" and old cars are surrounded by scenery to help recall the plots of American movies.

@qwerrie at the entrance to the "Hollywood Car Legends" museum

If you go a little further and you see empty rooms and closed passageways again.

How it is possible that such a space in the center of the city is still almost free of tenants is hard to say. Perhaps the buildings are in need of serious repair, and the Committee for the Protection of Architectural Monuments imposes very serious restrictions on the work being done. But this is only my assumption, I do not know the exact facts.

This is my entry for the #WednesdayWalk challenge by @tattoodjay and for the #MakeMeSmile challenge by @elizacheng.