Week 24. Rhode Island & Connecticut

We dedicated the 24th week to the Rhode Island and Connecticut states.

1. We are heading southwest from the beautiful city of Boston to the smallest but proud and freedom-loving state of Rhode Island.

2. State’s license plates.

3. The gorgeousness of the east coast: the old buildings, steeples and cupolas of administrative establishments are covered with autumn colors.

4. The state capital city was established in 1636 by Rodger Williams, who was kicked out of Massachusetts for too liberal religious views. Rodger drove a shovel into the sandy riverside and swore to build a city where nobody will ever pursue anyone for something that shouldn’t be their business. And the city was named Providence.

5. The city turned out nice and whole.

6. Brown University is known for its liberal educating approach. This is the student town.

7. Student hangout. The flags represent one of the best sides of the country. Here, in the country of immigrants, all nationalities are truly equal and all whom America has accepted in its multinational family is proud to call themselves an American.

8. Maybe because we never got to go to a university, we love to wonder around student towns.

9. The Rhode Island wall nature morte.

10. After living for four years in Hawaii, we still can’t get used to empty, cold ocean beaches.

11. The Breakers mansion.

12.Like many of the representatives of the middle class who started their carrier as a clerk and later grew rich, Vanderbilt the second decided to amuse the contemporaries with not only the scale of his summer home, but also with splendor and magnificence.

13. But only partially. Former farmers and workers who climbed the success ladder, gasped and cracked their necks scrutinizing gilded moldings and murals on the walls and ceilings. Judging by the overheard remarks, many of the our contemporaries reacted the same way.

14. But cultured people who knew and appreciated style and good taste, quietly scoffed at Cornelius who built a gypsy baron palace. The incredibly expensive (even for those times) platinum wall inserts, rare Mediterranean and African marble, decoration fragments that were copied from medieval French castles and gilding everywhere possible did not help.

15. What also didn’t help are the stories of former servants about their miserable life conditions; stories about their low salaries, about narrow beds with thin mattresses and about unbearable summer heat in the top floors where their rooms were located.

16. The keepers of the house-museum (rare occurrence) make sure that nobody photographs the luxury.

17.

18. We didn’t like Cornelius’s house. But this bathroom, yes.

19. And we liked the kitchen.

20. As for the rest, kitsch.

21. Driving into Connecticut.

22. Some of the districts of the state capital city, Hartford, resemble east Berlin.

23. Oxidized bronze gives away the spots that are most touched by the superstitious tourist.

24. The city has many old buildings, like this XVII-century library…

25. …which neighbors ugly modern structures.

26. Add a “park-modern” and we get a mishmash no worse than at the Cornelius’s.

27. From other angles, Hartford is a decent city with a great history. Precisely here was the center of abolitionism.

28. A man in a red caftan by the water fountain in the wind.

29. The capitol is a bit pretentious, but still nice looking.

30. Something that is always left behind the scenes: search for the angle. Either the power cables are in the way, the sun is in your eye, or there’s no way to back up to fit in the object being photographed, here I can make a few steps back but the truck parked and covered part of the view. If we didn’t have to take photos, the walks would be much quicker. But who said it would be easy?