BARRIE IN THE USSR- БАРРИ В СССР: мая 2009

среда, мая 27, 2009

The metro systems in the Former USSR are famous for having large numbers of accessible stations, being kept clean, beautiful, and for being well designed. The other notable feature in both Moscow and St Petersburg is the depth of the the "undergound" and the extremely long escalators you have to take up and down in the city centers. I have tried to take a picture that captures the depth - but this has been difficult, in part because it is illegal to take pictures in the underground. I have already been forced to delete the nice shots I had of Sportinvnaya station in Petersburg, but they did not get them all! A small victory for me, but still, this does not capture what it feels or looks like on these deep treks.

HE WHO HAS THE MOST MEDALS CARRIES A HEAVIER BURDEN

DAILY PRESS OUTLET

вторник, мая 26, 2009

FIRST TRAINING SESSION IN ST PETERSBURG

During the Night of Museums, I visited the artillery museum which had a pellet gun target range. Here I am trying out a mock rifle. I ended up winning a prize, but I must say I would have rather won a beer rather than a collection of pictures of archaic miltiary costumes and weaponry. I think Kalishnakov once wrote that had he known how popular his gun would be, he would have rather invented a lawn mower.

BORDEAUX, THE FRENCH FANAGORIA

Well, I am surprised. I found this wine in an underground bar off Nevsky Prospect last week. It is from a region in the south of Russia called Fanagoria, and on the back of the bottle, a map displays how it is located along the same lattitude as Bordeaux.

The red, Saperavi, usually associated with Georgian wines in the CIS, was deep, dark, dry, and tasted similar to a Grenache. It has an odour after opening similar to some Spanish wines I have tried; a barnyard smell. This can be overcome by letting the bottle breathe a bit before drinking.

I have not yet tried the Chardonnay, displayed on the right. These bottles are priced at Red: 188 rubles and white: 150.

Definitely not what I expected and are decent every day drinking wines.

воскресенье, мая 17, 2009

MOSFILM ANYONE?

Inside Russia's museum of Political Hisotry in St Petersburg is a collection of relics from the past all well displayed, including hints of sarcasm and real facts and figures - such as the numbers of people who perished in various conflicts with the obvious tragedy in Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989 far outweighing the other events since WWII in death tolls. This image, however, brings back memories of the sound of the clock bells next tot he Kremlin chiming at the beginning of Mosfilm productions.

WHO'S IN THE CAGE

This picture is deceiving. It looks as though I am standing in front of a zebra locked up in a cage in St Petersburg's Zoopark. Perhaps its the reverse. All I kept thinking about as I walked through the exhibits was the classic version of planet of the apes thinking that it is the crazy people walking around eating peanuts who are really trapped in cages of their own making. This particular zebra hardly seemed interested in seeing me and I am all the way from Canada - has he ever seen one of me before? Does he even care? I was not impressed by his attitude. I included him in my blog anyway, despite his lacklustre care for humanity. He is probably one of those who complains but never shows up for the vote when it comes to election day.

INSIDE THE MUSEUM OF POLITICAL HISTORY OF RUSSIA

AMNESTY'S FORGOTTEN GULAG OF OUR TIME

You might think this guy would not have used his freedom for anything productive for society anyway. His contribution to Russia's GDP is zero, and currently he is just taking social resources away from others. He should be happy to have a place to live and be provided for. He eats well, looks healthy, err, he's fine. It's not as if he is complaining...