Monday 29 June 2009

How much spaces needs my car?

Picture 1
Clearly more ==> you can't fit two cars and one truck on one lane

Picture 2
Clearly less ==> there could park at least three cars more, if the yet parking people wouldn't have prefered to be able to completely open their door after parking

Both pictures made within 5 minutes on Moscow roads.

Thursday 25 June 2009

in the middle of nowhere

Some smaller cities in Russia have pretty funny airports. You arrive and just w-a-l-k straight out of the plane to the parking lot.
No bus, no terminal, not even an arrival hall.

You leave the airport area via a gate in the surrounding fence. For luggage there is usually some barrack (with shattered windows).

Wednesday 24 June 2009

Supermarket in the region

Privet,

So, I am somewhere between Ural, Sibiria and Kazaksthan.
The small town is pretty amazing, clean, good repairs, high quality roads and buildings.
Way better than what you see in central Russia, e.g. Moscow.

Not the first time I observe this. I assume it's because the 'Intelligencija' was deported during the Stalin Terror to Sibiria.
Not to forget all the Germans sent here. (Even most of them life now in Germany)

However entering an overall nice and clean supermarkte I realized the problem of these regions... shelfes over shelfes filled with Vodka. (In Moscow this would be beer already).

See pictures

Cheers :(

parking madness

Do you see the cars lining up leftmost at the one picture.
This in not a parking lot.
This is a road on the parking lot.

So besides the the fact that like 50 people parked totaly in disrespect of rules and their fellow citizen (quite a few cars had a government ID) it creates at the end of the road a 'pocket'.
There more than a douzend cars are trapped.
This pocket is located right at the exit to the airport. The jerks which parked wrong had to see it.

Remains the question why the owner of the parket lot can't handle things proper.
But ok, long time 'blocked' cars make more money;)

Tuesday 23 June 2009

ebook sales in a copyright free environment


Just got one of the eBook Reader here in Russia into my hands.

Nice thing. But not as fancy and cool as the amazon kindl I played
with last week.
The difference is that the kindl offers this great service were you
can everywhere download books and newspaper.
Much like the iPod with iTunes. Currently the service is just
available in the US.

However, the distribution of this particular ebook reader found a
unique solution. He just delivers it pre-loaded 3 500 books.
It's like buying a iPod pre-filled with Music.
(compare this with the US where a woman just was fined $2 Mill for 24
songs in the US)

cheers

Friday 19 June 2009

life

Spent my night with 40 Russian downtown prague (guess the ruins are still burning). Instead of sleeping I rushed at 4:30 am to the airport to buy a last minute ticket to Munich (600 € for a 40 min flight). Had to make it to a private appointment at 8 am.
After boarding they announced a 120 min delay and my carefully orchestrated plan completly blew up.
--> Life can be such a bitch :)

Wednesday 17 June 2009

Media Review

I love faked media:)

No matter if the US Fox, German Spiegel or some Russian news.

You have so much to smile about.

E.g. The shown info graphic, stating 'clearly' that the good times from 2007/2008 will come back driven by the oil price. Just this time they will last. (I never forgot how in summer 2008 an employee suggested that the oil driven rubel till 2010 will replace the Euro and all German will have rubel in their wallets)

also in this particular newspaper

- China buys high level export good from the US, from Russia they buy raw material. The reason is NOT the quality, it is just better financing options from US banks

- a speech from President Medvedev about a possible 'virtual' currency to replace the USD immediately led to a crash of the US dollar on the international currency exchange

:)

Good Morning

I found the pictured product in a supermarket.

You need to know two things to understand
- cyrillic
- German

It's written 'Guten Morgen' what has no meaning in Russian, but means 'Good Morning' in German.

It's supposed to help against hangover :)

Saturday 6 June 2009

tree fluff

You see the white stuff on the picutres?

It isn't snow. It's some stuff coming from the trees every summer (I call it tree sperm).
And without merci it fills up your appartemnt, car and ENT cavaties.

Fortunatelly I don't have issues, but I also don't expect it to be hypoallergicm.
It even burns like hell.

So, no fun at all.

I just was in the country side and forests around moscow is no trace of it. It doesn't seem to be a specific russian kind of tree.

What leads me to the question why the the only tree they plant in they grey city is one that makes the biggest possible mess?!

About this blog

This blog is a close up on Russia and the CIS. I am not giving you the big picture.
I would anyway fail. I am too long here. So beauty & decay,
education & corruption, high culture & kafka-style administration are meanwhile normal for me.
So this blog is like a painting from from Roy Lichtenstein... when you are with your nose on it :) You will just see the dots, not gaining any understanding of the whole.

Most things will look strange in this blog. But you can be sure, I would not live here, if there would not be a lot of great things here. Unfortunately, the weired stories are more interesting to tell & read.
Don’t judge Russia on this blog, if you want to know the country, come over and take a look by your own.

Gilles