Bargain Shopping

It’s Tuesday afternoon and we are about to leave for the airport to fly to Novokuznetsk. We have been doing the tourist thing for two days now and we are enjoying it. We’re glad though to be moving on to the next phase of our trip. This has been a good reintroduction to the Russian culture and people. One of the side benefits of being here is that I am getting better and better at pronouncing Russian words that I have no idea of their meaning. Sometimes though, I will labor through phonetically processing a long word and realize as I give birth to the last letter that it is an English word. There is tremendous satisfaction to that. Wow, I must be really bored!
Now it’s time for some editorial business. I was informed by James, my friend and co-worker (if that’s what you call what we do) that my history was a bit wrong back in December when I described the events that occurred near the Russian Parliament building. I would like to point you to a web link that properly describes the actual events. At least I was right about the presence of tanks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_coup_attempt_of_1991

Ok, so now back to the tourist stuff. Our tourist experiences have consisted of mostly walking, subway riding and shopping (mostly not buying, just shopping). Along the way we noticed that the problem of pedestrians being seen as targets by drivers is somewhat mitigated by thoughtful Moscow civil engineers. Major roads have underground passages that allow us to walk under the road. These walkways are also wheelchair and stroller accessable. Of course, since Russia doesn’t have enough lawyers, the accessibility is under the control of the same civil engineers. Since engineers are very interested in efficiency, you will notice in the picture below that the route taken by wheelchairs and strollers is the shortest distance between point A and point B. You could probably sell tickets to this thing, or maybe we’re witness to a newly forming Olympic event?

Ok, back to the shopping. Below is the toy section of a large old-style department store. So many toys, so little time!


Can you believe Emily’s fortune in finding an English children’s book section in this store?


Traveling on the Moscow subway system is very good. I personally have a bit of experience with the New York subway system and I would say that the infrastructure of the Moscow system is comparable. The crowds are quite polite and not too pushy. We did have a few moments when entering a escalator when we felt more like molecules in a fluid than like autonomous people. The idea of having “free will” at that moment was quit irrelevant. In spite of being in this situation, we didn’t get shoved or treated rudely. There was a constant pressure exerted by the crowd, but everyone entered the escalator in a smooth stream with a measure of fairness.


Because it snows nearly every day here in Moscow, snow removal is a full time job. Everywhere there are crews loading snow into dump trucks where it is driven away for disposal, probably in Siberia.


Mind the gap! Oops, wrong country.


On to the unpleasant subject of toilets. The Russian word for toilet is very similar to the English. It is pronounced two-ah-lyet. All around town there are locations where you can pay 10 to 12 rubles, about 30 to 40 cents, to use a toilet. These are usually manned by an old lady who collects the money and keeps them clean and stocked. The one pictured below was particularly interesting because of the brick pattern on the front.


Here Emily is getting fit to her new Russian hat. Looks great on her doesn’t it?



Happy shoppers enjoying their conquest of the open-air market. Can you say haggle?


I will leave you with this picture of a Russian version of Dunkin Donuts. Now it’s off to the internet café and then to the airport. See you in Siberia!