Tag: clothes

Russians love…

SDSpivey

Some of the things I noticed repeatedly that it seems the Russian people must love are:

Red:

They have red on the flag, but also white and blue. Why don’t they care about those colors?

There are red store signs, red outfits, red trains, red everything.

The primary color of Aeroflot and Rossiya airlines both is red, the stewardesses have red uniforms. Although, I did notice the last flight I had, they had more of an orange-red shoes, but maybe the light was messing with my eyes.

This may seem to be a simple leftover from the Soviet days, after all the Soviet flag was primarily red, but I think it could have gone back all the way to the beginning. Rus may have originally meant “red.”

War memorials:

Just about everywhere I went, there would be an included WWII memorial to the soldiers. Nearly every park, no matter how small, would have at least a statue or plaque somewhere.

Parks:

Okay, everyone likes them, but they have so many. One park will abut another park.

They might just have the median of a road with grass, trees, and benches. Barely wider than having another lane.

Cobblestones:

Many streets and some sidewalks were made of cobblestones. Considering that they are just bricks that are made to be rounded on top, and could just as easily be flat, this seems ridiculous. Flat bricks would be so much easier to walk or drive on.

Big lips:

I saw hundreds of women everyday that have had lip injections. I thought this was just an American problem.

Not just to have some definition or get a bit plumper, but full on fish lips.

So gross.

Western styles:

I heard American pop and country music being played on radios and in stores. Not once did I hear any Russian singing, although I did hear some Arabic.

The restaurants are mostly American and European foods (if you exclude the kebab and schwarma stands). KFC and Burger King are rampant, as well as Coke and Fanta.

Shoes, clothing, and handbags are American and European brands. Interestingly, almost every brand is using the original Latin characters, not the Cyrillic that they are able to read. I’m not certain I saw any shirts with Cyrillic, other than work shirts. All “tourist”shirts were English, primarily American city names, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Dallas, or they were Disney merchandise. You know darn well they never went to any of those places, possibly don’t even know where the city is.

Reflections: Shops and street hawkers

SDSpivey

I would have to say about 1 in 6 stores in this place is a vape shop. Jesus, there are a lot of them. There is no way they can have a profit with the number of competitors. There is no way they make enough money to pay for the electricity for the garish LED lights, that each has.

On one strip of seven shops, three were vapes and one was a taбak (tobacco).

That’s another one, tobacco sellers. I’m not just talking about the taбak shops, but there are guys selling cartons of various brands, including Marlboro, all over. Even one guy who parks right in front of my hostel and props up his display, every day.

Surprisingly, I don’t see that many people smoking or vaping, in Saint Petersburg. Perhaps it is strongly discouraged in public areas.

On the other hand, wherever I go, at least one trash can is smoldering because of someone dropped a cigarette in there.

Other overly common stores: bra and panties, cellphone cases, shoes, designer clothes, socks, pharmacies, and fruit and vegetable stands.

Russia must be full of sick people, every block has a pharmacy. Looking through the window, I can see that everything is locked away. You’ll have to pay before you get your stuff.

There must be more cellphone cases in Russia than cellphones.

Haven’t you ever been walking down the road and thought, “Hey, I wish there was a way I could buy socks right here, instead of going all the way into a store.” In Saint Petersburg, you can buy socks right on the sidewalk. So convenient.

Just like Shanghai, every vegetable stand has the same items, placed the same way. It must be their version of franchising.

I did find the clothing version of Akihabara, right in my backyard. Seriously, it is in the alley behind my hostel.

There are hundreds of stalls, across acres, selling every single type of garment you can think of. Google says Apraksin Yard is centuries old, I can believe that. It has dirt roads, not that they were always dirt. The paving has been crushed and worn away.

You can tell the authenticity of the product by the names, like Lago blocks and Mimecraft toys, or Nike shoes with the swoosh going the other way.

Many of the product boxes are sun faded, so you know they are in high demand.

I suppose most of the products are real, it must be cheaper to send via train on land than a ship across the ocean, plus adding on the US tariffs, which is just another tax on the American people.

Around town, you’ll find the occasional beggar, but some will have something to sell. I saw several old women selling bandages. Yes, you could buy individual bandages, as if you just cut yourself and had that need right now. At least they’re doing something that might be useful.

I don’t begrudge the musicians or singers that are trying to make a living off their talent, but I can’t stand the beggars.

In Moscow, there is a man laying by the door all day, every day. He will never find work or food laying there. If he’s really hungry, there are plenty of pigeons. Not something I would do, but given no other choice…

 

Don’t read this

SDSpivey

This will be boring.

I filled my backpack with my dirty clothes and headed upstairs to the office. Fortunately, the one clerk who knows English is working, she takes me back to the communal bathroom and shows me how to operate the clothes washer.

It is so small, I only put in half of my clothes, socks, underwear, and 2 of my pants.

It takes half an hour, so I drop my pack in the room and head out. But I realize, by the time I get to a place and order, the laundry will be done. It’s already 10 minutes just to get down and out the door.

I kill a few minutes, just watching the traffic and people. Then head up, still time on the display, so I sit in the kitchen.

Some Russian cop show is on. One of the officers holds up his hand to stop a car, flashes his badge and jumps into the passenger seat. In a real scenario, as soon as he stepped to the side of the car, the driver would’ve taken off.

Also, the dialogue doesn’t match the mouth movements. The text on street signs is Cyrillic, but maybe not originally Russian, maybe Estonian or Kazakh.

Finally, the machine has finished. I swap the loads and restart the machine. Then I head to my room, I now have to hang everything up to dry, because there is no dryer.

One window pane opens wide and I’m able to drape everything over the bed frame. Periodically I flipped everything over. There are hangers, but they don’t reach well enough to hook on the 2-by frame, resulting in frequent drops. The windows are cool, twist the lever one way and they open like a door, but twist the lever the other way and they tip inward from the top. The latter would allow fresh air, but prevent rain from entering.

My socks and underwear are now blueish. I had 2 new pairs of jeans that must have bled a bit. Oh well, it could have been worse, I have two red shirts.

Because of the wind blowing in from the courtyard, I was forced to put on my jacket.

After all wash was done, I headed out to a supermarket. I bought a 350g of sausage, yogurt drink, cheese sauce and BBQ sauce, and a loaf of flattish bread. Made this morning, it was so soft.

I grabbed a plate and knife from the kitchen and ate half the bread with sauces and half the meat. Saving the rest for tomorrow.

Not the healthiest meal, or the normalest, but it filled me and it was good.

All day I’ve had the pants in the open window but still damp.

See, I warned you it was boring.