Saturday, March 9, 2013

Around the town

I have had some conversation and questions about what the apartment/outside was like that Sergey and Larisa live at. They are apparently referred to as the Twin Towers kind of a homage to 9/11. 
This is the opposite apartment from the one that they live in. They are practically mirror images of each other. The place that Loki is walking to is a play area for children. I think there may be underground parking. This is an area for Limited parking in a circular shape. 

This is looking directly up towards the apartment that Sergey and Larisa live in. There are 23 floors, Sergey and Larisa live on the 17th floor, in the 117th apartment. I think the open window that you vaguely can see is the window to Sergey and Larisa apartment. I could never really tell which one was there "unit". 


This is the train yard in Saint Petersburg, I don't know if it was just commercial train yard, or trains that were for transporting people as well. The train system in Russia is different from Western European trains, and American trains. I don't really know how to explain how they look. I will have to google around it. 


Here we are riding in a Taxi. I think we were in a Nissan, but I can't remember, it could have been a Hyundai. This was one of the few times I could convince Sergey and Larisa that Loki could leave the house with a pair of sneakers on. I became extremely tired of fighting over boots, also you can see how much of his ankle is peeking out of his clothes. 

This was another section of the shipping yard(s). 

I thought this was a very interesting image because we were driving to a store or activity. We went through lots of shipping or distribution sites. I thought this very cosmopolitan building juxtaposes against the squalor around it. I think we eventually went around the building. 

Oh look, we did! The yellow square thing is used to move around train boxes cargo. I had heard that if a train was traveling from Western Europe to Eastern Europe they have to switch the wheels. It is pretty complicated.
I have almost completed my series of photos from Russia. These were taken around the 10th of February. I still have a a dozen more or so posts that I get to share with you! I guess I will have to go back to Russia. 

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Museum of Russian History Peter Paul Fortress 3!

So we were only there for 1 day, and in the middle had to run through the second story of the house/palace/mansion to the bathroom. I was as always, trying to take a ton of photos to document the whole of our time in Russia. Because that's what mothers do, they take photos and ignore everything else that's going on. 
Here is Sergey and Larisa, and the bags that we toted on a constant basis. We are trying to determine which image of the train is the best image to amaze Loki with. 

These were placards, that displayed images, from early films made in Soviet Russia. 1917 was the year that the country tipped into communism, or socialism or marxism. Some -ism, the images of the posters are pretty amazing, as to what they are trying to sell as a film. 

For instance here is a lady, sitting in her oriental style window (or not) with a octopus devouring the city, (or not) maybe it's just moving around, looking for a cool place to hang his tentacles. The lady, she's just relaxing, maybe she's alerted to the incoming tentacle attack. The first word is stolisomething or such. I never really did learn Russian well enough to read signs. I did learn the word for sit, sadiz, and yest, eat. 

Here are some of the designs of the city of Saint Petersburg initially. I think, since it's Russian History museum, but with a focus on Saint Petersburg. Moscow is a mess within itself. 


Here's the special things about Russian Museums, people. People who are dressed and hanging out doing types of activities, such as driving early style Russian horseless carriages. That look on his face is just priceless. Fear frozen in time, he was trying to honk his horn and let people know, "look out! I am riding my Horseless Carriage my modern machine! " Beep Beep! 

This model/statue/taxidermied early car driver has feet and shoes and hands. It's creepy! Loki is only slightly scared of these. When we went to the military museum same concept, they even had those Knights amour stand things. He was pretty darn scared of those and wouldn't come near them. 

Here I am looking out the second story window towards another palace/mansion/building for something. What are these buildings for?! I could never quite determine because something in the Mordashev family blood just refuses to allow strangers to a foreign country the time to enjoy their surroundings. Or really listen to those talking paddles they give you in the language you speak so that you can fully understand your surroundings. 

But this I can totally understand, history of toiletry in the country of Russia.  Here is a sitting toilet, and a mans standing toilet thing. So that's worth noting. And look at those copper flushes! Toilets! 

Here is typical late 19th, early 20th century housing in Russia. Here's a list of things that have changed, literally nothing. Maybe more people have television these days. 

Here's Loki handling the "doll house". It has a plexiglass over it, so that you don't manhandle the small items in the house. It also has a lady security guard who will pounce so fast on you, you won't have a chance to tell your child that he isn't supposed to touch the plexiglass. 

Here we are trying to quickly explain to Loki that he can't touch something that people have had their hands all over for the time it was made. 

A closer detail of the "doll house" again nothing much has changed from when these buildings were initially made. While this had more details, there were still Anteka every where (actually pronounce Apteka) and ladies clothing stores. The majority of the time, 99.7 percent of the time, ground floors of apartment buildings have retail stores, or restaurants. The stores ranged from pharmacies, to pet stores, to honey stores. 

Here are some smoking advertisements that were on display in Russia. This one seemed exceptionally Racist for some reason. Though I could never put my finger on what made it inappropriate. Maybe because I can't read what the sign says. 

Here is the cigarette advertisement above the the previous advertisement. What I enjoy the most about this one is the young man child smoking behind the old man. Poza is the word on the top. Because I am not really sure how to read Russian. There is so much going on with these smoking advertisements. I can't explain to you how inexpensive it is to smoke in Russia, (less than a dollar a pack sometimes, and it's not the crappy smokes) how many people smoke, and how accepted it is to smoke. The Marlboro company is still using the image of a cowboy to sell cigarettes. So that's horrible! 

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Museum of Russian History II

We tried to spend a long time in the Museum because I find history so interesting. Also I love seeing the "guards". But Loki wasn't his usual self that day. 
This was a display with mens items. 





This was images of soldiers probably about the time of 1812. 

My photography skills to capture the images of the soldiers and their facial expressions very well. There were a lot more images of dead soldiers, hurt soldiers, and soldiers standing at attention. 


Here we are watching a very interesting video on how the Alexander column got in the upright position. It is all one piece, instead of pieces like the statue of liberty is. I thought that this was an interesting video, mainly because there was limited talking and more images. Because everything is in Russian.