Hello all! I've returned to the balmy Bay Area. I'm not sure how I feel about being home again quite yet. I think that I may go insane in just a little while; what's the opposite of seasickness? That's how I feel. Too stationary.
No, not really. But I do think that I was expecting home to be a bit more exciting than it's turned out to be. So what do I do now? I go through the pictures I took during my travels, realize that there are not very many of them, and decide which of them I will put up here to try to indicate to you, dear readers, what it is that I miss and don't miss about Moscow and the other spots in Russia that I visited.
Here are some things that I do miss:
The ghostly nature of the provinces really gets under one's skin. This picture was taken in Vladimir, once upon a time the capital of Rus' and now a fairly deserted, snow-covered wonderland. There's not a lot of places I can go in the Sacramento area that rival the austerity of this.
This was taken in Novgorod, also an old capital. It was every bit as spooky as it looks in the photo. Tilden is spooky sometimes, but not in this way. My imagination is the spookiest part of Tilden; i can't say that about Novgorod.
This is Masha! She's the three-year-old I lived with, along with her brother and parents and the grandparents who were usually absent and their three cats. Masha spoke much better Russian than I do.
I really really miss being able to walk across the Moscow River and go to Red Square whenever I want to.
Here are some things I don't miss:
Cookie-cutter Soviet style apartment buildings look like good places to waste away in, silently waiting for death. They're just as awful on the inside.
What do you mean I can't take my ice cream in there? But it's so creamy and delicious!
As you can see, there are more things that I miss than things that I don't. If I had some pictures of myself commuting through hellish Kievskaya station every morning, that would be under the "things I don't miss" column. However, give me a little time, and I may even be missing that.
Stay tuned for more pictures from more places. I'm still getting caught up. Glad to be home. I think.
3 comments:
i updated your partner link to prague to sacramento. time to get some oakland weather.
linh fucking dinh.
Your images are incredible...i can only imagine what must be floating around in your mind...in many dimensions...
It will get better. it will all sort out..eventually your chi will pull itself together again, and you'll find a further evolved Katie.
Wow! I love those buildings, the creepier the better. So you're moving to Berlin?? I want to come visit!! For how long? For what reason (other than itchy-traveler disease of course.
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