Groobs
Lounge Lizard
Joined: 15 Oct 2006
Posts: 83
Location: China (but missing St Pete!)
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 Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 4:28 pm Post subject: The calm before the storm...... |
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There is a curious feel to Russia today - 31 December is the holiday most people have been waiting for, and I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood to get a feel for the atmosphere.
First thing you notice, even given that it’s a Sunday, is that it’s pretty deserted outside. Not many cars on the roads, only a few people doing some last minute shopping and not many people just hanging around on the street corners as you usually get at weekends....
Even down in Ramstor, my local supermarket, it was quiet, no queues at checkout, and the enormous mountain of Russian champagne bottles that has been in the wine department for 2 weeks is now eroded to a small rump of a few dozen bottles,,,,,
The other thing that you can't escape is the thin film of filthy grimy mud that clings to everything in Russia in winter - it's unlike mud I have encountered anywhere else in the world (tho not being a mud expert, you understand, maybe I am missing something....) and its actually more like that "slip" stuff you use when you are making a pot on a potters wheel - liquid clay. It makes absolutely everything filthy, and of course all the cars are now the same gritty grey colour.
It's not cold today, and the lack of snow is now disappointing some of my Russian friends (they having been very dismissive of my feeling aggrieved at no snow on 25 Dec!) - a blanket of snow actually makes the place look much cleaner, covering up all this muddy slush and other crap.
On the street corner outside Metro Petrogradskya is an old babushka, kneeling on a folded up cardboard box, making the sign of the cross over and over again to a little picture of an orthodox Russian icon, while Russians in $5000 sable coats walk past her as if she was not there,,,,, I gave her 500 Rubles (about $20) and she was very pleased, but sadly it does not seem to be enough to make her go home (if she has a home) cos I can look out of my window and see her on the pavement now still there, she must be 75+ years old it really breaks your heart, but what can you do?
Last night was good night out here - New Years has fallen ideally on a Sunday night, so all the clubs were packed last night, for those who know SPB we were in Konnushny Dvor, then Led Limon and finally Rossis.
OK, got to prepare for a party in my apartment tonight, so will end the report here, and wish you guys a happy, safe and prosperous 2007.
Cheers  |
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Groobs
Lounge Lizard
Joined: 15 Oct 2006
Posts: 83
Location: China (but missing St Pete!)
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| Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 3:24 pm Post subject: |
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Wow,,,,,,,,,,,,, it never ceases to amaze me, Russians’ capacity for having a good time in the most adverse weather conditions! it was really snowing hard last night, but it just added to the atmosphere,,,,,
Last night was awesome, as it always is here – you can keep your Sydney harbour bridge fireworks, your Times Square dropping-ball thingy, you can even keep Big Ben, Russians do New Year with a raw passion and energy that takes your breath away, and I love it!
So picture the scene, after a quiet day leading up to midnight, many Russians who are not out in clubs (and here the craziness of new Russian wealth comes into play – upwards of $150-$300 each just to get in to many clubs and bars that are normally free,,,,, and that doesn’t get you free drinks or anything, just through the door!) will gather at home, and cook a meal and drink toasts not just to the new year, but up to 12 they drink toasts to the year gone past. As 12 approaches Putin appears on TV to give his address – last night he was looking very odd – almost like he had fallen asleep on a tanning bed, he really was a strange almost alien colour! After he finished, the Kremlin clock chimes – seems it chimes many more than 12 times, but perhaps that was the vodka shots interfering with my normal perception of reality! And then, all hell breaks loose – fireworks go off rather like the opening artillery barrage of a futile push on the Amiens front in WWI …Russians absolutely love fireworks, and cheer them religiously! They even cheer really pitiful feeble ones, and sparklers!
This year we were inside at the stroke of 12, then pushed on out into the centre, they had closed off the bottom half of Nevsky, and it was a real sea of people, all drunk, clutching bottles of Boshkarev and cheap Russian champagne, kissing strangers, grabbing the prettiest girls and groping them in a friendly way, and generally being very happy – they also specialise in the bear-hug – it takes an age to walk along the street, navigating past all these good natured people!
Now before anyone says ”these pics are all blurred and crap – I KNOW they are all blurred and crap! But in fact I have decided to post them cos it seems to me the blurring and crapness adds to the atmosphere – it’s hard to describe Russian revelry of this sort if you are not there, and in fact the pics (taken on my trusty but crap camera phone – must buy a better one in 2007!) sum it up for me, so no apologies for quality – in fact one or two of them are almost Impressionist in their crapness!!
They are all taken on Nevsky or thereabouts, really have no idea what they are, apart from last one which is in the Metro at about 7am this morning on the way home,,,, and yes, they were letting fireworks off IN THE METRO can you believe it?!?! Only in Russia, my friends,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Here they are, enjoy
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