03-13 January 2006: Russia, give me a smile!
14th January 2006
I spent ten days in Russia at the beginning of this year. It was cold and warm, rushed and slow, cultured and disorganised, rich and poor, lost between its communist past and capitalist present. (See more photos in the portfolio 'Russia')
Silver birches: you can see them everywhere in Russia
The heavy pollution in Moscow
I found this phone in the railway station where I set off to St Petersburg
Rush hour in the Moscow Metro
St Petersburg, the youngest and most European city in Europe
-13 degrees
Trolleybuses still run, but not too many people use them nowadays
I know their faces
In Russian museums, every room has a middle-aged woman working as an attendant, but their jobs usually seem to consist only of stopping visitors taking photos. And they can't speak English.
Middle-aged women work in most service trades such as box offices, the Metro, museums - but not as waitresses.
But I wonder what the young women do?
Oh, here they are!
Policeman.
Silver birches: you can see them everywhere in Russia
The heavy pollution in Moscow
I found this phone in the railway station where I set off to St Petersburg
Rush hour in the Moscow Metro
St Petersburg, the youngest and most European city in Europe
-13 degrees
Trolleybuses still run, but not too many people use them nowadays
I know their faces
In Russian museums, every room has a middle-aged woman working as an attendant, but their jobs usually seem to consist only of stopping visitors taking photos. And they can't speak English.
Middle-aged women work in most service trades such as box offices, the Metro, museums - but not as waitresses.
But I wonder what the young women do?
Oh, here they are!
Policeman.
