Russia in photos. Without politics.

But, an example of gigantomania This is someone from the Russian tsars. He does not look like Nicholas II.

 

But I know this sculpture - it's a monument to Charles De Gaulle. In full it stands near the hotel "Cosmos", which stands near my house. The hotel in the times of the USSR was built by the French company "Sefri", so this building is a symbol of Soviet-French friendship. Because of this, the monument to De Gaulle was also staged. In the people this monument because of its design began to be called a "Nutcracker monument". I hope the French on the forum are not offended

 

Does the daughter imitate this ... Diogenes? I do not know, maybe Diogenes

 

A clown jumping out of a suitcase.



And this is the contents of the lower suitcase

 

So much incredible beauty...and thankfully, your eye to see and capture it for us.

Amazing. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have happened on this thread.

In my opinion...THE BEST THREAD IN THIS FORUM, Balancer.

 

Sorry, I have not written anything for a long time There are a lot of works (Deadline May 16!). And in political disputes in English-language forums, I somehow became disillusioned...

Here is a graffiti caught the other day at an electrical substation in Maryina Roshcha

 

Here is a fu..ng summer now

A week ago it was +26°C (+79°F). But winter returned again. Although the snow was falling heavily for a couple of days, but yesterday was a real surrealism. Cherry tree blossomed. The surrounding area is bathed in its scent. And all this - under the snow! This is how I came back yesterday from the office. There's nothing else.



And now near the house ... As they say, more - more!

 

I have not written anything in this topic for a long time. Now I went for a short time with my family to the village in the Kaliningrad region. I work from here remotely. A few photos with brief comments.

This is an Orthodox church in the district center. Gusev is a small town (28 thousand inhabitants) 20 miles from the border with Poland.

 

Kaliningrad is the westernmost city in Russia. The former Königsberg. The former Twangste, Kunnegsgarbs, Knigsberg, Królewiec, Karaliaučius... The city of many names

This is how the Kaliningrad sunset looks.

 

Kaliningrad is noticeably inferior in terms of living standards to Moscow. Salaries here are about half that of Moscow. And the cost of living is less than a half times. However, the city is growing quite actively. Many new houses are being built. However, until now in many places there are such German ruins

 

And again I'm here. My cases in the Kaliningrad region are being delayed. I planned to return to Moscow on July 6, and it was July 16. And not the fact that I will have time to do everything planned before the end of the month It's good that my work is remote and I can deal with it from anywhere.

It's bad that I live in a small village (Countryside? Hamlet?). I do not know the literal analogue of such settlements in America. In American cinema this is not shown This is not a familiar American small town, which differs from the big city only in size. And not a farm village where one family lives. It's like a group of several dozen farm villages in one place. So it's bad that there is an uncomfortable and rather expensive mobile Internet traffic. 8 gigabytes of 4G/LTE cost about $10, and I spend 2 gigabytes a day

The village where I live looks like this:



I just went for milk to neighbors, took a photo on the way, I thought that I had not written anything to this forum for a long time and decided to write this note

 

And this is a rural school. I studied there from 1987 to 1990

 

Just a tree by the road. Unfortunately, this time I did not take a DSLR with me and so I only have to take photos on the smartphone. What deprives the opportunity for high-quality photos I'll have to look for something from last year's photos of these places.

 

And here are the old photos. It's an oak tree next to the house. Maybe someone on the desktop wallpaper will come in handy

 

I could walk for ever in an environment like that.

 

Some more old photos. Mushrooms in the neighboring forest. Boletus (penny bun, cep, porcino or porcin). In Russia they are called "white mushrooms". Boletus generally like to grow in large groups. It's not all that there were, next to it was up to a dozen mushrooms

 

Severe rural humor In the background is a cemetery. Black garbage can. The slogan on the garbage can is "The Power of Life in Purity."

 

For some reason I thought that Mikhailovo, where I am now, is a new settlement. However, it turned out, the first mention refers to 1565!

Until 1615 the village was called Strige. Then, until 1938 - Egeringken (German Eszerningken, Lithuanian Ežerninkai). In 1938, the Germans renamed all the Lithuanian names in German and until 1946 the village was called Neupassau. Well, in 1946 the names of the settlements of Prussia were changed again, already in Russian

Here in the photo - Kaliningrad sky above Mikhailovo. Today we went for a walk to the neighboring village, Priozernoe.

 

The the war grave (bed of honour? - I do not know how to translate accurately) in the neighboring village (Priozernoe). Here are buried 244 soldiers who died in 1945.

 

I used to post photos in messages via the IPFS network. With a preview of 800 pixels and a link to a full-sized photo. But the forum has its own means of inserting attachments in full size. I do not know which option is more convenient for readers - as before in the topic or as my last photo?

 

The old German road. Paving stone. To go on it the real torture, but for many decades without repair it is quite preserved



I drove along this road my kid on a three-wheeled bicycle (with a handle for an adult - like a baby stroller turns out). When we reached the end, he groaned with a groan from the bicycle and asked for handles. But I endured until the end

In the Kaliningrad region in general, there are quite a few roads with paving stones. There are even in large cities areas with such roads. For example, in Kaliningrad itself, in Chernyakhovsk ...

 

The old German dam across the Pissa River near the neighboring village, Priozernoye. The mill in this place was built in 1732. When the dam in the modern form appeared I do not know, but it was, of course, before the war (WWII — In Russia, when the war is said, without mentioning a specific name, they always mean the Second World War - in no other war did the country experience such huge losses.). First there was a mill on this dam, when the Soviet Union was there for a while the collective farm hydroelectric power station. Since the 1960s, the dam has been abandoned.



I, nevertheless, will return to the variant of publications with the average size of the photos preview. In my opinion, the big ones look cumbersome and behind them the text is lost

 

Actually, the dam itself.

 

Amazing photos. Very talented. What camera equipment/settings do you prefer?