Two delightful vids.
From the poster of the first video — “This video below was made in Kaliningrad, Russian Baltic port and important naval and military base. Exactly the place where all those reconnaissance RC 135s fly by and US destroyers like the Donald Cook poke their nose.
“As a Scotsman who has lived in Russia for 20 odd years, married to a Russian and residing in Ufa, a provincial city in the Republic of Bashkortostan with a population of over one million people, it never fails to amuse me the lack of knowledge or understanding people in the West have of life in Russia. On my now infrequent visits outside of Russia to the UK, New Zealand and other places, the images that people have of Russia and Russians, particularly recently after the imposition of sanctions, are disappointingly far off the mark.
“The popular image of Russia is of empty shelves in supermarkets, dour and unsmiling people living in poverty. Nothing could be further from the truth, yes some things are not available (some types of cheese but not much else), but when I go to one of the many huge supermarkets here, there is an abundance of fresh produce from all corners of the world and the people are well dressed and look reasonably happy. Perhaps this recent flash mob video from a supermarket in Kaliningrad will go some way to destroying the myths.”
Doesn’t look like Russia has any people-of-Walmart types.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=b8nvPjKMDh0
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I was 17 years old the first time I went to Europe. The best way to describe by reaction to seeing Salzburg and Vienna is basically me with my jaw jaw hanging to the ground, and mumbling all day long — “Holy shit!” — because of the stunning beauty. It’s like that all over Europe; Paris, London, Budapest, Athens (before TSHTF), Venice, Graz, and on and on. If you’ve never been outside of the United States, you just have no idea.
New York city is nice, as is Chicago, both with some spectacular architecture. But, very few would actually say they are “beautiful”. Well, I wouldn’t. The closest North American beautiful city is probably Montreal.
How do most Americans probably view a big Russian city? Probably as a bunch of those old Commie gray and dingy and butt ugly concrete block buildings. After all … Russia is nothing more than a big “gas station” according to John Shitstain McCain, and a minor regional power (according to O’Neegrow), and they are poor, broke, and backwards … not quite a 3rd world country, but close.
Ms. Freud had the privilege of seeing Moscow. She said it was stunning … especially of course Red Square and the Basil Church. But, she said St. Petersburg took her breath away every bit as much as Paris.
See for yourself.
A Beautiful Russian City and people; great art unlike America’s Cultural Communist modern art and architecture crap. Don’t you naturally hate ugly and dangerous US cities. Now the USA needs to learn from and follow people who got rid of their ZOG Oligarchy. We need an American Renaissance and Revival; Traditional was better for Society in every way. Individual Responsibility, Survivability and Christianity Trumps UN Agenda 21’s NWO sustainability and NWR. TPTB’s Plan for America (does The Mark of The Beast mean anything to you?) is Demonic; reject it all and vote Trump.
Did you notice the lack of tattoos? Nothing takes away from the beauty of a woman then tattoos.
My wife and I are planning on a trip to Russia later this year, hopefully the neocons won’t screw that up for us.
Stucky, I lived in Europe back in the early 80’s and I to was amazed at the beauty and history. To this day some of my best memories of life took place there. Was in Italy last fall, things have changed, but for the most part the beauty is still there, especially the women.
Russia is finally turning back to Christianity after communism. This is the difference .
I like watching subtitled foreign films and television shows.
It gives an insight into what the people of each nation are like.
The Russian stuff I’ve watched makes me think the Russians are very much like us -or like we were pre Obama- although the remnant of Soviet authoritarianism is still left in their culture.
Great post Stucky. I love this kind of stuff.
I had to chuckle looking at the faces in the video of the supermarket. It was eerily familiar.
I have a business associate who is a Ukrainian national who is married to a Russian national. He says that every time he leaves the West Coast for Alberta or Saskatchewan (where I grew up) he suddenly feels like he is back in either the Ukraine or Russia. He says the faces and last names are so familiar but the first names and accents don’t add up. He always laughs whenever he tells me.
Western Canada had a huge migration of people from Russia and the Ukraine back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Orthodox churches appear out of nowhere in the middle of the prairie and the entire region is still rich in its culture. When I was a kid my dad used to call our hockey team the “Flying Ukes”.
Russian, Ukrainian and their related cultures are interesting and beautiful. Russia is definitely on my bucket list of places to visit. Video’s like this spur my travel bug. I’ll go eventually assuming the politico’s and financial leaders of the world don’t screw it up first.
The giant Pysanka in Vegreville, AB
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Orthodox churches pop up out of the prairie literally damn near everywhere – many are the only architectural feature outside of a farm house for miles on end.
Maryville, Sask
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Insinger, Sask
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A lot of the folks that came were also Mennonite and other similar religious/farming types. My wife’s family were from Russia but spoke low German (the women still do when they don’t want me to know what they are saying about me 🙂
A damn fine post, Stucky.
I’ve been to Paris and throughout France, spent a total of about 4 months spread out over several years. Paris is truly impressive and if you are into photography you could spend a lifetime in France and never run out of fascinating subjects to capture.
And as Bullock commented about history, everywhere there are stories going back many centuries. I visited one couple and as the husband was walking me around the property he pointed to a clearing about a couple hundred yards away and he began to tell me of some historic group of crusaders that had camped in that clearing and then he pointed to a trail along the edge of his property and explained that was the route that the crusaders took on their way to the holy land.
In the US there are fat people everywhere. In France the people walk a lot more because most people use public transportation as a result they stay in shape. And not only are the women in great shape but they seems to care more about looking good almost like what you find in an office where the women all try to out do each other.