[Balancer]

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

[Balancer]

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

[Balancer]

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

[Balancer]

A clown jumping out of a suitcase.



And this is the contents of the lower suitcase

[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

20170419_144628.jpg (103.79 KiB) Viewed 7283 times

20170419_144628.jpg (103.79 KiB) Viewed 7283 times

[Balancer]

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!

[Balancer]

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.

[Balancer]

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.

[Balancer]

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

[B0ycey]

Great photos again balancer. I missed them. Glad to see your return.

[Balancer]

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

[Decky]

If you ever go to Stalingrad (I refuse to spit on heroes graves by calling it Volgograd) please get a photo of the Pavlov's House memorial. The Germans lost more men trying to take that apartment block then they did taking Paris.

[Balancer]

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

[Balancer]

If you ever go to Stalingrad (I refuse to spit on heroes graves by calling it Volgograd) please get a photo of the Pavlov's House memorial. The Germans lost more men trying to take that apartment block then they did taking Paris.

Stalingrad/Volgograd is a completely different part of Russia I was there only a couple of times passing by train and bus, but in the city itself was not. Do not be confused by the ending "-grad". In old Russian it means "gorod" = "city"/"town" Therefore, many city names in Russian end with "-grad", regardless of location. From Kaliningrad/Koenigsberg to Volgograd/Stalingrad 1100 miles in a straight line and 1400 miles on the roads

[Balancer]

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.

[Balancer]

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

/

[Ter]

Nice pictures, Balancer!
The houses in the village and the school look like new.
There are no people on the roads, no children playing?

[Balancer]

Nice pictures, Balancer!

Thank you

The houses in the village and the school look like new.

The houses were not new, they were built somewhere in the late 1980s. Just the inhabitants of these houses are not too lazy to repair them

The school is even older, built in the 1970s. But a few years ago there was a lot of repairs. And the sports ground (in the photo the trainers are visible) before it also renewed.

There are no people on the roads, no children playing?

Early morning, Sunday. Side way So there's almost nobody. There are no children in front of the school, because all summer in Russia school holidays.

And then there are children, of course. Here, for example, my son and daughter in the photo

[One Degree]

Great photos as always @Balancer .
What exactly is a 'trainer'? It seemed to be the only thing on the playground.

[Balancer]

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