Oto in Motherland: a (huge) photo log
- Otohiko
- Joined: Mon May 05, 2003 8:32 pm
Griboedov Canal
Cobblestone bridge
Sennaya Square, recently rebuilt with brand-spanking-new shopping centres
And an old re-built chapel
*to be continued*
Cobblestone bridge
Sennaya Square, recently rebuilt with brand-spanking-new shopping centres
And an old re-built chapel
*to be continued*
The Birds are using humanity in order to throw something terrifying at this green pig. And then what happens to us all later, that’s simply not important to them…
- Otohiko
- Joined: Mon May 05, 2003 8:32 pm
The massive new trade complex
View from same point left – far less shiny!
Hey Jasper,
This says “Jasper” >___>
My 3 favorite buildings at the Fontanka
Back alley
*to be continued*
View from same point left – far less shiny!
Hey Jasper,
This says “Jasper” >___>
My 3 favorite buildings at the Fontanka
Back alley
*to be continued*
The Birds are using humanity in order to throw something terrifying at this green pig. And then what happens to us all later, that’s simply not important to them…
- Otohiko
- Joined: Mon May 05, 2003 8:32 pm
Street
Fontanka river
A cute teenage couple!
They’re apparently fans of a very popular but intelligent rock band from St. Petersburg, PilOt, which I like a lOt myself.
Aw.
Greatly approved!
A link to PilOt's song about St. Petersburg from their official site:
http://pilot.infobox.ru/mp3/war/war___02.mp3
The lyrics actually resonate a lot with my own impressions of many poorer areas of the city:
*to be continued*
Fontanka river
A cute teenage couple!
They’re apparently fans of a very popular but intelligent rock band from St. Petersburg, PilOt, which I like a lOt myself.
Aw.
Greatly approved!
A link to PilOt's song about St. Petersburg from their official site:
http://pilot.infobox.ru/mp3/war/war___02.mp3
The lyrics actually resonate a lot with my own impressions of many poorer areas of the city:
Fontankatranslated from Russian wrote:
PilOt - Piter
If it became apparent, that the sun
Is rolling off the edge of the earth
That means this city will soon wake up,
Come out
To take a walk through the trodden mud
Beside the beer stalls and the old bath house
Enchanted by October
And then
Beside the smoked-out grim women
Shuffling to their homes
Carrying their happyness in bags
For those fuckers to eat
Throwing around the remains of swearwords
Hunching over in the cold wind
It won't be hard to guess
That you're in Piter
---
Here it's easy to confuse sky and earth
Angels and beasts
Here on the corner of Stepanov-Skvortzov
It's always an open house
Here the price on the knees of girls
Was written in a diary in the morning
Here, the palaces of clinics have covered
The bones of those lying in earth
Here winds blow out the frost
From waists and sleeves
Here, perhaps, Peter the Great
Went batshit from the mosquitoes
Look at the diamonds in store windows
And the hunger of those who won the war
Where everyone spits on everything off a high steeple
Tell me? Only in Piter
---
Here, winter wet its feet
Coming down with flu, like the rest
Here, a janitor can become a rock star -
Quite easily
Here, street trash was replaced by bandits
And well-fed laundresses substitute kings
And besides poems written on walls -
Phone numbers of sluts
Walk past the eternal fortress
Where they cured people with stakes
Beside the red-brick prison
That married a maternity ward
In the golden glow of churches
It stands on the swamp land in shit
Here, I was born in '72
And yet I still live, in Piter
*to be continued*
The Birds are using humanity in order to throw something terrifying at this green pig. And then what happens to us all later, that’s simply not important to them…
- Otohiko
- Joined: Mon May 05, 2003 8:32 pm
Remember that thing people threw money on from a bridge?
Well, I still can’t get a coin on it – but someone managed to even get a beer can there!
The smoke stacks that were seen above those 3 buildings before
Neat artsy graffiti with historical references, apparently
I looked at it too hard, however, since I slipped and fell then and there, by some miracle not damaging my camera
…to be honest I think the beer might have had something to do with it
*to be continued*
Well, I still can’t get a coin on it – but someone managed to even get a beer can there!
The smoke stacks that were seen above those 3 buildings before
Neat artsy graffiti with historical references, apparently
I looked at it too hard, however, since I slipped and fell then and there, by some miracle not damaging my camera
…to be honest I think the beer might have had something to do with it
*to be continued*
The Birds are using humanity in order to throw something terrifying at this green pig. And then what happens to us all later, that’s simply not important to them…
- Otohiko
- Joined: Mon May 05, 2003 8:32 pm
Zebra blocks!
Which is the right way up here?
Vitebsky Train Station
The towering smoke stacks of a power plant in the distance
*to be continued*
And now it's time for another regularly-scheduled pause!
Which is the right way up here?
Vitebsky Train Station
The towering smoke stacks of a power plant in the distance
*to be continued*
And now it's time for another regularly-scheduled pause!
The Birds are using humanity in order to throw something terrifying at this green pig. And then what happens to us all later, that’s simply not important to them…
- Otohiko
- Joined: Mon May 05, 2003 8:32 pm
And now for a more short-ranged departure out of town. On my mother’s insistence (she was/is in Canada), my grandfather and I were to check up on her grandparents’ grave at the cemetery just outside town. So, off we went to Pargolovo, the rather nearby suburb.
A statue of Lenin near the highway in Pargolovo
Pargolovo, highway
Walkway leading downhill
Russian suburbs
The Russian concept of suburbs, at least so far (and it’s changing) is a bit different from the American one. Virtually the entire city’s population and workforce lives in high-rises. Suburbs is more like a village. Besides limited numbers of the rich elite, there’s very few of them typical well-equipped suburban homes with satellite TV and neatly-trimmed lawns.
Rails near Pargolovo station
Amusing Oto fact:
That one recurring nightmare I might have mentioned, about me being killed by a train, takes place (supposedly) just further up the rails, still visible in the picture.
I guess I passed this area a lot back in the day…
*to be continued*
A statue of Lenin near the highway in Pargolovo
Pargolovo, highway
Walkway leading downhill
Russian suburbs
The Russian concept of suburbs, at least so far (and it’s changing) is a bit different from the American one. Virtually the entire city’s population and workforce lives in high-rises. Suburbs is more like a village. Besides limited numbers of the rich elite, there’s very few of them typical well-equipped suburban homes with satellite TV and neatly-trimmed lawns.
Rails near Pargolovo station
Amusing Oto fact:
That one recurring nightmare I might have mentioned, about me being killed by a train, takes place (supposedly) just further up the rails, still visible in the picture.
I guess I passed this area a lot back in the day…
*to be continued*
The Birds are using humanity in order to throw something terrifying at this green pig. And then what happens to us all later, that’s simply not important to them…
- Otohiko
- Joined: Mon May 05, 2003 8:32 pm
Pargolovo station
AHA! A bus stop
What’s so “AHA”? Well, this is a bus stop left over from Soviet times. Within the city limits, they’ve been replaced by more modern, fiberglass-made stops. But here in the suburbs, they remain authentic.
Sky over Pargolovo
Passing a field of cabbage
Sun and clouds
*to be continued*
AHA! A bus stop
What’s so “AHA”? Well, this is a bus stop left over from Soviet times. Within the city limits, they’ve been replaced by more modern, fiberglass-made stops. But here in the suburbs, they remain authentic.
Sky over Pargolovo
Passing a field of cabbage
Sun and clouds
*to be continued*
The Birds are using humanity in order to throw something terrifying at this green pig. And then what happens to us all later, that’s simply not important to them…
- Otohiko
- Joined: Mon May 05, 2003 8:32 pm
Northern Cemetery, Pargolovo
Selling wreaths and flowers at the cemetery gate.
Yet more of the sky.
Right at the entrance.
The Northern Cemetery is one of the two large and currently-active public cemeteries in St. Petersburg (the other one being, surprise surprise, Southern Cemetery). I’ve never been to Southern Cemetery but what I’ve heard about it makes me like Northern better. Northern is sort of like a forest and bush with graves tucked into it; it’s a HUGE plot and it’s very quiet. Southern is more the typical huge field.
I loathe cemeteries, I really do, but the forested types I loathe least. The only cemetery I’ve ever liked was the the Lutheran Smolenskoe cemetery on Vasilievsky Island, which I unfortunately didn’t visit this time around – though I hear it’s not as fun anymore as it’s been cleaned up. It has these HUGE monuments, a lot of them set up for German nobility, most of which were in a state of ruin, overgrown and with trees falling all around them. I guarantee there is not another cemetery in the world that’s nearly as creepy and awesome as Smolenskoe.
Otherwise, yea. I loathe cemeteries; I likewise loathe the idea of cremation. I honestly wish I die in a way that doesn’t require funeral arrangements, heh. I think I’ve done this rant for a few people before, so I’ll spare the rest of you the graphic details of how I’d prefer my remains should be disposed of when the time comes
Gravestones in the forest
Obviously taken from the wrong side as the faces are oriented away from me.
The right side:
Quite quaint. Certainly a good point – at least this indeed looks like “resting in peace”, not some of the nightmarish urban cemeteries that I’ve seen that are something of a cross between a park and a shopping mall
*to be continued*
Selling wreaths and flowers at the cemetery gate.
Yet more of the sky.
Right at the entrance.
The Northern Cemetery is one of the two large and currently-active public cemeteries in St. Petersburg (the other one being, surprise surprise, Southern Cemetery). I’ve never been to Southern Cemetery but what I’ve heard about it makes me like Northern better. Northern is sort of like a forest and bush with graves tucked into it; it’s a HUGE plot and it’s very quiet. Southern is more the typical huge field.
I loathe cemeteries, I really do, but the forested types I loathe least. The only cemetery I’ve ever liked was the the Lutheran Smolenskoe cemetery on Vasilievsky Island, which I unfortunately didn’t visit this time around – though I hear it’s not as fun anymore as it’s been cleaned up. It has these HUGE monuments, a lot of them set up for German nobility, most of which were in a state of ruin, overgrown and with trees falling all around them. I guarantee there is not another cemetery in the world that’s nearly as creepy and awesome as Smolenskoe.
Otherwise, yea. I loathe cemeteries; I likewise loathe the idea of cremation. I honestly wish I die in a way that doesn’t require funeral arrangements, heh. I think I’ve done this rant for a few people before, so I’ll spare the rest of you the graphic details of how I’d prefer my remains should be disposed of when the time comes
Gravestones in the forest
Obviously taken from the wrong side as the faces are oriented away from me.
The right side:
Quite quaint. Certainly a good point – at least this indeed looks like “resting in peace”, not some of the nightmarish urban cemeteries that I’ve seen that are something of a cross between a park and a shopping mall
*to be continued*
The Birds are using humanity in order to throw something terrifying at this green pig. And then what happens to us all later, that’s simply not important to them…