Family @ Russia

21.10.2011

I spent the past 4 days in Moscow, stopping over for a brief family visit on my way to SE Asia.

It was great to see my parents and younger siblings, neither of the two deserves the description of my 'little' brother, or my 'little' sister anymore:

Unlike in the previous couple of visits, I had the pleasure of driving through the entire city (a trip, fully within city limits, took 1hr 40min which, according to the taxi driver, was miraculously fast!) and could observe the changing face of Moscow from the comfort of a Nissan's back seat, in full daylight. Some of the things that stood out, on this ride and throughout the trip:

Much has been said about Russia's weather, but the difference is particularly acute when coming from Miami, via Israel, where the temperatures just barely dropped into the teens. In Moscow, I was greeted with a 0-7C weather, which left no doubt that summer was long gone.

The standard of living has improved dramatically since I left, and it seems to continue to improve. I noticed that only about 5% of cars on the roads are the fabled Russian brands like Zhiguli (Lada), with the vast majority consisting of Asian, European and some American cars, with a rather significant representation of luxury brands. Improved general standard of living could also be seen in a myriad of casual dining options which have sprung up all around Moscow, with prices not much different from those charged by comparable establishments in NYC. And these places are well attended.

Attitudes/mentality, which has bothered me so greatly in years past, appear to have softened. People are a lot more polite and even relaxed (well, at least they don't have the look of a serial killer on their faces anymore).

The flipside of this newly found prosperity is drastically increased traffic and horrendous air quality -- NYC has nothing on Moscow when it comes to both of these issues.

Here are a couple of pics from my cross-town cab ride. The first one is showing a classical Soviet-era apartment building in the forefront with shiny new glass skyscrapers in the background. The second one is one of many ad billboards, this one advertising Uncle Sam's Cafe.