kiosk

KIOSK BY MOSCOW BLOG

We buy beer, vegetables and other stuff in these Kiosks and there used to be one near any street corner. You can get anything you need in your household for a good price and usually they are open 24 hours. Mayor Lushkov is closing them down one by one now, because he wants us to buy expensive none tasty Dutch tomatos in one of the big supermarkets, instead of some tasty ones from Usbekistan. Its all about money here.

Rushour BY MOSCOW BLOG
October 18th, 2006

No, this is not the line for the ticket sales of the Madonna concert, which recently happened here in Moscow and caused Moscovites the same stress, than usually only high level government guests do (with closed roads, the militia protecting the streets and her hotel etc). This line is not for the Rolling Stones or a soccer game either. Its simply the massive craziness of the daily rushour. I had a business meeting at 9 AM today and I needed to put myself into this position. This photo was taken from the escalator and I have been standing in this sweaty stinky crowd for about 15 minutes, being pushed around violently by some older ladies and Caucasian construction workers with garlic smell out of their mouths. Not enough, I took a 15 minute metro ride from Profsoyusnaya to Oktyabrskaya in a totally overfilled train with the same people before and when I took this picture, I was just transferring to another line and another 15 minute ride to Barikadnaya. An hour later I have been in for the same ride back and at night I was unfortunate again and needed to take a similar one to another meeting at 7:30 PM (in the middle of the evening rush hour).

Why I’m not taking the car? Well, that means hours of traffic jams. Instead of Babushkas pushing you around you have to deal with rude new rich Russians in their black SUV’s, which believe they own the road and hire their drivers from Tatschikistan or other exotic regions, where they don’t seem to have traffic rules. These guys only believe in the right of the stronger and driving during the rushour gives me as much stress as a metro ride. Sometimes, when I am stuck in traffic again and some guy tries to push me with his SUV, I daydream of taking a baseball bat and crashing his windows. Of course that is a pretty aggressive gesture, but nothing else seems to work against these guys and at least I’d get rid of all my frustration and aggression, which they are causing me. Hey, I’d even pay for the windows. Violence is not a solution against these rude drivers, I know that and I don’t want to look into the barrel of a gun, which is also a common thing on Moscow streets.

So ok, taking a car, I don’t have the bad smell around me, but when taking the metro, I have at least a vague idea on when I will arrive to my meeting. Monday I had to go to Sheremetyvo airport to pick up Sonia. It took me 2 ½ hours to get there in rush hour (7 PM). Last time I went, it was a Sunday morning and I made it in 45 min. The way back was a bit better, but basically the same. Its 15 million people (plus a few none-registered illegal workers) who have to make it to work and back, each day. With the economy doing so well, we get more and more cars in the city, but also more and more people coming here, looking for work and a better life. The government is as helpless as I am this morning standing in the crowd.