15-Oct-2007: проект о.г.и. (proekt ogi) bar, Moscow, Russia.

This is an interesting bar that I visited in Moscow a few days ago. This bar is "проект о.г.и. (proekt ogi) " in Moscow. It is an underground bar, concert place and a book/CD shop.

In the above image we see the graffiti on the pavement outside, in the street indicating the way to the "проект о.г.и. ". Notice the symbol of the book in the graffiti. In the next photos we will see the bookshop inside that bar:

It is a very beautiful bookshop as you see. Also the people working there were very kind when I asked them to suggest me to buy some CDs of Russian music. Generally speaking the Russian read a lot of books. Inside the metro you can observe many people reading.

The decoration of the bar is simple and the atmosphere there is nice. Unfortunately the day that I visited this bar was not scheduled a live concert but I found the following live concert in that bar from youtube.com:

This is a live of the "Afro-Russian afrobeat orchestra "Compatriotes""! ;-)

17-Oct-2007: Visit at the house/museum of Vladimir Lenin, Moscow, Russia.

In this post we will see some photographs from the house in Moscow/Russia that Vladimir Lenin have lived. In the first photo we see the grave / mausoleum of Lenin in Red Square in Moscow (behind you can see Kremlin).

The Lenin's house / museum is located a few Kms outside Moscow. Here you see the entrance of the museum. 99% of the signs in Mosocw are in Cyrillic alphabet ;-).

Here we see external view of the house/museum of Lenin. In the next photographs we can see some rooms of the interior of the house. Notice that the house has wonderful view at the forest.

The decoration comparing to the nowadays aesthetics may look kitsch. Notice the details on the paintings, furniture of the rooms.

It is very interesting the Lenin's car. Look the technology used on the wheels ;-).

Very interesting is the electrical board installation of the house ;-)!

Something that I didn't like to the museum is that they charge 100 rubles (=3euros) if you want to have the permission to make photographs inside the house. I suppose that Lenin wouldn't like his house to be used as "a capitalistic product". I didn't pay the photographic fee and the people in the museum finally didn't forbid us to make photographs.

The following video is from the movie of Theo Aggelopoulos: "Ulysse's Gaze". We see the scene of the transportation of the statue of Lenin with a boat in Dunarea river, Romania:

13..17-Oct-2007: Sherstone youth hostel, Moscow, Russia. Travel tips.

In this post I will write to write some practical details of my recent visit in Moscow. Moscow is one of the most expensive cities (like London). Prices are overestimated and you can pay really a lot of money for an average quality room.

A budget option is to stay in a hostel, and the above photographs are from the Sherstone hostel where I have stayed during my short visit in Moscow. The price for a person in a 4 persons dormitory is 27€ (without a breakfast). I have to mention that Sherstone Hostel (also most hostels in Moscow) are not real hostels but rooms within a big hotel managed by the hostel owner.

These photographs are interesting to see the soviet Hotel's aesthetics (look the decoration of the room, the curtains etc).
Some of my roommates in the hostel was Lewis (UK / first photo) and Jamal (Malaysia / second photo). We had interesting discussions about travel destinations. Jamal proposed to visit Uzbekistan (before Moscow he was traveling there, and he said that it is safe for visiting as a tourist) and Lewis told me about his trip, a few years ago, in Balkan countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece).

Even Moscow has really expensive restaurants, cafes everyday I had a breakfast in the following kiosk close by the hostel (at Petrovsko market).
The people from the kiosk like me ;-), and every morning they were smiling to me ;-).. The above breakfast (2 pieces of pies + coffee) cost around 40 Rubles (around 1,1€).

13..17-Oct-2007: from Moscow with love: ggia's personal photos.

The above photograph is from Kremlin, in Moscow (night shot with a simple digital camera, the white spots is because it was snowing).

In the rest of this post you will see personal photographs (shot by a cheap digital camera) that they are not interesting artistically speaking. You can see how I look like (for the people that they don't know me personally).. ;-).

In the above photo you see the grave of the pioneer (in montage) Russian film director Sergei Einsenstein.

All these people are people that I meet on the street and I took pictures of them in black & white film (we will see some photos of them in the next posts). All the photos are from the street market next to the metro station Petrovsko (in Moscow) with an exception of the last photograph that is from the house of Lenin (outside Moscow).In the first photo you can see Lewis (UK) and in the second Jamal (Malaysia), they were my room mates in the hostel that I have stayed in Moscow. I will write more practical details about this hostel in a post the upcoming days.

04-Apr-2007: Coffee shop in Ano Byrsini, Rodopi, Greece.