Like the old Soviet-style shops, night spots in Novgorod appear to be buried deep in the housing estates. You can’t see them during the day. The trick is to go out after dark with night-vision goggles and look for some extra bright lights reflected in the puddles, for which Novgorod is famous. People complain about [...]

It’s always interesting to read a travel piece about somewhere you visited. Just to compare notes. Today the Moscow Times obliged with a feature on Novgorod Veliky.
Staff writer Anna Malpas points out that it’s not to be confused with Nizhny Novgorod. Perhaps one should add, nor anywhere else. The other day this blog picked [...]

It was a wonderful Autumn in Novgorod. The russety rust colours tinged all the shades of evening shadows. Click for bigger images.

Sometimes, green refuses to turn to brown.

An autumnal Lada taxi speeds past my window into town. Why? Nothing ever happens in Novgorod.

A Russian girl dyes her hair ‘autumn’. At least the sunset is real.

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Hat tip to Rick at the RWL, who wrote in to tell me that Novgorod Veliky is twinned with Watford in the UK. I had no idea.

Seems at first an unlikely couple, since Watford doesn’t have a Kremlin and Novgorod doesn’t have a Junction on the M1. But it turns out that the ‘twin town’ [...]

In ‘What Is The Best Present You Can Give A Russian Woman?’ I warned against lavishing gifts on Russian girls. It only gives them the wrong idea.
Before you know what’s happening, she will slip her skinny little arm in yours, pull you close and whisper something really intimate. Like, ‘I want go bankomat wiz you’.
At [...]

When in Russia, I’m always reminded of the burning FAQ’s I have yet to address. For example, ‘Why Are All Russian Women On The Internet?’
Very few people are aware that all these virtual hotties and Kournikova leg-alikes on the net are just ordinary shop assistants.
Quite simply, Russian shop assistants are unable to meet anyone in [...]

The disclaimer that goes with this is that there might not be exactly, you know, a whole seven. I could be scratching around for more than a couple. But this here - one of several Soviet war monuments around Novgorod, is a definite candidate.
It’s similar in concept to the cosmonaut monument at VDNK in Moscow: [...]

A little-known and unreported issue recently threatened to derail Russia’s passage into the WTO.
Full member countries are obliged to become signatories to the Hague Convention on Hot and Cold, which requires taps to be colour-coded red and blue, in compliance with international standards.
As it happens, there are already many red and blue taps appearing [...]

People often ask me: ‘Why are Soviet apartments so ugly?’
These of course are ignorant people with no finer sensibilities. Soviet apartments are rich in free forms of artistic expression which defy conventional aesthetics. It is only to the untutored eye that they appear as hideous blots on a mud blown landscape.

A little insight: Soviet architects, [...]

October. There really couldn’t be a more appropriate time to visit a town as red as Novgorod.
Here in the main square, ‘October Man’ himself stands taller than any tree.

V.I. also features on the council offices. From his vantage point over the main entrance, he is able to monitor the orthodoxy of worker’s lunch breaks.

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