People’s tendency to take phrases (and photos) out of context always puzzles me. Not long ago I found an interesting discussion on Internet where one man insisted that there are only old, awful houses in Russia, showing one of the ‘khrushevka’ photos from my blog. It won’t surprise me, if this man has never been to Russia.
Actually, as I’ve already said, you can find different buildings in Russia, especially in big cities. Yes, there are a lot of old houses, but every year they are demolished, and their places are occupied by new buildings.
As an example, it’s an average new house (the house I live in): it’ not the best or the worst one, it’ just an average house in a new dormitory suburb with average dwelling prices.
It was built about 5 years ago. During this time the district grew up and a lot of people (with a great number of cars!) settled down here.
A big disadvantage of remote districts is that the way home from the city center sometimes takes a lot of time: about an hour if you go by car, and hour and a half if you chose public transport.
But, on the other hand, you are surrounded by positive atmosphere: new houses, playgrounds, fitness centers, stores, trees and alleys… (don’t look at the photos, they were taken in dull weather). Oh, yes, and a lot of cars! Lack of parking areas is another problem of Novosibirsk.
Some playgrounds are quite modest.
It’s only middle of the day but the most part of the parking area is occupied.
The entrance to our block of flats.
Actualy, it is called “подъезд” (podiezd) in Russian language but I didn’t find the exact translation of this word. In short, for us “podiezd” means not only entrance to an apartment building but also a stairwell (and all the storeys with its stair landings). In this meaning we can say “we live in the same podiezd” or “he lives in the second “podiezd”.
So, the entrance. Here are blue boxes for mail and the announcement board in the background.
One lift.
In all the new houses you can find security cameras. Oddly enough, the old houses aren’t equipped with them.
Mirror on the right and a board for advertising on the left.
It’s a stair landing with 4 flats.
Somebody takes care of flowers in the stairwell.
In some apartment buildings the stairwell is isolated and it has a separate entrance, so you can either take a lift or enter the other door and walk upstairs. At each floor a staircase is connected with storey landings.
But It is not our case ;)
The district we live in is fine and we don’t want to change it: it’s clean, calm, and the most part of inhabitants are young people.
Some houses look quite pretty!
Fountains and playground for children.
And, as you understand, it’s not the only new distrcit, nowadays many housing estates are built almost in every part of Novosibirsk. Of course, their accomplishment and beautification depends on a development company… But, anyway, it is not the way some people imagine Siberia :)
See you! ;)
