Remembering the heroism of our space explorers – 1
Originally uploaded by david.orban.
The space museum is closed. Not just closed, but in ruin, and abandon. Russia is a leader in the commercialization of its space infrastructure, as well as everything else it has, but in the meantime it forgot to keep an eye on what brought [...]
Pirates’ market
Originally uploaded by david.orban.
Inside this market all types of software can be found on conveniently assembled CDs or DVDs. A typical price for a CD is 100 rubles ( about 4 dollars, or 3 euro), independently of the content. You can find the latest releases of Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, alongside with [...]
New apartment buildings
Originally uploaded by david.orban.
I am told these sell for five thousand dollars per square meter. No local with a normal job can afford them of course. Even if a lot of the local salaries come from unofficial sources. The real estate market with come back to earth, but it will be a few [...]
Signs of the past
Originally uploaded by david.orban.
The lingering signs of the communist era express the physical difficulty of parting with the past: be it monuments that praise principles not shared anymore, crumbling public housing, now sold at astronomical prices which make Moscow one of the most expensive cities in the world to the foreigners, or [...]
My russian illusions
Originally uploaded by nicointhebus.
I am leaving for Moscow tomorrow and will be there for the first time, spending a week mainly for business, but as usual with the hope of having some time to look around as well. Having been raised in Hungary in the ’70s, where the Russians were looked upon as [...]
Microblogging