Goodbye Lenin
After many adventures and countless stories; untold hours on the trains; more instant noodles and tea than a person should ever have to face and way more 'Nyets!' than we ever needed to hear, we are finally leaving Russia.
Hard to express what we both feel about the place. It's amazing. But, it feels really, really messed up. The ostentatious and over the top materialistism. The poverty, especially of the really elderly. And the overwhelming stench of mafia/corruption was pretty hard to take.
It's like Russia managed to keep the things that sucked about Communism - the bureaucracy, the queues, the hassle - but lost the good things - the safety net, the sense of community in the face of adversity, the welfare state, and the state of welfare.
Be curious to see how things go with this big, beautiful, sad country.
