Park anywhere you want but not at night.

Last night a few of us met up after work (Sun Life) to celebrate the last Wednesday of the week. Out came the vodka, pickles, salami, salads and cigars.
The festivities began in one of the back rooms at the gym and continued on through to the early hours of the morning. It was a great opportunity for me to catch up on some interesting Russian vocabulary. Russian swearing is extremely varied and extensive. English is nowhere near as colourful. I remember that back home there is a subject dedicated to foul language at university. I now understand why. It would take nearly a year to learn all that vocab.


There are so many cultural variances over here, sometimes I just take it for granted and forget that what I am doing, was 2 months ago, a very strange experience. One such variance occurs everyday. In Russia you can park your car anywhere. The position of parking inspector is nonexistent, thankfully. However, at night it is a different story. You can not just park your car out the front of your house and stroll on inside. If you did, the next day there wouldn't be much left of it if anything. Car theft is rampant and no one leaves their cars unattended over night. All vehicles are left at 24 hour security parking lots. The only problem is most of these lots are a 15-20 min walk from your home. So after a long day at work, it is not a matter of just driving home and stepping in the door. No you must drive to the lot first, then trek up sometimes mountains (this is true in my case) all the way home. It doesn't stop there, because in the morning you've also got to pick your car up. So make sure you allow that extra 20mins for the walk. It is going to be interesting how I will cope with these late night, early morning walks when it is -30degrees!