Travel.-Ing.: Traveling Russia
Well, I decided to add some of my travels to this Blog. Fortunately I have and had (made) the opportunity to travel the world quite a bit.
From my point of view this is something I would recomend to anyone and especially people who are interested in magick. While traveling you meet all sorts of people and if you are willing, you will learn that the perception of Being can be vastly different to what we(you) are used to.
During 2011 I spend around 70 days in Russia, deep in the old Russia this is, not Moscow or any other big City. My first visit however was already in late 2010 to the City of Челябинск (Chelyabinsk) on the other side of the Ural. It took me somewhat by surprise that I (a German) was confronted with a high degree of hospitality and a generally friendly disposition towards germans. As a German you should still be prepared to meet unfriendliness or even hatred towards you (e.g. in France, Holland, Norway, … everywhere where the War happend). Not so in Russia (it stayed that way!).
Maybe this is due to the fact that the second world war (and Hitler) was just one of the really shitty events for Russia, preceded by other hard wars, and followed by quite a bloody Stalin era.
Челябинск (Chelyabinsk) is quite a big city and gave me only a preview of what I would encounter deeper in the country.Aproaching Челябинск (Chelyabinsk) by plane gives you the view of the last outscirts of the Ural mountain range followed by a hell of a lot of birch trees. Birch, birch, birch … everywhere up to the Horizont. Under my first impressions this was high ranking next to the security women at Moscow Airport in super high heels and sexy outfit. The town itself is quite run down, a high number of precast concrete buildings with barred windows at ground and first floor. Compared to the Chicago South Loop or the Alexander Township in Jo’burg the whole city is looking quite safe.
The next big note in my diary is: Russia is askew. Ok, I know I know, beeing a german engineer gives me probably a very strict disposition towards a straight and orderly environment, but for my eyes almost everything in Russia is askew. In a high ranking Hotel, NONE of the staircases had all stairs with the same height. If you find something where a couple of holes have to be drilled they will NOT be equidistant or anything, they will be will-lessly drilled just as it happend … and so on and so on. Germany and a little less the US of A, I realized now, are very neat. Everything is in line, stairs with a standartized same height, side walks, … not so in Russia and in the russian countryside even less. Most disturbing about this fact is (in my opinion) that the Russians do not even notice! This is the crucial point I came to think, they would make it different if they would notice, but they don’t. It works and that was what was intended … and to tell the truth quite often we are totally overdoing things with our way.
so far my first impressions from traveling Russia.
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Lifestyle Magick 
Thanks for your short and interesting russia story. I never was so far east yet, but it sounds like an adventure to me.
I am missing pictures – not only the birch pic, but also the high heeled lady.
Hi Kai,
I know I know, pictures would have been nice. But I actually did not take a camera on this first trip.
In Moscow at the airport Sheremetyovo (a sound like “she remembers you” spoken with a hot fried potato or water in your mouth) I really was tempted to go and take a picture of the hot security personal (not only one woman with high heels, all security personal was dressed this way… WTF) but taking pictures in a security area in Moscow is not exactly what I wanted to do.