I’ve said in the very beginning that my vacation happened to be split into two parts: the first, a hyper-active week I’ve spent in Moscow and around with my classmates, the second, old-fashioned quiet week – at my parent’s. They live in a little town in Mid Russia, just 12 hours by train from Moscow…if someone would ask me which part was better, I wouldn’t be able to say for certain. The first week was hectic and very tiring, but in a good way paved with lots of positive emotions. The other one…although I enjoyed the closeness with my mom and dad whom I didn’t see for two years, the atmosphere of a small provincial town where everyone knows everyone put certain pressure on me somehow…If anyone have read the Somerset Maugham's novel Theatre and remember the episode when Julia Lambert visited her mom, they would know what I’m talking about…Yet the same time it was a travel that did make sense. And there were signs that I am on the right way. My journey there has been build on accidental coincidences, from getting on my train just less then 5 minutes to its departure; like arriving to the destination and getting greeted by the…little local brass band (well, not really, as the band was just performing on the station square, not in my personal honour, still this little detail added to my feeling that I’m welcomed here…)
Anyway, this wasn’t meant to be about me, but about the town of Ostrogozhsk. A very quiet peaceful place. A place which could be chosen as a retreat from the demanding rhythm of the modern times. It is not that the town is frozen in the past, but it was very profoundly sleepy in the present. It is delightfully old fashioned and so very casual about everything. I suppose one can easily get tired living in the place where you don’t have to have media to spread the news around, but perhaps such places exist for a purpose – so that you can go there and set yourself free of time for a moment of time.
The history of town goes back to 1652, the official date of its creation. Few famous people have lived in it each in his own time. There is a nice cozy museum surprisingly featuring few original paintings that any famous gallery would be proud of.
There is also a market place right in the town center. In fact, market is the town center. There is a public park with the old wooden dance pavilion, not sure though if they still do discos there nowadays. And like in every Russian town, small or large, there is a monument to the soldiers killed in the Second World War…an Eternal flame and always fresh flowers…
And there are endless fields of sunflowers right outside the town…little sunshines, carelessly smiling to the happiness to come…
That will be the end...
Anyway, this wasn’t meant to be about me, but about the town of Ostrogozhsk. A very quiet peaceful place. A place which could be chosen as a retreat from the demanding rhythm of the modern times. It is not that the town is frozen in the past, but it was very profoundly sleepy in the present. It is delightfully old fashioned and so very casual about everything. I suppose one can easily get tired living in the place where you don’t have to have media to spread the news around, but perhaps such places exist for a purpose – so that you can go there and set yourself free of time for a moment of time.
The history of town goes back to 1652, the official date of its creation. Few famous people have lived in it each in his own time. There is a nice cozy museum surprisingly featuring few original paintings that any famous gallery would be proud of.
There is also a market place right in the town center. In fact, market is the town center. There is a public park with the old wooden dance pavilion, not sure though if they still do discos there nowadays. And like in every Russian town, small or large, there is a monument to the soldiers killed in the Second World War…an Eternal flame and always fresh flowers…
And there are endless fields of sunflowers right outside the town…little sunshines, carelessly smiling to the happiness to come…
That will be the end...