Many Russian families had a plot of land allocated to them outside the city, during Soviet times. These families still own these dachas today, but if you want to acquire one now you have to buy it. A Dacha is a Summer house. It is a place to get away from the high rise buildings of the city, plant your own garden, and camp out for the weekend.
Today we visited Kostya's family's Dacha. It was in the forest and we had a wonderful time. Abigail was delighted with eating fresh stawberries and I enjoyed having a Banya (a Russian sauna house). We also enjoyed Shashlik cooked over an open fire. It was good to get away from the city, which is hard to do since we do not have our own car or anywhere to go on a regular basis.
7 comments:
It seems to me that if there was any way to make a living out there, these would become valuable properties. And they would be more insulated from terrorism etc.
They actually sell quite cheaply, we think.... for around $5000.
P.S No running water though. But there is electricity! We had to talk with buckets down to the river to fetch water.
Makes me think of Kolya and his dad walking 1.5 km each way to the spring to get drinking water at 30 below. The novelty soon wears off!! :-)
Does he still do that? Not when I stayed with him he didn't.
Yes, he still does. At 67 it's getting harder for him too. It may not be every single day (although when we were there it was - it's hard to carry more than one day's worth :-) ). He lives in a different place to where you stayed - right on the other side of Perm in a satellite 'suburb' or gorodok - probably like where the university is in novosibirsk.
I was not aware that he moved to a place with out water. What a shame.
Akademgorodok is mostly apartment buildings with running water.
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