my journey to the Alphabet Land (day Z)

And, finally, my last post for #AlphabetHunt challenge by Hive account@barbara-orenya. This week we were searching for letters X, Y, Z. Z was an intresting letter to hunt for, look what I've got for it.

Z — Zolotnik

Золотни́к — мера веса в традиционной русской системе мер. Один золотник равен 4,266 грамма (или 1.96 доле фунта). При последнем российском императоре Николае II в 1898—1911 годах чеканились золотые монеты номиналом в 5, 10 и 15 рублей. Общий вес монеты в 10 рублей — 8,6 г, то есть два 2 золотника (однако чистого золота такая монета содержала меньше, всего 7,74235 г).

'Zolotnik' is a mass measurement unit in the Russian measurement system. One zolotnik equals to 4.266 grams (1 z. equials to 3 lots, or 1/96 of a pound). In 1898-1911, under the last Russian emperor Nicholas II, there were minted golden coins in denominations of 5, 10 and 15 rubles. The 10 rubles coin's weight was 8.6 grams, which is equial to two zolotnik. However, such a coin contained only 7.74235 grams of pure gold.

I took a photo of a replica coin I have in my collection (curios to know that I didnt buy it -- I just found it in the middle of a road! Pretty strange to find a gold coin from 1901 on a central road, isnt it?). I added to my photo a dime coin to display the real scale: this appears to be quite a small coin, actually. NB. My collection also includes a Polish coin 'Zloty' -- minted in 1990-es, it contains Zero gold at all.

Z — Zaabar

The 1st photo I used here is 8 years old. Back in 2012 we ordered via internet a box of different Zaabar chocolates, and as you can see, this box was large enough to fit my 3 y.o. babygirl. "If it fits, me sits". Back around the time I obtained my first wide-angle Sigma 12-24mm lens, and had tremendous pleasure of shooting everything around me in wide-angle, just for the sake of itself.

Zaabar is a brand for elite cholocate. Well, at least its premium package design pretending it to be so. I still keep unopened one of those tasty packages. I am a natural HOADLer, hehe.

Z — Zhiguli / Zatecky gus

Alcohol helped me in this round, too! I used its help to fill my post in same way as Hive account@txatxy. Above is the bottle of Chech beer 'Zatecky Gus' (well, now it has no beer, and living a rubbish life on the street, but once, in its previous life, it had a beer in it). And the photos below are the famouse Russian beer 'Zhigulevskoe'. A lot of this kind can be seen on the streets. Unfortunately, the locals do not like to see their city clean and shiny...

Z — Zenith

My recent streetphoto: a stranger is sleeping on a bench hugging a beer can. Note his baseball cap with a recognizable 'Zenith' logo; that is the most popular football club of St.Petersburg, and this stranger might be a fan.

Here is an extra entertainment for you: a funny hymn of Zenith football club fans, by a famouse and popular Russian band Leningrad.

Z — Zoolook / Zebra

I remembered about some of my favourite LPs starting from Z (and no, 'Zooropa' by U2 is not one of them). By the way, vinyl could easily go for letter V as well, I havent seen it in any posts -- probably, there aint so many Hiveans obsessed with vynil? I am not one of them too, this image was taken at a records store.

Muslimgauze - Zuriff Moussa (1994)
Jean Michel Jarre - Zoolook (1983)
Yello - Zebra (1995)

Z — Zydeco

Zydeco is Louisiana Creole dance music. Of course I cant shoot directly the music itself, but I really wanted to educate you with this word and music style. So I am adding a photo of diatonic accordion used on this track, and a beautiful classic Zydeco tune.

All the images taken by me, as always. This round I chose my final wordpicks from a splendid variety of cool stuff that came to my mind, to name a few:

zeal / zealot / zephyr / ziggurat / zincography / zubrowka / zoroastrianism / Roger Zelazny

Those are all good things... but nobody can fit an unfittable, right? Как говорил мой старый наставник-редактор: "Нельзя впихнуть невпихуемое!

Here is an index to all my #AlphabetHunt posts:

Mission completed!

Hope you enjoyed travelling with me, and more or less educated yourself in English language, as well. It took a good part of my Hive year, and was a massive fun. I cannot express how many thankyous and good karma I'm sending to Hive account@barbara-orenya for running it. But all good things sooner or later come to their end, and the end is always the beginning of something new.