It was four years ago when I had just left home to start a journey through Russia. Arriving in Moscow was interesting, after the first language challenges and hours of miscommunications leading to us finally getting train tickets for the rest of Russia. We arrived terribly hungry in a super fancy design hotel with an extremely amazing shower - for one night we didn't bother to look for budget options. Next day would be the start of the journey through real Russia, Moscow we would see another day, we reasoned.
And so we did. 28 hour train journeys wouldn't be an exception in the next month, but this journey only took us about 4 hours from Moscow. As we had left home only one night ago we didn't need to challenge ourselves... immediately, right?
We arrived at our Airbnb (My favourite way to travel, but I don't recommend it at all for Russia - for those who wonder :D) and had to set aside our surprise about all the steel doors with heavy locks and codes and extra measures before we could finally enter our apartment. All a result of heavy violence only 20 years ago these steel doors would follow us all through Russia - and we would get used to it.
What I didn't get used to - for all the month I visited different parts of this country - was the amazingly grey/beige/pastel design choices that were made in every single home or even hotel. It made me sad, as if colour was too brave a thing to add to homes, as if brightness was too celebratory for clothes or couches.
I suddenly remembered the Hungarian girl that stayed with me for a week while I was in secondary school - she told me 'you wear all these bright coloured clothes'! And she explained how in her country everything was muted, as a result of people not wanting to literally stand out from the crowd, to stay safe, to be as invisible as possible.
The 5 pictures I shared throughout this past are literally the first pictures I shared with friends and family on Facebook from my travels through Russia. I told them how I was enjoying my first pastel coloured apartment. And yes, many more like these would follow...
Scrolling through Facebook brought me back to times and some interesting 'photo notes' as I would call them, tiny series of maybe 3-5 pictures of something I did or something I noticed. Interesting. Also an extensive shoot from the hip kind of phase I was in with all grainy but very real photographs from a few weeks I spend in New York all by myself. Looking back at those pictures now they might be more interesting than I gave them credit for at the time. More and more I feel the need to go back to Lightroom and revisit those shots - and who knows, share them on Steem?