Sidewalks

Sidewalks here in Tver (and I think in the whole of Russia, for that matter—though I am not positive about that) are not standardized like they are in the States. This is, as it was explained to me, because it is up to the owners of the area directly in front of the store or home or apartment complex are expected to take care of their own sidewalk space.

For example, there is a new fast food restaurant coming into the downtown, just a couple of blocks from our language school, named Chicken House. (Now for a brief aside, I should mention this restaurant. The name in Russian is actually Chicken House in Russian letters, spelled how Chicken House would be phonetically pronounced in English. This, of course, is a growing trend here in Russia, because even though it is spelled in Russian, the word is really English).

Now for an aside to my aside—in Tver, we don’t have a McDonald’s in the downtown region, which is really quite odd, because McDonald’s is a staple in every town that I have ever been to that is the size of Tver or larger. Well, from what I understand, the owners of the Chicken House (there is more than one store in Tver) worked very hard, lobbying with local officials (read BRIBE) in order to keep McDonald’s out. Thus, we are McDonald’s-less, which isn’t so bad, except that they always have very nice, FREE bathrooms.

ANYWAYS, back to the sidewalks. When the new Chicken House put in its store, they also “upgraded” the sidewalks from the previous black gravel sidewalk to a bright red, smooth brick pattern. It is, in fact, quite distinguishable from the surrounding sidewalk, much of which is gathering little potholes. But, if you noticed, I put “upgraded” in quotes. Why? Well, because now that it is snowing regularly (I think we have had snow the last five days straight), this sidewalk is one of the worst in town. The bricks, are nice and smooth, and in fact are rather slick, to the point where walking on them is quite hazardous. I almost think that they must have hidden cameras to watch people slide all around trying to maintain balance and then they sell their tapes to a Candid Camera-like program.

Ah, speaking of sidewalks and snow, this is another funny thing I have noticed. In the downtown area of Tver, you can always tell who the really conscientious owners are, for they are the ones out every morning shoveling the snow (or in the fall, sweeping the leaves—Time for another aside!! Speaking of sweeping, the brooms that are most commonly used here are straight out of Harry Potter or Bewitched. They are the kind that is a bunch of stick and twigs tied together, all with differing lengths.)

Back to sidewalks—again!! Every day, when I walk to class in the morning, there is one guy I see who is faithfully cleaning his sidewalk—and always, ALWAYS stopping right at his property line—and I always wish that I could stop in and patron his store—except that he sells high end, formal gowns.