Sunday 5 February 2012

some things I dislike about Moscow - smelly hallways


It is a sad but accurate fact about Moscow that almost all communal hallways in housing blocks smell bad. N suggested rotting potatoes as a description, to which I would add top notes of stale air, chemical paint and very elderly dust. This is not just in the more poorly built apartments; N lives in one of the Stalinist skyscrapers, built originally for the Soviet elite. And I recently had the honour of visiting the flat of Nikita Khruchshev's family on Tverskaya, which was very beautiful inside, but still had a relatively shabby communal staircase and hallway - and that smell. 

2 comments:

  1. Hi Jos! I am sorry I have just read your nice comment of 2 weeks ago in Moscow blog. But. Better late then never, right? I added the link to your blog in the sidebar and may I offer you to join the blog? On permanent or time-to-time basis? I think that it needs more pepper)))
    Good luck in blogging and in Moscow.

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  2. So true, and its because most halls have rubbish chute built in.

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