On parking

Whether out of an underdeveloped sense of civility to pedestrians or a common understanding that roadways are already realms of hazard, many Russians are poor parkers and insist on jamming their cars into and onto every available curb, sidewalk or wheelchair ramp

It's common to see SUVs parallel parked on the sidewalk and it can be a pain in the ass to step into traffic to avoid them. The other day I was making soup and heard a 30-second-long car horn blare beneath my window. I started to grind my teeth and then realized that one of the residents of my building was stuck coming out of the internal driveway because some leotard had parked at a 45 degree angle across the exit gates. Thirty minutes later the honking started again - this time it was some other poor schmuck trying to get out.

My buddy Josh who has already been living here for a while said he was working on a blog post with a year's worth of Russian parking pictures. But an intrepid Russian blogger has beaten him to the chase.


I was watching Channel 1 (govt. station) news tonight and they were running a segment on the issue, tugging at heart-strings with a woman who can't find space on the Moscow sidewalks to push her baby carriage. Then they profiled the Alpha-Dog: a young man who runs the website "Я паркуюсь как идиот" - "I park like an idiot".

 Check it out - here's one of my favs, it's double-fun cause its a cop car:

PS - Happy Easter!