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<\/a><\/p>\nIt’s an interesting mix of wooden buildings and modern buildings.\u00a0 It’s clear that much of the city was built in the 50’s\/60’s (or much earlier!), then not much for 20 years, then a new round of building has begun in the last 10-15 years.\u00a0 You can often see this side by side. The old buildings are beautiful pieces of woodworking – but have in many cases aged very, very badly – listing and warped with age and elements.\u00a0 Yet are clearly still inhabited.\u00a0 One of the buildings was half-torn down and the interiors of the walls were visible.\u00a0 Amazingly, the frame is an honest log cabins pile of interlocking logs inside, with a layer of slat wood panels and fine scroll work on the outside face and plaster lining the inside.<\/p>\n
There’s such a variety of buildings, I have a good time\u00a0 looking at them. Nihzny is also a university town, and there are all kinds of secondary school: economics, police, and so forth.\u00a0 The street they are on is colorful too with interesting and very artistic graffiti on the odd wall or two.<\/p>\n After my meetings, we take a little tour around town and head to a Russian military store for the ubiquitous Russian fuzzy hats.\u00a0 The color of the hats tells you what branch of the military their a part of – blue is police, black is navy, and gray is army.\u00a0 However, when we get there – the shop is completely out of any size but small.\u00a0 We head across town to another store and are told the Russian military came in last week and bought the entire supply from their three stores.\u00a0 So sadly no hats are to be had on this trip.<\/p>\n As we get back to work, we hear that people are coming down with some kind of illness that has now sent 3 guys to the hospital.\u00a0 The three of us visitors feel fine, but apparently the onset and symptoms are pretty fast and terrible.\u00a0 We become worried that something nasty will kick in when we’re on the plane. Fingers are crossed.<\/p>\n I head out for another walk back to the hotel for more sight-seeing.\u00a0 I head to the kremlin of the city – an ancient fortress that was lots of government buildings inside and memorials from WW I.\u00a0 Including a small orthodox chapel and an eternal flame to the fallen of WWI.\u00a0 You also get a great view of the Vulga river – the largest and longest river with a historied and storied past.<\/p>\n I take a long walk on the pedestrian mall\/street.\u00a0 There are lots of clothes shops and a fair number that would be recognized by any westerner.\u00a0 Its a fantastic place for sight-seeing and people watching.\u00a0 It’s certainly the center for people to hang out.<\/p>\n After stopping at a few shops for souvenirs, I rejoin my coworkers at the hotel.\u00a0 For dinner, we head downstairs to the hotel dinner and I have a fantastic beef dish.\u00a0 We don’t head out because we need to be up at 2:00am to get to our flight.\u00a0 It’s at this point that we hear they’ve closed the Nizhny Intel site for 3 days.\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 Anyway – off to bed for a few quick hours of sleep before our early morning rise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last full day in Russia – and it’s drizzly.\u00a0 I have only a few short meetings in the late morning, so I walk into work and pass a great variety of people and buildings. \u00a0 It’s an interesting mix of wooden buildings and modern buildings.\u00a0 It’s clear that much of the city was built in the 50’s\/60’s (or much earlier!), then not much for 20 years, then a new round of building has begun in the last 10-15 years.\u00a0 You…<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/a> \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n