Year: 2011

Russia and Venezuela are two of the oil giants of this planet…


I found it interesting that Chavez stirred the worlds interest once again. He has fought a battle against cancer and seems to be winning or at least in remission. He is now expressing what everyone thinks and what everyone would do if they had a chance…

The idea is to create a organization of just the 4 or 5 largest oil producing countries. This would be in conjunction with OPEC. Now he specified Russia and Venezuela as the beginning countries…

Don’t you know that the calls for hate Russia and Venezuela will build like a proverbial storm in the summer…

The bothersome issue is that as usual, Chavez is correct and that will not go over well with the Western Empire… 🙂

Windows to Russia!

 

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Still Recovering from Market day in Turkey…


Today we are trying to recover from the most wonderful day of price haggling we have ever done. They do not haggle over pricing like this in Russia. This is why I brought an extra suitcase to bring home the bounty that we find…

The market here works like this: Find something you like. Ask for price. They then ask, “Euro, Dollars or Lira?” Then You tell them your flavor of money and they then ask, “Where you from?” Then you say USA or Russia and they say, “Me from Turkey! and they smile…” Then you ask price again! Then they tell you a price that would make you laugh at how high it is. Then starts the process of haggling…

Lets say they want $100 for a item. Then you automatically say No! $10 is too much. They look pained and say $80 dollars and then you look appalled and say $20 but only because it is fine goods. They ignore you and play with the calculator. (Like they are figuring the last penny!) They then say $70 dollars and my family will starve. You say it is wonderful but being that you are a broke American, $30 and that is final. They wait until you try to walk away and they then lower the price to $50! You say I am still insulted and the item is worth it but you are not rich. Then walk away and they holler $40 dollars. Then you say, Okay but I want two shirts and the second one for $30. Then they agree with a pained expression but say that since you look like you maybe mafia,you can have such a cheap price. Just lets hope my family does not starve… 🙂

You and him are happy people, because everyone wins…

It is so much fun and Sveta and I had a blast…

The market was huge and covered several kilometers of territory. The photo above is the entrance and it just goes on forever. We walked so much yesterday that I am having issues with walking today…

So I am just going to relax today and swim, read, write a article and hug my sweetie pie…

Kyle and Sveta
Windows to Russia!

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It is Wednesday: Market Day in Turkey…


Dream House in Turkey...

There are times you find that perfect spot to live. Sveta and I have found one of the most beautiful little homes near the beach for sell. We found it as we walked around yesterday. It is made of real tile block. You know the type of ceramic block with a glazed side that faces the world. It has a patio roof and also a swimming pool. All within a shrub-ed wall for privacy…

It is just a stone throw from the beach and it needs a happy owner. Sometimes I wish I was rich. For in this case I would try to get this place. Probably just as well that I am not rich, for I would have a home in every country that that I visit. Especially this country. It is unbelievably cheap to live! Someone could retire here and live happily forever after… 🙂

Enough of that because it will not happen. Besides Moscow is very cheap living (contrary to popular opinion) and I love my Winters…

Sveta took a picture of the breakfast food this morning…

We could not have picked a better place to stay. The only issue that I have is that the coffee is so good I have fallen off the bandwagon and am drinking coffee for breakfast. Turkey just ruined me with having good coffee. That is one thing about Russia, coffee is not their “Cup of tea” so to say… 🙂

Well we are going swimming then we have a market to go to. It is time to replace my T-shirts and such. Turkey has large sizes for big guys and that is good for me. I can even easily find shoes in Turkey…

Have a nice day and we will talk to everyone later…

Kyle and Sveta
Windows to Russia!

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Mediterranean Sea is Exquisite…


As I said we are staying at the Happy Dreams Hotel in Turkey. It is only a three star hotel but is very adequate. The pictures above is our room, the beach and some fishermen trying to catch the big one…

We thought that the picture of the two men fishing was perfect with the sunset. I am trying to see if I can find a waterproof unit for our camera, or a waterproof camera. The water is just full of aquatic life and is clear to a tremendous depth. I would like to get some pictures of all the fish that we can see…

Once again I am sitting on the balcony of the hotel room. It is about 18 Celsius tonight and a slight breeze off the water. The water to swim in is about 28 Celsius and is perfect swimming water. The daytime temperature is around 24 Celsius and no humidity…

We are going to be going to see an old fortress in a few days and that will be really cool. There is a huge market every Wednesday. It is within walking distance of our hotel and we plan on going to that and see what all they have to sell. The prices are so cheap here for cloths that I am going to stock up on items. I have lots of cloths from Turkey now because Russia is a huge trade partner with Turkey. Since the cloths are dirt cheap here, I packed a suit case within a suitcase. So we have two suitcases to take cloths home if need be. Now I am glad I did that. They also have a huge fur factory and a leather cloths factory nearby.  Now Russians love both as clothes and they allow you to tour these plants before buying. Sveta may just find that perfect fur coat to take home… 🙂

I can already tell that this trip will be over before we know it. But we are going to enjoy it to the max…

Have a good day and night!

Kyle and Sveta
Windows to Russia!

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From Russia to Turkey with Love…


How easy it was to come to Turkey. Crossing the Russian Border leaving was fast and virtually as simple as waving goodby, see you later. Even easier was crossing the Turkish border. They greeted with open arms and they could not have been easier to work with…

So the flight and border crossing was perfect. Not one time did someone want to grab our crotches and feel all over us as you must go through in America. That is really sad and America should be embarrassed to put everyone through that crap…

In Turkey us Americans need to get a visa and that was obtained on the border for 20 US dollars. Russians no longer need to get a visa and they literally dance across the border just like they live there. I thought of how it use to be crossing the Canadian border in America. It was simple and easy…

Once in Turkey, USA dollars rule. Everything is in dollars, then lira, then Euros. All the vendors have lots of dollars to make change with and the art of haggling for a price is alive and well in Turkey. If you buy something, cut the price in half and go from there. When you are done everyone is happy and you get a great deal on things…

The picture above is my view as I type this article. I am sitting on our balcony of the hotel room and we have WiFi right in the room. We are getting ready to go swimming in a little while. The water is warm and beautiful. October is the end of the swimming season here in Turkey and so in effect there is less tourists than in Summer. Right now the hotel is about 75% Russians and it is full. The food is fantastic as is the service personnel. I am very impressed by it all. Since my civilian occupation in the past was the service industry and I always study what happens in that area with a business…

I caught Sveta on the camera as she got ready to leave for breakfast. Isn’t she a sweety?

Sveta and I took a walk last night and we would say that German is the second language and Russian a close second. Forget English as a language to communicate with. We found a whole bunch of shops to buy close, leather goods and other items. Everyone we meet while walking is so nice and feeling safe is the norm around this area…

Turkey reminds us of our trips to Israel and after our first impressions, Turkey is actually better than Israel as far as a vacation place. I would have to warn Americans on visiting Turkey. It is not American orientated. It would hardly be considered British orientated. The food and service is not what us Americans have been brainwashed to accept as normal. But after 5 years in Russia the service here in Turkey is magnificent… 🙂

We also just heard from Sveta’s son (Misha) He said Boza is doing great. Last night we Skyped with Misha and I called my son (Lyle) in America. It is a fantastic thing that Skype…

I am going to get off this computer and go swimming. I will be posting more as I get some pictures of the beach and surroundings. So have a nice day and you will see us sooner or later…

Kyle and Sveta
Windows to Russia!

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Church In The Empty Field!





Hello,

While traveling home from the Village, We came upon a church sitting in a field all by itself. We had to stop and check it out. It is of the same basic style of the other one I just wrote about. So I believe my readers are right. It is Orthodox, but just a different style.

Link to previous post:
http://windowstorussia.com/church-that-god-has-not-forgot.html

I love these old churches. They have an energy in them that can not be described, an energy that is present even though the last church service was silent many years ago. I am discovering that even though the church is vacant and crumbling, God still lives there.

As we drive we see new Monasteries and new churches being built, I wonder why? They have so many old ones to rebuild.

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!

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Ready, Packed, Sipping Chicory and on to Turkey


I thought I would take a moment and make a last post for a few days. So I brewed myself a cup of chicory, added cream and am doing some thinking’s while sipping that cup of chicory. It looks like we are ready for that trip to Turkey…

Sveta’s son just came by and got all the stuff that he needs to take care of Boza. Boza was so excited to see Misha and it looks like Misha was truly happy to see Boza. I think that Misha enjoys the time alone away from the rest of the family and I know that Boza likes Misha almost as much as us. Boza probably likes Sveta’s mom more than any of us, but Misha wanted to watch Boza…

We have a 8 am flight Sunday morning and will get to Turkey at 10 am. It actually is a 3 hour trip but we have an hour difference in time zones. Then we have about a 2 hour trip to the hotel from the international airport. We should get to the hotel just in time for lunch…

I have been looking at the temperatures in Turkey. It is so much warmer there, than here in Moscow. It has been +5c at night and +10c in the day in Moscow. In Turkey it looks like it has been +25-30c in the day and +15 or so at night. We are looking forward to those temperatures…

So the next post will be from Turkey. I have a couple of post that are per-scheduled and they will post on their own. But they are older posts that I have found and need to be put back into the system properly. As we go on this trip Windows to Russia has officially/unofficially reached 3000 posts. I have been going half way in between what is and what should be. If you remember correctly when Blogger Blogspot by Google tried to shut us down and block the blog, we lost way over 250 posts in the process. So I make it an even 200 posts and split the difference. We just hit 2905 with this post and I do it this way so that I never forget what Blogger did to Windows to Russia. It just was not right… 🙁

I want to thank everyone for reading Windows to Russia. It just had a record month in readership. Sometimes I wonder why I do it? But once in awhile I get a comment on an e-mail that makes me realize that people are listening and people are reading. I realize that I am not the most social person and as such I am not a game player on these social networks and such. I do not also play games and comment all over the web just to get links. I simple tell what is happening in my little world in Russia and that simply is all that I can do. Sometimes those thinking’s of mine are not always centered on Russia, but that is all the same because I am in Russia and these are my thoughts in Russia…

Thank you for the thousands of readers a day that come to Windows to Russia. You are why I am writing all these posts… 🙂

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia

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Who Wants To Be President!!!


This is an old video that we published several years ago. I decided that it fits what is going on now and needs to be revive…

My Wife found this video. She does not enjoy many things political, so when a video like this makes her laugh, I take it seriously! I liked it and thank her for bringing it to my attention…

Enjoy this video, I really liked it and it is definitely fitting the Russian presidential election coming up in 2012…

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!

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You Gotta Love E-mails From Fear Induced Americans…


I received an e-mail that was based on the latest suicide bombing in Turkey. This e-mail was rude, crude and socially unacceptable and it was all centered around how dumb I am to be going to Turkey on vacation, much less living in Russia…

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a gendarmerie post near the Turkish resort city of Antalya on Friday.

Yes we are going to Antalya. Yes – I read about this bombing and treated it the same, as I do all suicide bombings. With sadness and wonderment about how mentally ill some people are that do such things. But it in no way makes any difference in what Sveta and I intend to do for a vacation. Even though it was within a long stone throw of where we are going to be staying…

Sveta, like I, do not live our lives in fear. We do not live our lives in hiding. We take life as it comes. In fact life is a lot of fun when you are able to set aside the fear of something that is a tiny fraction of what can happen in life everyday…

That seems to be something that more than a few Americans are unable to do. As to the number of e-mails I have received on the subject of traveling to Turkey. For every e-mail that says, “Hey that would be fun!” I get 10 more that say, “You are crazy!”

Then when I get an e-mail as vile as the one I got this morning. I think about what Yoda said in a Star Wars movie:

Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. YODA

Now how true that is and then I think of this:

I used to think the reason I’d like to stop letting fear run my life was that it felt so bad to be afraid, and also that it was pointless–possibly wasted, if the feared thing never did materialize. But now that fear has packed its miserable bags and is running out the door, making slamming noises to call attention to itself, I begin to see how much room fear has occupied. What opportunity opens up! JAN FRAZIER

Today I realize that I feel sadness for people who are not able to explore the world and enjoy the sights and sounds of a society halfway around the world. I feel bad for people that have spent their whole lives in fear of something that might happen. I guess that I am lucky in the fact that my past gave me an opportunity to confront fear, along time ago…

I can’t wait for the e-mails that I get when we finally make our trip to Iran that we want to do… 🙂

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!

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Dove House: Multifamily Dwelling for Doves…







Hello,

I was walking to day, (I must walk everyday, because of heart attacks). So I now take my camera. This time I went a different way and stumbled upon a beautiful Dove House. Now I have talked about this before in this link: Doves.

I would live in this dove house, This was a beautiful,well built and solid home. The Doves living in this place are treated like Royalty.

If You believe in Reincarnation, then coming back as a Dove in Russia would not be a bad life!

Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!

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