Don't Assume Anything About Russia - Even Water!

By
Courtesy of Wikicommons

Since we've been living here more than eight months, we've learned that life in Russia isn't always easy. We bought a new under counter light bar for the kitchen with touch on/off switch. Of course, the on/off part doesn't work. We have to plug it in to use it and unplug when we want to turn it off. Very typical of Russian products...


Even the water system is very different from anything we've ever lived in before. In the cities in Russia, hot water is produced at large boiler plants. There the water is heated and piped out to the flats and homes during the winter.


Hot water boiler
This hot water flows through the radiators in our flat whether we want it to be so warm or not. We've completely closed the valves to our radiators to stop the heat from pouring in. At times, even on the coldest days of winter, we've had to open the windows to cool off our apartment so we could sleep at night. The hot water boilers heat all the homes and apartment buildings in the same way throughout the city.


The system is a mystery to me, but I can tell you it produces very HOT WATER. It's impossible to wash dishes with the water turned to the hottest level using your bare hands. Just ask my husband. It's great for showers, however. I never have to worry about running out of hot water again during my shower.


There is one drawback to this city-supplied hot water. When winter is over, the hot water heat is no longer needed. Most of the boilers can be turned off. Carried over from USSR days, the government  uses these summer months to do maintenance on the boiler systems and the water pipes. They have a rolling system where hot water is turned off in every house and apartment in the city for a week or two during July and August.


Last summer we experienced this first hand. One day only cold water did came out of our hot water faucet. Of course, that meant heating water on the stove to wash dishes. Possible. Washing your hair in cold water. Also possible if you do it quickly. Taking a shower in cold water. We managed to avoid that since the water was turned off the day before we left on vacation. We didn't have to suffer through one of these.

That will be a good thing about being gone this summer, also. We should be able to avoid this shocking experience once again.








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Golden Domes of Riga

By
Image
Orthodox Cathedral - Riga  The golden domes of the Nativity of Christ Cathedral stand out above the trees near Old Town Riga. We walk past this large building in the park not far from our apartment.  The domes shine out to the citizens on sunny days. Surrounded by the trees in the park, the walls of the cathedral are not easy to see in summer, but the size is undeniable. Of course, the golden domes tell everyone that this is a Russian Orthodox Church. After living in St. Petersburg, that is easy for us to define with the Russian style architecture. This cathedral was built between 1876 and 1883 when Latvia was a part of the Russian Empire under the reign of Tsar Alexander II.  Main Door This is the largest Orthodox Church in the entire Baltic area. A massive tower rises toward the sky when a visitor approaches the front door.  Entryway painting I visited several orthodox churches during my years in Europe. The thing that they have in common is that the interiors are covered with images
Read more

"Home Sweet Home" - Not American Version

By
Image
Older apartment buildings We've lived in St. Petersburg for close to two months and have yet to see "the American dream" - a single family house. Here, everyone lives in an apartment, located either in an old building in the historic city center or in a new high-rise farther out. The high-rise buildings are everywhere you look--in the center of everything, or at the edge of one of the many rivers. We keep hearing about the communist era cement buildings, but we haven't seen many that look too old and dilapidated. They are probably replaced by the new high-rises built since freedom came in the 1990s. We live in one of these new high-rise complexes. Our third-floor apartment is in a 21 story building in a complex of five other buildings (called korpus in Russia). We live in Korpus 3. This complex includes several modern, colorful play areas for the children. It also includes an underground parking garage for the many cars that people own. In fact, the pl
Read more

Why Roosters?

By
Image
Rooster on top of Dom Cathedral  Last week I wrote about cats being on the roof of a building, but today I'm going to share the reason that we have roosters sitting on the tip of churches in Riga. When we first moved to Riga, we noticed that some churches have the usual crosses on the top of them, but others have roosters sitting on top of the steeple. I couldn't recall ever seeing a rooster on top of a steeple. On doing more research, I was wrong to think that other countries don't have these on steeples. I found out that's it's common in European countries to see roosters on top of Lutheran churches. Our Lady of Sorrows Church The more common cross on the top of a steeple is found on Catholic churches in Europe. We have a couple of them in Old Town Riga as well. And, some Catholic churches in Europe have roosters sitting on top of crosses. So, the question popping into my head is why a rooster? After looking at several sources, it seems like ther
Read more