Зелёный Город / Green City

Today Wendy and I went for a walk in a section of the city called "Green City" this seems to be a massive "undeveloped" area, where people have built cottages right in the middle of forest. We thought at first we were wondering aimlessly and then we found some trails. This place is truly the most amazing part about the city of Nizhny Novgorod. 

Wendy really loves the style of the Dachas/cottages that are out here. There are bright colored ones, and strangely shaped ones too. 

Wendy and I found a swing out in the middle of the forest. I love Russian swings because they have bars instead of chains, which allows you to do the following...

Oh yeah... Its like being on a Russian roller coaster. Although you would need a lot of strong people to push in order to actually get all the way around with a person in it.

This was my absolute favorite part of the day. We stumbled onto a path that ended, when I asked the old man at the end of the path if we could get through, he started talking to us and I don't think we left for about an hour. He made us come into his garden and take apples and he and Wendy picked flowers. His name was Evgeni Kazamirovich. And he loved to talk (and I loved to listen).
                                                      

Evgeni is actually a Ukrainian man but married a Russian. He is 84 and as he put it "getting ready to head on to the next life." He studied in Kiev and is the youngest of 8 boys. He was a engineer by trade and helped build the largest hospital in Nizhny Novgorod. His wife was a doctor and his son followed the trade making him the 9th generation of doctors in his family. He had 6 relatives die in WWII and he used to have a cottage on the property but some young guys broke in to it last year, got drunk and burnt it to the ground. He made me take his telephone number so we could come out to his garden and help pull weeds. He says he will need help with the cucumbers and radishes in the spring. Wendy is very excited to help him with his garden. 

This is the lake right below Evgeni's property. You can just see the city in the background. Green city is truly right in the middle of the city. Very fun getaway on a busy day. 

Wendy snapped a shot of the sunset today from our balcony. Nothing like a sunset over Soviet block housing uh?