Tales of the unexpected 1

Travelling always means you find stuff that just doesn't quite make sense; and Russia has a reputation, of course, for being full of peculiarities and everyday weirdness compared to the rest of 'ordinary' Western Europe.

Without wanting to perpetuate that belief, here is the first of another occasional series. The photograph shows one of inner Moscow's popular hanging out areas, Chistye Prudy/чистые пруды - part of the Boulevard Ring promenade - which has a pond. And a gondola. With a gondolier.

Chistye Prudy means Clean Pond, a renaming of Dirty Pond in (I think) the 18th century when, the story goes, it was used by the local butchers as a dumping ground for spare offal. It is about the size of 5 London bendy-buses, placed side by side. So not much of a boat trip.

I have yet to see someone take the ride, but am looking forward to it very much. May even have to do it myself, if only to get a better picture.