LuganskMapJune 17–18, 2013 The city has a well-camouflaged old downtown area.  With a bit of spit and polish, it could be made to shine in all its beauty.  Some of the beauty is visible even now, if you look hard enough. An old produce store.  Fruits & Vegetables Bxoxoxkxsx.  How is this inferior to Quebec City in any way? It isn’t.  An old enameled «Gas» plaque has miraculously survived on the wall.  Another interesting bit of city history: the famous Russian lexicographer and author Vladimir Dahl lived here.  Lugansk’s lampposts do an excellent job of illustrating the story of its relative decline. In the beginning, the city had gorgeous cast iron lampposts manufactured in Leningrad.  Later on, during the Brezhnev Stagnation, this kitschy square variety appeared.  And the present-day model consists of generic gray pipes wrapped with wire mesh to prevent flyposting (the idea was borrowed from Moscow). No one seems to care that the end result is both hideous and an injury hazard.  A cell phone top-up kiosk.  An address plaque.  A manhole.  Art.  Even the ugly parts that currently exist are falling off.  Warning! Falling tiles Making it necessary to hastily put up new cladding.  Some buildings have reasonably tolerable facades, but commerce still takes its toll, slapping hideous add-ons and entranceways onto the ground floors.  An extremely bizarre bracket supports a security camera above a Soviet-era post office sign.  Trash dumpsters.  Say «Cheese!»  There are two British tanks in the center of the city.  And a somewhat provincial but nonetheless excellent aviation museum just outside the city. The exhibits include a Soviet drone.  An incredibly large Tupolev Tu-142 with an incredible number of propeller blades and a separate workstation with windows in the tip of the tail section.  And all sorts of other pretty things.  Lugansk is essentially a small developed urban area plus endless private housing stretching all the way to the horizon.  |
