I've moved hotels and I am off the tourist path and on the downtown path. The local clientele has changed with the geography and I now face the full gauntlet of early morning drunks, street people, and pick pockets, as I walk to work. These must be the people that are run off of the high end streets either by the professional beggers/street performers, or the police. Yesterday I finally saw several 8 years old boys getting drunk right out in the open. No one cares or wants to care. Alcohol is sold to anyone. The smells of sewage are right out there and in some ways, you can imagine that life has not changed for many residents of Russia.

The city's past and future are visible in the people. Anyone over the age of 40 is a product of the soviet era. If you look at people over the age of 60, you see a huge difference in height and health between the grandparents and grandchildren. The average height of the teen/twenty-something seems to be 5'8 for women and 6'0 for men. Most of them are picture perfect in looks and ultra thin. The older generation tends to be heavy, short, and look worn out.

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