Russia is known for its fierce winters. In fact, the Russians call it “General Winter”, because the winter helped them fight off so many invaders, including Napoleon and the Germans (but also the Vikings). Its the time of the year again and this time we have a real winter with - 15 C and lower. I actually like it. At least most parts of it.
At about 5 AM every morning (sometimes earlier) an army of workers starts to clean the streets, mainly by hand with brooms and shuffles, so that there isn’t a piece of ice or snow by the time the daily commute begins. Unfortunately they do this under my window and I am woken up daily at about 5 AM by the desperate scratching Kyrgyzstan workers, even on weekends and holidays (like now). I guess he’s thinking, if I don’t sleep, why would you?
Then there is an army of the road workers. Sweeping the snow off Moscow streets and walkways has system and these guys work day and mostly night to get the job done. First the snow gets pushed to the side, then some tractor or some special snow collecting machine loads it onto a truck and its driven to some station, where they finally dump it into the river (with all the salt and dirt that comes with it).
Being a Moscovite you blend this out and don’t see it anymore, but when I found this video on Youtube, I just remembered how impressed I have been about this process, when I first came here.

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Technorati Tags: Ice, Moscow, Snow, Winter, Zima