While in Russia, my friend George and I spent some time with a wonderful Russian couple, Stas and Elena. They live in a small town, Pavlovski Posad one hour train ride from Moscow. Stas works for the local bus company and Elena works in a daycare center. While there, we visited their
dacha.
In the past when I heard the word
dacha I, like many other people immediately thought of the super rich in Russia: the oligarchs, the mafia, and the politicians. Partially it is true, they have the big ones, but most
dachas are owned by average Russians. It is thought that about 25% of population has a
dacha.
What is a
dacha?
Dacha is a villa, or a second home. Today it could be any size, but most
dachas are weekend homes outside the city on a garden size plot and in general without water, sewer or electricity. At the end of the week people take trains, buses, or cars and go to the country to work and grow vegetable, flowers and fruits in the garden.
Why do so many people have
dachas? Because most Russians in the city live in apartment complexes that easily can have 20 -30 floors and house several thousands people. The apartments are small and the buildings are old. Going to dacha is having it all away from the city.
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| Elena, Stas and George | | |
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| First view of Stas' and Elena's dacha |
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| Stas in front of his dacha |
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Stas spends much of his free time embellishing the building. He built it himself and carved all the designs. Elena does the gardening and on the weekends all the family - children and grandchildren gather here for a cookout. Stas is fortunate in that, that his
dacha is walking distance from his home and it has water on the property, but not in the building.
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| Another view of Stas' dacha |
Thank you Elena and Stas for your warm hospitality.
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