| The apartment block in Prague where I grew up |  |
| Standing under the balcony of our old apartment, next to our apple tree |  |
| Having good Czech food and beer with dad and my buddy Rene |  |
| Yes, I'm crazy enough to fly with Aeroflop |  |
| A sign of growing prosperity in Moscow - traffic jams |  |
| The Red Square at dusk |  |
| Time to catch up on the news |  |
| The screensaver on the laptop is showing Vegas pictures |  |
| Every serious bookstore must have a good selection of portraits of the leader |  |
| In front of the former KBG prison, the plaque celebrates comrade Andropov |  |
| Apparently they sell quite a few Bentley's in Moscow |  |
| A monument to one of the guys responsible |  |
| Enjoying a hookah in a restaurant in Gorky Park |  |
| Can't escape these guys anywhere on the planet |  |
| The poster says: "There is such a profession / defend the motherland" |  |
| The number of cars accompanied by 'protection' you see on Moscow streets is staggering |  |
| Bad timing: the Bolshoi is under reconstruction |  |
| Need some relief? |  |
| One of the 'seven sisters' (i.e. Stalinist monstrosities) |  |
| Most of the Red Square is blocked off when Lenin's tomb is open for business |  |
| Standing in line to see the corpse |  |
| Paying respects at the monument to victims of WWII |  |
| You encounter communist sympathisers everywhere |  |
| Lenin must be spinning - a 'shopping marathon' across the square from his tomb |  |
| A communist demonstration in front of the mausoleum |  |
| The quintessential picture from Moscow |  |
| The spot near the Red Square where I was robbed by a fake KGB officer and his accomplices |  |
| Lenin surely would love this billboard right next to the Kremlin |  |
| Cruisers are popular everywhere |  |
| When in my teens I received an offer to study here ... |  |
| ... the mind boggles! |  |
| The famous Moscow subway ... |  |
| ... with each escalator under the watchful eye of the babushka. |  |
| Moscow in a nutshell: Lenin with the interior ministry in the background |  |
| If you're non-white, you will be hassled by the police |  |
| "Under the banner of Marxism-Leninism, under the leadership of the communist party - forward, towards the victory of communism!" It must be time to leave ... |
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| What a relief to be back in the land of good beer (and a semblance of the rule of law)! |  |