Beautiful Moscow

Sergei Rozhkov, Galya Voronzova and me.

I haven't been back to Moscow in years. So i prepared myself psychologically for the normal problems at the airport; complicated customs agents, dark dirty airport, long lines and menacing passport control. I arrived in the new improved Moscow! A brand new Sheremetovo airport even smells new. Bright open spaces greet newcomers. My first big surprise was when the lady in uniform checking my passport smiled! Incredible! Now there is even a train which takes you directly from the airport to Bielorusskie train station in the center of Moscow.

I used to live near that train station so I first went on a nostalgic walk to see my old apartment. It was much the same, maybe cleaner, but there were many more cars parked in every available and non available space. Traffic is Moscow is horrible, but the metro is one of the best in the world. Trains run every three minutes.The stations are clean and could almost be an historical museum. In fact, one train IS a museum. At right, you can see the wagons painted and inside hang real artworks. And it is also used for transport. Culture is an integral part of Russian life. They all seem to know the classical painters and composers and now they even take their culture with them on the metro!

Things have changed so much here in 15 years that parts of Moscow are hard to even recognize. Life is still hard here for most, but has greatly improved for many. On Manezhny Ploshad, where I once filmed huge demonstrations, there is a huge underground mall with gardens and fountains topping it off. At left, a coffee house four floors underground where you can have a cappucino on a terrace in front of a roman fountain as the snow blows overhead in the beautiful minus 20 degree Russian winter.

Sick kids and renovated castles in Romania

Imola and Viorika are two little girls who have tuberculosis. Their hair is cut short to avoid lice. Tuberculosis affects many countries in Europe, but especially Romania. In this small center for TB in the Transylvanian Alps, 18 children are being treated. Most of them are gypsies. I am still confused about gypsies. There are many who have integrated into the societies where they live, but others seem to live precariously in temporary, dirty shelters with very little family structure. Tuberculosis of course loves such conditions and these poor kids suffer. Many times all the children (we were concentrating on children, but adults are also badly affected) in a family are sick. The staff at the center really dedicate themselves to the children, trying to find the resources to take care of them.

Kids are great and can get through many hardships without even complaining. They sing and smile and take hundreds of pills over a six month period to kill the disease. Kristina, at right, is 13. All her siblings are sick and her older sister died last year from TB. I gave her my little camera to take some pictures and she is a natural photographer. She took the picture above and framed it very well. I asked her and Imola and Viorika what they wanted to be when they grew up. I think the arrival of a TV camera crew influenced their decision... they all want to be photographers!

Romania is a beautiful country. We didn't have much time to see it on this trip, but on the way back to Bucharest, we briefly saw Peles Castle. Built by King Carol I of Romania, the castle combines many different European styles. Some call it the most beautiful castle in Europe... maybe because everyone can see a style from their own country as French, German, Czech, Turkish, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian workers, architects and craftsmen all joined forces in its construction. Ceausescu, the communist dictator, of course didn't like it very much and the castle degraded durning the communist period. It has since been renovated and is open to tourists from all over.

Winter Wonderland in Astana, Kazakhstan

Just a little video I put together of shots we didn't use in the Euronews report on the Asian Winter Games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVsdltqrZQo