murmurs in murmansk, cont.

Murmansk is a pastel city. Most of the buildings are grey, but every once and a while they are pink or light green or baby blue or maybe even pale yellow. Red or orange or any other bright colors can mostly only be found on signs or clothing. Considering that this is a city situated well above the arctic cirlce, the pale colors don't do much to warm up the place. Luckily for us, we arrived on the first day the city turned on the heat. All heating is controlled centrally, so when there have been three days in a row of 32 degrees F the city turns on the heat. The smoke stacks in town were spewing out black smoke. One of the Russian Save the Children employees assured me that the smoke was usually white (which was only mildly comforting to hear.)

Murmansk is beautiful in its paleness and I guess it makes you appreciate human warmth even more. It is a place where I feel particularily reflective and at peace. (Except when driving throught the city center, which is a chaotic experience at best.) Being in Murmansk is, in many ways, like being on a different planet.

And I revere the stoic solemnity of the place.