Russia

Yaroslavl: provincial Russia

Look at Yarfor.me to visit the Russian city of Yaroslavl, a town in North-West Russia.

Yaroslavl is a provincial town with a lively social life including street poetry, rock bands and free wi-fi.

September 1st is a holiday in Russia and also the first day of the new school year. Yaroslavl celebrated with an outdoor festival where every child released a balloon into the air. You can see photos of the event on this post.

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Favourite online hangouts around the world

Which social network should you use if you want to keep up with friends from other countries? This map, developed by Vincenzo Cosenza from Italy, shows which networks are most popular in different countries around the world.

You probably guessed that the green colour dominating the Anglophone world as well as Europe and many other countries represents Facebook.

In fact Facebook has made impressive moves towards world domination in the last 8 months – compare with this map from November 2008 to see how much progress it has made since then.

Other areas are more divided, often along language lines:

- China prefers QQ

- Several other Asian countries are equally independent in their choices: Mixi is number one in Japan, Hi5 in Mongolia and Thailand and Friendster in the Philippines.

- Russian speakers in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan choose to use V Kontakte

- Indians and Brazilians like Orkut

- Most of the Arab world uses Facebook, apart from Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria and Oman where Maktoob is the favourite. How long before Facebook dominates?

- Facebook is also popular in Latin America, although in some countries Hi5 has the number one spot

So what about Africa? According to this map, many sub-Saharan African countries do not yet have a favourite social networking site. Probably because many parts of Africa still do not have easy internet access. Let’s hope that projects such as this one will help to change that.

(Via ReadWriteWeb )

Where are you from and what social networks do you use?

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Russian tea time

Tea drinking in Russia was traditionally a luxury which only rich people could afford. This is because tea was introduced into Russia from China, and the trade route was difficult and dangerous. This made the tea very expensive.

Russians soon developed special rituals for tea drinking, and a special pot, called a Samovar, for brewing tea. Russian Life magazine explains all about it.

Feel like trying some? The Lower East Side Restoration Project has some interesting recipes for Russian teas and traditional teatime cakes.

Afternoon tea in Russia, around 1905 from The Lower East Side Restoration Project

Have you ever tried Russian tea? What did you think?

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Russian film revival

Russia’s economy is booming, helped partly by its $1bn a day in energy exports.

This economic success is propelling a new revival in Russian film making, subsidised by the government or private investors, with demand supplied by young working Russians with money to spend.

The International Herald Tribune explains that the tastes of the domestic audience are quite different to those of the international markets. Whilst its art house films are more popular on the international stage, Russians at home like patriotic films covering topics like Soviet-era wars or historical events.

Moscow Daily Photo

Moscow Daily Photo is by Irina, who posts a different photo of her town every day, mixing well known icons such as the Kremlin and St. Basils with shots of everyday life and also nature photos where you can share the cold Russian winter!

Part of the City Daily Photo blog network which includes more than 500 blogs from cities all over the world.