tashka's VirtualTourist Home Page

So a year ago, after the refurbishment of my newly bought apartment was completed and after a series of housewarming parties was over, I moved to Moscow!!! My old apartment in Schelkovo, the suburbs of Moscow, is sold now, but I will leave this picture in my page as a memory of it.
I have not changed my job yet, and I still head a translation department in one of Russian companies, however it starts to become boring, so if anyone has any interesting job to offer - you are welcome! :))

I moved to Moscow in 1996. My native town is Togliatti (Tolyatti), a city on the Volga river, at the place where the river makes a huge loop called the Zhiguli ring. The city is over 250 years old, but previously it was called Stavropol-on-the-Volga.

In the Soviet times the city was renamed after the leader of the Italian communist party, Palmiro Togliatti. This was a friendship sign after creating in the city a joint venture with Fiat for manufacturing the Lada cars.

When I was a kid I believed that Togliatti was the best city in the world. But even at those times my father and I traveled a lot in our car. Usually we went to the Ukraine to visit my grandparents, and the longest car trip was from Togliatti to Moldova, more than 2000 km one way!

My parents and my brother still live in Togliatti.

On the New Year's Eve, on the last day of 2004, I got a present from Santa. I went to a shop to buy a bottle of champagne for meeting the New Year, and I don't know why, but suddenly I had an idea that if I meet a homeless kitten on my way, I will take him. When I was going back from the shop, I opened the door of my house, and saw a kitten right in front of me, who was obviously homeless! So I called him to follow me, and he followed happily! I named him Mario (I don't know why, but it was somehow just the right name for him).
Now he's very popular with my friends, because he is extremely sociable, and even one of my friends who doesn't like cats said, "Wow, this is a cat I can talk to!"

As many people, I collect elephants. In the picture you can see a part of my collection. I try to bring an elephant souvenir from each country I visit, and a lot of them were presented to me by my friends.