Shoes, Shoes, Shoes!

Shoes are big in Russia.

Everybody loves shoes in Russia.

SHOES!

The way you can tell a foreignor from a Russian is by their shoes. Russians all wear very nice and fancy shoes all the time. Even if they are running errands or walking their dog, they will be wearing very nice shoes.

If I am wearing sneakers, I get many stares a day. I see people start looking at my face, then watch their eyes move all the way down at stare at my sneakers. A good, hard, long stare too. But when I am wearing nice shoes, no one pays attention/they think I am Russian.

The only women that do not wear high heels are the babyshki. Otherwise, the shoes are very black, very shiny, and very high for women. I don't know how they make a whole day, though; there are so many manholes and uneven sidewalks it is hard to walk down the street.

And the men all wear fancy European booties. The only person I ever saw without nice shoes was a crazy homeless woman. Shoes are very important here.

I am okay with this, it just gives me an excuse to buy more shoes!