Вот так у нас принято парковаться. Прямо на газоне. Да я бы и сам там бы ставил наверное.  

This is how people park their cars in Russia. Lawn parking :) There are no real lawns smoothed and well-groomed as well as special attendants who take care. There is just grass of unknown nature and weed. Landscaping is something from the far..faraway. This is a courtyard of two blocks of apartment buildings where I live. Here is the google maps screenshot of this place.

Most of apartment buildings are 5-9-storey, sometimes 12-14 and traditionally made of concrete panels or brick. In the Soviet economy, housing and social services were provided for workers’ families by industry as a part of the cost of production. Panel buildings typically have 35-cm-thick exterior panels and 1.5-m-high by 2-m-wide standard window units each containing three double-glazed operable sash panels. Small bedrooms and kitchens sometimes use a smaller (1.5 x 1.5 m) standard window. Panels are attached by welding metal tabs that protrude at standard locations along their edges. After welding, the panel joints are filled with grout, which is sometimes covered with mastic or a similar sealant.

In  Russia there are famous apartment buildings called "khrushchevka" 5-storey brick or concrete apartment buildings. The years of construction 1959-1985. Generally 1 or 2 rooms. In Russia we use different definition of how many rooms there are in an apartment . We count all rooms, including living rooms. Russian apartments are commonly designed as 1, 2 or 3-room apartments with a kitchen and separate toilet. Khrushchevkas were never a dream home for anyone in the Soviet Russia and still provide uncomfortable living conditions for millions of people. There is no elevators, no garbage shutes, very small kitchens (70 sq. feet) as compared to almost 300 sq. feet that is the average size of the kitchen in the average single family home in the US. Small apartments are nothing like medium-sized homes but what is to be said, - Feel the difference :) People dislike Khrushchevkas for their bad thermal insulation along with the sound proofing. Many people search for decisions for the improvement of design and decor in their apartments.

Khrushchevkas 

 Actual size of the kitchen in  Khrushchevka

 

Up-to-date design

Garbage shute in- between storey levels

Alot of toilets in russian apartments are given their own room, separate from the bathing/sink area. This will require you to exit the "toilet room" and enter the actual "bath" room to wash your hands. No one thinks this is weird. Actually this trend of separating a toilet and a bathroom was very popular and was in a great demand back in 70s and 80s. Also a “toilet” is the name for the room where the toilet stands, not for a ceramic bowl which is called “uni-taz” in Russia. Here the bowl is designed to hold the feces out of the water prior to flushing by means of a receiver shelf, whereas most U.S. or U.K. designs immediately allow it to plunge into standing water. This reverse design prevents the occurrence of any splash-up which commonly happens when fecal matter plunges into the standing water in the washdown designs.

reverse bowel russian style 

  washdown US style