Vladimir isn't a big city. But, then again, it isn't a small city either: About 350,000 people live here. The city, however, takes up only 47 square miles, which is less than the size of two Ohio townships (36 square miles each). Vladimir is also a long, skinny city--it is strung out along the Klazma River, and so the city is about seven miles long by one to three miles wide. And, in contrast with American cities, Vladimir really does just end at the city limits. There aren't really any suburbs, and most of the city is surrounded by forest or farms, which are protected from development by Russian zoning codes (I have to give thanks to the folks I interned with last summer at the Institute of Urban Economics in Moscow for my understanding of Russian land-use laws).

Anyway, enough dry description; that's what Wikipedia is for. Yesterday, I decided it was time to get out and explore my new city. A few of the other teachers and went for a progulka around Vladimir. What's a progulka? It comes from the difficult-to-translate Russian verb gulyat, which means to walk around, hang out, relax, stroll, to spend time in fresh air. Gulyat, however, is not a verb of motion, so you can't use it to say you went somewhere, and that is the point--gulyat is to walk without a destination, to walk for the sake of walking and relaxing. Ask a Russian teenager what they like to do and you will likely get  the response "walk with friends," which is an attempt to translate gulyat into English. But, really, Russians do love to walk, and a good progulka can take hours.

On our progulka, we wandered the backstreets of the historic center of Vladimir. We were a few streets removed from the bustling main drag, and it felt like a totally different city. Small wooden houses, gardens, quiet parks--it didn't resemble the city of high-rise of apartments that I call home. Here are some photos: