Ourwalkabout.nl is a blog about the world trip Michiel de Wit and Judica Wondergem are making in 2010.

This morning we were witnessing a typical Moscow matter. IKEA seated at a small table in the foyer adjoining kitchen and halfway between two slices of bread passed an older man. A Russian. He was in a somewhat impoverished vodderige shirt and pants. After ten minutes he came back from the shower and went back into his room.

Frankly, we thought that the man was single, but the female voice a little later in his room, betrayed something else. She sounded very young, certainly 20 years younger than the man. After a fifteen minute snatches of their conversation (Russian only) to have heard, came the denouement of the story just before our curiosity threatened to harm us. The woman stepped out, as gray as the man dressed in a not too fancy colt diamond. The couple was just a shabby Russian couple. Or not?

After Mrs. her lips had carefully worked with her lipstick, she went back to her room in less than five minutes to come back. She looked like a czarina! Wearing a fur hat and dressed in an extremely elegant fur coat, she was an ugly duckling into a swan ... older. The man looked shabby also still out.

Why it's so typical of Moscow's? Walk the streets all women look like catwalk models at. Beautiful coats, take shoes, bags from designers, it can not. But inquiry taught us that most of them do not have money for all this luxury. They lend themselves to a break and good to see an iPhone to show and a 'rich' lives seem to lead. But home is abject poverty. Ostentation is important, especially for the ladies. Because no matter how unhappy you are, you do not want others to see that you ...