Walking around the overgrown gardens and little courtyards

The other week I spent the day roaming through a residential district in the city. I quite enjoy doing these little outings with no set destination in mind, especially on days in which it's quite warm and it feels like I'm really discovering a new area with plenty to photograph. This was a bit of a stormy day, a little overcast in some ways. It felt like spring was coming to a gradual end and summer was starting, though soon after it started to feel a bit more like winter again. Heavy rains and not a single bit of light reaching through the clouds. I walked through these areas on different days soon after that, taking photographs of little moments throughout those days and the environments I got into. A little slower with the shift in weather.

Sometimes my curiosity of the world around me seems a bit too much. I find that if I see a road or street that leads somewhere relatively unknown and lesser-used, I have an interest in walking down it. Curious as to what's on the other side. Sometimes this leads me to these really beautiful environments like little courtyards or the backs of buildings from previous eras. Little moments of culture and life found around them, though sometimes it just results in a bit of nothing. The odd stray dog or cat laying around and a bunch of litter as people don't really go there for a reason. I quite like seeing culture, but also history tucked away in really dense areas. This city is a huge mixture of Soviet era buildings of concrete, but also holds a lot of the previous architectural design of the region's past. Wooden balconies and spiral stairways, even signs that still hold the names of previous owners. Though whether they remain or not is a big question.

I love architecture and the history within it. I'm not much of a fan of modern architecture though. I feel it's a bit lost as every city starts to look the same. Even in the past under communism within Armenia and Georgia, the architectural and cultural differences remain. An apartment building of Soviet era within Tbilisi looks completely different to one of the same time in Yerevan. It's quite interesting to see these differences. Here the buildings look a bit taller, more cleaner colours of which have faded over the years with the growth of moss and neglect. Old shutters still visible, 70s doorways and rustic elevators sometimes still in use. A surprise to see anyone using them. I've almost reached the point of walking into apartment buildings just to capture their hallways and the differences within them. One old building that was pre-Soviet the other day had a beautiful painting upon its ceiling, incredible patterns and designs that are crumbling away by the year.

Even the places that do look quite tidy and clean are still old and speak of different times. This late metro ride on the way home, loud and bumpy over the failing tracks. Not the safest feeling even when nobody is around. These carriages hardly modernised. The city using the same metro trains as North Korea does. Stations now riddled with advertising but showing the odd statue or brass mosaic. I've wanted to photograph those but the city has a weird rule regarding photography within the stations. Probably just not content with the fact that people like me find their history interesting.