News flash: Russian-style excessive excess is excessive

We all know the stereotype of a Russian oligarch bathing in champagne and having a peacocks in gilded cages in each of his 27 garishly decorated bathrooms, but, it's still kinda shocking when you actually experience it first hand......This Bugatti Veyron literally costs a million dollars.

And this guy was just driving it down the dirt road that leads to the modernized/soviet-era marina where the ARC Baltic stopped in St. Petersburg, Russia and the clubs where the well-heeled men and their massively high-heeled escorts spend mucho wads of cash until us "yachtsmen" emerged from our small-little sailboats to walk up to the non-remodeled soviet-era "marina building" so we can use the toilets since we don't want to pollute the pristine waters around St. Petersburg by pumping our waste overboard. See the excess is contagious! Now I'm starting to write more excessively than normal. And even the wifi (that only worked near the soviet-era "security office" was excessive. The username was "More2" (in english of course) and the password was "moremore." I couldn't make that up if I tried.

This video captures the Russian experience that I experienced better than words can describe. Million-dollar Bugatti man gets in a traffic jam with the Russian lady who works from 7am to 10pm driving her tractor around and picking up the trash. He backs out of the way so she can pass (she has utter disdain for him and his car) and then the ubiquitous wedding party cheers for the weathered Russian lady as she continues on her trash pick up route.

Or maybe this video captures the essence of excessive Russia. The helicopters simply landed and took off from the field next to the dirt road all day long.

Or maybe this Lada does it. It's "parked" just outside the marina.

Or maybe one of Catherine The Great's hundreds of thousands uber ornate door knobs capture the requisite essence of excess.

Or how about the quintessential soviet factory (just outside the marina/night club compound with the Bugatti's and the dirt road) that was hastily erected in 1942 to build the necessary weapons to beat back Hitler's horde. And what's the barbed wire for?

Or maybe scary excess is not all that Russian after all. These pictures were taken after my touchdown in a certain preppie enclave that's more than a few kilometers from the Baltic back in good ol' US of A.

I think there's like 1.5 million worth of traffic jam transport here on this little corner of paradise. The road is paved however.

I wonder what this lady (who is one of the many ladies who earn their non-livable pensions by sitting in the many cultural sites of St. Petersburg) would do with a white Bentley?