Big political rallies today, including in der nahne, despite my best efforts to keep to the periphery. Interesting images on the local news websites of the students who had walked from the different parts of the country to the park in front of the university here spontaneously dancing cultural circular dances. I noticed some similar goings-on in the Divided City, as I had to get a coffee to find a working WC on a Sunday before the 13 hour bus trip through the mountains, so Henry James and I held down a table at one of the bus station cafes for an hour or two. I noticed a wedding party in the bus departure area engaged in a similar dance next to their chartered bus, with the accompaniment of an accordionist. I noticed that musicians seem to gravitate towards the churches during wedding ceremonies there, apparently not knowing each other or by a prearranged plan, but presumably just to accompany the event.
The uniforms of both sides seem to be conspicuously Western, the government supporters usually in all black (which presents some problems for visiting New Yorkers) with prominent Latin-text, Western commercial logos, the older ones with jackets and shirts with Cyrillic local insignia. A dismaying percentage of sweatsuits among the younger folks wearing black -- not even the synthetic workout suits favored in the past -- completely cotton and shapeless. Cost factors, perhaps. The students tend to the polychromatic, but unsurprisingly distinctively Western cuts of clothing. No hint (obviously) of the Turkish-inflected 3/4 pants seen in countries to the south, and more Islamic areas, and even the visitors from the East, and perhaps precisely the people from the East who have travelled here during the war, are usually in costly looking togs with Western logos and cuts. Perhaps with the winter, there will be a few fur hats around, though my guess is that the ushankas will probably be limited to local military-surplus versions worn by the older folks who wear Cyrillic logos in summertime.
There are a fair number of goons about (not the Peter Sellars variety), and it's a land of ancient darknesses, so one does tend to keep on one's guard. But a very hospitable and interesting place.