The bread in the cafes was dazzlingly fresh, the mackerel straight from the boat, and in the Grand Bazaar a concoction of mint and chicken blew away months of dreary, Soviet-style meals.
Yes, if the government runs everything, you get a dreary Soviet-style morass that makes almost everyone poor.
There's nothing particularly wrong with the Park Savoy, except that it's cramped, dreary and free of style.
Sometimes this shades-of-gray style gets dreary (his range must be about half an octave), but more often the washed-out melodies match his bleak sensibility.
The first, Mr Singh Mrs Mehta, was a dreary attempt at French-style arthouse with lots of moody silences, depicting the love affair that develops between the titular characters after they find out their respective spouses are cheating with each other.
Perhaps best known (or most notorious, depending on your perspective) for his provocative images of nude women bound with kinbaku, or Japanese bondage, Araki has also documented mundane life in snapshot-style portraits and dreary cityscapes.
By the time we returned to our ship, it was time for another Soviet-style meal, a dreary dinner of boiled potatoes and a slab of hard beef, with some tea to wash it down.
Alas, John Copley's new production is a dismal failure, with dreary sets and costumes, no clear style or point of view.
Unlike the EU's mostly dreary leaders, at least "il commendatore" has style and panache.
