After travelling from Kamchatka I spent another night in Khabarovsk before catching the train the next evening to Vladivostok. I used the day to update my blog and catch up on some things on the internet – scary how used we got to the internet, 2 weeks without it and you can spend a whole day catching up on the most important things. After an unspectacular overnight train ride, I got off at my final destination: Vladivostok! I cannot really describe what I felt in that moment – something between extreme satisfaction, happiness and surrealism. For so long I was dreaming of doing this trip, getting off the train in Vladivostok I realized: I made it, I actually did :) I took the obligatory picture of the final mark of the Trans-Siberian: Moscow – Vladivostok 9288km. With all my extra rounds I probably travelled well over 10’000km.
Vladivostok can be translated to "possess the east" and is a port city on the pacific and the end of the Trans-Siberian rail line. It houses the Russian pacific fleet in the golden horn bay and was closed off to foreigners during the Soviet era, reopening again in 1991. It is sometimes called the "San Francisco of Russia" due to it being on the ocean and the hilly area on which most of the city sits. The city is the midst of a construction and development boom with a couple of bridges, several large scale hotels and new roads in the works for the APEC summit the city is set to host in 2012.
In Russia all the signs are in their script, making transportation and navigation, at times a challenge. When in doubt we asked someone. More than likely they didn't speak English, but we learned the phrase 'nappi-shite' which means please 'write this.' Communication was challenging, but a smile keeps everyone happy enough, even to the tough and unapproachable looking! The people we interacted with were friendly and helpful. The lodge owners were more than happy to have us, some were even amazed at how we'd managed to travel the distances without speaking Russian. Independent foreign tourists outside Moscow, were few and only seen in the hostels. They passed on a few good tips and hints to help us along our way, like the time we rented a rest room at a train station. The hostel workers helped us with planning our next leg of our journeys too.
Fashion here is somewhat questionable. Poverty is evident in the quality of dress, infrastructure is developing as in all countries economic diversity of the people and its land is present when travelling around. The cities are city like, with shops and bussling people going about their hectic lives. Suburbs are typical of that of housing areas some in need of development. The rural countryside areas, are that of my interest as you can see more genuine culture and ways of life occurring. It was interesting to see Russian designed roof tops and gardens full of vegetables, displaying a relatively self-sufficient life styles.
Russian food, i am still questioning. What is traditional? I ask myself as we can't read the menus! We've eaten lots of potato pies, which are really mashed potato in a dough like capsule, they fill a hole when hungry. They're sold everywhere! When staying at a lodge in Lake Baikal, we were fed a variety of food. Pasta, cheese topped rice and cold stew for breakfast, fish for tea. Our favorite being pancakes with homemade raspberry jam! I had an amazing pancake in Irkutsk, with condensed milk and walnuts - yummy! Russians drink a lot of beer and vodka. There is always glass to be found on the towns pavements and in the parks. Frequently you'll see someone drinking and the odd drunk in the cities.
Russia is a sort of time-warpy place. The city is the same as any other city in the west but it's like the people decided the 80s were so great they'd just stick with that. You see lots of girls in ripped-up jeans and stone-washed denim jackets, but the height of female fashion appears to be based on “80s action-movie hooker”. The mens' fashions aren't so obviously 80s but there are still lots of gold chains, mesh T-shirts and crushed-velvet jumpsuits. The Russian visa is a fun one. hostel entrance pretty welcoming I think you will agree. It took me six weeks just to get all the documents I needed before application. It is also one of those countries which has different visa application rules for different countries.
Walking around Vladivostok is really nice, particularly on a sunny day like this one. Students that haven't left the city are out and about looking hipster and the city has a San Francisco feel to it. Nearby are some war memorials and the submarine musuem which is fun to explore as you literally walk through a used to be functioning Russian submarine.Its an S56 built in 1936. S-type submarines (S for Stalinist) were recognized as the most effective ships of World War 2, as effective as 14 German ships. Moving on towards Vladivostok was interesting. It was unbearably hot, the sky was blue and clear. Every time I’ve been blessed with good weather. Somewhere, in Ussurisk, the weather changed. In one second it went from being warm and sunny to misty, cold and foggy. Fog is the usual weather of Vladivostok, I heard. It is a thick version, that would be every still-photographers wet dream.
Out in the country side the pace is relaxed. People have their backyard gardens and sell the produce on the side of the road. You can still see glass insulators on the hydro poles, people cutting grass with scythes, jungle mat fencing, and water comes from what we would Round Bales and Wishing Well.Round Bales and Wishing Well. Round Bales and Wishing Well. It gets busy in the evening.call 'wishing wells' They sell a small single furrow plow - it is really just an engine on wheels like what is used in small rice fields - ideal for the large backyard gardens. And notice all of the wild flowers in the fields.
Vladivostok is a beautiful, busy port city, with pre-Soviet style buildings down town, and lots of Chinese tourists from just over the border. Everyone seems to be getting married.
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