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Published: June 25th 2017
Geo: 43.0999, 131.984
In conversations with some folks who don't glaze over when we start talking travel, I'm sure we come across as the quintessential masters of complex logistics. In truth, aimlessly wandering the planet is neither difficult (DH is still convinced that the internet is a fad in the same league as platform shoes & bell bottoms, but it has proven to be a magical travel companion), nor is it particularly logical.
Our travels through South & Central America were interrupted by the need to attend a wedding back in Canada (apparently when your mother is getting married, attendance is not optional- so sayith she-who-must-be-obeyed aka DH and/or my mother). To get to the travel oasis of Winnipeg Canada, we needed to head north to Toronto and then turn left. One could argue successfully that it would be relatively straightforward to simply turn around and go back to South America after the festivities. Instead we had a look at where we'd end up if we just extended the Toronto to Winnipeg trajectory a little further to the left (west), and lo and behold, we'd end up in Vladivostok, Russia. We didn't know much about Vladivostok but it is the beginning (or
end) of one of our WOW list experiences, the longest scheduled train ride in the world- the real Trans Siberian Express. We also had no idea why we wanted to spend 7 days on a Russian train but some of our best adventures have started this way.
So yes, it wasn't the most logical of plans, but seemed a nice break from our recent Spanish immersion program so it was time to get the paperwork in order. Russian authorities are not to be trifled with and the visa process forced us to get a little more structured than we are normally comfortable with. Letters of 'invitation' need to be secured and a specific list of destinations must be filed- Vladivostok was easy, the train would get us to Moscow, and Google suggested that we sign up for an organized boat trip from Moscow to St Petersburg and leave Russia from there. Just to make sure that we knew we were dealing with a country that might still be the heavyweight of pointless bureaucracy, one of the mandatory visa requirements is to list all of the countries we have visited in the last 10 years (as well as the dates we
were there). Are you kidding me!!
The airlines can also be a challenge and don't often see the magic in our travel plans so a direct flight to Vladivostok from Winnipeg wasn't going to happen. As a result we had an extended stop in Vancouver (visiting family and friends who had just about forgotten who we were), as well as a brutal transit stop in Beijing (8 hours hiding in a Burger King restaurant that had the only available seats), and a nasty Siberian Airlines flight (the departure time was 2:30am and apparently the recent sanctions on Russia include deodorant).
And just as we thought we were on the home stretch, I tried to pay for the cab taking us to our Russian hotel only to find out I had fraudulent Russian currency!! Actually it was a currency that was discontinued in 1997 as the Russians took a couple of zeros off the end- my 15,000 rubles which I thought was worth $500 was actually worth 50 cents if I could find any takers. Russia was not off to a great start and we still weren't sure we should be here.We had completed all of our arrangements for Russia (much of it
non-refundable) when Putin started his bully-boy act with the Ukraine. We weren't particularly concerned for our safety (although on this one issue our PM, the fearless Steven Harper, has been aggressively poking the Russian bear), but we didn't like the idea of spending our hard earned cash in a country that was wreaking havoc on its neighbour. It was another of these morality questions that come up with just about every country we visit- if we took a stand on all things offensive we might never leave our basement (assuming we had a basement). So here we were in the land of the second best hockey team in the world.
Before our train journey was to begin we had a couple of days to poke around Vladivostok. Given that Vladivostok had the reputation of a secretive communist military outpost on the eastern flank of Russia (as the main naval base of the Soviet Pacific Fleet, Vladivostok was officially closed to foreigners during the Soviet years), I had expected a Soviet style city with square grey building devoid of style and character. What we found were... square grey buildings devoid of style (the constantly overcast skies of Vladivostok don't help the situation)
but with enough colour and classical architecture mixed in to make it interesting. The heroes of various wars are on prominent display as is the required statue of Lenin leading the people to the promised land of communist nirvana. Russia is another of those countries where both the language and alphabet are completely indecipherable so we rarely had any idea what we were looking at but it was a nice introduction.
It was also our first exposure to Russians on their home turf and having run across Russian bus tours where everyone seems incredibly angry about something, we were on edge. We didn't see the anger but the reputation Russians have for being sour & dour is well earned- the muscles required for smiling are completely undeveloped but nonetheless they seemed ok with our body language attempts at communication and were almost helpful at times. And just as inexplicable, we saw Mickey Mouse wandering the streets of Vladivostok?? Should be an interesting country to explore.
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DebP
non-member comment
My basement is your basement Vic lol