Vladivostok - Thursday
Shocked out of sleep by the loud guttural voices of Russian longeshoremen, it was still dark and when I peered at my Indiglo watch through foggy eyes, it was only 3:15 am. I shuffled over to the patio door to close it and thankfully it muffled the gruff tones and I slid back into bed and immediately back to sleep.Shocked awake for a second time; this time I ascertained it was 6:45am and it was a knock at the door that aroused us. Having lost an hour in the night with the clock moving forward, it was shaky legs that took us to the door - it was our passports being delivered. We needed to carry them with us in Vladivostok. I glanced out the window as the sky was slightly lightening to see two looming dark outlines of threatening grey battleships seemingly only inches away.
Fuel boats and rubbish barges slid up to our ship to service it and belched thick black acrid smoke, the smell of which seeped into our cabins aided by the keen wind. There was a real chill in the air and I wondered what winter must feel like here.
Vladivostok is a typical Russian city with its grey, stark badly-in-need-of-repair buildings, immense potholes in the roads crudely filled in with loose chunks of cement, ancient rusting oil-burning vehicles, old stubby-legged apple-cheeked women in babushkas, young blonde & redheaded girls with long legs, tight jeans and elegant cheekbones, smelly & choking smog coating the windows with a thick dull layer of greasy grime. But.....they are trying to progress - new highrises are starting to sprout, some of the intricately designed pre-communist regime buildings on the main shopping street are being sandblasted, a yacht club and sandy beach have been constructed (can't imagine it ever being warm enough to use the beach) and new Japanese cars and SUV's are starting to replace the decrepit jalopies. There is product on the shelves of the shops now - not like a few years ago.
As we walked out of the dock area and across the tracks of the Trans-Siberia Railway terminal, the wind sliced through our clothing as if snow was in the air. Trees were bare of foliage and not even budding yet. I think the city might be much more appealing when the trees are green. Young men in navy, heavy woolen uniforms with high peaked hats roam the streets in jovial groups. 'Ladies' boutiques are opening up selling the popular tight blue jeans and leather jackets. US dollars were not welcomed in the shops so we found a money changer who gave us 27 rubles to the US $ in order to buy a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka for 95 rubles (less than $4 US). Afraid the cruise line would confiscate our vodka, we came prepared with water bottles and transferred the alchohol into them.
Along the dock, merchants had set up stalls, selling the same old merchandise - Russian stacking dolls, army hats and medals, fur hats, flasks with USSR insignias, etc. It was a funny sight to see a lot of the little old cruise guys strolling the streets in their new black-fur, ear-flapped hats.
In the later afternoon, the sun managed finally to burn through the smog but the wind didn't die down and it was still pretty cold. Vladivostok though looked so much more attractive as our ship sailed out of the harbour heading for Muroran, Japan on the north island of Hokkaido...the port to access Sapporo.
posted by O'Leary @ 7:30 PM
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