Rough Seas and Vladivostok

When we entered the sea of Japan, the waters got considerably choppier.  On sea days we had our knitting classes and unfortunately for us and for the card players on the ship, we had been assigned the card room as our class room. This meant not only that the bridge players on board were continuously annoyed with us, but also that we were in the top of the ship aft in the place where the rocking and pitching of the ship was most likely to be felt.  (And it was.)  For the first time in my life I experienced seasickness. I managed fine anywhere on the ship except in that particular room and it bothered me primarily when we were in the sea of Japan. Unfortunately it meant I missed several of the knitting classes I was keen to attend. I tried the  non-drowsy medications against seasickness, but they put me to sleep and finally what seemed to work best was the ginger from the kitchen.

Eventually, however, we docked in Vladivostok. They had to send an ice breaking ship in first so that we could reach the port and ice was plainly visible out the porthole in the sea below.

The weather was gray and uninviting,...

 but I was determined to find the local yarn store that I had discovered on the internet. Along with me for this caper were Lily, her sister Amy and my roommate Natalie. Armed with my two semesters of mostly forgotten Russian and the address from the internet, we headed off in what turned out to be the wrong direction. (Map reading was never one of my strong points!!)

We exited the ship and passed by a couple of booths of souvenir salespeople selling Red army pins, hats, matriochka dolls and lacquer boxes. 

It was cold and nothing seemed too appealing. I assumed (wrongly) that we would find other places to buy such souvenirs and at better prices.  We headed off on our mission looking to spend our money on Russian yarn or nothing!

Of course part of the charm of Russia is that one is forbidden to take pictures of so many things. No bridges, no government operations, no police officers. etc. Police officers were everywhere as if daring us to snap pictures, so of course we had to...

Russian people are known for their warm hearts, their love of vodka, dancing and poetry. Their towns are (in my experience) no where near as welcoming. Vladivostok was no exception - it suffered from Soviet block gray, clumsy, mass-produced buildings, dirt, decay and lack of warmth. Even with the European influence on it as a port the city was dismally colorless and unattractive.

We passed through the welcome center where the only ones being welcomed were sailors and stevedores. (I should say more accurately, that these two women in their short skirts and stockings showed no interest in welcoming anyone in our little group. I don't KNOW that they were welcoming to others, but...)

The train station was the most charming and elegant building in the town.  It still had vestiges of European style and the quaintness of coal locomotives displayed in front.

The police presence was neither quaint nor elegant, but a bit alienating.

The town squares held the usual socialist workers tributes.  Here Lenin turns his back on us, facing the sea and perhaps awaiting the next Potemkin.

Decay was evident in the houses missing roof tiles or with rotted beams and holes.  The brutal climate is no friend of those trying to eke out a living here and is a reminder that civilization is tenuous in places where the elements are so cruel and unrelenting.

The apartment buildings were less run down, but looked equally inviting.

Vladivostok is the only city onthis cruise where we saw evidence of urban rebellion. The graffiti were more beautiful than the walls that it was scribbled on and offered the only respite from the unrelenting winter grays. 

Every once in a while we would encounter something remarkable like this concrete "Siberian" tiger.

The streets were icy and the neighborhoods felt equally chilling.

The gray haze could not fully hide a prior opulence, but glimpses of such were few and far between.

Unfazed, we continued our search for yarn.  There wasn't any down in the manhole, but Lily seems to have found an attractive man down there.

Eventually we found the elusive object of our safari.

The store was colorful and warm and the proprietress welcomed us into her shop and even let us take pictures.

Unfortunately, we discovered that all the yarns were imports. The store owner explained to us in Russian, that Russian yarns were protected and only available in government sponsored stores.

After exploring what she had to sell, we set off with a new address and the intent to find some authentic Russian yarn.

On the street we paid great attention to the furs and hats that people were wearing.

There was a definite Russian chic that was different from what we experienced at home.

Here is another interesting coat and hat combination.

I've never seen anything like these in Minnesota.

Out of curiosity we took a detour through an apartment store. It had very curious offerings.

One of the women there was wearing this gorgeous mink coat.

I got my husband this chess set in image only. (He made me promise I would not buy him such a set, even though he is an excellent chess player - evidently he only likes to play with regulation style pieces!)

Here's what I wanted to play with (even though they don't look regulation either!)

There were scary looking things for sale too.

And there were household items umbrellas and er... AK47 Kalashnikovs?

We weren't permitted to take pictures in the grocery store either, so of course I had to.

There were lots more fruits and vegetables in the grocery stores this time than there had been when I visited the Soviet Union.

The shelves were loaded (unlike when I visited the Soviet Union.)

All in all a much better experience than my trip to Moscow and Leningrad in 1984.

These chocolates have a picture of a cute little girl on them.

This graffito was not colorful (except linguistically), but it was hard not to sympathize with the sentiment! 

(Elsewhere of course there were posters extolling the benefits of an army career.)

And the war hero memorials lent their support to the latter message too.

Finally we found the Russian yarn shop in the basement of a department store complex.

It was a tiny little place, just stuffed with yarn.

The owner sat at a little counter to the left.

We got to meet some real people. Above is one of the patrons of the little shop. She had crocheted her vest herself. We bought lots of yarn, of course and were very proud of our labels that had Siberia on them.

When I asked the owner if I could take her picture she donned this little cap to show off her wares.  Afterwards it was off to the a cafe recommended to us for a good Russian meal. The Harmonia seemed a lot more European than Russian, but they did have borscht, stroganov and vareniki, so we chowed down on some great food before heading back to the ship.

They also had some really good coffee. I ordered an "American" though, so I don't know what it would have been like if I had gotten a different kind! (Probably even better!)

The cafe was trendy with a cute wait person and modern art on the walls.

Natalie and I headed back to the first yarn shop quickly to buy some Italian yarn before going back to the ship.

On the way we checked out the memorials to the revolutionary and glorious Russian worker. I don't know if that is what these statues are really about, but I'd wager money that I am pretty close!

It turned out to be a bit tricky to get from the square to the welcome center, but eventually we found our way.

I was so relieved to see some color in the city, I had to take this picture!

And after all that trekking around the place, guess what we found in the ground floor of the welcome center!!

Most of the yarn seemed to be German (although some of us seem to have found Russian yarn there too). I bought a couple of circular knitting needles there and no yarn, but...

...got a big kick out of their knitted mascot.

The sales people were extremely kind and let me shoot off a quick email home on their personal computer and as we were getting ready to leave we ran into some people who had the a certain familiarity to them.

Then it was back to the ship once again (after a quick visit with the souvenir people near the dock.)

That evening we had another welcome concert - this time with the Russian folk singers and dancers "Kalinka". 

They chose their name from a famous Russian "folksong" written in the 1860s about the Snowball bush.

The singers wore a variety of costumes, sang and danced and also performed some Ukranian pieces.

A balalaika player played the actual folk song and roused us with his speed and expertise.

This piece seemed to be about being refused by Russian women.  Eventually the guy found someone that would dance with him.

This song seemed quite romantic (but we were not given any explanations of what we were hearing.)

At the end they encouraged audience participation and these two lucky men got to dance with the performers.

After the performance we pulled up anchor and watched the pilot ships (three of them) lead us out to sea.

I was asked repeatedly about my feelings about visiting Vladivostok. Since I had been to the Soviet Union, I knew what to expect in some respects and thus was not surprised by the grayness of the world. had the weather been nicer, I think many people would have enjoyed the visit more. The Russian people are incredibly warm and wonderful especially if one has a chance to interact with them more than superficially.  Language is a great divider, but I am very glad to have had the opportunity to visit this famous Russian city. I enjoyed this port very much, despite the grayness and the cold.

There was duck dinner that night in advance of more stormy waters back across the sea of Japan,

but it had been an eventful day and we enjoyed our dinner together before the ocean decided to get too wild.