Day 2 Vladivostok
I started off this morning with a little planning of the coming day then headed off to do some touristing. I've also got a few things I need to shop for before I get on the train so I'm looking for stores which will have what I want.
I was looking for a bank to start with to do some currency exchange. I've still got some Japanese Yen and Korean Won to get rid of. The dude who picked Farooq up from the ferry station recommended a specific bank because it had the best exchange rates so I headed to the closest one of those on google maps. Unfortunately that turned out to be their head office and they didn't have a branch there.
Up the road however I did find a nice little park that had another outdoor library. This one was in much better condition than the ones in Seoul. The books were dry and the there was no mould or anything. Someone must actually take care of this one. I really like this concept and there was actually a dude who wandered up and browsed the books looking to borrow one. I obviously could not read any of them.
After that was a lookout which was supposed to have spectacular views of the bay and the bridges. Unlike most other cities this was just the top of a hill rather than a viewpoint at the top of a tall building. It was about a 30 minute walk from the hostel. And the views were rather spectacular. Today was overcast so the clouds provided a lot of drama and a completely different picture of the harbour to yesterday from the boat.
The statue at the top was of Saints Cyril and Methodius - the inventors of the Cyrillic alphabet. Who knew this was named after a dude called Cyril?
I then tried to get down to the memorial to the drowned sailors which was somewhere down by the riverside. On the way there I went past a few parks and a bunch of nice statues. It's a pleasure to be looking at stuff that isn't Buddha sculptures, tori gates or Asian temples for a change.
The style of art and sculptures seems pretty distinctive. It's all very martial and very focused on Christianity but there are a lot of pop-culture references as well.
It turns out that I walked about a kilometre too far for the drowned soldier memorial. I had already passed it and taken a couple of photos without realising it. Whoops. There are tons of sculptures and statues around here and they are all really high quality. It would be a pleasure to walk around the area if it wasn't for all the traffic, crumbling buildings and terrible quality roads/footpaths. They seem to have spent a lot of money creating a nice waterfront area but they didn't finish the job.
For example there was a series of old red brick buildings that are falling apart. And right next to them are a set of brand new red brick buildings with a plainclothes security guard wandering around them.
I had an entertaining morning just walking around seeing the sights and playing some Ingress. It's great tourism weather. Cool enough to walk for ages without sweating but warm enough that you don't need to wear long pants or a coat.
I just happened to be walking past a naval base where some destroyers were moored in the port and there were a few people standing there with cameras and phones out. There were a bunch of naval personnel standing around checking their watches and it was about 11.58am by my watch so I stuck around to see what would happen at midday.
So midday hits and all the soldiers come to attention. One of them starts to play a little song on his trumpet and 2 guys standing next to a cannon raise red flags. When the guy finished his song they fired the cannon letting off the loudest god damn noise I've ever heard. It was pretty awesome. A bunch of car alarms started going off in the nearby car park which was funny. The Russian national anthem started to play after that and everyone (including civilians) stood up a bit straighter while that played, then trumpet guy did another little song and it was over. I thought I had heard a gunshot coming into port yesterday but I assumed I was wrong so thought nothing of it. Guess I heard the cannon shot!
Met up with Farooq for lunch since I was nearby. He'd just got his bike out of customs and we managed to find a place where he could park the thing in eyesight of the place we ate. Just a small yiros/burger place outside the station but the food was ok. I thought the taxi driver he parked the bike in front of was going to have conniptions at the angle the bike was resting on the kickstand but it didn't fall over so it's all good.
I'm not quite sure what I did after that. I think I just walked around the surrounding streets for a while playing some ingress and just rubbernecking. Eventually ended up back at the hostel for a quick shower and a sit down before heading out for dinner with Yong and Farooq before we all headed our separate ways.
We tried to go to a traditional Russian place recommended by the Hostel and Lonely Planet but it was closed when we arrived. Looked like they were doing recommendations on the place. So we ended up at a European bistro I guess you'd call it that Farooq had had recommended to him. It was pretty shit. Bland food that was pretty uninteresting. Not helped by the fact that we were catering to Farooq's eating things (no pork or seafood). It must be hard having certain things you just can't or won't eat for some reason particularly when they are pretty major items in some parts of the world.
We ended up with a Greek salad, mutton sausages with potato, a mushroom and potato dish and some sort of chicken with with pear and pineapple. Pretty standard stuff from my perspective (meat and veg on a plate) but interestingly Farooq said he'd never eaten this way before. Only really eats Pakistani style food at home and fast food (burgers/pizza/sandwiches) when out. Goes to show that what I consider "normal" western food isn't that for everyone.
After that we went to a cafe/bar a few streets away and Yong shouted us a drink and a pizza. The pizza was much better than the other food. Both had planned to get an early start the following morning but both had decided to delay a day to do some last minute shopping and preparation.
A pretty quiet day all up but it was nice to hang out with those guys for a couple of hours. Yong and I may cross paths again in Irkutsk but I don't think I'll see Farooq again with his path into Pakistan.
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