There’s a great saying in English, “hit the ground running”,
which seems to be the only word that describes my trips and especially my first
day in Russia. Many will take a few days to rest, take it easy, do some light
activity and just be quiet. Not me!!! I decided it’d be better to skip the
couch and meet with three separate set of friends and walk 20 kilometers or for
those metrically challenged, about 12 miles!
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| Lima restaurant |
My first order of business was to meet a friend I’d been
communicating with for over a year. We had a great walk together around
Vladivostok’s center up and down the city’s hills, which if you’re not in good
shape will really pose a huge challenge. I’d hate to think of the trials
Vladivostok natives must face each winter when you actually have to drive these treacherous hills. After our workout we took a much-needed rest and ate a nice
early lunch at a Mexican food restaurant!! Who would ever think there would be
a Mexican restaurant out in this Far Eastern Asian post known as Vladivostok? But
there is! According to my friend the owner lived in the United States, loved
the Mexican food there, and therefore decided to open a Mexican food restaurant
when he moved back to The Far East. The restaurant is called Lima and can be
found on Океанский Проспект Okisansky
Prospect across from Pharmacy 33.
After finishing up my delicious chili we headed to the
chilly waterfront embankment for a walk along the Sea of Japan. Although the
temperature was probably hovering somewhere around 10° C or about 50 F, you
would have thought it was 20°C or around 70 degrees due to all the people out
wandering the promenade. Nothing like a cold, long Russian winter to bring
people out!! Shortly after our walk it was time for a quick 5-minute pit stop and get ready for round 2!
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| Left to right, Katerina (Vika's girlfriend, Vika and boyfriend) |
Round 2! This entailed meeting my friend Victoria who I’d
met last year when my teacher friend Inna had her show me around Vladivostok.
You can read about our adventures last year entitled “Sightseeing with An EnglishAll-Star”. I was excited to see her as it had been a year and now she was
studying Chinese at Far Eastern Federal University, the biggest university in
the region if not the nation. It was amazing how in only a year (as I used to
notice when I taught high school) she had gone from a simple school girl to a sophisticated
nice young lady. Tagging along with her was her kind, but very shy boyfriend
who was studying engineering at the same university. Our goal for the day was
to go over to Russkiy Island where the new campus for Far Eastern Federal
University is now located. Before the 2012 APEC summit, the university used to
be located on the mainland in the city’s downtown core.
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| Central hall view |
As is the case in Vladivostok and seems like the entire
world, heavy, grinding, traffic delayed us thus setting off a domino effect where
I had to delay dinner with my third friend Inna and her friends. Luckily Inna
was flexible so we were able to enjoy Russkiy Island to the maximum!
After nearly 60 minutes of lurching through town in horrible
traffic, two long suspension bridges that connect Russkiy Island to the
mainland we arrived at Russkiy Island and were ready to get out and stretch our
legs! I arrived on the island thinking I had seen everything…………….until…….we
walked into the central hall. As we walked in we were treated to a magnificent
view of the sea none like I’ve ever seen at any other college campus or really
anywhere in the world for that matter! Everything was done in such grandiose
fashion; it’s hard to even put words to it!
The campus of FEFU or Far Eastern Federal University is an
amazing one! It is the size of some small nations even and likely has a
population to match that. And one of the hardest things to believe is that this
expansive campus will only grow bigger in coming years, a second phase is
currently being built and will be ready sometime around the early 2020s.
Following our walks around the campus and along the campus
promenade which was full of families, students and just ordinary Vladivostok
residents taking advantage of the beautiful early spring day, it was time to
head back to town. Luckily this time the trip home was a lot, lot faster due to
little traffic! Upon returning to the hotel I bid a fond farewell to Victoria
and her wonderful boyfriend Arthur and headed up to my room for a quick pit
stop to get ready for round 3!
Round 3! Mission: to see my friend Inna and her friends,
Zhenya and Olesya for a nice dinner to catch up. The restaurant we were meeting
at was just outside the city and served traditional Russian food. When I walked
into the restaurant I absolutely loved it!!! It was decorated to reflect an Old
Russian house with decorations such as, traditional samovars, birch wood and
Russian wooden tables plus all sorts of other decorations to give you that feel
that you had stepped back in time to Old Russia. The ambience was picture
perfect and I highly recommend it for anyone who would like to celebrate or just
would like a special night out. For those of you Военное Шоссе 5А or Voennoe Shosse 5A
northeast of the city center.
Over dinner my friends were recollecting to me about how
they had given up driving in the past few months. I wondered why, after all the
public transit system in Vladivostok is not exactly like Moscow where they have
an efficient Metro system. Inna told me about an incident where a drunk driver
hit her car causing serious damage. The other friend though had a story that trumped
them all and probably makes you grateful for your insurance company if you
aren’t already.
In Russia there are such things as illegal parking lots,
basically large blocks of pavement that people will park their cars on. Not
sure really what the formal definition of a parking lot legal or not is but as
far as I know it’d be any place where cars are parked. My friend had the unfortunate
luck to park her car in one of these and lost her car to fire. It all happened
as a result of some moron who was trying to light his car on fire for insurance
fraud purposes. However, as luck would have it all the other cars in the
parking lot ended up torched also. Logic would dictate that this horrible
incident would be covered by insurance. But………..in the crazy world of Russian
insurance, the insurance company refused to pay for it claiming that because it
was parked in an illegal parking lot her claim is invalid! So……at this point
she either has to suffer through a two hour ride on the bus every day or pony
up some money for a new car. Crazy and horrific!!!
After a long day I was thoroughly and utterly exhausted!!! I
looked at my steps counter and it read that I had walked 12 miles or about 20
kilometers that day. A wonder why I was barely able to stand or think. My next stop was bed to refuel for another crazy few days ahead of me. 
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