Hotel Vladivostok

August 19, 1996

It was raining when I got up this morning. I was still wet from my shower when I walked down to the beach so getting rained on didn't really matter. I saw many people swimming mostly women in their underwear. The men were fishing from the piers. Close to shore dozens of moon jellies swooshed around with their internal organs clearly visible. Little girls with huge bows in their hair pointed to the jellyfish and their grandmothers identified them as "medusa".

I speak no Russian. I had a hard time figuring out how to make a local call from the phone in my room. (Turned out the phones don't work all that well so my problem was only partly the language barrier. ). I couldn't find the hotel restaurant to get breakfast and I have no money anyway. The money changer was closed this morning. I made due with $3.00 worth of juice and mineral water from the souvenir shop (they take $$$ and were the only thing open) until I met Maurice for lunch.

We ate at Nostalgia, a red velvet place with portraits of Nicholas and Alexandra on the walls. I ordered borscht. "Borscht, nyet" said the waiter. I ordered another soup. That was "nyet" too. Blini with honey turned out to be available so that was what I had. The blini with honey were delicious. I had two glasses of Coke. The Coca Cola logo is ubiquitous in Vladivostok. I always thought Russia was a Pepsi stronghold but Coke wins the taste test in Vladivostok. There also seems to be a passion for Snickers bars. Or at least the Snickers logo. Cars have bumper stickers reading "I [heart] Snickers". It's everywhere.

After lunch I walked down to the ferry dock past the giant statue of Lenin and the post office/telecom/fax/e-mail/money changer. I couldn't figure out which line was for the money changer and I was wilting from the heat so I left the post office and stood by the ferry dock catching the cool breeze from Golden Horn Bay.

The humidity is 100%. Today is a little cooler than yesterday.

Same Day - Way Later

9:20PM
Just back from dinner with the Team 1 veterans at Nostalgia - the place with Nicholas and Alexandra and the gnerals on the wall. Emi and Hiroshi are from Japan. Ward is American but living in Japan. Maurice is by far the most experienced traveler, speaks Russian, and knows the most about Russian history. He asks provocative questions for dinner conversation like "Are the Japanese descended from the Ainu?"

After dinner I showed Ward, Emi, and Hiroshi the "carnival" end of the beach where the monkey guy was still photographing people holding his two monkeys. The guy with the giant champagne bottles and the trolls was gone as was the guy with the stuffed Siberian tiger. This afternoon I sat on a bench and watched as the monkey guy got all the business. The competition among the tacky tourist photographers is capitalism at its most absurd - or its most basic. Ladies with horses took little girls for rides. Both horse ladies seemed to be doing about the same amount of business. When I went back with the Team 1 folks, we stopped for a long time at the diving platform. Ward photographed boys diving. A few boys asked if we were American. Hiroshi joined in an informal volleyball game. Old men sat on concrete walls playing chess. The beach was still alive with people until nearly 10:00.

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