August 29, 1996

Asymptotically Approaching Slavjanka

So much for the outing to Slavjanka. After a restless night, I slept until 9:00. I would've gone back to bed even after that if Marge hadn't knocked on my door. We settled on an excursion down to the area near the football stadium to try to find the art gallery that Lena took us to on Monday. We never found the art gallery but we did do the aquarium and the dolphin show - first time for Marge but I enjoyed it a second time.

Zoo

It turns out there is a "zoo" next to the aquarium. For another 5000 rubles I got to see a tortoise trying desperately to escape its pen, a bunch of lethargic snakes, some iguanas, geckos, monkeys (4 or 5) in smelly cages, a really depressed looking frog and some turtles, among cages upon cages upon cages of parrots. We had discovered the zoo by hearing what sounded like monkey chatter behind one wall of the aquarium. Well, the monkeys weren't chattering, the parrots were! The zoo was kind of dark and the brightly colored parrots really stood out. Exotica for the kids and their grandparents to marvel at on the last week before school starts.

Most kids did seem to be with grandparents - with or without parents. One boy got ice cream all over his grandmother's purse.

Report on the Photographers

On the photographer front, a new entrepreneur has appeared in front of the aquarium with a bear cub. At first I thought it was a funny looking black dog but when it stood up I was like "ohmigod it's a bear!". The photographer was making his sales pitch to everyone who strolled by but we only saw him get one customer, a woman in a beige dress who looked distinctly uncomfortable while her boyfriend or husband did the photography.

Down on the plaza by the beach, the regular monkey guy was absent but the tiger guy has two monkeys in striped shirts sitting on his tiger just waiting for customers. The guy addressed us in English asking if we wanted a photo with the tiger for a souvenir of our visit. We said no thanks, bought some pies from a vendor and found some shade to have our lunch.

The First Law of Souvenir Shopping

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Nostalgia for coffee. It's the only decent cafe around - in addition to being the best restaurant and the best gift shop. We did find a place near the football stadium that advertised espresso but they were not ready to serve us at 10:00 in the morning. The door was open but the girl who works there was sitting reading a book and was disinclined to make coffee for us. We half meant to try that shop again later but we came back along the bay so ended up at Nostalgia.

I had coffee and cake and finally broke down and bought matryushka dolls for Elizabeth and Andrea, as well as that huge coffee table book , Vladivostok: The Edge of Russia, which I'd been coveting since my first visit to the shop. Unbelievably, all the Yeltsin dolls were sold! The busload of Japanese bought them this morning. Maurice had warned me that the first law of souvenir shopping is "if you see something you like, buy it because it won't be there later". Not that I would've known what to do with the Yeltsin doll when I got it home - its topicality is already getting passe. Anyhow, if I'd spent the 200,000 rubles on the Yeltsin doll I wouldn't have spent it on the book and the book is a far better reminder of the trip. There are pictures of placers I've been so it conjures up the memories better than the doll would have. Yeltsin and Moscow are very far away from Primory.

The Edge of Russia

I invited Marge in to look at The Edge of Russia over coffee/tea in my room. Afterward she left to change some rubles back to $$ at the money changer next door.

7:30PM

Still no sign of Marge. She left her key and her coffee mug here. Just got a phone call from somebody who wanted to know if I wanted something I couldn't quite make out but who when she figured out I was a woman decided I wouldn't want it and laughed embarrassedly. It reminded me of the calls I got on my first night from some woman advertising "pretty girls, massage, sex $100". Maurice said he got those calls every night. There have been a few times late at night when I haven't picked up the phone so they may well have been sex solicitation calls too. 7:30PM seems a little early for the solicitors though.

10:31PM

When Marge came back from her foray to change money, she reported that the construction trailers were gone from around the train station and one side of the part where the trains go in was open. They're clearly nearing completion of the renovation. I thought I should rush down to take a picture of the station without the trailers in front of it but the sun was already low enough that by the time I got down there I would've lost the light. I guess if I'm ever going to get a good photograph of the train station I'll have to come back next year for Team III.

I 'm basically packed except for the stuff I'll need in the morning. I still have to figure out how to pack my scallop shell so it doesn't break. It's a fine shell and I like the fact that I found it while diving instead of buying it from the sad looking woman outside the aquarium - actually today she had moved inside the aquarium.

I won't miss the street sounds, the magpies ,the headlights coming over the hill next to the Aeroflot building, the humidity, the smell of burning garbage. I will miss the street market, the dark bread, the people, especially Andrey and Slava and of course Alex and Genia. I will miss the vibrancy of the goings and comings and renovations and new businesses springing up everyday. I will miss my daily walk down to the post office/train station/marine terminal, the sunset over Amursky Bay, the sense that something exciting is happening right before my eyes. I won't miss the pounding disco music, the bizarre videos at the North Korean restaurant. I will miss the borscht and blini at Nostalgia.

I never did learn the names of the two generals whose portraits were next to the one of Admiral Kolchak opposite Nicholas and Alexandra on the red velvet plush walls at Nostalgia. Maurice told me at least 3 times but I don't think a lot of what he said sank in - either about the generals or about Russian grammar. I'm now at the point where I can decode Cyrillic letters without the phrase book so it must be time to go home.

Previous
Next
Trip Index
Home