Mother Russia

Our last stop was Vladavostok, Russia for Victory Day there. Unfortunately we all had to go out in uniform so that was a pain in itself. The first day out I went with B2 again and her photographer friend. Yeah, apparently she likes pictures of grimy back alleys so I got some interesting pictures of the poorer parts of the small area we were allowed to walk around in but we had fun teasing her about her habit so it evened out. :) We also found a Russian Orthodox church that B2 wanted to go in. I stopped her because I seem to remember that at least females need to have their hair covered in that religion. I’m not positive but she didn’t know either way so she decided to stay outside rather than offend people. She also joked that the only reason she brings me along is to stop her from doing religious/cultural snafus, or at least informing her of them and letting her decide. I love being useful. :) They both decided to buy Russian Bibles and we carried on. We wound up eating at a food court on the top floor of an expensive mall but the food was good. Buffet style but good. We managed to walk our way down to the beach and look at some gorgeous views but then we headed back and she spent at least a half hour trying to barter/trade stuff with a local vendor. It was amusing watching them trying to balance what each person wanted with feeling they themselves got the better deal. I’ve never been good at bartering, I usually just pay the marked price. That is why I bring others along. :)
The next day I went out with J, whom I went out with in Hakata, and another photographers. Unfortunately, since I had been out the day before and they hadn’t been out yet, they expected me to lead. Um, if any of you have been out with me in groups, you know I tend to stay a step or two behind people. That habit quite annoyed them. I don’t really do it consciously, I realized it was my way of having a shield against the crowd in front of me. Why make a path when I have other people ahead of me who can part the crowd for me? Not a bad habit since I’m usually the follower, not so good when they wanted me to lead. (One on one I tend to stay next to the person pretty well, but I also tend to wander…Opps). Anyways, that led to some amusing conversations… We also saw inside a Russian sub. The first part was just gray pictures of the old crew with captions in Russian and a tour in Russian. However, we ditched the tour and continued on our own to see the captain’s stateroom, much smaller than normal staterooms with the bed being little more than a couch with no back. We also saw the engineering room, which was cool. (Their chartroom was a mere desk with locked drawers.) The beds were literally next to and around the cut off warheads. There was absolutely no such thing as privacy. Yeah, I like my job and time slightly more now. Well, due to my amazing job of leading we saw the boardwalk, got to go to a restaurant called Steak that had no steak that night, and tried three bars before we found one that sold a shot of vodka AND a beer. Yeah, the no-steak steak house was amusing. All day on the second day the Russians kept stopping us for photo ops so our key phase all afternoon was, “Okay, photo time, again”. By the time it got dark, the Russians had started drinking and making jokes about us in their language so that annoyed the photographer and he refused to be in any more pictures. By the time we hit the third bar, still without any alcohol in us since the no-steak steak house had no beer either, the now three guys were making sure us two girls were in the middle of the pack thanks to an incident with a possibly drunk Russian trying to talk to me through an interpreter that looked like he wanted more than a photo. Yeah, he went to find the interpreter and me and the other girl ran to get with the rest of the group and stayed there.
All in all, our trip to Russia was fun and definitely a good break from work and memories to remember forever, even if we were only allowed a small area to explore. Well, this is Li’l B signing off and wishing you all a delightful week.