Day 17 - Vladivostok... Last Day

Time to sleep in to counter the Trans-Siberian ‘jetlag’ you develop after having 1 or 2 hours chopped off every day as you head East on the train. Starting on Moscow time, Ekaterinenburg saw us move ahead by 2 hours, Irkutsk a further 2 hours and Vladivostok another 3…

Our mission for the day? Russky Island. After failing abysmally to find the tour agent that should have taken us out there, we decide to DIY.

Russky Island was off limits until 2000, as until then it was an area dedicated exclusively to military activities. Putin decided to turn it into a business and cultural centre.
It is a large island, covered in verdant, thick vegetation with some beautiful beaches, which have yet to be developed.

The island also hosts the state-of-the art new Far East Federal University, which we had intended to visit with the Lotos Co tour agency, as otherwise not accessible. Anyway, not to be this time round!
Several Russians have told us that in their view one of the major losses since Soviet days has been the wide access to excellent education for all that had been available in the past. The cost of university has soared (it is now between USD 5,000 and 10,000 a year). On an average annual salary of USD 8,000 it is clear that many Russian families cannot afford to finance their children's university fees. Less and less young people are attending university...

We find a friendly taxi driver who will take us out to the island and wait for us as we make our way down to the beach (most access roads to the beaches are dirt roads requiring a 4-wheel drive car), which he has suggested we visit. We make our way down a muddy and later dry and dusty road and are rewarded with a beautiful bay with low cliffs and a rocky beach, with immaculate water. Against all expectations the temperature is not too bad and Silvia actually ventures in for a swim. We relax for a couple of hours ‘sun-bathing in Siberia’ before we head back to Sascha, the taxi driver. Well worth the trek off the beaten track!
  
On the Way to Russky Island



The New Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island


Off the Beaten Track


Pacific Horizons 



 Vamos a La Playa Vladivostok Style










The 'Treacherous' Road Down to the Beach


View from Russky Island 


For a bit of culture now… Time for the Arsenev regional Museum to learn more about the early nomadic inhabitants of the region, the first Russian explorers who reached the area, the merchant families who put their stamp on the city’s history, the role of Chinese immigration…

In some funny way Vladivostok reminds me of the Italian port city of Trieste for its topography and entrepreneurial spirit in a frontier area - Trieste being the border between Western and Eastern Europe.

Ul Svetlanskaya


Time to pack our suitcases…
We stroll down the seafront promenade at (late) sunset and follow Lonely Planet’s advice for a restaurant somewhat unremarkably called Food For Food but, similarly as with our Lotos Co agency  ‘hunt’ the day before, end up wasting time and not finding the restaurant. It is 10pm and we are struggling to find a restaurant that isn’t a Pizzeria (no grazie!). I decipher the Cyrillic letters for Pelmeni (a type of Russian dumpling) and we find ourselves in a basement café’ eating pelmeni with sour cream. We bump into the Germans we had met on the train and all agree that Vladivostok has been a real surprise and worth a return visit.

Vladivostok by Night







We hit the dance floor at Momiy Troll again as the evening starts out with some hard to resist dance classics. I order a glass of wine, look at the bottle label and see Georgian letters. I ask whether I am drinking a Georgian wine, and I am quickly corrected and told it is Abkhazian (the Georgian version of Crimea, with a largely pro-Russia population and under Russian jurisdiction since military intervention a decade ago). The wine, like many Georgian wines (if I’m not mistaken wine was born in Georgia), is excellent… 
As techno takes over again, we decide to call it a day… Just as well as our alarms are set for 5.15am as we head for the airport and back to EuropeL

Thank you Russia and the Trans-Siberian Express. A unique experience! We'll be back.

Back to Momiy Troll









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