240to120.com

rikorda island

rikorda island is about an hour away by boat from vladivostok.  the boat ride in the morning was windy and wet, but we made it to the beach eventually.  you can buy tickets for boats to some of the more populated islands like russkiy or popov islands, but we enlisted a private boat and went to rikorda, which is farther out than the other two.  we had to pack food and drink since the island doesn't have any places to eat.  amid all the prep to get the car loaded and meet everyone, i forgot to bring all the fruit and snacks i had bought the night before.  i did remember the wine and vodka.  which i think everyone enjoyed more than the food.  we spent all day walking and enjoying the water and sun on different sides of the island.  by the time the sunset started to set we met up with our captain and took off for vlad.

the islands here have smooth rock beaches as opposed to the white sand ones in australia.  the water around the island was definitely cleaner than the city beaches i've visited.  i can see why russians like to visit them in the summer.  it takes a bit of time to reach them but it worth the trip once you get there.  i didn't see much wildlife besides birds and bugs so i imagine any four legged critters get caught by hunters.  no one was doing any jet or water skiing like they do at the city beaches.  it was a nice break from shamara beach just for the traffic alone.

speaking of, last week, i took my girlfriend for a scooter ride out to shamara. it's about a 40min ride. it's the first real passenger ride i've given in a couple years so i was a bit worried traffic would make it tough.  but during the whole trip, i didn't have any trouble with going in and out of traffic.  the wind is starting to get cold already so the days of summer are drawing close in the russian far east.

birthday cruise

С днём рождения:  "Happy Birthday"

on my birthday, i took a day off so we could enjoy a nice lunch at mario giovanni's and a sailboat ride around the harbor.

i been on several ships and boats but never a sailboat, so it was a nice way to end the day.  Here a snap of the captain.

he's a friend of my girlfriend and always happy to take guests out for a ride, especially the ladies.   beautiful weather and a great day to be on the water.

st. petersburg

russian word(s) for the day:
"Я был в отпуске" = i was on vacation

so i finally took a week off to spend time in st. petersburg.  you'll see new photos added to my flickr account at:

nomadically's flicker photostream

flights were uneventful there and back again. i flew aeroflot with moscow as a layover. the only bad part was spending a few hours in moscow's sheremetyevo airport on the way back to vlad.  it was a pretty small domestic terminal, so i ran out of things to do while i waited. by the time i was on my last leg of the flight i was so tired i slept through the whole thing.  my girlfriend met me at st pete's airport and it was great to see her after several weeks of being apart.

so here's what we ended up seeing-

1. the hermitage - (pic above: left to right: hermitage theatre, old hermitage, small hermitage, and winter place. new hermitage is behind the old hermitage)
2. church of the savior on blood - alexander ii was mortally wounded during an assassination
3. kazan cathedral
4. saint issacs cathedral
5. peterhof - many outdoor fountains covering a lush park of paths and trees near the sea.
6. tsarskoe selo (the royal villege with alexander pushkin's boyhood school and catherine's palace)
7. nevsky prospekt - main avenue of the city with shops, dining and other tourist haunts
8. boat tour on the neva and city canals.
9. bus tour - during the one rainy day all week.  it helped cover a lot of what we didn't have time to see while on foot.

we covered a lot of ground but there was still so much to see.  i packed for all kinds of weather but ended up wearing summer clothes most of the time.  we only had one rainy day for the week.  besides the sightseeing, we also ate out often to try the local cuisine. my girlfriend took me to eat at Штолли, which had delicious meat and dessert pies.  everywhere we stopped had great food but that one will always come to mind when i think of st pete.

many of the sites we visited were great to see but i'd say, the hermitage and peterhof were the ones that stand out the most for me.  the hermitage consists of several buildings and houses. it had so many exhibits it was impossible to see them all in one day.  we spent six hours going through it but could easily have spent a week there.  think of the smithsonian's collections in d.c. and you get the idea.  

peterhof is outside the city and required a bus ride to get there.  sometimes called "peter's court", it's named after peter the great.  we spent all day walking through the park, checking out the fountains and underground grotto. 

the rest of the week- besides the normal tourist spots we caught the raising of the bridges on the river neva.  around 0120am, people can watch from the river as the street bridges raise for the night to let the ships out of the city.  the ships return early the next morning with their deliveries and the bridges are lowered again for the rest of the day.  they're all lit up so it's easy to see from any distance. if you're driving a car and need to leave the city, it's not so much fun. you're pretty much stuck in the city, unless you want to abandon the car and take a boat across the river.

with so much walking, my shoes gave out and i ended up buying a new pair of sneakers.  i found some adidas that ended up being so comfortable i didn't even know my feet were sore until i took them off at the end of the day.  i also bought a couple pairs of shoes for my girlfriend because she was even getting a little tired of walking in the shoes she brought. 

i picked up some propaganda posters from a local bookstore.  i've been looking for them for awhile and found some that covered everything from popular heath, tourism, and cold war slogans.  once i get some framed i'll post some pics.

i really hated to leave the city on my last day.  i hope to get back again, maybe i'll stop on my way to estonia if i head to tallinn for a visit.  when i got back to vlad, i was still in a state of relaxation for several days afterward. one of my best vacation trips ever..

all's well

it's been a long time since i posted last.  here's what's been happening:

i took some leave and headed back to the states back in may.  spent a few weeks with family, spent a week in washington, d.c., and the final week in san francisco. and finally came back to vladivostok.  got caught up on of american food, cinema, shopping, and visiting friends and family.

• traveling to the states was a 30 hour trip this time. but i was prepared with my mac, a good book and plenty of coffee and dining.  the route was vlad, seoul, new york, washington d.c. (6 hour layover), des moines, 3 hour drive to the folks' place.  in order to keep costs down, the department requires we fly economy during R&R's.  if we want to stop over somewhere, we have to make it part of the round trip ticket.  i.e. you'll fly through the same city both during arrival and departure.  in this case i wanted to hit DC and san francisco.  for some reason i didn't fly through san francisco on my way home, only on my way back to vlad. but i didn't question the logic.

• lied to my parents about my arrival time in des moines so they'd avoid the rush hour traffic.  as i suspected my dad and brother came early so i was only waiting about 15min before they showed up.

• you can never bring home too many souveigners.  this time i planned ahead and brought extras.  i never left a friend empty handed.  everyone seems to love the wooden russian nesting dolls.  my girlfriend helped me gather alot of the items.  my folks really like the 20 doll set that was unfinished.  i got it for them as part of their 50th wedding anniversary.  everyone in the family had to take a doll based on sizes and their position in the family and custom paint it.  i turned mine into a painting of the world.

• fishing trips were cut short due to inclement weather.   but i did play a lot of golf with my dad during the good ones.  

• I gained about 10 pounds. 

• i was able to catch up with every friend i knew in DC and SF for the first time in 5 years. 

• made it to vlad during a 3 day weekend, which still didn't help with the jet lag.  by the end of the first week home, i felt back to normal. 

reducing homeless dog population, one dog at a time..

i haven't been posting for awhile because i took lucia to the vet about a month ago to be spayed.  i'd rather not live the details over again, but it was tough for both of us to go through.  i'm sure it was more painful for her, but more exhausting for me.  after three weeks of redressing bandages, applying medication and giving her shots, she's finally back to normal.  the scar from the surgery is bigger than normal, so i'm worried what else happened.  she also began whimpering about 2 weeks after the surgery, so i was afraid complications had set in. i'll post a pic of her eventually but i'm still busy getting caught up with other things.  the whimper lasted just a few days over the weekend.  it looks like she was just missing some extra attention.  after a few extra belly rubs and more playtime, she was satisfied.

i'll be heading home soon for vacation, so i wanted to take care of her and make sure she was ok before i left.  a friend of a friend has volunteered to look after her the whole time i'm gone.  while i'm grateful, i'm still gonna miss the little girl.  i would've tried to take her with me but this trip will involve more flying than normal and i didn't want to put her through that misery after her operation.

ski trip

it's saturday and i left with a friend to try out some skiing near the villege of артем (artyom).  actually it's closer to another villege but i can't recall the name of it right now.  it's located about an hour and a half northeast of vladivostok.  most of the drive took place through the mountains over dirt roads that were now buried in snow and ice.  i volunteered my toyota fj cruiser for the trip.  only five of us went since the weather and other issues caused a few others to cancel.  i started off around eight am and by the time we picked up everyone and arrived, it was about 10:30am.  i regret not stopping to take photos of the mountain roads but didn't want to block traffic on the narrow strip we were on.

it looked like we were the first to arrive at the slopes.  at first it looked like the place was closed.  but my friend had called before hand to check the ski conditions and to make sure it would be open.  we wandered around what looked like the ski shop and finally found a young man that could rent us equipment.  the rental was only a couple bucks and the skiing rate was 300rr or less than $10US an hour.  well worth the few hours to drive there.  

unfortunately, even the children/beginner slope was so icy it wore out even the veteran skiers.  i skied for about an hour and finally had to give up after seeing several wipe outs, luckily none of them involved me. i liked the ski lift they used.  it required a little dexterity to handle.  there's a rope that runs up the hill and loops back down to a motor.  you step up parallel to it, grab it with one hand and lean back.  it propels you up the hill as long as you keep your skis under you and your weight shifted back. (see above photo)

we stopped for lunch at a small cafe near the shop.  recharged, we went back to ski and try some inner tubing.  i wiped out on my first tube slide and banged up my upper back a bit.  but after giving the tube slope more respect, i enjoyed the rest of the slides.  

all in all, it was a beautiful day with clear air and a warm sun.  we called it a day since it would be getting colder, darker and we still had to deal with the drive back.  i'd go back again but it will have to be after a few more cold days without any rainfall.

Thanks Mom!

a big thanks to Mom for the great gift basket!  i'm rationing it out to enjoy every morsel to its fullest.  

my homage to juggling days of old

just wanted to play around with photoshop and cloning.  lucia got into the act also.  not too bad for a first effort, i didn't spend much time trying to get the speed right on the camera, hence a bit grainy for my taste. it was difficult trying to catch the clubs in motion with out them coming out all blurry otherwise.

due to the russian holidays, i've had several days off.  most of it has been spent picking up the guitar again and starting to practise yoga.  more pics forth coming from trips around the city..

vacation

gone fishing....see you in a week

spring break

i'm back in the u.s. and visiting family.  it only took about 24 hours to make it from vladivostok to des moines.  the flight from CA to IA always feels like a commute now after taking a 13hr international flight.  it was nice to have an itinerary with a maximum of only 2 hours at each stop.  but still the worse part was just trying to sleep on an economy flight going overseas.  i can handle everything except the soreness of having to sit in a seat for hours on end.  but in between naps and movies, i would walk around and just stretch my tired limbs.

the first leg of my trip was vlad to seoul, the russian terminal was modern enough by today's standards but i did notice people would sneak a last minute smoke before the flight, in the men's room. it was a 1/2 empty plane with about 30 people.  i decided to find an empty row before we took off.  no offense to the russian teenager that i had originally been placed with.  but after listening to him play games on his cell phone and feeling his elbow and leg spastically hitting mine, i decided we both could use a little personal space.

the second leg was a flight from seoul to los angeles.  i had a couple hours in seoul before my plane was scheduled to leave.  i walked around a bit and look for something to eat, even though i wasn't hungry.  eventually, i just found a spot at the terminal and settled into one of the books i brought, "the ugly american" - by eugene burdick and william lederer.  the title, i had assumed, was given by other countries when they had encountered americans that were ill mannered and living abroad.  but after reading the book, i discovered it was for an american hero in the book that was described as physically ugly.  the book is somewhat dated but many of the foreign service policy problems still exist since its writing in 1958. 

"For some reason, the people I meet in my country are not the same as the ones I knew in the United States. A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They're loud and ostentatious." -burmese journalist, the ugly american

sadly there's a lot of truth in that..

the flight to LA went well aside from my case of tired butt fatigue.  the plane was filled with about 99% koreans.  so everyone was speaking korean which i basically only know how to say hello in.  i do love the flight though since everyone is very polite and quiet.  i'd have time soon enough to hear shouts and complaining after i'd land in the u.s.  so i wasn't surprised when we landed when i walked through u.s. immigration, to hear the first complaints in english about long lines and missing flights.  sigh.

i had to hussle to make it to my united ticket counter to get my domestic boarding ticket. i had 30 minutes to make it to the gate and also check it with my mom and dad.  the counter agent sweetly issued my ticket, but not before circling my pass with the dreaded red felt tip.  mental note, allow another 5 minutes for an individual security screening. 

i made it to the gate with 5 minutes to spare before boarding, so i got my call in and grabbed a quick coffee.  the flight to des moines was a nice way to decompress after the long one from seoul.  i grabbed a quick nap and then struck up a conversation with my seat mate, a young woman from phoenix doing some computer consulting in des moines.  i never want to bother anyone on a flight, and end up being "that guy" that wouldn't shut up.  so i always stop once in awhile and give people an out, like "well i'm probably keeping you from your work, book, etc."  but it turned out to be a nice visit and helped the flight pass quickly. 

within minutes after landing i met my dad at the arrival gate and we were off to get my bags and start the 2 1/2 drive home.