Ok so as begin this latest installment about Saint Petersburg I hope it is the last. Really this article is about the boats in Saint Petersburg. As it is a city with access to the sea, spans a coupe of large rivers, and is full of canals so there are a lot of boats in the city. We took two both rides. I greatly enjoyed both, funny enough the boat rides were basically (besides riding the subway) the first and last thing we did once we started sight seeing. While it is not a requirement to take a boat anywhere it is the fastest way to get to some attractions. The first boat that we took went to Peterhof one of the palaces I wrote about before. The trip takes about ½ hour each way by boat. Rather than an hour and ½ by stinky bus (actually the one bus I rode in Saint Petersburg was very nice, but I hold a grudge to Russian buses do to riding one in Moscow).
The best part of taking a boat to Peterhof, is the boat itself. The Russians have been using Hydrofoils for transport in this area for decades (according to some random blog I found). The only time I had seen a hydrofoil in the past was on the history channel when they talked about a really fast PT boat the Navy had developed but never produced. Basically a hydrofoil is a wing used in the water. Just like an airplane the submerged wing creates lift. This bring most of the hull of the boat out of water decreasing resistance and increasing speeds. I never thought anyone would use it for moving tourist around. The boats used to get to Saint Petersburg are maybe 20-25 feet wide and 125-140 feet long. When in full motion I would say 70-80% of the boat actually lifts out of the water. Leaving just the stern slightly submerged so the jet can create forward movement. It was pretty fast moving maybe 60 miles per hour and surprisingly smooth. I have to admit, while RG stayed nice and warm in the cabin, like an excited little kid on his first boat ride I had to go out on the small viewing deck for 90% of the ride to watch the other hydroplanes go by. It was totally worth it.
The other end of our trip, after walking so much we could walk so more we decided to take a canal cruise. They aren’t hard to find. Some lady with an electronic blow horn is soliciting riders for one company or anther at every bridge. So we just picked one that looked good. The boats typically are about 40 feet long have a closed section and an open deck with chairs. They are much smaller than those in Amsterdam and completely different than anything used in Chicago. The tours I assume offer a wonderful monolog on the history, architecture, and other fun facts about Saint Petersburg. But the were in Russian, so I understood only a few words. My wife translated the most important things as usual. Like the safety stuff. Apparently there is an issue with people standing at the wrong times and hitting their head on a bridge! No kidding. But the tour was nice and relaxing, though a bit chilly, and we enjoyed looking at even more of the amazing buildings and bridges in Saint Petersburg. Had we had the motivation there is also a tour that shows all the draw bridges at night when the are open. RG, and I agreed with her on this pointed, wanted to sleep instead – the tour starts at around 2 am.
So my final word on Saint Petersburg is this, put it on your bucket list, giver yourself a lot of time to see stuff, ride the boats, see the palaces, see the museums, see the churches, go to the restaurants, you could try a club or too we didn’t, see the attractions, see the monuments, and don’t discount what this city has to offer. It is second to no other destination in Europe.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
St. Pete’s Part 2
Palaces of course aren’t the only thing to see in Saint Petersburg. In fact they are only a part of it. For starters there are a lot of very interesting churches in the city that are as different as those found in Europe as they are from most churches found in the rest of Russia. There is also a lot of water, Saint Petersburg sits on the Neva River and the delta to the North Sea, and it is also full of canals and waterways that crisscross the old part of the city. Beyond this there are also a host of memorials, statues, squares, forts, and other attractions that could keep a visitor busy for weeks - though as usual we crammed a lot into just a few days. A fact that the wife brings up time and time again when she tells anyone about our trips they always end with how tired she was by the end. But I think she loves it, she just likes to have something to complain about.
The church that is most recognizable is Church of the Savior on Blood. This church is an Orthodox church with domed towers. It was almost destroyed by the Soviets because it was considered just a poor replica of St. Basil’s in red square. Having been to both I have to say this is not the case. Church of the Savior on Blood is much newer than St. Basil’s and while it shares similar domes they are very different. St. Basil’s has much smaller chambers in the interior and is decorated mostly with painted walls and a few would carvings. Church of the Savior on Blood is decorated with much more grandeur; it has tall ceilings, much more intricate paintings, many gold adornments, many stone carvings, tile murals, and an inlaid stone floor. It is a completely different experience to visit than St. Basil’s for sure. We also visited a couple of neighbor hood churches that were interesting and walked by Kazan Cathedral. However Kazan is being restored and from what I read is more interesting on the exterior than the interior. It is located on a main street though and you would hard pressed not to walk by it a dozen times. But I would have to say one of the best visits was to Saint-Isaac's Cathedral.
Saint Isaac’s is more typical European in the style being build of stone. It is shaped as like a cross, each side’s has tremendous columns supporting a stone roof with spectacular bronze relief inserts. When you enter there are extremely tall ceilings, amazing paintings on all the walls, ceilings, and arches, the bronze doors to the building are 20+ feet tall (with smaller doors cut in them) with intricate carvings, there is a lot of gold everywhere, and the shrines, chapels, and sanctuary are all works of amazing craftsmanship. However we had to buy two tickets each when we visited Saint Isaac’s. This is because you can also climb up to the dome and get a great view of the city. It is about 140 steps to the top and well worth the work. There is a 360 degree view that is very impressive as the Cathedral is the tallest building for blocks around. It was so busy at the top though it was hard to get a photo of one of us with a view in the back ground.
Of course what city in Russia would be with out its WWII memorial and Saint Petersburg does not disappoint in the respect either. There is an eternal flame in one park, statues in other, but as you head into town from the airport there is a very large dedicated memorial. Saint Petersburg was under siege for 3 years by the Nazi’s and more Russian civilians died than all the American troops in the whole war. This memorial is only a block or so from where we stayed. It is a set of more than a dozen 10 foot tall bronze statues of Russian defenders, a tall monolith like tower, and another eternal flame in the center of a large 15 foot tall stone ring. It is pretty impressive.
Saint Petersburg was a long time ago a Swedish settlement. After several battles the Russian’s took the outpost. Because it was a contested area for so long the first structures to be built in the city were of course forts. The most famous of these is Peter and Paul’s. This was really the only day we had bad weather and it rained a bit. However when were at the fort it was just drizzly. The fort was built in the early 1700s and the city originally grew around it. Later grand plans for the city were released and the main part of the city was built across the river from the fort. The fort itself has several attractions within its wall. A wax museum, a church with many emperors and other royals entombed, a large parade court, a panoramic view of the city from a walk way on top of the main walls, a museum, a strange bronze statue of Peter the Great, a museum of images from space, a museum of torture, a historical museum about life in Saint Petersburg though out the years, and of course some military displays. Like most places in the area it is also undergoing some major reconstruction work. The day we were there we got lucky and there was a display of marching, gun twirling, and other such parade work by the local cadets. It was quite fun to watch. Little did I know at the time their comrades were marching into Georgia.
One site I was bummed that was closed is called the Marble Palace. And the building is made out of marble and is famed to have a hall that consists of 32 different shades of marble. But it of course was closed for restoration. We also walked through many parks, it seems around every corner there is another park and Saint Petersburg is a very nice green space. We also went to several fun restaurants. One was a Russian style beer hall that had old soviet propaganda on the walls and a traditional Russian menu. The day we visited the Fort we also stopped an interesting Russian potatoes bar, where you order a baked potato with various toppings. However the toppings do not consist of bacon, cheese, sour cream and the like. No instead they consist of various Russian concoctions I couldn’t even begin to tell you what was in them. It was pretty tasty stuff though. Of course as RG has been out of the US for so long we also went to a Pizza Hut one night and got Italian another but we still avoided McDonalds like the plague. I also found out while dining at her aunts that I don’t hate eggplant, so I will have to explore that a little more. So all in all I had a great time.
Again I haven’t been able to cover everything I wanted to about the trip so I think there will be one more post. I should have dived topics a little better I think.
The church that is most recognizable is Church of the Savior on Blood. This church is an Orthodox church with domed towers. It was almost destroyed by the Soviets because it was considered just a poor replica of St. Basil’s in red square. Having been to both I have to say this is not the case. Church of the Savior on Blood is much newer than St. Basil’s and while it shares similar domes they are very different. St. Basil’s has much smaller chambers in the interior and is decorated mostly with painted walls and a few would carvings. Church of the Savior on Blood is decorated with much more grandeur; it has tall ceilings, much more intricate paintings, many gold adornments, many stone carvings, tile murals, and an inlaid stone floor. It is a completely different experience to visit than St. Basil’s for sure. We also visited a couple of neighbor hood churches that were interesting and walked by Kazan Cathedral. However Kazan is being restored and from what I read is more interesting on the exterior than the interior. It is located on a main street though and you would hard pressed not to walk by it a dozen times. But I would have to say one of the best visits was to Saint-Isaac's Cathedral.
Saint Isaac’s is more typical European in the style being build of stone. It is shaped as like a cross, each side’s has tremendous columns supporting a stone roof with spectacular bronze relief inserts. When you enter there are extremely tall ceilings, amazing paintings on all the walls, ceilings, and arches, the bronze doors to the building are 20+ feet tall (with smaller doors cut in them) with intricate carvings, there is a lot of gold everywhere, and the shrines, chapels, and sanctuary are all works of amazing craftsmanship. However we had to buy two tickets each when we visited Saint Isaac’s. This is because you can also climb up to the dome and get a great view of the city. It is about 140 steps to the top and well worth the work. There is a 360 degree view that is very impressive as the Cathedral is the tallest building for blocks around. It was so busy at the top though it was hard to get a photo of one of us with a view in the back ground.
Of course what city in Russia would be with out its WWII memorial and Saint Petersburg does not disappoint in the respect either. There is an eternal flame in one park, statues in other, but as you head into town from the airport there is a very large dedicated memorial. Saint Petersburg was under siege for 3 years by the Nazi’s and more Russian civilians died than all the American troops in the whole war. This memorial is only a block or so from where we stayed. It is a set of more than a dozen 10 foot tall bronze statues of Russian defenders, a tall monolith like tower, and another eternal flame in the center of a large 15 foot tall stone ring. It is pretty impressive.
Saint Petersburg was a long time ago a Swedish settlement. After several battles the Russian’s took the outpost. Because it was a contested area for so long the first structures to be built in the city were of course forts. The most famous of these is Peter and Paul’s. This was really the only day we had bad weather and it rained a bit. However when were at the fort it was just drizzly. The fort was built in the early 1700s and the city originally grew around it. Later grand plans for the city were released and the main part of the city was built across the river from the fort. The fort itself has several attractions within its wall. A wax museum, a church with many emperors and other royals entombed, a large parade court, a panoramic view of the city from a walk way on top of the main walls, a museum, a strange bronze statue of Peter the Great, a museum of images from space, a museum of torture, a historical museum about life in Saint Petersburg though out the years, and of course some military displays. Like most places in the area it is also undergoing some major reconstruction work. The day we were there we got lucky and there was a display of marching, gun twirling, and other such parade work by the local cadets. It was quite fun to watch. Little did I know at the time their comrades were marching into Georgia.
One site I was bummed that was closed is called the Marble Palace. And the building is made out of marble and is famed to have a hall that consists of 32 different shades of marble. But it of course was closed for restoration. We also walked through many parks, it seems around every corner there is another park and Saint Petersburg is a very nice green space. We also went to several fun restaurants. One was a Russian style beer hall that had old soviet propaganda on the walls and a traditional Russian menu. The day we visited the Fort we also stopped an interesting Russian potatoes bar, where you order a baked potato with various toppings. However the toppings do not consist of bacon, cheese, sour cream and the like. No instead they consist of various Russian concoctions I couldn’t even begin to tell you what was in them. It was pretty tasty stuff though. Of course as RG has been out of the US for so long we also went to a Pizza Hut one night and got Italian another but we still avoided McDonalds like the plague. I also found out while dining at her aunts that I don’t hate eggplant, so I will have to explore that a little more. So all in all I had a great time.
Again I haven’t been able to cover everything I wanted to about the trip so I think there will be one more post. I should have dived topics a little better I think.
Monday, August 18, 2008
St. Pete’s
Saint Petersburg is certainly one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It has been called the Venice of the north, and while I have not been to Venice in my adult life I have been to Paris, and Saint Petersburg is certainly in a similar category. At least as far as beauty goes. The city I am speaking of is of course in Russia and not in Florida, and was founded by Peter the Great as a new “Modern” city from which to rule his empire. I have to say that if you keep a bucket list this city should be on it. We of course were able to stay with some relatives of RG her second cousin by American Genealogy or Aunt according to Russian accounting. Her Aunt/Cousin was very hospitable and her apartment is one of the nicest places we have had to stay in Russia. In an old concrete building housing several hundred apartments you would not have expected much. However the 2 bedroom apartment had nice woodworking, a modern kitchen, new furniture, nice floors, was clean, and very comfortable. It still amazes me that the building can be falling apart on the outside, the elevators can make strange loud clicking noises, halls can be filthy, and then you walk into a very nice apartment. I guess this is due to the lack of ownership, administration, and community group to maintain the building like in the states.
The first think you notice about Saint Petersburg is the attitude. Unlike Moscow where most people seem to be glum and concerned about only there own concerns, people in Saint Petersburg are much more friendly and polite. This is most notable on the metro systems. In Moscow an open seat can cause fights when 5 people rush to fill it. In Saint Petersburg three people would stand around the same seat and wait for the others to take it. Saint Petersburg is also much better maintained in general. The streets are cleaner (at least in the area with the most tourists), old buildings are restored rather than replaced, and the whole city seems to be getting repainted while we were there. It is also much less crowed even though officially it has almost ½ (4.6 million density of 7600/SqKm) the population of Moscow (10 million 9600/SqKM). Though I think Moscow has twice as many people as the OFFICAL numbers.
The buildings in Saint Petersburg are much different than those in most major European cities. For one they generally are not built out of stone. Instead they are built out of brick and covered in plaster. Because of this building style the buildings are much larger, and because of the plaster they have fantastic facades. The buildings are painted bright colors for Europe, mostly green, blue, and yellows, but there are still some brick, brown, and grey buildings from time to time. Also many of the buildings have copper or gold roofs or iron adornments giving each building its own unique character. My favorite was a green building with some rounded glass corners and large greened-iron wire globe. Of course the big attractions in and around the city are the Palaces and Castles of which there are over 25! I don’t know if there is another area in the world with so many places in the world. Most of these now house museums, galleries, or are open as public attractions.
We went to only 3 palaces and 1 castle, though we saw many others. The first palace called Peterhof is a large estate on an Island outside of the city has one of the grandest approaches I ever scene. With dozens of fountains, statues, and a cascading fountain surrounded by grad stairways visitors are led to back entrance from a doc. The main courtyard in the front is also impressive though in true Russian fashion we would have had to pay a second fee to walk around in it, so we settled for the main grounds and the tour of the palace. The second, Catherine’s palace is also outside of the city but this time more of a country estate. It had smaller grounds with more subtle features. A nice like with a small guest house on it, a building for displaying flowers, an interesting brick bridge, some smaller reflecting pools, hedges, a selection of statues, and small fountains were contained on about ½ the area of Peterhof. Interestingly, both palaces had been taken over by the Nazis in WWII and both had been burned to the ground. It took over 30 years to restore them to their glory and attention was paid to every detail.
They were both full of grand halls, amazing wood inlaid floors nicer than even expensive furniture from the time, gold adorned most rooms, and of course there were unique pieces of art work. The wood work in the floors is so good in fact that they make you put soft baggies over your shoes to protect them as you walk around! In some rooms you could find art from the Far East, it seems the Russian Tsars were just as intrigued by that part of the world as the west was. Much of the restoration was done from the original plans and photos were used to try to get things right. We were informed that the hardest part was finding furniture to replace the custom made pieces that had been stolen or burned. My favorite room was a recreation of the famed Amber room, a room aptly named where every square inch was covered by amber. Even doorways, picture frames, fixture, really everything was covered or made from amber. It was amazing. The original room of course was famously stolen during WWII from the Nazis and has yet to be found or accounted for.
The final palace we went to was the Hermitage museum in the Winter Palace. The main building faces both the Neva River on one side and the main square on the other. It is a large green building with statues lining the roof and white trim. This is actually several palaces attached to one another turned into a very large art gallery. It contains several receiving halls, an amazing stairway, and a couple of throne rooms (one that was never used), a large golden bird cage containing a gold statue of a bird, rooms of carved marble, along with a hall of Russian heroes. We did not get a chance to see it all as our feet literally hurt too much to go on from walking around looking at everything. The Palace itself was always used for receptions and state business and never had any royals living in it. An attached smaller palace was instead used as a residence by Anne of Russia.
The palaces in the city are simply astounding. So much so that I will have to finish writing about St. Petersburg in another entry as this post is already to long I think.
The first think you notice about Saint Petersburg is the attitude. Unlike Moscow where most people seem to be glum and concerned about only there own concerns, people in Saint Petersburg are much more friendly and polite. This is most notable on the metro systems. In Moscow an open seat can cause fights when 5 people rush to fill it. In Saint Petersburg three people would stand around the same seat and wait for the others to take it. Saint Petersburg is also much better maintained in general. The streets are cleaner (at least in the area with the most tourists), old buildings are restored rather than replaced, and the whole city seems to be getting repainted while we were there. It is also much less crowed even though officially it has almost ½ (4.6 million density of 7600/SqKm) the population of Moscow (10 million 9600/SqKM). Though I think Moscow has twice as many people as the OFFICAL numbers.
The buildings in Saint Petersburg are much different than those in most major European cities. For one they generally are not built out of stone. Instead they are built out of brick and covered in plaster. Because of this building style the buildings are much larger, and because of the plaster they have fantastic facades. The buildings are painted bright colors for Europe, mostly green, blue, and yellows, but there are still some brick, brown, and grey buildings from time to time. Also many of the buildings have copper or gold roofs or iron adornments giving each building its own unique character. My favorite was a green building with some rounded glass corners and large greened-iron wire globe. Of course the big attractions in and around the city are the Palaces and Castles of which there are over 25! I don’t know if there is another area in the world with so many places in the world. Most of these now house museums, galleries, or are open as public attractions.
We went to only 3 palaces and 1 castle, though we saw many others. The first palace called Peterhof is a large estate on an Island outside of the city has one of the grandest approaches I ever scene. With dozens of fountains, statues, and a cascading fountain surrounded by grad stairways visitors are led to back entrance from a doc. The main courtyard in the front is also impressive though in true Russian fashion we would have had to pay a second fee to walk around in it, so we settled for the main grounds and the tour of the palace. The second, Catherine’s palace is also outside of the city but this time more of a country estate. It had smaller grounds with more subtle features. A nice like with a small guest house on it, a building for displaying flowers, an interesting brick bridge, some smaller reflecting pools, hedges, a selection of statues, and small fountains were contained on about ½ the area of Peterhof. Interestingly, both palaces had been taken over by the Nazis in WWII and both had been burned to the ground. It took over 30 years to restore them to their glory and attention was paid to every detail.
They were both full of grand halls, amazing wood inlaid floors nicer than even expensive furniture from the time, gold adorned most rooms, and of course there were unique pieces of art work. The wood work in the floors is so good in fact that they make you put soft baggies over your shoes to protect them as you walk around! In some rooms you could find art from the Far East, it seems the Russian Tsars were just as intrigued by that part of the world as the west was. Much of the restoration was done from the original plans and photos were used to try to get things right. We were informed that the hardest part was finding furniture to replace the custom made pieces that had been stolen or burned. My favorite room was a recreation of the famed Amber room, a room aptly named where every square inch was covered by amber. Even doorways, picture frames, fixture, really everything was covered or made from amber. It was amazing. The original room of course was famously stolen during WWII from the Nazis and has yet to be found or accounted for.
The final palace we went to was the Hermitage museum in the Winter Palace. The main building faces both the Neva River on one side and the main square on the other. It is a large green building with statues lining the roof and white trim. This is actually several palaces attached to one another turned into a very large art gallery. It contains several receiving halls, an amazing stairway, and a couple of throne rooms (one that was never used), a large golden bird cage containing a gold statue of a bird, rooms of carved marble, along with a hall of Russian heroes. We did not get a chance to see it all as our feet literally hurt too much to go on from walking around looking at everything. The Palace itself was always used for receptions and state business and never had any royals living in it. An attached smaller palace was instead used as a residence by Anne of Russia.
The palaces in the city are simply astounding. So much so that I will have to finish writing about St. Petersburg in another entry as this post is already to long I think.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Taganrog
Taganrog is a very famous town in Russia. It is a small industrial sea port with a larger set of factories that today only operate at about ½ capacity at best. At one time the city was flush with capital as traders and merchants took up residence and moved mass quantity of goods through the region using Taganrog’s ports. Of course this was from the 16 to mid 18 hundreds, during the Soviet reign the city was turned in to an industrial center with many large factories. I think today the town has scene better days. But why is it so famous? For it is the birth place of at least incredibly famous and important Russians. The biggest name would be the writer Chekhov (the writer not the Star Trek character), there is also a romantic poet whose name escapes me but of whom statues litter the city, and finally the most important my wife RG. This is where she grew up, went to school, and where her parents reside to this day. In fact her mother’s 50 birthday is what brought us to the town for three days over my vacation last week.
Her parents live in a modest 2 bedroom house. It faces into a court yard with similar styled house. To enter the quart yard you must first pass through a large, green, metal gate. This is a common set up in the town and I saw very few single family homes that faced the road directly. The houses are generally brick with metal roofs and many have been around for a couple hundred years. I think the in-laws though is a quarter that old. The neighbor hood seemed to me to be not on the out skirts of town but not in the center or main area either. The roads were not paved and to be honest probably haven’t been graded in a decade. Other than that the though their house has all the creature comforts air conditioning, indoor plumbing, and so on. It has a surprise underneath it also, as it was build on top of a rich man’s cellar. So using a trap door in the kitchen you can get under the house into a large arched brick cavern. This was certainly a surprise for me, I love to find secret areas like this.
The main park of the city is quite nice and includes a small amusement park, a zoo, several cafes, an amphitheater, and lots gardens and green spaces. Though it is pretty dry it reminded me of the being out west in California. What was very amusing was to find out that even before the iron curtain fell the Russians knew of our love of roller coasters and the US was famous for having such rides. Because of this the small amusement park had what they called the American Coaster or some similar name. My Wife informed me that when she was a kid it scared her very much and she would not ride it. When I saw the ride it was obvious that A) it was not a roller coaster but a simple carnical ride that had cars the simply went in a circle, and II) RG must have been pretty small when she was scared of the ride because I couldn’t imagine the ride scaring anyone older than 8 or 9.
The sea coast could be a great tourist area if it was not dominated by large factories and cranes, not to mention the dirty water and litter everywhere. It really was the saddest part of the town. We took a brief trip to the market which I thought was quite fun. There was fresh fish, meats, vegetables, fruits, and the like. It was similar to the farmers marker but on roids. However at the sea I was finally able to try a drink the Russians have called Kavas. It was horrible. Imagine unfermented beer and coke mixed. People over there love it but I do not know why. Maybe it is an acquired tasted, and while I do try to eat what is offered to me when in Russia, I don’t think I am going to develop a taste for Kavas. Also while in town I was able to meet RG’s old school friends. Her two best girl firends actually. They were both very nice, but it was amazing to see how different each girls life is now. RG married to an American the only one of the three with a college degree and professional job, both of them had small children, one was a single mom, the other married to someone I expect to be an important man some day as he is currently a police inspector. It was nice to visit and meet with them.
The best part of our brief trip to Taganrog was watching my wife put a police officer in his place. When we went tot he Black Sea last year I had trouble getting through passport control because the police officer was basically trying to get a bribe. This year however RG was well read on the subject and put up a good fight. He and his counter part quickly backed off and we were through with time to spare to catch the flight. The fact that this happens actually discourages me from flying to these smaller towns in Russia, but it was fun to watch this big police start to eat crow when my wife read him the riot act.
Her parents live in a modest 2 bedroom house. It faces into a court yard with similar styled house. To enter the quart yard you must first pass through a large, green, metal gate. This is a common set up in the town and I saw very few single family homes that faced the road directly. The houses are generally brick with metal roofs and many have been around for a couple hundred years. I think the in-laws though is a quarter that old. The neighbor hood seemed to me to be not on the out skirts of town but not in the center or main area either. The roads were not paved and to be honest probably haven’t been graded in a decade. Other than that the though their house has all the creature comforts air conditioning, indoor plumbing, and so on. It has a surprise underneath it also, as it was build on top of a rich man’s cellar. So using a trap door in the kitchen you can get under the house into a large arched brick cavern. This was certainly a surprise for me, I love to find secret areas like this.
The main park of the city is quite nice and includes a small amusement park, a zoo, several cafes, an amphitheater, and lots gardens and green spaces. Though it is pretty dry it reminded me of the being out west in California. What was very amusing was to find out that even before the iron curtain fell the Russians knew of our love of roller coasters and the US was famous for having such rides. Because of this the small amusement park had what they called the American Coaster or some similar name. My Wife informed me that when she was a kid it scared her very much and she would not ride it. When I saw the ride it was obvious that A) it was not a roller coaster but a simple carnical ride that had cars the simply went in a circle, and II) RG must have been pretty small when she was scared of the ride because I couldn’t imagine the ride scaring anyone older than 8 or 9.
The sea coast could be a great tourist area if it was not dominated by large factories and cranes, not to mention the dirty water and litter everywhere. It really was the saddest part of the town. We took a brief trip to the market which I thought was quite fun. There was fresh fish, meats, vegetables, fruits, and the like. It was similar to the farmers marker but on roids. However at the sea I was finally able to try a drink the Russians have called Kavas. It was horrible. Imagine unfermented beer and coke mixed. People over there love it but I do not know why. Maybe it is an acquired tasted, and while I do try to eat what is offered to me when in Russia, I don’t think I am going to develop a taste for Kavas. Also while in town I was able to meet RG’s old school friends. Her two best girl firends actually. They were both very nice, but it was amazing to see how different each girls life is now. RG married to an American the only one of the three with a college degree and professional job, both of them had small children, one was a single mom, the other married to someone I expect to be an important man some day as he is currently a police inspector. It was nice to visit and meet with them.
The best part of our brief trip to Taganrog was watching my wife put a police officer in his place. When we went tot he Black Sea last year I had trouble getting through passport control because the police officer was basically trying to get a bribe. This year however RG was well read on the subject and put up a good fight. He and his counter part quickly backed off and we were through with time to spare to catch the flight. The fact that this happens actually discourages me from flying to these smaller towns in Russia, but it was fun to watch this big police start to eat crow when my wife read him the riot act.
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