Vladivostok

Vladivostok is in my opinion the most intimidating Russian city there is. Its more barbaric and wild than any other Russian city I've seen since. Everyone, and I mean everyone (baring perhaps some of the children) walks around with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, from dawn till dusk. I am NOT making this up! The city has a kind of pirate mentality, likely to do with the fact that its blatantly Mafia run. The mafia strut their stuff in a very overt manner. Unfortunately this has a way of driving up the prices of restaurants hotels etc.. As only Mafia go there anyway, and they've got plenty of cash.

The good thing about this city is that as the cops are busy chatting with the low level thugs over vodka they have little inclination to harsh tourists, unlike in Moscow etc..

While I was there a constant fog hung over the city, and even though it was late June it was quite cold. The main attractions in vlad are old pieces of the pacific fleet. And the lifestyle. Not wanting to stand out the first thing I did on arrival was purchase a beer to walk around with.


Fixing up the old party headquarters. All over Vlad it seemed like they were doing repairs or renovations. In a year the city will likely look pretty good.

This sub supposedly sank several Japanese convoy vessels. Its amazing how cramped the damn things are on the inside.

This fine piece of soviet art commemorates the red army's victory in driving the Japanese out of Siberia during the Russian civil war. Funny thing though, as I was posing for this picture some babuska comes up to me and insists I practice English with here grandson.WTF? So I'm like "Whats your name" and he starts spouting off in fluent English something about American solders or something. So I say "Wow his English is quite good" to which she replied, "Of course". Right...

Some Japanese punk sitting at the controls of a gun made to fight his parents. Ironic, no?

Speaking of the Vladivostok lifestyle, this bottle says it all. Note the road and the license plate on the bottle. This gives the notion of "one for the road" new meaning.

Lastly we have the everpresent fog. That's the pacific fleet down there, by the way. Supposedly the reactors in them are rusting and will soon release radioactive waste into the Japan sea.(If they haven't yet) Good to know, huh?