Eastbound

Vladivostok

Current location: Tokyo, Japan

The final 4 days of my Trans-Siberian experience brought me to rainy Vladivostok.
Equipped with a piece of paper carrying a name, an address and a number of a bus I set out to find my host, Roman. After wandering about in the soaked hills of Vladivostok for a few hours I finally located his apartment, and he was really surprised to see me, as I had not confirmed my arrival.

My first order of business was to secure a ticket out of the country, as my visa was about to expire, and I didn't want to get in trouble with the Russian authorities due to overstay. I've done that before in Indonesia, and the matter was solved by paying the fine right there at the border, but for some reason I figured it wouldn't go down so easily in Russia.
As my research in Irkutsk had revealed the ferry I wanted to take only operated on Wednesdays, and the next boat having been booked full, my only option was to fly. So much for my plan not to fly on this trip.
So I bought a 200 euro ticket straight from Vladivostok to Haneda, Tokyo.

With the ticket safely under my belt I set out to explore the city that is home to the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world.
The next day the rain was gone and replaced by scorching sunshine, which of course meant that I soon acquired that oh so typical reddish glow on my face, neck and arms.
People say Vladivostok is only interesting for a couple of days, but I think I could've spent a week or two there without getting too bored. As usual I wandered around town without much sense of where I was actually going, but managed to find a couple of interesting places.

The city offers much to the concerned photographer, but when I point my Cannon at something the result is more like what you would expect to get if you handed a camera to a macaque overdozing on caffeine.
I've actually named my style of photography. I call it "suppressive fire". To those of you not familiar with military jargon, it basically means I point my camera somewhere and pull the trigger for a while and hope I get a good picture or two.

I visited Russky Island, which sports numerous old forts, artillery stations, underground passages and garrisons, to check out some of the artillery units which, while still perfectly operational, now serve as tourist attractions and got a tour at one of them by the old commander of the unit, a lieutenant-colonel turned tour guide.

On the morning of my flight Roman and I had breakfast on a hill overlooking Vladivostok. On the way down we passed a junkyard guarded by dogs the size of little horses, and having seen similar earlier in Afghanistan I wasn't too worried. Only this time I wasn't wearing body armour and carrying a rifle. And sure enough, one of them charged me from just outside my field of vision. Had Roman not called it out the damn thing would surely have caught my forearm in it's jaws and ripped me to pieces, but I just managed to pull my arm to safety, and the beast only caught the hem of my shirt a bit. That was the beginning of a day that would turn from bad to worse.

I had checked how to get to the airport in time for my flight and left early to enable at least an hour of getting lost or otherwise finding the right bus etc. I got downtown easily enough, and then found the place where the bus to the airport was supposed to leave from every half an hour. I waited almost an hour for the damn thing. When I got to the bus I was a little worried, but as the ride was supposed to take two hours or so, and I had at least two and a half left, I felt I could still make it. I got on the bus and fell asleep. I later heard from fellow passengers that there had been roadworks and a broken down truck on the way to slow us down, and once I woke up at the airport I only had 5 minutes to go. So I ran to my gate, only to hear that check-in had closed a couple of minutes earlier. FML.
Okay, I just need to change my ticket, right? No can do. In fact, the only flight to Tokyo before Monday was on the same day, and would fly via Seoul. I'll take that, how much? 600 fucking euros. You can get a flight from Finland to Thailand and back with that!
Oh what the hell! It's only money, right? So after maxing my credit card, still coming up short and having to change some dollars I was lucky to have on me to buy the ticket I had to run to the gate just to be the last person to check-in before the gate closed.

People, don't travel like I do. Do your research in time. Know what you're doing. Know where you're going. Seriously, it'll save you money and while excitement is good, that gripping sensation in your gut will get old pretty fast...

NOT The longest cable-stayed bridge in the world.

THE Longest cable-stayed bridge in the world.

Brought on site from a dismanteled warship, this unit
will shrug off a direct hit from a 1000 kilo shell.

This bad boy will pour 500 kilos of hate and disregard on your enemies
at a rate of 3 shots every minute, to a distance of 35 km.
If your neighbour has one of these, you'd better return that lawnmower in time...