After months of preparation, visa attempts, and confusion at why we even wanted to visit to Russia in the middle of the winter, Caitlin and I finally arrived in Vladivostok!(!!!!)
This has been a Bucket List item of mine for a few years, and after taking an incredible Russian History class at GT Caitlin had it on her list, too.
We met up (stressfully, but thankfully) the night before our flight into Vladivostok in Chuncheon, South Korea where Caitlin had been teaching English for the past two and a half years. Packing up and saying goodbye to such a momentous chapter is never easy. Luckily we'd soon replace this bittersweetness with the bitter climate in southeastern Russia and have new things to consider, such as how any human population survives with so much snow and where could we purchase an authentic fur hat.
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| Caitlin at the airport, our taxi driver lurking in the background. I want his hat. |
When we got to our hostel after skidding across an endless expanse of ice and snow that they call roads, we decided to adventure to the local store for dinner. This included me sliding down stairs due to the excessive amounts of snow covering the stairs and more consideration at how anyone survives in so much snow. We also actively wondered why people attempted to summit Everest; we were only battling the elements for snacks and beer.
When we returned and began to chat with fellow hostel-goers, we were commenting on the insane amount of snow. Upon pouring us welcome drinks our new friends, locals from Vladivostok, laughed at us and cheerfully toasted that "Tomorrow will be worse!" We decided to ignore the cultural and climate implications of that message and drink up!
My next few posts (hopefully a few throughout our month here) will be short, blunt and cold because I'm trying to assimilate into the Russian culture. Thanks for following along!
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