Trip to the Arctic Circle
We hadn’t bought our plane tickets to come back from Murmansk (Мурманск) yet and we were coming back in about 10 days, and we didn’t really have a full plan of what we were going to do. There was a tentative plan, but about an hour before we bought the plane tickets, we decided (Matt and I) to change up what we were actually going to do. We fixed the trip to how WE wanted it, and it worked out really well. We had made the plans, then told the people that were interested in going, and it turned out to be 6 and we bought our plane tickets that night. A few days later we bought the first leg of the train travel ticket.
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
The train left at 1:20 am. I got to the station early of course, but my ticket was in the hands of Bonnie, because she bought mine online at the same time she bought hers so we’d be in the same area on the train. She and Cami didn’t show up to the train station as early as everyone else, so the other three got on the train and I impatiently waited. But I realized we still had more time than I thought, so all turned out just fine. They showed up with the internet confirmations and we all got on the train. It was a long, but a fun train ride. I slept well on the train…twice. It was a 24 hr train ride to our first destination, Kem (кемь).
All day Wednesday we were on the train. It made a few stops, and I got off a few times just to stretch and to get an ice cream or something, but other than that, I was on the train for a straight 24 hrs. Since the beds, from head to toe, are under 6’ long, I slept either with my feet hanging off the edge (I was on the top bunk), curled in a ball, or my favorite, with my feet out the window. This was the best way because then I stayed nice and cool, the others in the car stayed nice and cool, the window wouldn’t slide up, and the lady on the bed next to mine couldn’t sneak the window up-Russians have this crazy fear, and even have a word for it (it escapes me at the moment what the word is), but they basically fear having two windows in the same area open because you’ll get sick if they’re both open. Weird. Who knows, maybe I made EVERYONE in our car sick, but it was too hot and humid to not have the window open.
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
At 1:10 am our train arrived in кемь. We took taxis to the coast, about 10 km from the train station. The first ship out to the Solovetsky Islands left at 8 am. So, we had about 6 ½ hrs to kill. The taxi drivers drove us to somewhere towards the coast to where there’s a famous house on the coast. There was a famous Russian movie filmed here. So, after getting our bearings and taking the taxi ride, it was about 3am or so I think. So, for about 3 hours we walked around the beach of the White Sea, checked out the old house/building, I found some barbed wire and cut a piece off with the wire snips I had on my fake Leatherman and rolled it up. The idea was that even though it wasn’t a big piece, I wanted to try to get it back to America for Grandpa and his collection. I don’t know if it’s a cool piece or anything special, but I figured he didn’t have any from the former Soviet Union, and that’s exactly what it was. We took pictures and explored more (exploring is probably my all time favorite thing I’ve done in Russia). We set our bags down at a pavilion and played some cards for about an hour at about 6 am. At 7 am we went and ate breakfast at a hotel of some sort. A little before 8 am we boarded the ship and at 8 am we set sail…even though there were unfortunately no sails on the ship.
I stayed up top most of the whole 3 hrs, even though it was raining and a bit cold partly because I wanted to be outside and partly because 4 of the other 5 were becoming couples and I didn’t want to just sit there by myself with them there. So, I went out on the deck and I enjoyed eaves dropping on people speaking Russian and others speaking Finnish. It felt SOOO good to listen to some Finnish. It’s always music to my ears. It’s the prettiest language in the world to me. Some day, I’ll be fluent. Also, I was REALLY hoping to spot a whale, but I didn’t see any.
On the island, we walked around and in a monastery which was being rebuilt since it was mostly all burnt down. It was nice inside, and looked good from the outside too, but my favorite part here was the 3-4 ft wall that went around the whole place. While exploring, I found a whole in the wall. It looked big enough to slide through, so of course, that’s exactly what I did. And I got 3 of the others to do it too. My shoulders were almost too wide, it was a bit of a tight fit, but it was pretty awesome. We got some pictures, and even a video of me going through. Later, Cam and I went back inside and went up a ladder (where only the construction workers were probably supposed to go). We wanted to find a way into the tower that was connected to the front of the wall, but unfortunately the floor was missing, and we didn’t feel like risking the climb on the big rocks that made up the walls of the wall going all around the place, like a fortress. So we left. But later, while everyone else was just sitting around, I put my backpack down, and from the outside, I climbed the wall, and went in through a window and got into the tower. I was pretty proud of myself, and it was a lot of fun. After that, we went swimming. We didn’t go swimming directly in the White Sea, but about 20 yards from the White Sea was a lake. The Holy Lake. I don’t know why, but the water was red. The sand wasn’t red either. But the water was. It was pretty awesome. I skinny dipped in it of course. The water was pretty cold, but not too cold to stay in it for an extended period of time…at least not if you’re a Finn. After that, we went back to the Ship and at 5pm we departed. On the way back I was of course looking for whales again, as were most people since the weather was a bit warmer, dryer and clearer, but as far as I know, no one spotted any whales.
Once we got back to кемь we just headed towards the train station and got on about 20 min later. This ride wasn’t as long, but it was a lot of fun too. There was a family in the section right next to us that had 3 kids I think. I think they were all girls. Those girls, along with their mom, all had shaved heads. I don’t know why, maybe some sort of religious thing, or maybe they had lice or something, but the kids were SO cute and they were just like little monkeys-climbing everywhere and jabbering on and on.
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
We arrived in Apatit (Апатит) which was our first destination NORTH of the Arctic Circle, at about…………………….We took a bus from the train station and got into the middle of Kirovsk (Кировск). We took out our map that we ripped out of a Lonely Planet book (which by the way helped us a lot with our planning and finding out info about where we were travelling, in case anyone who reads this-if anyone reads this, is looking to travel somewhere that they don’t know a whole lot about), and got ourselves to the hotel we had planned on staying at. This ended up being more expensive than Lonely Planet said it would be (check prices ahead of time), but it was still a decent price. This was my favorite place of all the places we visited on the trip (the city, not the hotel). First, Katie and Cam were too tired to do anything, so Bonnie, Cami, Matt and I went down to the abandon train station that Lenin had built. It’s said that he was the first and last to ride the train here (he came and left really quickly and I guess it didn’t last long). I got some really good pics and a video of it too. While we were walking outside of it down the abandon train tracks, Cami and I both found a bunch of old railroad spikes from the abandoned Soviet railroad, so now I have a Soviet railway spike. It was pretty windy, so we headed back to the hotel to get more warm clothes and try to get Cam and Katie to come with us to try to go hiking, which we successfully did.
I brought extra layers and jackets for this trip. Not because I thought I would be cold (because that’d be ridiculous, me, a Finn, cold in the Arctic Circle? Nah. So, I brought the extra clothing for the girls who I KNEW ahead of time would not have brought enough warm clothes. One girl actually had ONE pair of pants and like 5 pairs of shorts! All three girls had a jacket, but NO raincoat or rain gear of any sort (I’m not counting the wimpy pathetic umbrella that one of them brought). So it’s a good thing I brought what I did, and I probably should have brought more, but I just didn’t want to carry more-poor choice, but oh well. The weather here was really windy and rainy and then the sun would come out, and then it would start all over again. I had SOO much energy, and so much more than everyone else (I don’t know why everyone else can’t run around like a crazy man on only a few hrs of sleep several days in a row like I can, but their loss). We took a gazelle (a little yellow bus), thinking it was the right one to get us up to the area we wanted to try to hike. We got on the wrong one. Luckily, the city is NOT big at all. The guy got to the end of the line, and we told him where we wanted to go. He didn’t make us pay. He just had us get on a diff one, who took us back to square one, again not making us pay (I LOVE small town folk, they’re the best), and then we got on the right one. The guy took us up, then after we got out asked us if we wanted him to take us up farther (out of his route) for an extra 100 Rubles (about $3.10) and we took his offer. He left, we found out that the Botanical Gardens that we wanted to check out just HAPPENED to be closed today. The hike we wanted to try was going to start from inside there. So the lady told us to just walk up the dirt road and go from there, so we did. We finally got into the woods and it was beautiful and windy. Then it started to rain a bit and the wind blew like crazy! I ran up ahead, scouting out areas for us to rest, and found a really good spot to rest, that was blocked from the wind. I pulled out a bunch of chocolate (since it was cold and I knew everyone would need it and it would help boost the spirits) and then when the wind died down we took off. A family caught up to us-dad, mom two kids- all carrying their own packs, and then there was a dog as well. They passed us and then we followed them for a bit. Then we got to a stream that was not deep, but a little too wide to jump across. The dad pulled out rubber boots that went from toe to crotch and carried his family across one by one. It was awesome seeing a Russian family doing an activity like that together. Unfortunately, we did not have that equipment, and we didn’t think we should ask him to carry us across. By this time, Bonnie was wearing my flannel shirt under her sweatshirt, and Cami was wearing my rain jacket. I took off my jacket, even though when I offered it to Katie she refused (even though I KNEW she was cold) and I put it in my backpack and went to work trying to figure out how we could cross the stream dry. Well, I’m the only one that made it across dry. Most everyone else took their shoes and socks off and walked through it-NOT smart in my mind, ‘cause cold wet feet are just asking for sickness, but whatever to them. I found a log that was probably about 15” around or more and about 6’ long. Struggling, I picked it up, and carried it down to a part in the stream where I thought it would help me cross. It didn’t work as well as I had planned, but it worked well enough. Cami filmed it, hoping that I would fall in ‘cause it would be a funny video. I had to balance on the log, then I jumped from it to a big rock, and from the rock to a barrel in the water and then to dry land. Only the toe of my left foot got a little bit wet, so all in all, very successful. It was really fun. Then we just hiked around on the path for a while, taking pictures of the beautiful scenery. I still had LOTS more energy than everyone else, and I was in shorts and a t-shirt, (finally Katie asked for my jacket that was in my pack pack) and I ran up ahead, checking all of the ridges, running up them and back down, keeping everyone in sight, but far enough away to be on my own. It was magnificent. We finally made it to our final destination-a lake that we had seen hours before that we decided we wanted to get to. It was getting late, but then again, it wasn’t going to get dark. Ever, that night. So we weren’t worried really (although, I was still worried about the girls freezing). We hiked back, and crossing the river was about the same. I made it across, only getting my right shoe a little bit wet. Almost everyone else this time got at least a whole foot wet. Some both feet up to their shins were soaked. But, we soon made it back, got a bus and went back to the hotel and watched Aladdin and went to bed. That was the best part of the trip, and I hope to make it back there someday with some brothers and friends and camp out there. Actually, I didn’t go to bed. I wasn’t tired, so I went out on a jog by myself, with my camera and just talked to people around the city and looked around and such. It felt so good.
A little bit about the city Кировск. It’s THE place for Russians living in the west/north, far from the Ural Mountains, to go skiing and boarding in the winter. But, during the summer, the town is DEAD. Hardly anyone lives there, and the tourists are even fewer.
Saturday, July 24th, 2010
In the morning, after sleeping on a VERY uneven bed with broken springs, I got up, and soon everyone else did. We got the girls up by calling them (since they were in a diff room of course), and then we packed our stuff and went for a walk. We looked at stores and such, but really we were just waiting for the Russian Banya to open, which opened at 3pm. Our bus was going to leave at 5, so it would give us just enough time to do the Banya and then make it to the bus. The Banya is pretty much like a sauna, and I still don’t really understand/know what the difference is, but this was probably my favorite ‘Russian’ experience since I’ve been in Russia. I’ve been wanting to go, but in Moscow, like everything else, it’s more expensive. It’s like 600-900 Rubles in Moscow, and in Кировск we only had to pay 230 or 240 Rubles for it. The guys and girls are separate of course. A lady escorted us into a room that had 3 old naked men sitting around. She walked in, and they all talked with the lady for a min, then she left. I took my shoes and shirt off, but before I went further, I looked at Matt and Cam. We all just weren’t sure what to do or what was going to happen. I felt like as soon as I took everything else, the lady was going to come back in and give me something or escort me somewhere or start hitting me with the birch branches or something. But then I just decided whatever happens, happens. So we undressed and sat on a bench, still not knowing what to do. One of the old men told us to go in through the next door of course. So we did. In this room, which was about 18’x18’, were two showers, several buckets that had birch branches in them, and more naked old Russian men. It couldn’t get any better right? Wrong. It got better. I saw another door, and we walked into what looked like a sauna to me, but it was the Banya. It was heated by having EXTREMELY hot water run through the pipes in the room. Other than that, it looked just like a sauna. It was hot, but not hot enough for me, but hot enough for the other two. But that didn’t matter. Another man walked in, and instantly knew it wasn’t hot enough, so he turned the heat WAY up. I liked it, but the other two had never really experienced it before, but soon we all liked it. We went in and out, taking a cold shower in b/w each time. The second time I went in, I saw some birch branches just chilling in a bucket so I grabbed them and took them with me into the Banya. Matt did the same thing. We soon found out that they were NOT the community birch branches, and old men came in looking for them. Luckily, another man said something about us being foreigners and didn’t know. While in the Banya, we made friends with a Russian man who was a police officer. He was super friendly and we talked a lot-one of my favorite experiences about Russia and Russians so far. He invited us to the local soccer game for that night. He was going to be there for crowd control or something. He told us that they don’t use weapons, they just use their fists. Haha, such a small town, and SO awesome. If it were up to me, we would have stayed in Кировск for another night and hiked more today and gone to the soccer game that night, but we had to get to our bus (we’d already bought the tickets). After getting out of the Banya, my skin felt better and softer than it EVER had before. Ten times better even than after using NuSkin products. I felt so healthy and clean too, which was good, ‘cause I only showered at the hotel, and then rinsed a lot at the Banya…didn’t shower again until Monday evening ;) Before getting on the bus, we were able to find a computer with internet in the library. I wished Kristin a happy Pioneer Day, and happy Birthday, and then I checked to see if we were going to have somewhere to stay in Мурманск. Luckily, we did. The contact I’d been working through with CouchSurfing.com didn’t look like he was going to be in town, but lasts min he was. That was a great blessing, not that I wouldn’t have loved to sleep outside, but it wasn’t what everyone wanted to do. So we got on the bus and left to Мурманск, and arrived there at about 9:30 pm. We got a hold of Vadim (our soon-to-be Russian friend via CouchSurfing) and found out that he wasn’t going to be in town until 1am Sunday, but it was good enough for us. So then we just walked around the city, figured out how to order pizza and got it to us and ate dinner. It was pretty good pizza, for Russia at least.
Sunday, July 25th, 2010
We finished our pizza and waited for Vadim to let us know when he arrived, which he did soon after 1am. We took taxis to his place. The apt complex was a Soviet DUMP, but inside, his apt was actually really nice, although not very big. Cami slept on a beanbag chair, and the rest of us slept on the wood floor, with a blanket underneath us. I slept decent, but I’m sure I would have slept better outside on the ground, but oh well. Vadim is a very interesting character. He knows English really well, but he starts EVERY sentence and EVERY thought with anywhere between one and seven “so’s”. It was kind of annoying but he was a really nice guy. In the morning, when we finally all woke up, he told us where to go to see a few things and then later he met up with us and gave us a bit of a tour. He was a really good tour guide, although most of what he was taking us to, we weren’t too interested in. We’ve seen our fill of monuments for the most part and such, but we did get a tour for 100 rubles of an ice breaker. It was actually really cool and really big. Other than that, Мурманск wasn’t the favorite place, but it’s the biggest city north of the Arctic Circle, so it was worth it. Before getting to the airport, we went to a big grocery store, the biggest one I’ve been in since I’ve been in Russia, and looked for some food for dinner and for the plane ride. At this point, I haven’t showered in a about 2 days, I’m wearing a bandana of course (just like I did the whole trip) and I haven’t shaved at all in about 10 days. And of course I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I had TONS of girls eyeing me up and down as I walked by and they were giggling and such. It felt like I was back in Taiwan on my mission. The best part though, is when I went to buy some bread. I was looking at the bread that was filled with meat. I asked the lady who worked that counter which one was best. She suggested the chicken, so I had her cut me a piece and bag it for me. As she(she is about 60 years old) hands me the bag, she asks me where I was from. I told her America. I swear her eyes almost fell out of their sockets, they got so big! Then a split second one of her co-workers is walking by. Old lady summons the younger co-worker and says something like, “Lina, this is an American.” “Lina isn’t married. You could marry her and take her back with you to America” or something like that. I smiled, said hello to Lina, said it was nice to meet her, and then I left. I think about if I had only been in Russia for a week and had that same experience, I probably would have just smiled and nodded or something, and got myself really mixed up in stuff! Maybe not quite that bad, but my Russian has improved, and I think this was a comical way for Heavenly Father to show me that my Russian has improved J
At about 9:30 we got on a bus and went to the airport. The airport was much more exciting for me than anyone else and here’s why. I of course had my barbed wire, four knives, a lighter and a box of matches with me. I banked on security being much more lenient than in the states. I also devised a plan on how I could sneak them on with me, if I wasn’t able to check a bag. Well, they do things a bit different in Russia, at least in small town Russia. You have to get all your bags scanned and you yourself go through the metal detector before you have the option of checking any baggage. So, as I hand a man my passport, I ask him, and quickly grabbed the attention of the two other men that were close by. The others said it was really funny to see through the glass window all of them lean in closer as I started to speak. I said “можно check a bag?” Which means basically ‘Can I check a bag.’ I knew of course they probably wouldn’t understand, but I wanted their attention, and I got it really fast. I didn’t know how to say it, and my dictionary was packed, so I gave them an example. I said, in Russian, “for example, if I have a knife, of course I can’t take it on the plane, but can I put it with my bag somewhere else on the plane?” One guy got it right away and said the word for it to the others. They smiled and said, “no” and basically made it plain that carrying anything like that is NOT allowed…Well, all of my knives, barbed wire and fire stuff were wrapped in the middle of my packpack. I didn’t have time to take them out, secure them to sneak them through with the more sure way that I had devised, so I just went with it. I put my pack-pack on the conveyer belt, and it went through. My belt made the alarm go off, so I knew that worked well. I took the belt off and made it through. My pack-pack went through and she pushed it back through. Cami was behind them, and threw the window she said that she could see what they were looking at, and it looked like a knife even. Then they just pushed it through. I was slightly (ok VERY) astonished, but tried not to show it, and tried not to act excited. I slowly finished putting my belt on, picked up my pillow, and threw my pack-pack on, and slowly walked away, with a GIANT smile of victory inside, that probably showed through to the outside. Cami, Matt, Bonnie and Katie all just stared, wide-eyed, wondering HOW I did it. I came out on top, and it was the BEST feeling ever! I love getting away with little things like that J Just makes you fee good inside, you know?
Monday, July 26th, 2010
I had 3 seats to myself, and I was out fast, and woke up just in time to get a sandwich and drink and then ate the sandwich, bite by bite in b/w naps I took on the 2 ½ hr plane ride. We arrived, and we waited in the airport from about 3am to 6:30am when the express train left to go straight to the metro station. Then 2 went home, and the other four of us went to the school to go to class…yeah, that didn’t work out. 2 of us slept pretty much straight through all of it, in the basement where it was nice and cool (me and Katie), which was the smartest thing to do, ‘cause I would have been worthless in class, and I wouldn’t have been able to sleep as well at the apt ‘cause it would have been too hot. The two that actually did go to class said that they felt bad ‘cause they pretty much just slept through the whole thing. It’s still hard to believe that I was in the Arctic Circle yesterday (it’s still Tuesday, even though I know I won’t be able to post this until Wed probably). It is definitely on my top 10 trips I’ve done. Can’t wait to go again!
Congratulations to all of you (if any) who actually made it through this pictureless blog. If you made it, make sure to ask me in 4 weeks when I’m back in the US to see some pictures, ‘cause I’d love to show them to you!
We hadn’t bought our plane tickets to come back from Murmansk (Мурманск) yet and we were coming back in about 10 days, and we didn’t really have a full plan of what we were going to do. There was a tentative plan, but about an hour before we bought the plane tickets, we decided (Matt and I) to change up what we were actually going to do. We fixed the trip to how WE wanted it, and it worked out really well. We had made the plans, then told the people that were interested in going, and it turned out to be 6 and we bought our plane tickets that night. A few days later we bought the first leg of the train travel ticket.
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
The train left at 1:20 am. I got to the station early of course, but my ticket was in the hands of Bonnie, because she bought mine online at the same time she bought hers so we’d be in the same area on the train. She and Cami didn’t show up to the train station as early as everyone else, so the other three got on the train and I impatiently waited. But I realized we still had more time than I thought, so all turned out just fine. They showed up with the internet confirmations and we all got on the train. It was a long, but a fun train ride. I slept well on the train…twice. It was a 24 hr train ride to our first destination, Kem (кемь).
All day Wednesday we were on the train. It made a few stops, and I got off a few times just to stretch and to get an ice cream or something, but other than that, I was on the train for a straight 24 hrs. Since the beds, from head to toe, are under 6’ long, I slept either with my feet hanging off the edge (I was on the top bunk), curled in a ball, or my favorite, with my feet out the window. This was the best way because then I stayed nice and cool, the others in the car stayed nice and cool, the window wouldn’t slide up, and the lady on the bed next to mine couldn’t sneak the window up-Russians have this crazy fear, and even have a word for it (it escapes me at the moment what the word is), but they basically fear having two windows in the same area open because you’ll get sick if they’re both open. Weird. Who knows, maybe I made EVERYONE in our car sick, but it was too hot and humid to not have the window open.
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
At 1:10 am our train arrived in кемь. We took taxis to the coast, about 10 km from the train station. The first ship out to the Solovetsky Islands left at 8 am. So, we had about 6 ½ hrs to kill. The taxi drivers drove us to somewhere towards the coast to where there’s a famous house on the coast. There was a famous Russian movie filmed here. So, after getting our bearings and taking the taxi ride, it was about 3am or so I think. So, for about 3 hours we walked around the beach of the White Sea, checked out the old house/building, I found some barbed wire and cut a piece off with the wire snips I had on my fake Leatherman and rolled it up. The idea was that even though it wasn’t a big piece, I wanted to try to get it back to America for Grandpa and his collection. I don’t know if it’s a cool piece or anything special, but I figured he didn’t have any from the former Soviet Union, and that’s exactly what it was. We took pictures and explored more (exploring is probably my all time favorite thing I’ve done in Russia). We set our bags down at a pavilion and played some cards for about an hour at about 6 am. At 7 am we went and ate breakfast at a hotel of some sort. A little before 8 am we boarded the ship and at 8 am we set sail…even though there were unfortunately no sails on the ship.
I stayed up top most of the whole 3 hrs, even though it was raining and a bit cold partly because I wanted to be outside and partly because 4 of the other 5 were becoming couples and I didn’t want to just sit there by myself with them there. So, I went out on the deck and I enjoyed eaves dropping on people speaking Russian and others speaking Finnish. It felt SOOO good to listen to some Finnish. It’s always music to my ears. It’s the prettiest language in the world to me. Some day, I’ll be fluent. Also, I was REALLY hoping to spot a whale, but I didn’t see any.
On the island, we walked around and in a monastery which was being rebuilt since it was mostly all burnt down. It was nice inside, and looked good from the outside too, but my favorite part here was the 3-4 ft wall that went around the whole place. While exploring, I found a whole in the wall. It looked big enough to slide through, so of course, that’s exactly what I did. And I got 3 of the others to do it too. My shoulders were almost too wide, it was a bit of a tight fit, but it was pretty awesome. We got some pictures, and even a video of me going through. Later, Cam and I went back inside and went up a ladder (where only the construction workers were probably supposed to go). We wanted to find a way into the tower that was connected to the front of the wall, but unfortunately the floor was missing, and we didn’t feel like risking the climb on the big rocks that made up the walls of the wall going all around the place, like a fortress. So we left. But later, while everyone else was just sitting around, I put my backpack down, and from the outside, I climbed the wall, and went in through a window and got into the tower. I was pretty proud of myself, and it was a lot of fun. After that, we went swimming. We didn’t go swimming directly in the White Sea, but about 20 yards from the White Sea was a lake. The Holy Lake. I don’t know why, but the water was red. The sand wasn’t red either. But the water was. It was pretty awesome. I skinny dipped in it of course. The water was pretty cold, but not too cold to stay in it for an extended period of time…at least not if you’re a Finn. After that, we went back to the Ship and at 5pm we departed. On the way back I was of course looking for whales again, as were most people since the weather was a bit warmer, dryer and clearer, but as far as I know, no one spotted any whales.
Once we got back to кемь we just headed towards the train station and got on about 20 min later. This ride wasn’t as long, but it was a lot of fun too. There was a family in the section right next to us that had 3 kids I think. I think they were all girls. Those girls, along with their mom, all had shaved heads. I don’t know why, maybe some sort of religious thing, or maybe they had lice or something, but the kids were SO cute and they were just like little monkeys-climbing everywhere and jabbering on and on.
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
We arrived in Apatit (Апатит) which was our first destination NORTH of the Arctic Circle, at about…………………….We took a bus from the train station and got into the middle of Kirovsk (Кировск). We took out our map that we ripped out of a Lonely Planet book (which by the way helped us a lot with our planning and finding out info about where we were travelling, in case anyone who reads this-if anyone reads this, is looking to travel somewhere that they don’t know a whole lot about), and got ourselves to the hotel we had planned on staying at. This ended up being more expensive than Lonely Planet said it would be (check prices ahead of time), but it was still a decent price. This was my favorite place of all the places we visited on the trip (the city, not the hotel). First, Katie and Cam were too tired to do anything, so Bonnie, Cami, Matt and I went down to the abandon train station that Lenin had built. It’s said that he was the first and last to ride the train here (he came and left really quickly and I guess it didn’t last long). I got some really good pics and a video of it too. While we were walking outside of it down the abandon train tracks, Cami and I both found a bunch of old railroad spikes from the abandoned Soviet railroad, so now I have a Soviet railway spike. It was pretty windy, so we headed back to the hotel to get more warm clothes and try to get Cam and Katie to come with us to try to go hiking, which we successfully did.
I brought extra layers and jackets for this trip. Not because I thought I would be cold (because that’d be ridiculous, me, a Finn, cold in the Arctic Circle? Nah. So, I brought the extra clothing for the girls who I KNEW ahead of time would not have brought enough warm clothes. One girl actually had ONE pair of pants and like 5 pairs of shorts! All three girls had a jacket, but NO raincoat or rain gear of any sort (I’m not counting the wimpy pathetic umbrella that one of them brought). So it’s a good thing I brought what I did, and I probably should have brought more, but I just didn’t want to carry more-poor choice, but oh well. The weather here was really windy and rainy and then the sun would come out, and then it would start all over again. I had SOO much energy, and so much more than everyone else (I don’t know why everyone else can’t run around like a crazy man on only a few hrs of sleep several days in a row like I can, but their loss). We took a gazelle (a little yellow bus), thinking it was the right one to get us up to the area we wanted to try to hike. We got on the wrong one. Luckily, the city is NOT big at all. The guy got to the end of the line, and we told him where we wanted to go. He didn’t make us pay. He just had us get on a diff one, who took us back to square one, again not making us pay (I LOVE small town folk, they’re the best), and then we got on the right one. The guy took us up, then after we got out asked us if we wanted him to take us up farther (out of his route) for an extra 100 Rubles (about $3.10) and we took his offer. He left, we found out that the Botanical Gardens that we wanted to check out just HAPPENED to be closed today. The hike we wanted to try was going to start from inside there. So the lady told us to just walk up the dirt road and go from there, so we did. We finally got into the woods and it was beautiful and windy. Then it started to rain a bit and the wind blew like crazy! I ran up ahead, scouting out areas for us to rest, and found a really good spot to rest, that was blocked from the wind. I pulled out a bunch of chocolate (since it was cold and I knew everyone would need it and it would help boost the spirits) and then when the wind died down we took off. A family caught up to us-dad, mom two kids- all carrying their own packs, and then there was a dog as well. They passed us and then we followed them for a bit. Then we got to a stream that was not deep, but a little too wide to jump across. The dad pulled out rubber boots that went from toe to crotch and carried his family across one by one. It was awesome seeing a Russian family doing an activity like that together. Unfortunately, we did not have that equipment, and we didn’t think we should ask him to carry us across. By this time, Bonnie was wearing my flannel shirt under her sweatshirt, and Cami was wearing my rain jacket. I took off my jacket, even though when I offered it to Katie she refused (even though I KNEW she was cold) and I put it in my backpack and went to work trying to figure out how we could cross the stream dry. Well, I’m the only one that made it across dry. Most everyone else took their shoes and socks off and walked through it-NOT smart in my mind, ‘cause cold wet feet are just asking for sickness, but whatever to them. I found a log that was probably about 15” around or more and about 6’ long. Struggling, I picked it up, and carried it down to a part in the stream where I thought it would help me cross. It didn’t work as well as I had planned, but it worked well enough. Cami filmed it, hoping that I would fall in ‘cause it would be a funny video. I had to balance on the log, then I jumped from it to a big rock, and from the rock to a barrel in the water and then to dry land. Only the toe of my left foot got a little bit wet, so all in all, very successful. It was really fun. Then we just hiked around on the path for a while, taking pictures of the beautiful scenery. I still had LOTS more energy than everyone else, and I was in shorts and a t-shirt, (finally Katie asked for my jacket that was in my pack pack) and I ran up ahead, checking all of the ridges, running up them and back down, keeping everyone in sight, but far enough away to be on my own. It was magnificent. We finally made it to our final destination-a lake that we had seen hours before that we decided we wanted to get to. It was getting late, but then again, it wasn’t going to get dark. Ever, that night. So we weren’t worried really (although, I was still worried about the girls freezing). We hiked back, and crossing the river was about the same. I made it across, only getting my right shoe a little bit wet. Almost everyone else this time got at least a whole foot wet. Some both feet up to their shins were soaked. But, we soon made it back, got a bus and went back to the hotel and watched Aladdin and went to bed. That was the best part of the trip, and I hope to make it back there someday with some brothers and friends and camp out there. Actually, I didn’t go to bed. I wasn’t tired, so I went out on a jog by myself, with my camera and just talked to people around the city and looked around and such. It felt so good.
A little bit about the city Кировск. It’s THE place for Russians living in the west/north, far from the Ural Mountains, to go skiing and boarding in the winter. But, during the summer, the town is DEAD. Hardly anyone lives there, and the tourists are even fewer.
Saturday, July 24th, 2010
In the morning, after sleeping on a VERY uneven bed with broken springs, I got up, and soon everyone else did. We got the girls up by calling them (since they were in a diff room of course), and then we packed our stuff and went for a walk. We looked at stores and such, but really we were just waiting for the Russian Banya to open, which opened at 3pm. Our bus was going to leave at 5, so it would give us just enough time to do the Banya and then make it to the bus. The Banya is pretty much like a sauna, and I still don’t really understand/know what the difference is, but this was probably my favorite ‘Russian’ experience since I’ve been in Russia. I’ve been wanting to go, but in Moscow, like everything else, it’s more expensive. It’s like 600-900 Rubles in Moscow, and in Кировск we only had to pay 230 or 240 Rubles for it. The guys and girls are separate of course. A lady escorted us into a room that had 3 old naked men sitting around. She walked in, and they all talked with the lady for a min, then she left. I took my shoes and shirt off, but before I went further, I looked at Matt and Cam. We all just weren’t sure what to do or what was going to happen. I felt like as soon as I took everything else, the lady was going to come back in and give me something or escort me somewhere or start hitting me with the birch branches or something. But then I just decided whatever happens, happens. So we undressed and sat on a bench, still not knowing what to do. One of the old men told us to go in through the next door of course. So we did. In this room, which was about 18’x18’, were two showers, several buckets that had birch branches in them, and more naked old Russian men. It couldn’t get any better right? Wrong. It got better. I saw another door, and we walked into what looked like a sauna to me, but it was the Banya. It was heated by having EXTREMELY hot water run through the pipes in the room. Other than that, it looked just like a sauna. It was hot, but not hot enough for me, but hot enough for the other two. But that didn’t matter. Another man walked in, and instantly knew it wasn’t hot enough, so he turned the heat WAY up. I liked it, but the other two had never really experienced it before, but soon we all liked it. We went in and out, taking a cold shower in b/w each time. The second time I went in, I saw some birch branches just chilling in a bucket so I grabbed them and took them with me into the Banya. Matt did the same thing. We soon found out that they were NOT the community birch branches, and old men came in looking for them. Luckily, another man said something about us being foreigners and didn’t know. While in the Banya, we made friends with a Russian man who was a police officer. He was super friendly and we talked a lot-one of my favorite experiences about Russia and Russians so far. He invited us to the local soccer game for that night. He was going to be there for crowd control or something. He told us that they don’t use weapons, they just use their fists. Haha, such a small town, and SO awesome. If it were up to me, we would have stayed in Кировск for another night and hiked more today and gone to the soccer game that night, but we had to get to our bus (we’d already bought the tickets). After getting out of the Banya, my skin felt better and softer than it EVER had before. Ten times better even than after using NuSkin products. I felt so healthy and clean too, which was good, ‘cause I only showered at the hotel, and then rinsed a lot at the Banya…didn’t shower again until Monday evening ;) Before getting on the bus, we were able to find a computer with internet in the library. I wished Kristin a happy Pioneer Day, and happy Birthday, and then I checked to see if we were going to have somewhere to stay in Мурманск. Luckily, we did. The contact I’d been working through with CouchSurfing.com didn’t look like he was going to be in town, but lasts min he was. That was a great blessing, not that I wouldn’t have loved to sleep outside, but it wasn’t what everyone wanted to do. So we got on the bus and left to Мурманск, and arrived there at about 9:30 pm. We got a hold of Vadim (our soon-to-be Russian friend via CouchSurfing) and found out that he wasn’t going to be in town until 1am Sunday, but it was good enough for us. So then we just walked around the city, figured out how to order pizza and got it to us and ate dinner. It was pretty good pizza, for Russia at least.
Sunday, July 25th, 2010
We finished our pizza and waited for Vadim to let us know when he arrived, which he did soon after 1am. We took taxis to his place. The apt complex was a Soviet DUMP, but inside, his apt was actually really nice, although not very big. Cami slept on a beanbag chair, and the rest of us slept on the wood floor, with a blanket underneath us. I slept decent, but I’m sure I would have slept better outside on the ground, but oh well. Vadim is a very interesting character. He knows English really well, but he starts EVERY sentence and EVERY thought with anywhere between one and seven “so’s”. It was kind of annoying but he was a really nice guy. In the morning, when we finally all woke up, he told us where to go to see a few things and then later he met up with us and gave us a bit of a tour. He was a really good tour guide, although most of what he was taking us to, we weren’t too interested in. We’ve seen our fill of monuments for the most part and such, but we did get a tour for 100 rubles of an ice breaker. It was actually really cool and really big. Other than that, Мурманск wasn’t the favorite place, but it’s the biggest city north of the Arctic Circle, so it was worth it. Before getting to the airport, we went to a big grocery store, the biggest one I’ve been in since I’ve been in Russia, and looked for some food for dinner and for the plane ride. At this point, I haven’t showered in a about 2 days, I’m wearing a bandana of course (just like I did the whole trip) and I haven’t shaved at all in about 10 days. And of course I’m wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I had TONS of girls eyeing me up and down as I walked by and they were giggling and such. It felt like I was back in Taiwan on my mission. The best part though, is when I went to buy some bread. I was looking at the bread that was filled with meat. I asked the lady who worked that counter which one was best. She suggested the chicken, so I had her cut me a piece and bag it for me. As she(she is about 60 years old) hands me the bag, she asks me where I was from. I told her America. I swear her eyes almost fell out of their sockets, they got so big! Then a split second one of her co-workers is walking by. Old lady summons the younger co-worker and says something like, “Lina, this is an American.” “Lina isn’t married. You could marry her and take her back with you to America” or something like that. I smiled, said hello to Lina, said it was nice to meet her, and then I left. I think about if I had only been in Russia for a week and had that same experience, I probably would have just smiled and nodded or something, and got myself really mixed up in stuff! Maybe not quite that bad, but my Russian has improved, and I think this was a comical way for Heavenly Father to show me that my Russian has improved J
At about 9:30 we got on a bus and went to the airport. The airport was much more exciting for me than anyone else and here’s why. I of course had my barbed wire, four knives, a lighter and a box of matches with me. I banked on security being much more lenient than in the states. I also devised a plan on how I could sneak them on with me, if I wasn’t able to check a bag. Well, they do things a bit different in Russia, at least in small town Russia. You have to get all your bags scanned and you yourself go through the metal detector before you have the option of checking any baggage. So, as I hand a man my passport, I ask him, and quickly grabbed the attention of the two other men that were close by. The others said it was really funny to see through the glass window all of them lean in closer as I started to speak. I said “можно check a bag?” Which means basically ‘Can I check a bag.’ I knew of course they probably wouldn’t understand, but I wanted their attention, and I got it really fast. I didn’t know how to say it, and my dictionary was packed, so I gave them an example. I said, in Russian, “for example, if I have a knife, of course I can’t take it on the plane, but can I put it with my bag somewhere else on the plane?” One guy got it right away and said the word for it to the others. They smiled and said, “no” and basically made it plain that carrying anything like that is NOT allowed…Well, all of my knives, barbed wire and fire stuff were wrapped in the middle of my packpack. I didn’t have time to take them out, secure them to sneak them through with the more sure way that I had devised, so I just went with it. I put my pack-pack on the conveyer belt, and it went through. My belt made the alarm go off, so I knew that worked well. I took the belt off and made it through. My pack-pack went through and she pushed it back through. Cami was behind them, and threw the window she said that she could see what they were looking at, and it looked like a knife even. Then they just pushed it through. I was slightly (ok VERY) astonished, but tried not to show it, and tried not to act excited. I slowly finished putting my belt on, picked up my pillow, and threw my pack-pack on, and slowly walked away, with a GIANT smile of victory inside, that probably showed through to the outside. Cami, Matt, Bonnie and Katie all just stared, wide-eyed, wondering HOW I did it. I came out on top, and it was the BEST feeling ever! I love getting away with little things like that J Just makes you fee good inside, you know?
Monday, July 26th, 2010
I had 3 seats to myself, and I was out fast, and woke up just in time to get a sandwich and drink and then ate the sandwich, bite by bite in b/w naps I took on the 2 ½ hr plane ride. We arrived, and we waited in the airport from about 3am to 6:30am when the express train left to go straight to the metro station. Then 2 went home, and the other four of us went to the school to go to class…yeah, that didn’t work out. 2 of us slept pretty much straight through all of it, in the basement where it was nice and cool (me and Katie), which was the smartest thing to do, ‘cause I would have been worthless in class, and I wouldn’t have been able to sleep as well at the apt ‘cause it would have been too hot. The two that actually did go to class said that they felt bad ‘cause they pretty much just slept through the whole thing. It’s still hard to believe that I was in the Arctic Circle yesterday (it’s still Tuesday, even though I know I won’t be able to post this until Wed probably). It is definitely on my top 10 trips I’ve done. Can’t wait to go again!
Congratulations to all of you (if any) who actually made it through this pictureless blog. If you made it, make sure to ask me in 4 weeks when I’m back in the US to see some pictures, ‘cause I’d love to show them to you!
6 comments:
Haha I can EASILY see your feet sticking out the train window as it goes by! But, it sounds like in order to fully appreciate a trip such as this, you need someone like me, a fellow Finn and Brother, to accompany you. I never get cold, I jump across rivers, I don't sleep, I like knives, I don't get too hot in Saunas, or banya's for that matter... not that I've ever been in one haha, I would have climbed the fortress with you, etc. etc. You are seriously living the dream.
1. Finnish has always been music to my ears. I can hear it first above anything else.
2. Don't you love hearing children speak Russian?
3. I'm glad you had soft skin.
4. You forgot to mention that you thought of me all day on July 22.
5. Couch surfing! Sometimes random foreigners seem so much more charitable than Americans, huh?
6. Did you know that I experienced the arctic circle in Finland? (But only for a couple hours.)
You were in the Arctic Circle? great...another thing the Girl in the family did before the rest of us *sigh* =.= (that's my Chinese smiley face)
Erik, it's so true. You were definitely the missing piece in that trip. When we go (and you know we will) on an epic trip, it'll be the best trip ever. Wish you were flying to Finland with me next week.
Amazing. Are you finished traveling the countryside now? I'm assuming you didn't leave out any dangerous parts that would worry your mother, because I would hate to think you did anything else that was more daring than what you've written! Glad you're safely back!
I'm pretty sure I didn't leave anything out. Oh, except when we were in the Banya and Cam fell, buck naked down the stairs and kicked me in the bum at the same time. I think I forgot that part, but everything else is pretty much how it went down I believe.
I'm pretty sure I didn't leave anything out. Oh, except when we were in the Banya and Cam fell, buck naked down the stairs and kicked me in the bum at the same time. I think I forgot that part, but everything else is pretty much how it went down I believe.
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