After yesterday's long journey it was nice to have had a good sleep and wake up fresh and ready to go. However, I do feel rather frustrated and did not achieve all the things I had originally planned to do here.
The reality is that most of the places like the art gallery and museums are quite spread out and although I had planned to bus and visit the great statue of a soldier on a hill (and get a view over the city), then visit a nearby museum and church, I didn't do it.
I was particularly conscious of my sore leg and I didn't feel that climbing a hill was going to be much help to it. Secondly it was likely to rain, although in actual fact this was very light and short.
I did feel a little overwhelmed by everything being in the Russian alphabet. Neither of the two maps I had actually had the names in the Russian way. So one had to somewhat guess what the sign said by deducing from where you had come and what you could see. I had established last evening which was Lenin Prospect and worked from that. Although I must admit that the name of Lenin on the street signs didn't look anything like what I would expect. However counting the letters showed that they matched up. But then some of the side streets off Lenin Prospect did have street names which were in the English alphabet rather than the Russian. Or at least enough overlap to make sense to me.
I walked down the Prospect to what the map called 'Five Corners' and that was all it was although it did have a spacious car park taking up one side of the 'square'. Several tall buildings were on the side of the area. One was a hotel. I was intrigued to find a large Soviet period emblem on an archway and building. It had a large red star on top an picture of Lenin and a shield as some of its components. Down one of the roads I could see a whole run of apartment buildings towing up on the ridge top of a hill.
Traffic can be busy, especially at this point, but all seems controlled. No one tries to cross except at the designated crossings. Here at 'Five Corners' the lights gave us 25 seconds to cross the four lanes. It was manageable, but no car would move until the last pedestrian had gone past them. Elsewhere, where there was not always a crossing controlled by lights, cars would politely give way and stop allowing you to cross safely. Even if they were coming along at speed, if you had started to cross, they stopped. Often the stopped if they thought you wanted to cross, so that was impressive.
I decided that as Vorovsky St was one leading off 'Five Corners' I would wander along it and locate Gulliverrus which was where my bus leaves from tomorrow. Number 8 was the street number, but try as I might I could not find number 8. In Russian, even the street name looked different but the map assured me I was in the correct area. It was not until I was walking back on the other side of the road that I spied an bus stop notice on a lamp post right on a corner. It said in English and Russian Gulliverrus Bus to Kirkenes Bus Stop. So I had passed it a couple of times but I had been looking towards the buildings and not at lamp posts. So that took up a slice of time.
My next move was to head towards some trees I had seen down another road. I was hoping that I would be able to get a view of the harbour from here. I covered two or three blocks to reach my destination, which turned out to be a tree lined walkway running above the railway tracks and a industrial area which obscured any good view of the harbour. I took a number of photos and headed to cross a pedestrian bridge spanning above the tracks. I thought if I went part of the way I would get a good view – of something if not the harbour.
Here I met a couple of interesting, non threatening characters.
The first was a well dressed late thirties man. He stopped and greeted me. He had been drinking and was at the happy stage. He told me he was the chief cook on a ship and his contract had just finished. So he was heading off for a beer. He did invite me along and he would shout me one as well but I declined. His English was fair – enough with hand signs to converse. He did know a couple of English words, both of four letters which he enjoyed using with a smile. He had been a soldier in Afghanistan and showed me his passports and photos proving that. So perhaps he was older than I thought? Also his competency certificate for seamanship. He told me the seas get very rough and around Spitzenberg his knife had slipped while he was chopping things for the meal. He had scars to prove it. We parted good friends as he headed off for beer.
I took some photos of the tracks.
Then I was greeted by another man, older this time. Not very good English but we established that he was from the Ukraine and had worked in Murmansk for 23 or was it 28 years. In five years he would go home to the Ukraine. We parted with his comment "Russia bad, Ukraine good".
No sooner had he gone on than a cheery "Hello" called out and it was the happy chief cook returning. This time with a bottle of beer. He whipped the cap of and offered me a drink. I took a couple of cautious slips and handed it back . He was happy and in a few minutes he headed back to the wharf.
On the hill I could see the giant statue of a soldier which is a feature of the city. Originally I had planned to take a bus and then do a 20 minute walk or climb up to it, but that was one activity which I gave up in preference to taking it a little easier for my leg's sake.
Wandering back into Lenin Prospect I stopped to watch workers in a trench laying new insulated piping, wandered along a parallel street to the Prospect looking at the little stores often selling up market goods. I also looked at the range of good cars parked along the road. At one point I spotted the latest and modern looking version of the Lada Cossack which Robyn once had. I don't think she would get as many humorous comments if she had been driving this version. I think Putin's instructions a year or so back for Lada to shape up and improve their product were wasted.
I called into a cafe listed in Lonely Planet for coffee. It is the only establishment I have seen which is anything like a NZ style coffee bar. Quite nice coffee, in fact I had a couple of cups.
I spent longer in the cafe watching a film in TV. The sound was turned off so that it wouldn't compete which the CD player. It was a modern black and white movie and although I could not hear it I did get a sort of story line. It didn't look American and I thought German but wondered if it could be Russian. I asked the young waiter if it was Russian. He took one glance and laughed saying 'no way it's not Russian'. As it was I did finally see evidence on screen that it had to be German.
Coming out of the cafe it was cooler and my ankle area was hurting so I made a slow way back to the hotel, where I lay down to rest it and watch the World Cup. The next thing I knew was an hour later when I woke up. It was after 6 pm.
So I started the blog, texted Robyn and after a while decided that I had to carry my boots out again with replacement in soles. I had the boots of when my leg got sore originally and as a result I have been in shoes since.
They felt OK . So I headed off to the same restaurant as I went to last evening. At the earlier hour it was much busier but there was not a problem getting a table. My waitperson was Angela and she was reasonable in English and gave good attentive service. I ordered borsch and a pork chop with eggplant and tomato. Both were enjoyable as was the glass of Chilean Red.
I commented to Angela that the same fish programmed was on TV as I watched last evening. Not complaining but just conversing. A few moments later the programme changed and I was able to watch a continuous run of good rational animation about children's toys coming alive. Colourful and although silent – they had the sound down too so music could play. After a while I asked Angela about the cartoons and said I was enjoying them. She knew a lot about them. They were classics made around 50 years ago and told traditional Russian stories. She had watched them as a little girl and loved them, especially their bright colour. However, I can not remember the animators name even though she told me. Mamma Mia is another of the Lonely Planet listings and was well worth going to on both evenings. Besides nice food, it was easy to find and not too far away from the hotel.
I have enjoyed spending time in a Russian city. I have only seen one couple who looked like Western tourists. That was on the way back from the cafe and they were walking down from the Park Lane Hotel and he had a little video in his hand filming as he went along. A sure sign of tourists. Me; I didn't have a camera or back on me. If he had swung the camera around at me I would have know that I passed as a local. Ha Ha.
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