Today, Рада (Rada) and me decided to check out a place called Русский Остров (Russian Island):

Russian Island on larger map

This island has apparently been chosen by the central government to be transformed into a major tourist destination, so we figured it might be an interesting place to visit.

A bridge from the city to the island was already under construction, but it wasn’t completed yet, so we had to take the ferry:

…but when we finally got there, we realized that it just wasn’t as much fun as we had thought.

There were construction sites everywhere:

Containers:

Abandoned buildings:

Abandoned cars:

Abandoned bunkers:

…the most interesting place seemed to be a playground in front of a few inhabited buildings:

…and there was a small strip of coastline that could well qualify as one of the worst beaches ever:

A bunch of cows were hanging out next to that beach…

…and we suddenly figured it was about time for us to go…

…

That’s when we ran into Алекса́ндр (Alexander), a truck driver who had been delivering cement to a construction site and was waiting for his ferry back to the mainland:

He lives close to the Тайга (Taiga) and loves to go hunting there, but lately he has been spending most of his time in his truck, or on the island waiting for the ferry.

“Why don’t you just hop in one of our trucks and let our ferry take you back to the city?” he asked us, when we told him that we wanted to leave this boring place as soon as possible.

We figured this was a good idea…

…so we said hello to the other trucker dudes…

…and got in the trucks:

Here’s a video of the ferry back to the city (at 2000% speed):

…and a picture of some dudes in the harbor:

We walked around town for a while after that, and I ran into two little ones sharing their sticker albums next to one of the high-rises in the hills:

They don’t have an easy life up here: each window in the building means a one-room apartment, and apparently the percentage of the poor, the drunk and the unemployed is pretty substantial.

…

The day ended on a good note though, because I had an epic moment of LOL when I noticed these posters:

Epic. Just epic.

Soundtrack: Modern Talking – “You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul”