The smile is fake, I felt sad to leave them.

Besides that, I didn’t really enjoy the idea of having to sit on a bus for the next 15 hours:

I hate bus rides, I hate bus rides, I hate bus rides:

We rumbled along, and Russia just flew by:

There was a stop once, and as I staggered out of the bus, I noticed something terrible:

I hadn’t visited a single one of the great orthodox churches during my month in Russia:

Damn!

…

Then we reached the border:

I was told not to take any pictures, but hey: fuck ‘em, right?

You see, the custom inspection went really smooth for everyone, except for me of course. I figured this was either because they had never seen a German here before, or because I had adopted that certain fuck ‘em attitude.

Will we ever know?

So I ended up staring at this note on the wall for quite a long time, while some important people were looking over my documents:

Mesmerizing.

…

And then suddenly, like a cherry stone being spit into the summer air, I landed in China:

…

I was the last one to get back on the bus, and it was only then that I realized that the bus driver dudes had added a couple of more passengers, so that I didn’t have a seat anymore:

Great.

When we stopped at our next destination, I wandered around for a little while…

…and when I returned, we suddenly decided that almost all passengers were back on board, so we might as well get going again.

ALMOST all passengers.

There had been a Chinese lady and her little child who were missing. We just drove off with their stuff, leaving them there:

That leopard bag sat there for the rest of the way, while I was wondering about what the lady and the child would do when they came back only to realize that the bus was gone. Would they say fuck ‘em, too?

But hey, at least now I had a seat.

…

When I got to 哈尔滨 (Harbin) in the evening, my connecting train to 长春 (Changchun) was already gone. I had missed it by 20 minutes and was pretty mad.

Food usually helps against my bad temper, so I went and got some fries at the KFC:

When I got on the next train a few hours later, I was quite surprised though – there I was, surrounded by some of the nicest people ever! We chatted away for the next three hours, talking about totally meaningful stuff and making ridiculously meaningless jokes, and then we finally gathered for a group picture to immortalize this epic train ride:

It was good, very good.

When I got to 长春, I was pretty exhausted though:

I was going to stay at a friend’s house there, and we had originally made great dinner plans, but since it was already so late we just got a burger at Macky D, I took a half-assed picture of a nameless lake by the road, and then we finally crashed at his apartment:

Do I really remember myself whispering the words fuck ‘em when I finally fell asleep in my friend’s living room that night?

There was more traveling to come in the morning.

Soundtrack: Angry Samoans – “Ballad Of Jerry Curlan”

I am going to miss Russia – and most of all her lovely people:

This is my friend Андрей (Andrej):

He used to be a skydiver and has made over 1.000 jumps. Apart from that, he is one of the funniest guys ever. Much respect!

We drank Парламент (Parliament):

This is a relatively young and affordable brand, which has already built a solid reputation. I thought the bottle looked fucking ugly, but the taste was pretty good – nothing out of the ordinary, a good and reliable vodka. I’d give it a 7/10.

There seemed to be this weird halo around the moon. I saw it before I went to bed:

Maybe it was because of my vodka tasting spree?

Soundtrack: Brazzaville & Minerva – “The Clouds In Camarillo”

See, those guys might not be very much fun to hang out with, but it’s good to know they are trying to keep the nazis in check.

I’d hate to see more places drift to the extreme right like Hungary did.

…

Anyway, I was going to enjoy my last two days in this beautiful country, so we met up with some friends and a bottle of vodka.

This guy is a talented DJ…

…and this bottle is a Императорская Коллекция (Imperatorskaya Kollektsiya):

Apparently this is supposed to be a premium brand of vodka, but I didn’t really like it that much. There was no gentleness in its taste. A 4/10, maximum.

Then we went home and had some assorted nuts dipped in honey, which was totally awesome:

…and of course there was more vodka:

This brand is called Русица (Russitsa), and at first I couldn’t really appreciate it either.

…but then I realized it had a very subtle and mild aftertaste. 6/10.

Life is good, guys. Life is good.

Soundtrack: Cee Lo Green – “FUCK YOU”

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”

Awesome!!

Then we went to see some friends who live in a large building from the Stalin-era:

I thought the exterior was pretty creepy…

…and so was the staircase:

All of this seemed to make perfect sense though: Stalin was apparently a nutcase and a major SOB, so that means his architects must have sucked too, right?

But wait!

Here’s the a view of the family’s living room:

…and their kitchen:

…walls that are four meters high? Arched windows? Parquetry?
How cool is that?

It just seemed like nobody wanted to take care of the communal parts of the building:

I put the camera on one of the balconies, hoping that the structure would hold.

And hold it did:

776 shots (balcony, timed remote, manual settings: 5sec. f5.6 ISO100 16mm 7sec-intervall).

Needless to say that I really liked this building.

Soundtrack: Sneaker Pimps – “6 Underground”

…

There was a line at the ticket place:

I counted maybe ten people before me, so I figured this wasn’t going to be a problem, since I already had my reservation:

…but the ladies behind the tiny window…

…seemed like they were not moving at all…

…and in the end it took me almost two hours to get there:

Maybe if I’m lucky…

…the bus driver will drive a bit faster to make up for the time?

…

I felt very sorry for poor Рада (Rada), who had been waiting in line with me all this time.

So I was very happy when she told me that she had to go to the bank and that I had to wait for her there.

Easy as pie – I just grabbed a few crayons and colored some stuff:

See my handwriting? I tried to dedicate this brilliant piece of art to the Apec Summit 2012. Unfortunately, I somehow managed to spell the Russian word саммит with a “у”. Damn.

Well, I rewarded myself with Блины (pancakes) anyhow:

They tasted pretty good, maybe like a Hungarian palacsinta or a French crêpe.

I was surprised to find out that vending machines in Владивосток (Vladivostok) are often supplied by Japanese or Korean companies:

It’s the little things like this that remind me that this city is in fact located in the Far East of Asia, not in Europe.

…

Рада and me took some fun pictures on the central square:

Please note: I only do basic corrections on my photographs, so even if these two shots might look like montages, they are really not:

We had to walk home because we missed our bus, so I was able to take a few night shots:

I think this city is quite photogenic:

…as are many cities in Asia.

Soundtrack: Black Eyed Peas – “My Humps”

When I finally got to the place, it was just a long corridor…

…with a mysterious office behind a door:

“Please come back with your passport in order to buy the ticket!” they told me.

Damn, I should have known.

…

I picked up a copy of the local classifieds, opened the center page and marveled at all the young maids they have here:

So much cleaning service, the apartments in this area must be really spotless!

…

Lately I have been thinking, might as well turn this site into a full-blown food blog: The Longest Meal or The Fattest Way, which one is better?

Anyway, I had another taste of that good Russian ice-cream today:

This brand is called “Инмарко” (Inmarko), and it hails from Siberia.

Who could have known that they made such tasty ice-cream up there in the North?

Tried my first serving of пельмени (pelmeni), too. They’re a bit similar to Chinese 饺子 (dumplings):

These were not home-made, but they tasted alright and we fried them – yummy!

…then, out of the blue, this weird stuff came to our door:

Here’s how it happened:

You can hear me stumble over the words: “У нас есть икра!” (We have caviar!)

I was very excited, but I eventually found out that I didn’t really like this stuff.

…

Here’s a new local brand of vodka:

It’s called Tigroff, and it’s supposed to be ginseng-flavored. Sounds interesting eh? Well, I didn’t really enjoy the smell, the taste or the aftertaste that much. It wasn’t disastrous, but it wasn’t exactly good either. Maybe a 3/10.

…check out the slashed bottle design though, RAWR!!

This is me posing with Рейчел (Rachel) the lovely family dog:

She is such a sweetheart!

I tried taking a similar picture with Сенат (Senate), the arrogant family cat…

…but it didn’t work out:

- he was just that split second faster than me.

That’s why I like them so much.

The beauty of cats.

Soundtrack: Madball – “Down By Law”

852 shots (tripod, timed remote, manual settings: 1/60sec. f5.6 ISO100 16mm 5sec-intervall).

Well, and it got way too dark in on the last 450 shots or so. Damn.

Nick commented on the grocery post a few days ago and told me to try кефир (kefir). I am not sure if this originally from Russia, and I think I have seen it before in Germany, too. But anyways I did give it a try:

Haha…

Those of you who have been with me all along will probably remember how much I enjoyed the Chinese metal fans back in the days in 北京 (beijing).

Well, today something nice happened – there was a rock show in a bar downtown:

My first time in a Russian bar!!

The local heroes Q-Ragga were playing – they seemed very young and energetic, and their style reminded me a bit of mid-nineties Incubus, which was totally awesome.

The kids were loving them:

And they deserved every bit of it:

I had a great time and got to hang out with a whole bunch of friendly and interesting people, most of which were friends of Наталья (Natalya) and Рада (Rada):

And then the bestest thing happened:

Yes, they were really playing that song!!

Ubercool.

Soundtrack: Rage Against The Machine – “Killing In The Name”

804 shots (tripod, timed remote, manual settings: 1/60sec. f5.6 ISO100 16mm 5sec-intervall).

The place was okay, but maybe I can find a better one later.

Apart from the fact that my video compression just plain sucks, I think this time-lapse went well, because the movement of the clouds was pretty neat. The downside is that the whole frame got a bit too dark near the end. I need to find a workaround for this problem.

Soundtrack: System Of A Down – “Toxicity”

I heard weird noises:

When I looked out the window to see what was happening, I saw a bunch of people gathered around:

A fight?
A block party?
A spontaneous insurrection?

When I went downstairs to find out, I was handed this paper:

I asked: “Это парти?” (Is this a party?) but they just laughed and accused me of being a шпион (spy) and an агент (agent).

Aww… but I wanted to be a Баттл МС (Battle MC)!!!

All I could understand is that there was an argument about the maintenance of the building:

I did my spy work and filmed some parts of the discussion:

Maybe it makes more sense to you?

Note: this has not been edited for speed – they REALLY speak that fast.

Soundtrack: Tim Dog – “Dog’s Gonna Getcha”