Day 2: Vladivostok

Now when I say some characters, I do truly mean, I have no idea what these people are about.  Most of my life, whenever I have hostelled, I knew I was in for meeting or at least rooming with other travelers and likely some interesting people.  People who are staying the night to sight-see or are overnighting for business, travel, whatever.  But in this hostel, I think some of these people just live here?  That's not even the word.  Um, hibernate? One woman - she slept all day.  And then she slept all night.  Then she took a shower.  Then she WENT BACK TO SLEEP.  

I'll elaborate.  I woke up at 8 and left the hostel to go exploring.  I needed to find a bank to change money and, after standing outside of one for ten minutes mustering the courage to go inside, I was finally successful.  Then, I got lost.  So, around 12 I went back to my hostel to re-group.  When I got back that woman was still sleeping. 

Vladivostok is an interesting city.  It's an old city, with old soviet buildings scattered everywhere.  Amongst these old buildings are new, modern, innovative buildings and bridges, boats, and a very beautiful coast.  It's new; it's old.  Overall though, not a ton to see, unless you have a car and can drive out to the beautiful islands that are dusted off the coast.

I did stop in one museum.  As I was purchasing my ticket, a woman was pointing in the direction of my coat pocket and saying something.  I keep shrugging my shoulders and she kept pointing until the ticket woman yelled at me "at the cat!"  The woman was pointing at a cat in the distance behind me.  Suhrryy....

I headed back to the hostel and lo and behold the sleeping woman was sleeping.  And the other smelly characters that were staying there were in fact there.  Playing video games, watching Putin on TV, eating Ramen.  What were these people doing there? I guess I'll never know.

Day 1: Suwon to Vladivostok

I went to visit an old friend, whom I haven't seen in over three years, in his hometown of Suwon thinking it would be a convenient stop along the way to Incheon airport.  Well, it was convenient, but not necessarily my best decision.  I forgot how much he loves to drink.  We met up at 7pm and I don't remember getting back to his place, but he tells me it was around 3am.  The last conscious moment I had was at 11pm.  That's a lot of lost time.  I honestly have no memories, but I will forever remember the worst hangover of my LIFE the next day.  And this is how I began my 36 day journey to Russia.

I got to the airport and, despite my hangover, I was feeling like a total BAMF with my coat, backpack, and nothing else - ready to take on the hugest country on earth.  It was only when a man came up to me at the gate asking me something in Russian that the reality of how little grasp of the language I have really hit me.  I totally choked.  My default in this situation is to smile and nod however, Russian people don't like when strangers smile.  They see it as insincere.  That's when I realized I'm in for a month of really awkward situations.

Now side note, whenever I book a flight, I ALWAYS choose the special meal option.  Why?  1) You get your food first.  2)  It's always healthier and more delicious.  I SWEAR by this.  I bring this up because I did not do this on my flight to Russia.  So our inflight food was a smoked salmon sandwich.  Now, I loves me some lox, but on a plane? Like, in the air?  Where did that salmon come from and how long was it sitting in a paper box.  I want to know.   But maybe that's just me.

My plane arrived late and I, very unfortunately, had to take a taxi to my hostel.  It was expensive and I had a fight with my driver because he tried to swindle me.  Also, he stopped to get gas midway through the drive and kept the meter running.  I was having none of that.  I won the fight, got to my hostel and despite rooming with some true characters, I slept.

It begins, well, kind of

In an effort to preview my Russian blog, I'll  start here at Newark Airport.  That is, Newark to Korea, to be clear.

I arrive at the airport at 3.30am and head over to my favorite counter, the check-in counter.  After 30 minutes of inevitable scrabbling to get both of my overweight bags down to appropriate proportions, leaving countless valuables behind, I begrudgingly head to security.  Side note: I need to install a luggage scale thing in my house.  #Futuregoals

Oh, security.  Or should I say, oh post 911 America?  I have a backpack (that contains electronics that I need to take out for the scan), a coat, a fanny pack (NOT proud of this) and I have my Benes.  As you may already know, we're at the point in US security where we almost literally need to strip down to our undergarments before we can walk through the security system. We approach the scan and Benes gets to walk with me through the metal detector, happily avoiding the X-ray scan (I can tell by her wagging tail.)  So, through we go and, to no surprise as this happens to me EVERY TIME, I get "randomly" (though it doesn't seem that random) checked and have to have my hands tested.  Meanwhile all of my boxes of crap are now lined up outside the X-ray scan and are causing a backup in the line.  Benes's crate is at the end of the line.  I HAVE to put her down in order to pick up things.  So in my haste I place her in one of the X-ray boxes.  Of course, she jumps out and is now running down the X-ray counter causing chaos.  I'm trying to gather my things and get the dog.  The airport people are yelling at me about the dog.  I'm like "I KNOW GUYS!  What do you want me to do?!?" I finally manage to get all of my things together and get out of there and onto the next leg of the process.

Well, after that fiasco, I thought that I was in for a long, long journey.  Turns out, everything went pretty smoothly.  In fact, as I was getting off the 13 hour flight to Seoul, a stewardess saw Benes and said, "Oh my god!  Has the dog been on the flight the whole time??"  (She was surprised because Benes was so quite.) "Yes," I told her, "the WHOLE time."