Thinking
more about our visit in Vladivostok yesterday, we enjoyed our excursion there very
much. Once away from the streets near
the harbor, the city is very hilly. Very
soon, our bus was up high on a hill, where our guide pointed out a funicular,
like an elevator that goes up and down steep inclines, as we had used in
Valparaiso, Chile. Still, probably most ship
passengers chose to walk in the city instead of taking Princess excursions
because many streets are so accessible from the dock. Some people toured a World War II submarine
not far from the ship. The world’s
longest suspension bridge (according to our dinner companions, Louise) was
recently completed and extends from the city to an island, replacing a
ferry. At our dinner table, Louise commented
that she would be afraid to drive on it after seeing the run-down appearance of
some of the city’s buildings. She had
taken an excursion during which she visited someone’s home, which was a small
apartment with a tiny kitchen – not nice at all, though she said the person is
upper class, being the widow of a high-ranking physician.
Vladivostok was closed to foreigners until 1992. No wonder the people are curious about
outsiders. Our ship, the Diamond
Princess, has been stopping there twice each year, but it is a small harbor. Before entering the gate to re-board the
ship, we looked for just a few minutes at the items laid out nearby for
sale. Among the merchandize were some warm
Russian fur caps; Jesse commented that if he were still taking daily walks at
lunch time as he did when he was working, he would have bought one. About then, two women standing nearby spoke
to us in broken English; at first, we thought they were fellow passengers, but soon
realized they were actually local people.
One of them asked to take Jesse’s photo, but then asked me if he was my
husband. Anyway, they took turns posing
with Jesse (and me, though I was definitely secondary) while the other snapped photos. Earlier, one of our young guides had told
Jesse that she thought he was “very handsome.”
Obviously, they don’t see many black people in Vladivostok, and so he
was a big hit!
Again last night we set our clocks back one hour. Thus far on this cruise, we have set our
clocks back every night, except for two nights when we set them forward! “Back” is much better, so that we get an extra
hour of sleep! After breakfast, we
hurried to don our bathing suits, but then were distracted by a good movie just
starting on TV. (Movies run on various
channels, but seeing a movie from the beginning is sometimes difficult to manage.) This one was “Hope Springs” with Meryl Streep
and Tommy Lee Jones. Over an hour-and-a-half
later, we were on our way to a swimming pool.
Yesterday we found a small, round pool on the back of the ship that is warm
and very shallow (3’2’’ to 4’3”). It is
much out of the way of onlookers, and is just the right size for Jesse to practice
his basic stroke and exercise his leg.
(Without the regular water aerobics as at home, he finds it harder to
stand, walk, or dance for very long.) For
Sally, the pool is about 3 full crawl strokes across the diameter. Afterward, we sat in the nearby hot tub.
When
we reached our cabin near the front of the ship, we didn’t have time to even
rinse off the pool water before we dressed to go to dance class. This class was a review of what has been
taught in the various dance steps thus far.
After class, we returned to our cabin to shower and rest for an hour
before hurrying to the Club Fusion, where the Diamond Princess Orchestra played
for an “afternoon tea dance.” Tea,
finger sandwiches, and sweets were served, a real sugar feast for us. Although we tried to practice some of the new
steps that we supposedly learned in our onboard dance classes, we really didn’t
remember much – maybe just enough to be totally confused!
In
the late afternoon, we could see numerous small fishing boats in the distance;
and we saw, even farther away, what appeared to be bigger ships whose paths
were perpendicular to ours. We joked
that they might be North Korean ships warning our ship to keep some distance
from their waters. Francisco commented
that they probably were North Korean ships performing military exercises near
the South Korean border. Yesterday,
while we were in the swimming pool, a military jet flew directly over us; we
all assumed it was Russian, possibly showing off for our benefit. After returning to our cabin, Jesse watched most
of another movie, “Sweet Home Alabama.”
Since
Louise and Ralph didn’t show up for dinner, we had an interesting conversation
with Francisco and Marlies. They live in
the Austrian mountains near Switzerland and Italy. In his younger days, he was a mountain
climber and later managed mountain climbing and hiking for others. He has traveled to some interesting places,
such as Cuba, which he and Marlies liked very much. Also, in 1973 (in the days of the Iron
Curtain) he took a train on the Trans-Siberian railroad from Moscow to
Vladivostok; he was actually traveling for Japan. More than once, he has visited Cape Verde, which
is an island in the Atlantic Ocean about 400 miles west of Senegal, a country
in Africa.
After
dinner, we danced in the Club Fusion for about an hour. Jack and Pat, whom we had seen on the dance
floor every night, came over and introduced themselves. They live in Surprise, AZ, in the Phoenix
valley. As we were returning to our cabin
about 8:30 to prepare for tomorrow’s excursion, we saw numerous boats in the
distance, some with very bright lights.
Another passenger told us that they were fishing boats, using the lights
to attract fish and eels.
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