Day 92 Saturday 2nd July 2011
Svetlana told us last night that today was the birthday of Vladivostok and a quick check on Wikipedia showed the founding date to be 2nd July 1860 so here we were on the 151st anniversary of the city. The market square was full of folks watching the main stage where performances as diverse as ballet, singers, naval bands, and such like kept us amused and entertained for a good hour or so. We moved further up Svetlanskya Street and found another stage in the small park by the theatre, a stage which was populated by the acts that we had not long seen in the main square – they were obviously moving around from venue to venue.
The day was heavy and humid so we made our way to the hotel past the brides having their pictures taken by the old church near the S56 submarine. Back at base we caught up with the bit of sleep lost last night because of roadworks that took place right through the wee small hours and kept me awake and left me more than a little tired at breakfast.
Yuri rang about 5pm and asked us out for a beer so we headed off with him to a couple of bars where, during conversation, he confirmed our belief that we have stayed in Vladivostok the longest of all the travellers that he has dealt with over the past fifteen years.
The episode with the ship (which we also learned tonight was languishing in the harbour with our bikes on board for ten days) had not happened before in Yuri’s time dealing with shipments. It seems that it may be possible that FESCO will release the container paperwork on Monday and then we will go (same day) to customs with Yuri to clear the bikes – getting the bikes by Friday now looks like a strong possibility but we know not to count our chickens !
Yuri also imparted that the pomp and ceremony that we had witnessed on board the Pallada tall ship yesterday was the president of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, visiting Vladivostok – now we know why the streets were coned and why there were lots of dark glassed vehicles buzzing around the city.
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