Not all of it, obviously, but I certainly gave several cubic metres a damn good thrashing. It was pretty amazing actually - we walked with our host to pebbly 'sofa beach' on the edge of Vladivostock yeterday evening and it was so wonderful to hear the sea again lapping against the beach after travelling for so long through such a big land mass. I never thought I'd get to swim in the Pacific Ocean, and certainly not from Vladivostok.
We have been extremely lucky again with Hospitality Club, and are currently hosted by Anastasia who is spending all her time with us and helping us loads. It makes me reflect how terrific the Hospitality Club is: before we met up with Nastia we were in a hotel for 2 nights, and we spent our time strolling round town, eating out and generally having a cosseted and pampered time of it. None of this is to be sneezed at of course, but we were very definitely in the tourist trap and we could've been anywhere. But within hours of meeting up with Nastia we had gone to her family appartment (one of the so-called 'frigate' buildings: low-rises maybe only 8 stories high but very long and thin, maybe 30 apparments long, running along the hillsides), eaten a refreshingly normal Russian supper and were in a small but good recording stuido where her friends make music (all of Vkladivostok it seems like their music with Rocks in. Very loud rocks.) mostly under the beady eye of Zakka, also a good musicial who plays guitar, drums and sings. Dave Grohl eat your heart out. In short, the Hospitality Club is giving us a really unique opportunity to see and understand the true nature of the places we visit, well away from the tourist trails and making the experience immensely richer for it.
So we are off to Japan on Monday, and I have very mixed feelings. Obviously Japan sounds brilliant and it will be great to go there, but I really have fallen for Russia especially Siberia and the Far East. Apart from the unbelievably laberynthine bureaucracy and administrative systems (I cannot begin to explain how we tried, and only succeeded with Nastia's help, to register our visas here - all very Douglas Adams including cellars, hidden rooms, forms in triplicate etc.), and the way Russians cannot get their heads around disposing of litter let alone recycling reasonably (it is not uncommon for the guy next to you on the bus to lean over and throw his glass beer bottle out of the window, regarless of other traffic or pedestrians. The streets (and beaches) of Russia are mostly paved with broken glass as a consequence) the country is incredible both in terms of geography, culture and the warm hearts of the people here with whom I feel a strong affinity. It will be sad to wave goodbye.