Bleak Russian Port

Petropavlovsk, Russia
Talk about a grim place! Cold, wet, and dreary. Such a contrast to St. Petersburg which is magnificent. Many of the buildings in Petropavlovsk were concrete block and deteriorating, and until recently no outsiders were permitted here because of the strategic military value (relatively close to Alaska). Not far from the ship was a huge statue of Lenin, and the town did give us a sense of the bleakness of some parts Russia, and what life must have been like in the former Soviet Union. We walked up and down the two main streets with one of the jazz pianists from the ship, bundled up (Ronnie even had one of the blankets from the ship) and trying to avoid the snow and ice (yet this was late May!). We found one souvenir shop which had some hand carved ivory and even some Russian hats (of course, they were real fur and over a hundred dollars). No we didn’t buy any of these, although we did purchase one small item as part of our grandson’s Russian heritage. The Russian items were cheaper and more plentiful in Alaska.

The highlight of the day was a matronly Russian woman who walked by us and Ronnie did her usual smile and “hello.” After passing us, the woman turned around, came back and gave Ronnie a big hug saying in broken English something to the effect of “I am so glad you are here.” We were touched and took a photo with her, and later were told how unusual for a Russian to do such a thing. We went back to the ship early and then decided to go back to the dock where they had an impromptu gift shop set up in one of the empty dock buildings. Not so fast; we had turned in our passports, and the Russian authorities already had stamped us “outgoing,” and were not going to let us back on Russian soil. Good-bye Russia.