russia: a moscow monastery and old house

I'm not sure how I got motivated on a Monday morning to go see something, but I did. Not surprisingly, I got started later than I should have, but oh well, life goes on. The place I wanted to see was just a small house, called Pogodinskaya Izba. 

The name doesn't really translate, other than izba meaning the word hut.

It's a cute, wooden house, painted blue. I suppose what makes it aesthetically interesting is that it's quite small, and is in the middle of a huge, international city.

There are two reasons people want to see this house, based on the google reviews. One, the house dates all the way back to 1856, which is pretty impressive in a city like Moscow. And two, famous writers like Tolstoy and Gogol have visited the house.

Pogodinskaya izba used to be a museum, but from what I can tell, it isn't much of anything anymore, just a blue, wooden house.

Even though I was running late in getting to school, I couldn't help but stop to take a photo of a random war memorial as I ran to the metro station.

The next day was Tuesday, which meant I had the afternoon off. I spent a couple hours at school doing random stuff, but then went to the metro and rode to a stop near Donskoy Monastery.

Donskoy Monastery dates back to the end of the 16^th century, when the first cathedral was consecrated.

Fun fact, years later another cathedral was built; designed by Ukrainian masons and artisans. Another fun fact: the frescoes in the 'new' cathdral were the first in Moscow to be painted by a foreigner, Antonio Claudio.

There are a couple other churches within the walls, I think. One of them seems to be mostly to house the mausoleum of someone, though it does have a small gold iconostasis in its lower level. I will admit to being really cold when I stepped into this church, so some of my time inside was simply to get feeling back in my fingers. 

The whole monastery is surrounded by brick walls, they're really impressive. To get into the property you walk through the base of the bell tower, which is plenty impressive all by itself.

The 20^th century was not a happy one for the monastery. The complex was closed after the October Revolution, in 1917. From 1922 - 1925 Patriarch Tikhon was held in the cloister after his arrest, and he chose to stay there after his release. He was later made a saint by the church, and his relics were found after his canonization, in 1989.

Wikipedia tells me some of the buildings in the monastery served as a penal colony for children. During the Communist years of 1930-1946 the church was closed for services and instead housed a factory. I haven't found a date when the monastery started functioning as a religious organization again, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was sometime in the '90s.

There is a large cemetery area inside the walls of the monastery, some of the grave markers were quite large. I would've walked through a bit more, but everything was still covered in snow. 

Some of those buried here include former noble families like Zubov and Galitzine. (No, I don't know those names, but maybe someone reading this does.) There are no communists buried within the walls, so the families of some Russian Whites decided to have their remains repatriated from other countries and reburied here. Apparently Solzhenitsyn wanted to be buried in this cemetery for the same reason, rather than Novodevichy cemetery, which is associated with Communism.

On my way back home I was 'happy' to see the police officers keeping everyone 'safe' in the metro. 

usa: wisconsin: milwaukee and kenosha

I chose to make this post about the two cities I visited in Wisconsin.

Kelley and Jon like to travel and explore as well, but don't get to do it as often as I do. (Not many people do.) Though I usually say they live in Chicago, that's not quite true, they live in one of the suburbs. I mention this because when you look at a map you realize it takes just as long to get into downtown Chicago as it takes to get to Milwaukee, in Wisconsin. There are a number of fairly large cities that aren't all that far away if you have your own transportation.

We decided to do a quick half day in Milwaukee one Sunday, just because we could. The drive was easy, and only about an hour.

Milwaukee has nearly 600,000 people, and is the largest city in the state of Wisconsin.

Our first stop was related to one of Jon's loves, beer. He loves brewing beer, so it made perfect sense to visit one of the cemeteries in the city where a number of beer barons and their families are buried. There was supposed to be a museum/information center in the cemetery, but it wasn't open when we arrived. Maybe because it was Sunday? Maybe I'll come back another time and learn more.

We parked and walked through various parts of the cemetery. There were different sections for the family that started Pabst, and Schlitz (sp?) and more. Not surprisingly, some of what we saw were big, fancy mausoleums. I wonder how often or if family members come to visit their dead relatives. It was saddest to see the graves of children who didn't even live long enough to be named.

From there we drove through the city to a modern art staircase with a nice view of the city. The stairs aren't the sight, it's the little observation platform at the bottom of the stairs that is the sight. 

The guidebook that lists this set of stairs says locals have mixed feelings about it, because it doesn't really fit into the neighborhood aesthetic, and they don't love random strangers driving through just to stop and take photos of and on the stairs.

The same guidebook that listed these stairs also listed a bridge in a suburb of Milwaukee. We drove there, only to be quite disappointed. It was just a bridge over a small valley. No water that I could see, no view worth seeing. I have no idea how this bridge ended up as a listed sight.

At that point we were feeling peckish, so we headed to a chili place Kelley wanted to try. She got food to go for her lunches at work that week. Jon and I were able to hold off until we got to a branch of Leon's Frozen Custard.

Apparently frozen custard is a Milwaukee thing. It's basically ice cream, but with egg yolks in addition to the milk and cream. This makes it heavier, and meltier. Leon's has two or three traditional flavours, as well as a flavour of the day option. I went with three scoops of raspberry, which was pretty good but not amazing.

Somehow all of us ended up eating it all without dripping all over ourselves, woo hoo!

From there it was an easy drive back home. I'd definitely come back to Milwaukee, especially to explore other areas of the city. I don't know if there is a central place I could park, then walk around all day?

Later on that week I drove Kelley to work, then borrowed her car so I could go to Kenosha, Wisconsin for the day. Kenosha is just over the state border with Illinois, it was easy to get there.

Kenosha feels a like a small town, but has a population of around 100,000 people. There has been habitation in the area for a long long time, with evidence of this going back to at least 13,000 years ago.

My first stop was a diner. I didn't really need to eat, but when I find a diner I rarely walk/drive past it. Franks is in an old train car, there isn't much space. Their specialty is something called a garbage plate: a half plate has three eggs, hash brown potatoes, eggs, cheese, and onions. You can add in meat and veg too. A full plate has 5 eggs with all the other stuff.

It looked and smelled good, but I made the mistake of ordering French toast with fruit topping. It took 45 minutes for my food to arrive, and that was after I asked what had happened. The fruit had clearly come from a can, and the whipped cream wasn't very good. I'm pretty sure they forgot me, and didn't put any effort into the French toast. I won't make that mistake again.

I was able to park for free near Frank's for three hours, and since that time wasn't yet up I walked to the marina area. (Kenosha is on Lake Michigan.) 

Very pretty, but VERY windy. The marina shape was created when they piled up a bunch of big rocks, the wind nearly blew me off the rocks.

There was a small splash pad nearby, I would've walked through the water if it hadn't been so windy. I followed the pavement just behind the rocks for a while, enjoying the smell and sound of the water. Something about it is calming.

Coming around the peninsula near the marina I saw a couple lighthouses. I don't know why they were so close to each other, or if either of them is still used. I wanted to walk over to the biggest one, but when I pulled out my phone to figure out how to do it I realized the streets were connected in a way that it would take me quite a while.

Instead I walked through a sculpture park, then to a small city park where a summer concert was taking place. I saw people of all ages, which made me think school hadn't yet started here for the fall. (I knew it had started in Chicago, and my hometown.) There was a veterans' memorial near this park, which was nice to see. There aren't nearly enough memorials and monuments to those who have served in the States.

From there I walked through the downtown, cute area of Kenosha. I was thrilled when I stumbled on a pie shop, woo hoo!! 

Did I need to buy any pie? No, but did I? You bet. The flavours were good, as were the prices. I'm definitely going back.

After the pie shop I found the local library. I don't know if the building was originally a library, but it is gorgeous. A lovely rotunda in the middle, the librarians encouraged me to stand directly under it to take a photo. From what I could see during my walk through, the library had a good selection of books as well as programs to serve the community. I hope that library is as valued as it should be.

I walked back to the car, then drove to an area with two museums. The Civil War Museum sounded interesting, but the entry fee was $10USD. Maybe next time, when I come back for more pie and better food from Franks?

Kenosha Public Museum was free, and fabulous. A series of permanent exhibits with the history of the area, and a temporary exhibit of Edo prints from Japan. Very cool. There are a couple big skeletons to see, as there was prehistoric life in this area with fossils still to be discovered. Really really well done.

After the museum I got back in the car and drove to the beach area. The beach itself was quite nice, but with all the wind I don't think it would be fun to hang out for the day. There were people doing just that though, so my anti-sand campaign wasn't followed by everyone. I love beaches, I just don't love being covered in sand. I did enjoy walking the length of the beach, and hearing the happiness of those who were enjoying their last days of summer freedom on the beach.

The biggest lighthouse was really close to the beach, so I walked over to see what it was all about. 

I admit I was pretty disappointed to discover an artist had set up shop in the bottom of the lighthouse, so it wasn't one you could climb.

My last sight of the day was another park, about 15 minutes away by car. There was plenty of parking at Petrifying Springs State Park, which was mostly flat from what I could see. I didn't find the springs after which the park was named, mabye I was in the wrong area? That being said, it was nice to be out in the trees. There are several different walking trails throughout the park, nothing strenuous but still nice.

Despite visiting a city for the day, my favourite places were natural: the lake, the beach, and the state park. And the pie, I can never forget good pie :)

russia: perm

Getting from Ekaterinburg to Perm was really easy, though not completely convenient. I was able to take a night train, but the ride wasn't that long, so I arrived at 0430 or so at Perm II train station. I wasn't about to go walking around at that hour, so I dozed on and off in the uncomfortable station chairs for the new few hours.

When I felt as if it was finally late enough in the morning (around 0900) to start walking, that's what I did. 

Perm II train station is on one end of a city that is stretched out along the Kama River.

During my walk I passed what I thought was a quirky monument, at least the reason for the monument was rather quirky: celebrating 250 years of the city of Perm. The monument itself was rather typically Soviet, it was a big obelisk in the middle of a traffice circle. One of the three sides had a profile of Lenin, another had the years showing 250 years of existence, and a third side had the city name.

I stopped for hot chocolate at a small shop, it cost me a lot more than I expected, and wasn't all that hot. Such a disappointment.

When I finally reached my hostel I was able to check in straightaway, yay. It was nice to warm up, and charge my electronics. Not surprisingly, I ended up staying inside longer than I'd originally intended, but oh well. It seems I do this on almost every one of my trips. I'd probably see so much more if I kept myself from wasting so much time. 

At some point while looking at things on my phone I discovered a hotel and spa named Eva. Of course I walked there to take a photo. I was tempted to splurge on a treatment or two, (because how awesome would that be?!) but I didn't have the money to do so. Sigh.

I enjoyed the street art/grafitti I saw in various places while walking around. Some was on construction barriers, and some was on the side of buildings.

I made my way to a small, central park, I wanted to see the Lenin statue. Have you been to a Russian city if you haven't seen its Lenin statue? Across the street from the park was a small marker on a building, denoting the 0km spot. This is the spot from which distances are measured, you can see this marker in some cities. This marker was pretty small, I walked past it twice, even though I was looking for it.

On the other side of the park was the opera theatre, I wish I'd been able to step inside. I kept walking, stepping into a few of the churches I passed. None of them were well lit inside and all were quite chilly. At this point I just wasn't in the mood to keep going much longer.

My last stop for the evening was during and after sunset, it was a small platz overlooking a bridge and the river. I think I could've taken a set of steps all the way down to the river, but the path down there was dark by then and I didn't feel like walking. 

The bridge was lit up, and looked nice.

I'm somewhat ashamed to admit I had fast food for dinner that night. I just couldn't be fussed to find anything 'real.'

The next morning I did a much better job of not wasting as much time, I got moving a lot earlier in the day. My first sight wasn't that far from the hostel, it was another Lenin monument. I have no idea what the reason was for having two different monuments to the man. 

Instead of the typical statue/bust, this one was a big stone with a relief of his face carved into the stone.

On a street corner I spied a mosque, which was really eye catching. I wasn't sure if it was open to visitors at the time, so I didn't go inside. It surprised me to find a mosque in the middle of European Russia, but at the same time it made sense. A block or two away from the mosque was a house that caught my eye for all the wrong reasons: its porch was leaning, a LOT.

I kept going to the next sight on my list, a monastery. Painted sea green and surrounded by tall walls, the Holy Trinity Monastery has a tall bell tower over the entrance gate. I bet the view from the top of there is quite nice. The inside of the main church was pretty, but not particularly memorable.

Soon enough I found another war memorial, this one called the monument to the heroes of the front and homefront.

It was in the city esplanade park, and was huge. I imagine this is a nice place for families and couples to go walking in warmer weather. When I saw it, no one else was around.

Further down the main street on either side of the city park was a regional library. The library itself wasn't anything worth writing home about, but I did like the wooden apple sculpture on the front lawn.

I didn't know it was made of wood until I scrambled onto it after setting the timer on my camera to take a time delayed photo. Lets just say it was not a soft landing.

I ended up walking all the way to the train station, just because I could. I did not buy more hot chocolate when I passed the cafe. In a large open area next to the train station was a HUGE sculpture that made me think of a game of Jenga. The pieces were glued in place, I couldn't move any of them.

To get back to the city center I circled around a bit, and took a different road. I ended up passing a skatepark, I watched the skaters go for a few minutes. I was cold, I imagine they were as well.

My next sight was a church, I'd seen a few photos online that looked good. When I found it I wasn't nearly as impressed as I'd expected to be. I started thinking the photos I'd seen had been somewhat edited. 

Or maybe the dark, cloudy skies were hiding the beauty of the church exterior. The inside of the church wasn't any better, much to my disappointment.

From there I walked back to the platz where I'd ended my day the day before. I looked for and finally found the entrance to the Perm State Art Gallery. It's an art museum, located in what used to be a church. Part of the exhibit is actually the old iconostasis, and as you go through the different levels of the museum you get to be quite up close and personal with the different levels of the iconostasis. 

The only drawback is that you never get the full view of the whole thing. Overall, it was a great museum, well worth a visit.After that it was dark, so I picked up snacks at the grocery store and went back to my room.

The next day I did a day trip, read another post for that.

My last day in Perm I was a bit more organized than the first two days. I made a list of the things I still wanted to see, some of them I should've seen in those first two days but moved too slowly.

The first sight was something called the Permyak Salty Ears monument. Someone from Perm is called a Permyak, and one of the former industries in the area is salt mining. Carrying sacks of salt on one's shoulder rubs salt against ears, making them bigger and red. This monument is a pair of big ears with a hole in the middle. You're supposed to put your face in the hole and have someone take a photo.

My next sight was a gondola in the middle of the city park. Very picturesque, even in the crappy weather. The park was also home to a mini amusement park, which looked kinda sad at this time of year.

I kept going, out the other side of the park. I assume it would be a nice place to wander in summer, but nothing else caught my attention during this visit. I ended up walking by Lenin again, and past him to another church. 

This church wasn't open that I could see, argh. My guidebook told me part of this church is a school, but I didn't see that either.

A block from that was the local FSB building. I followed all rules while walking past there.

My next stop was the Perm History Museum, located in the old house of Mezhkov. He used to be the owner of a steamship, and was quite wealthy, the house is big, and really nice.

Inside the museum I got to see the different areas of Perm's history. There were displays of what the home looked like when it was a residence, as well as items from daily life of the city. I got to see jewelry, and a diorama of a home during the Soviet period. There was a hallway filled with medals from the Communist period, and clothing from citizens throughout the years. Every time I see clothing from centuries ago I'm thankful for what I get to wear now, as stuff from back then looks so very uncomfortable. 

Walking down the hill brought me to the riverside station, which was across the street from Perm I train station. The riverside station looked new and modern, Perm I did not.

On the banks of the water was a big sign spelling out (in Russian of course, but I've translated to English,) 'happiness is coming.' I have no idea who it is supposed to be speaking to, or when it was put up.

I took the stairs that went over Perm I train station (as I was crossing I tried to figure out if the station is still used or not, but I couldn't tell,) and went up a hill on the other side. On the way I passed a church, and ducked inside. This one wasn't amazing, but it was warm.

I walked toward the edge of town, heading to I don't know where. I passed another war memorial, one that included cannons. I think it said something about 70 years of heroes in the city.

Eventually I looked at a map and realized I wasn't too far from a cemetery. Am I crazy for thinking that cemeteries are fascinating? One section of the cemetery was definitely memorializing something military, as everything was standardized, and looked the same. The rest of the area was a bit hodge podge, with a variety of styles of tombs and markers. There were some fake flowers, some photos, and more. 

In the middle of it all was an eye catching church. Well, it caught my eye because the outside of the church made me think of a yellow candy cane.

From there I walked back to my hostel, grabbed my bag and warmed up for an hour. Then I went back outside, and walked all the way to the train station. I arrived at the perfect time to board my train, and off I went. 

About 21.5 hours later I arrived back in Moscow.

I would definitely come back to this part of Russia, there is still so much for me to see/explore.

cuba: camaguey

My bus from Santiago de Cuba to Camaguey left over an hour late, and arrived even later than that. Argh. It was just short of 2200 when we arrived. My accomodation knew I was coming, so there was a taxi driver waiting for me with my name on a paper at the bus station. Thank goodness, as it was way after dark. He dropped me off at the right house, the lady showed me my room, and I pretty much went straight to sleep.

Camaguey is basically right in the middle of Cuba. The third largest city in Cuba, it has a population of about 300,000, and is known for it's curvy streets. No such thing as an easy grid in Camaguey. It was originally known as Puerto Principe, but the name was changed in 1903 to honor a tree. Yes, a tree. But to be fair, a legend says all life is descended from this tree. The location of the city was originally somewhere else, and was actually changed twice before being located where it is now, in 1528. One of the Unesco designated cities of Cuba, it's also known for being different from Havana and Santiago, neither east nor west.

Before going to sleep I ordered breakfast for the next morning, which was the same general thing I'd had each morning in Santiago. Fruit, eggs, rolls, ham and cheese, fresh made fuit juice, and coffee this time. Since I hadn't had coffee in quite a while, (and by a while I mean a couple years, when I had it for the first time in four years or so,) I decided to try it. I added a bunch of sugar, and my cup had more than half milk. It wasn't bad, not as bitter as I remembered. My body didn't like it so well, as about 30 minutes later I had to use the loo and my heart was racing and I was nauseous. Ugh.

Once I got to feeling normal again I went for my first walk of the day. I wanted to see a church first, but it was closed so I had to be okay with admiring the outside. You could tell it has been painted recently. I followed a pedestrian street through the middle of town to a platz. Nothing exciting in this platz, so I kept going down another street, which brought me to another platz.
Each time I got to a new platz I had to double check where I was, since I couldn't rely on the traditional grid layout in this city. 

This platz was bigger, and had a statue of Ignacio Agramonte, an independence hero. He was originally a cattle rancher who led the area's fighters against Spain. There were people in this platz, all sitting in the shade of course.

On one side of the platz was a church, and it was open, yippeee! Catedral de Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria. Please tell me locals have shortened the name to something a bit easier to say. The church itself was fairly simple, but I really liked it. I paid 1 CUC to climb the bell tower, which was quite nice. There were several levels, and all of them had a great breeze. The views all around were awesome, of the whole city.

I walked to another platz, this one had a few souvenir stalls set up in the middle. Those who were selling from the stalls were keeping an eye on them from seats in the shade.
The guidebook told me there was a museum on one side of the platz, but when I walked in I found out it was closed for renovations. Argh. Is it just me, or does closing during the middle of one of the high tourist seasons seem like a dumb move?

From there I walked to a cemetery. I guess it's a bit strange, but I like visiting cemeteries. They're very different in various areas of the world.
Even though I'd already been to cemeteries in Havana and Santiago, I wanted to see more.
This cemetery was attached to the back of a church (closed,) and was free to enter. Just like the others, everything was white, or light gray. Hot hot hot because the heat and sun reflected onto me.

As before, everything was above ground, as far as I could see. Also as before, some tombs were really fancy, others not at all. On one side of the area were the markers for folks who didn't have so much money, their 'tablets' were set onto shelves. Maybe it's not the right way to describe it, but they almost looked like shelves of books to me.

After leaving the cemetery, I walked to another platz, plaza del Carmen. There is a church on one side, Iglesia del Carmen, but it was closed. Around the platz were various sculptures of people from Camaguey (sometimes called Agramontinos, after the independence hero I mentioned earlier,) doing regular things. The one that struck me the most were chairs with ladies drinking tea (or probably coffee,) sitting around gossiping. The artist who made the sculptures has a gallery on the platz, so I looked through it, but there was nothing I'd be interested in buying.

I walked past two more churches, one of them was Baptist, both were closed. What is the point in putting them on a map or mentioning them in a guidebook if they're all closed?

I came to another platz with another museum, and since it was only midafternoon, it was still open. This was the Casa Natal de Ignacio Agramonte. Basically a museum about the guy revered by the town. I think this was his house, which was pretty nice. It was similar to other homes of wealthy Cubanos from back in the day: two floors, and wooden, with a courtyard in the middle; the museum is up on the second floor.

Each room was set up with furniture (bedroom, living room, dining room, etc...,) as well as posters with descriptions of various aspects of Agramonte's life.

After leaving the museum I took a quick look around the platz on which it was located. Of course the church was closed, I expected nothing less at this point. One of the buildings had a 'picture' on it's side, like the building in Havana. I didn't recognize the face, but I'd only recognize two faces: Che and Fidel Castro, so who knows.

At that point I was tired and hot, so I went home for a couple hours. It's amazing how much better you feel and how fast it happens when you get into a cooler environment.

I went for another walk, though this one started with an hour of internet. As I think I said in an earlier post, there is no such thing as free wifi. Various hotels now have wifi, but to get onto it, you have to buy a wifi card. There is also a public wifi system, which you can find in platzes or other specific areas of a city. You can always tell when you're in one of those areas because everyone is standing or sitting there, looking at their phones.

To get onto public wifi, you also have to buy a wifi card. 

I bought this internet card from a hotel, it was only 2 CUC for the hour. That is a great price, (5 CUC was the most common price I found around the country,) so I knew I'd be back to buy more cards, especially because they could be used anywhere in the country. The hotel lobby was not air conditioned, but the couch wasn't a bad place to be for an hour.

I walked up Republica street, which is supposed to turn into a sort of street fest every Saturday evening. It didn't, but it was still a nice walk. I walked over the train tracks, noticing that the front side of the train station was undergoing renovation work. The street was torn up and blocked off there, I wonder how long that will last.

I walked past a college, and several churches, all closed. Since it wasn't the city center there were fewer people out on the streets. At one point I turned around and came back, just because. As I walked back the sun started to set, the colours were nice.

When I got back to where I'd started my walk I was at a small platz, a concert was taking place. Apparently this was the entire street fest. I enjoyed the rest of the concert, finding a seat right in the middle of the steps in front of the stage area.

The next morning I tried coffee at breakfast again, but had the same reaction, even worse this time. Maybe I drank it too fast? It tasted okay going down, maybe I'm just not used to it? The rest of breakfast was awesome.

I went for two walks this day, both were pretty long. When I thought about it later, I could've done at least one of them the day before, just by getting going a little earlier in the day. Oh well.

The first walk was out to a church mentioned on the map and in the guidebook. On the way I saw another theater named America; it didn't look like it was open, and was abandoned or at least not being taken care of. I also saw a playground with a nice wall mural on the side, very cute. Not surprisingly, it was empty. No one wants to play in the direct sun in the middle of the day. 

I feel like the guidebook didn't mark something correctly, because the church I found wasn't a building. It was more like a shelter, there were no walls. There were pews and an altar, a statue of Mary, and fans. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I guess I expected walls.

Then I had a long hot walk back to the city center area. I passed a different church and noticed three men had set up a table in front, and were playing dominoes. They weren't in the shade, I don't know why they chose that particular location. 

I found another church with three front spires, closed like the ones I'd tried to see the day before. By then I was feeling dehydrated and tired, so I went home to rest and cool down.

My second walk started later in the afternoon. I walked out of the Unesco recognized historical district, walking east. I was headed to a park, and of course passed several churches along the way, all of them closed. I was able to stay in the shade most of the time, which felt really good. On one street, most of the buildings had columns in front, which created a kind of tunnel to walk through, if that makes sense.

The way the columns were shaped or painted changed for each building, which caught my eye in terms of photography.

The route marked on my travel app took me down a few unpaved back streets. The houses were the same as others in town, but the streets weren't paved. My walk also took me past a few Soviet style apartment blocks, though these were painted so they weren't ugly gray.

I finally made it to the park, which surrounds a man made lake, called the Lake of Dreams.

Entry to the park was 1 CUP, or 4 US cents. Even if the whole city pays that fee every day, how does that amount ever add up to anything useful? As I walked through and saw the lake I realized I would never have called it the Lake of Dreams, but I wasn't on that committee.

Parked next to the lake was an old Soviet plane, it was used as part of an ice cream shop. I'll give them points for creativity in that sense, but the ice cream itself left much to be desired. I walked in and ordered (or so I thought,) 2 scoops of chocolate ice cream. About ten minutes later they put a small bowl of one scoop of white ice cream in front of me. When I asked about the flavour, they said it was chocolate; I found a thin ribbon of chocolate-ish something or other, but tasted vanilla-y. Oh well. I asked for the bill and was told it was 7 pesos. At first I thought they have to be kidding if they think I'm paying that much, then I realized that was 7 CUP, not 7 CUC. In other words, my scoop was about 25 US cents.

I walked along the lake for a bit, watching others as they enjoyed time with family and friends. There was a little train, I imagine it was for kids, but it wasn't running. I took photos anywho. There was a space to rent rowboats, but I didn't see anyone doing so. I found a tiny little dock that was rather cute, but the yellow painted railings made it less so. There were signs in a few places telling people not to get into the water, but that didn't stop everyone, there were at least two different groups of people swimming. 

I used the main road to get back toward the city center, and stopped in a huge park on the way back. Casino Campestre is the largest urban park in the country, according to the sign. They had a zoo (which I skipped,) as well as a few sculptures, an empty swimming pool, a weedy basketball court, a baseball stadium, and a large Soviet style monument to Ignacio Agramonte.

As I was winding through this park it started to thunder and lightning, but most people were staying outside. At this time of year I think the weather was typical.

The clouds rolling in were pretty dark, but that didn't seem to deter many people. I was surprised to see a group of friends playing football, (soccer,) they didn't seem to care at all about the weather. I suppose I can't say anything, since I was wandering around taking photos in the craziness.

When it started raining it was time for me to go. I hate rain. My umbrella is old and has holes (I really need a new one,) but it helped keep me mostly dry.

On the way back I stopped in the hotel from the evening before, and bought five 1 hour internet cards, and proceeded to use one of them. It's amazing how fast that time can go when you're not careful. I learned to write down ahead of time what messages I needed to send, and things I needed to check on. You can prewrite messages in email, they'll send automatically when you get online, which saves some time. You can also do your instagramming ahead of time, those will also post when you get online.

After internet I went back to my room and basically hung out for a few hours. There is only one bus from Camaguey to my next destination, it left at 0215. To catch the bus I was told to be at the bus station an hour ahead, so that meant around 0115. In other words, I didn't sleep because I knew it would be useless.

The bus left on time, yahoo!

If I come back to Cuba I would consider coming back to Camaguey, or at least the province in general.