russia: the end of the BAM train line: oktyabrskiy and vanino

I went to Oktyabrskiy and Vanino because the BAM railroad goes there, I did not go there because there was anything in particular that I wanted to see. The station at the very end of the line is called Sovetskaya Gavan Sortirovochnaya, but it is in the small town/village of Oktyabrskiy. There is actually a town called Sovetskaya Gavan, which Google maps tells me is about an hour away. Why the station name doesn't match the town is a mystery to me.

The town is small enough that there is no Wikipedia page for it, and Lonely Planet only mentions it as the end of the line. I feel like the name of the station is longer than the village/town is big. 

My train arrived in Oktyabrskiy at Sovetskaya Gavan Sortirovochnaya station exactly as scheduled, which is what I always expect with the Russian train system. Normally the conductor comes through the car and wakes me up 30 minutes to an hour before arrival, she did not do that this time. She woke me up about four minutes before arrival, eeeep. Thank goodness it was the last stop, so it didn't matter if I wasn't quite ready to walk off the train when the train stopped.

It was rainy and cold when I arrived, ugh. I think it was around 12C, cloudy, and rainy. Not fun at all, and not the kind of weather that made me want to get out and start exploring straightaway.

In the end, that didn't matter, because Oktyabrskiy has nothing to see. Nothing at all. There are no statues of Lenin, no parks, and no memorials. There are no tanks, very few stores, and no supermarkets.

I stayed in the train station (which thankfully had a plug I could use to charge my phone,) for several hours, hoping the rain would die down. It didn't, much to my annoyance. There was no bag storage in the train station, so I had no choice but to risk getting completely soaked as I ventured out.

I think it took me about an hour, maybe 90 minutes to walk every street and path of the town. At least I could say I'd been to the end of the line, and done more than just stay on the train.

I came back to the train station and hung out for another couple hours, before jumping on the train for 20 minutes, heading back to the previous town called Vanino.

I got off the train in Vanino, which has a much bigger train station than I would've expected. Wikipedia tells me there are just over 15,000 residents, and the population is declining. 

The town is named after the bay on which it sits, called Vanin, which was named in 1853 and appeared on nautical charts in 1876. (Also according to Wikipedia.)

The first name of Vanino was Tishkino, after a timber seller named Tishkin. This was all the way back at the beginning of the century, I'm not sure when the name changed, and why.

This bay and the port built there became more important in 1943, when the Soviet government decided to extend the railway line from Komsomolsk na Amure all the way to the coast, and develop the port as a useful shipping route.

Like most of the other infrastructure of Russia, the was built by prisoners and soldiers. (So was much of the road coming to town, and the railway.) The town of Vanino was the last 'civilization' known by many prisoners before they finished their journeys to Kolyma or Magadan.

The port of Vanino is particularly important because it stays open all year, despite the fierce winters for which Russia is known. More reading on Wikipedia tells me this is the biggest transport hub in the Khabarovsk territory. Goods end up in other parts of Russia, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and more. 

It didn't seem particularly busy while I was there, or even that big, but I didn't really take a good look either. 

I stepped off the train into rather miserable weather. Light but steady rain, dark clouds, cool temperatures. I'd tried to book accomodation before my trip, but Vanino is one of the cities that doesn't have any options on booking.com. I found a hotel marked on Google maps, walked there and asked about a room, but the lady said they were full up. She wasn't at all helpful in suggesting anywhere else I might go. Argh.

I found another place marked on Google maps, said to be a hostel. I called the number listed, but the lady who answered the phone said they were closed for renovation. She gave me the number of another possibility, but when I called, I got a message saying the number I'd dialed was incorrect, ugh.

At this point I was getting rather stressed. I walked back to the train station, found the information counter and asked about where I could sleep that night. For the first time in my life, I slept in one of the rooms run by the train station, thank goodness for these rooms. 

There was no wifi, and it wasn't comfortable, but it was a place to sleep. It turned out the price was for 24 hours, so I was able to leave my bag in my room the next day when I went out to see the city.

Vanino the next morning was much better looking. The sky was blue, and the temperatures a lot warmer. It is a small town, so I didn't need a lot of time to see everything.

My first stop was a Lenin monument. Unlike the usual statue I'm used to seeing, this one had a big mosaic face of Lenin, with a propaganda phrase. 

Since Google translate isn't amazing in Russian, and deepl.com isn't great at propaganda slogans, I had to ask a couple people what the phrase translates to in English. I'm still not sure, but I think it said 'Lenin, even now, more alive than all living people.' I took my photos and moved on.

The next couple stops were small shops for snacks, partly because I knew I needed to kill some time. There are no major supermarkets in Vanino, which came as no surprise to me.

I walked up the 'main street' in town, which has two lighthouses, despite not being on the water. The town in general is on the bay, but this main street is not even parallel to the water. In other words, I have no idea why there are two lighthouses in random places.

I got to the end of the street which brought me to a large platz. One side of the platz had a big government building, the other sides had adult size swings and benches. One corner had the city WW2 memorial, which contained a small tank, shells (the big kind that are shot out of big guns, not the kind you find at the seashore,) with flowers in them. It was a surprisingly comfortable area to hang out and relax for a while, to enjoy the nice weather and watch people.

After sitting for a while I started walking again, trying to get to a church I saw marked on the map. I wasn't able to get to the church, as it ended up being in a complex of some kind, behind high cement walls with barbed wire on top. Oh well.

I did find one church to see and enter, on the other side of town. It took me a whopping 15 minutes to walk to, I think it was the longest walk I had during my time in Vanino. Pretty, small, wooden, no one else around.

At that point I'd circled around the entire town. I went back to one of the shops to get something to drink, then back to the platz to swing for a while.

From there I went back to the train station and up to my room to kill the last few hours before my train left. Obviously, I will not be back to Oktyabrskiy or Vanino, but I'm glad I was there this once.

usa: illinois: ft sheridan and waukegan

This post covers a couple small cities I visited in Illinois.

One day I went with Kelley to work, then drove a bit south, toward the community of Ft. Sheridan. Wikipedia tells me it is a residential neighbourhood within the three cities of Lake Forest, Highland Park, and Highwood. (Why a single residential area is part of three different cities is beyond me, but that's not the point of this.)

Ft. Sheridan originally came into existence as Fort Sheridan, an army post named for General Sheridan, a Civil War cavalry general. The army officially closed the main fort in 1993, then sold most of the land to commercial land developers. 

The housing buildings were sold as well, companies renovated them then created residential communities. Some buildings were designated as historic, which I think means they can be privately owned, but not drastically changed. Something along those lines.

One thing that didn't change is the veterans cemetery in one part of the property, it's still an active military cemetery.

A forest preserve was created out of 250 acres of the former fort. This was the area I'd learned about online, I wanted to explore a bit. Fortunately, there was a parkplatz so I didn't have to walk too far after leaving the car.

The preserve partly borders on the lake, so that seemed like a good place to start. You walk through some prarie grass to get there, then down a hill to get to the lakeshore. When I got there I saw how small the accessible part of the lake shore is, so I didn't stay long.

There is a cannon on display along this path, presumably memorializing the time when this area was of military significance.

As I climbed back up I saw a path heading off into the grasslands. I didn't know where it went, but hey, why not find out. 

A couple hours later I finally came all the way around the circle, having gone all the way around the property. Or at least as much of it as there was a path to be seen.

I walked through trees and grasses, all of it very quiet and peaceful.

At the furthest edge I discovered the cemetery I mentioned earlier. As I got closer and closer I realized there was a burial taking place, so I stayed as quiet as I could, and stayed outside the cemetery until it was over. The ceremony concluded with a seven gun salute and a presenting of the flag to the family of the fallen.

After walking through and around all of that, I headed toward the former parade grounds, which have been kept empty. There is a long building along one side of the area, with a tall clock tower. I imagine this was one of the former gates of the area? Not much to see other than the tower, but it was pretty.

After all that I went back to the car and drove a little bit north, to the city of Waukegan. It's an industrial suburb of Chicago, not on anyone's tourist list. I wanted to go there to see the beach and the lighthouse.

It was easy to get to the beach, and easy to find parking. Judging by the number of other people out there at the time, and their ages, school hadn't yet started in this area either. I went out to the beach and loved it. Not nearly as pretty as the beach I saw in Kenosha, but it seemed like a much better place to hang out.

Off to one side of the beach was a series of dunes. Some grasses were growing through the dunes, which was good, as the grass is what holds the dunes in place. As expected, walking through the dunes wasn't easy. There is a reason runners go to sandy places for good workouts.

The lighthouse I got to see was tiny, and I have no idea if it actually functions. Either way, I was happy with the photos I got to take.

After the beach area I went to a diner I'd found online. It might've been only a couple hours before dinner, but there is never a wrong time to eat at a diner :)

I'm pretty sure I won't be back to either Ft. Sheridan or Waukegan, but you never know. After writing this I realize how little I visited in each area, so it seems I really should go back and explore more. Hmmm.

russia: vladivostok

While Claire, Angela and I were spending our last moments together in a coffee shop in Irkutsk, we ended up planning out our entire May holidays. It only took about 10 minutes to sort it all out. Actually making the bookings for everything took longer and happened later, but the initial plan was sorted out pretty quickly. All we used were a map, a guidebook, and our phones. Thankfully, all three of us had the holidays, and they were at the same time.

We started in Vladivostok. It's one of the easternmost cities in Russia, pretty much as far as you can go. 

Vladivostok is at the end of the traditional Trans Siberian railway, which takes a week to follow if you board the train in Moscow. Or you can drive, which will take you over 9000 kilometers, and at least 120 hours of driving time.

In other words, Vladivostok is in a different world from Moscow.

Vladivostok has over 600,000 residents, and for most of its history was part of China, or at least the various dynasties that ruled what is now China. Russia only took control of the area after the signing of the Treaty of Beijing in 1860. Due to several things, Vladivostok didn't become part of what is now Russia for quite a while, not until October of 1922.

Our flights left Friday evening from Moscow, took 8.5 hours, and landed in Vladivostok in the rain. Vladivostok is on the eastern coast of Russia, and is 7 (or 8?) hours ahead of Moscow in time. We arrived to rain, wind, and cold, which we didn't love, of course.

It was easy to catch an aeroexpress train into the city, which wasn't express at all. It made a number of stops along the way, but at least we got to the city center in less than an hour. We got off the train to find the very end of the (probably annual) Labour Day parade. Does Moscow have such a parade? 

We saw sailors walking away after they were done marching, and in my head I made fun of them as I've always heard soldiers make fun of sailors marching.

First stop was dropping our bags off at our accomodation, since we were too early to check in. Not too far from the hostel was a pie shop, of course I directed the girls there for a before lunch snack ;)

Fun fact about Vladivostok, Yul Brynner was born there as Yuliy Borisovich Brynner in 1920.

There is a statue of the guy in front of the building where he lived, but you don't get to go inside to look around. 

I don't know who he is, but Claire and Angela were happy to learn this.

As I was waiting for the girls to finish with photos around Yul, I realized we were close to a Lenin statue, so we walked there next. We almost always take team photos with the man, this was a chance to knock that off the list. Or so I thought. As we got there, we found a Labour Day rally, complete with flags that had Lenin and Stalin faces on them. Instead of a team photo I took a few of the rally, and we chose to come back later. If I understood more Russian I would've stayed longer, to listen to some of the speeches. 

Vladivostok is built on hills, so you can either see the water, or are in the middle of a whole bunch of buildings. Since the city is far more important to the navy than Moscow is, it was a different type of military atmosphere, if that makes sense.

Next up we headed toward the port area. There are commercial, shipping, and naval boats there, it's neat to see all of them. From where we were standing, we could see a bridge, but it was half covered by low hanging clouds. Very photogenic.

One street back from the port is a S-56 submarine museum. It's small, and a mix of what has happened in the area as well as the military exploits of the Russian Navy. 

The random tourists that entered before us kept slowing everything down by taking tons of posed photos, there wasn't enough room for anyone to go around them. Sigh.

The submarine is next to a war memorial, with lots of names carved into plaques.

Also nearby is a small victory arch, named for St Nicholas. Go figure, as we arrived, a group of Chinese women were all having photos taken with the arch, so we had a hard time taking a photo of just the arch. They were all dressed in their version of 'on trend' including short skirts and ugly sandals, which made us laugh.

We did take a team photo at a 'statue' of Neptune/Poseidon, as there was no one else around. King of the Sea, so it makes sense for Vladivostok.

One of the more interesting sounding sights listed online was a sea cucumber museum, we headed there next. It was a long walk, longer than anticipated. Whoops. It wasn't a museum at all, rather a store for Asian customers with 'health' items. There was one room with sea cucumbers in tanks, but all of them were dead and moldy!!! Yuck. Apparently this city used to be the place to come for sea cucumber medicine and ginseng items.

The best part of the museum was the shop next door, called 7-12. Too funny.

I couldn't convince the girls to walk back to the city center, (probably because it was raining,) so we called a taxi, which was cheap and fast. Dinner was at an Indian restaurant which was only mediocre.

It was a short walk from dinner to a small beach area. I don't think people come to this beach to hang out on the sand, there was a small amusement park and a few seafood restaurants.We took photos of the nice sunset and city sign, then got snacks at a small store, then went home.

The hostel in which we stayed was a capsule hostel, so each of us had our own little pod. We had control over lighting and air conditioning, though we couldn't completely turn off the lights. Argh.

The next morning we checked out then went back to the pie place for breakfast. They had a number of pie choices, both sweet and savory, as well as sandwiches so this worked for all of us. It was hard for me to stick to one piece of pie, I ended up with red fruit. When it comes to pie, I always want more. 

When we'd made the booking in the hostel, they only had room for us for one night, but we were staying in the city for two nights, so we made another booking, in a flat. We took a bus to the flat, only for me to realize I'd marked the address wrong on my phone. Sigh. I need to get better about that, and not letting google think it knows what I'm thinking. Thankfully we were able to walk to the correct address.

After getting settled in the flat, we called a taxi to get to our next sight. We could've taken public transport, but it would've taken a lot longer and not been all that much cheaper. 

Go figure, even though I correctly marked the destination on the map, the taxi driver took us to a slightly different spot, so we had to walk around a bit. Sigh.

Fort #7 is one of several ruined forts around the city. Remember how I said Vladivostok is built on hills? That means forts are great for city defense. Fort #7 is on top of a hill, and inside a hill. The views of the city and whole area were lovely, though the wind nearly blew us off the hill.

We could see a storm rolling in, the clouds were crazing dark and moving fast. Thankfully there was a little bit of shelter where we were able to take cover from the rain when it hit.

From there we called a taxi, having the same trouble with marking the destination on the map. Why don't the drivers get the same map I've marked? Anywho.

Our next sight was something I'd seen on social media. A broken glass beach, not a natural beach, not a sand beach. It's actually a rubbish pile, as all the pretty glass is what has been smoothed down by people and water from ceramic bottle rubbish pieces. Do not walk around barefoot, though this should go without saying. 

There are a bunch of picturesque rocks near the water, there were people climbing all over them. Clearly you need to get here early in the day to avoid all the Instagrammers. As usual, we had fun watching people, it is amazing how oblivious some of them were to what was going on around them.

It took me a bit longer to call a taxi back to the city. There was a direct bus, but it wasn't coming for another 5 hours, and we had zero desire to wait that long. Finally, a car picked up my order and we were good to go.

Our drop off point was a random point on a street not too far from the city center. We ended up walking past another war memorial on our way to the next sight. I love war memorials, and I love that Russians at least try to remember so much more than Americans, but I tend to lose track of the specific groups and events that are honoured. Even if I could remember it wouldn't help me much, since I don't know the military system very well. 

Eventually we got to a church. This one was different because it was German Lutheran, which isn't common in Russian. There was a British phonebox in the yard, which looked even more out of place than the church.

To get to our last sight of the day we got to ride a funicular. I was surprised at how cheap it was, as I'm pretty sure tourists are the only ones who ride it. It takes you up to a viewpoint from which you can watch the light change as the sun sets off to the side of the port. It's a gorgeous view, especially without clouds.

From there it was easy to catch a bus directly back to the supermarket across the street from our flat, woo hoo!!

The next morning we packed up and gave back the keys to the flat, then took a bus to the city center. We headed straight for the train station to drop our bags in luggage storage for the day. The train station is pretty impressive, I loved the stairwells and ceiling of the waiting room. Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so, as there is a tourist office desk offering tours.

Lenin isn't far from the train station, so we went back to take our team photo, avoiding all the Chinese tourists in the process. 

Since we were on that street already, we decided to visit the art museum. None of us absolutely love art, but we had the time, so why not. Figuring out what tickets we wanted and where to buy them ended up being the hardest part of the visit. We just wanted to see the permanent exhibit, nothing temporary. 

The museum was nice. A number of different rooms with different styles and subjects of work. I've seen more than my fair share of icons and Madonna paintings by now, we sped through that section. Each room was painted a different colour, which was also nice. 

At that point we realized we hadn't gotten any souvenirs from Vladivostok, so we went back to the main square not far from the port to find a shop. There were heaps of choices for magnets, not so much for postcards. Sigh.

We hadn't had breakfast, and felt as though we'd seen much of the city, so Claire suggested lunch next. Since Vladivostok is on a peninsula, surrounded by water, so seafood is important. We wanted a decent seafood meal, but weren't able to find something decent nearby. Darnit. Vietnamese food instead!

The last thing we wanted to see was also associated with water: a lighthouse. This one has become popular with the social media crowd, so we definitely weren't alone. Still, it was pretty, and I can see why people come here. I'd seriously come back in the middle of winter to see it covered in snow/ice.

After getting back to the city center we went back to the pie place to get food to go. As expected, our train departed on time.

I'd definitely come back to Vladivostok, partly to explore more of the wooded areas of the peninsula. Or to see the city in another season.

sri lanka: galle

Galle is probably the most touristed city in Sri Lanka. It is certainly more touristed than the capital of the country, which isn't very common, at least not in my experience.

I wasn't able to find an original founding date for Galle, but Wikipedia mentions trade from Sri Lanka going back as far as 1400 BC, and it seems likely that some of the shipping happened in or near Galle.

Galle is sortof divided into two sections, they're totally different from each other. Galle Fort is what used to be the fortress protecting the area, built by the Portuguese. The Dutch later added to the fort, as did the British who were the last colonialists. 

Galle Fort is the aesthetically appealing part of Galle to visit. The interior of Galle Fort seemed mostly made up of cafes and restaurants, shops, hotels and other accomodation, etc... Everything catering to tourists. I saw a couple schools and such, but it didn't feel like a living city, if that makes sense. The other half of the city is the living part. The part with supermarkets and homes and government offices and the bus station and everything else one needs in regular daily life.

I kinda visited Galle twice. The first time was on an afternoon, while I was still sleeping in Unawatuna. 

It was an easy 20 minute bus ride, so hey, why not? My bus dropped me off at the main bus station, which is across from the main entry gate to the fort.

Walking from the bus station to the entry gate was an exercise in avoiding eye contact, ignoring everything and everyone around me, and occasionally saying no rather forcefully. I was saying no to tuk tuks, tour guides, touts offering places to stay, etc...

My notes in my travel journal tell me the walls were built by the Dutch starting in 1663, and let me tell you, they're thick. The walls are still standing, and you can walk along the tops the entire way around.

One of the first things I saw was a tree that had been taken over by another, so there were lots of 'vines' hanging down. A photo opportunity, but nothing of real interest.

One of the sights listed in the guidebook is the former Dutch hospital, but you can't tell it was ever a hospital. It has been redeveloped as a mall, with shops and restaurants. I found a tea shop in there, but it was otherwise not very interesting.

The bastions of the original walls still stand, and each has a different name, I don't remember any of the names. There is a lighthouse near one of the bastions, but the lighthouse wasn't open to visitors. 

Despite not being open, the lighthouse shows up on quite a few postcards of the city.

Postcards, yahoo!! I finally found them in Galle. Considering how much natural beauty there is, and how much culture there is, I was extremely disappointed in how few postcards I found in the country. I ended up buying them from several stores in Galle.

I watched the sunset from one of the bastions, it was quite pretty. It was easy to get back to the bus station, and only slightly more difficult to figure out what bus I needed to take to get back to Unawatuna.

The next day around lunch I officially checked out of my accomodation in Unawatuna, and hopped on the next bus to Galle. It was easier to get off the bus this time as I knew exactly where I needed to go.

I'd booked a studio flat in the fort area, it was definitely a splurge. That being said, it was nice, with a fan, air con, a mosquito net, and a modern bathroom. I generally don't spend a lot of money on accomodation, and in the overall scheme of things this still wasn't expensive, but it was more than what I'd been paying during the rest of the trip. $30USD goes a long way in accomodation in Sri Lanka.

After cooling down for a bit, I went out walking. Since I'd already seen some of Galle I didn't feel like there was a whole lot more to see. It's cute, but pretty small. I walked along some of the wall area, particularly by a tower near the main gate.

As I was walking along one section of the wall a local pointed out a couple sea turtles in the water below. AWESOME. As the water was pretty choppy, they weren't as obvious as I would've expected, and it wasn't easy to keep track of where they were. Soon enough they swam away.

After the sea turtles I walked out of the main gate and through part of the 'living' city of Galle.

It was pretty boring, to be honest. I found a Hindu temple still under construction, it hadn't yet been painted. I found another temple that seemed quite a bit older, but wasn't open. I found a mall, and I have to admit the air conditioning felt pretty good. I found the train station, with a difficult to read schedule. I walked around the bus station too, tryint to figure out where I'd be catching a bus the next day.

I looked for a local place to eat dinner, but didn't see anything. I assume I just didn't look in the right places, because there are almost always local restaurants near bus stations. Oh well.

The next morning I packed up and returned the key to the flat to the store below, then walked back to the bus station. Goodbye Galle.

I'm not sure I'll return to Galle, as I don't feel like I missed anything, even though my time there was short.

russia: dagestan: derbent and mahachkhala

One of the official Russian holidays each year takes place near the beginning of November. National Unity Day doesn't seem to mean much emotionally to any of the Russians I know, but everyone loves a day off. It has fallen on a Monday for several years, meaning I get a three day weekend, woo hoo. (I can't wait until it falls on a Tuesday, then I'm hoping for a four day weekend.)

Three days to travel in my mind justifies flying somewhere a bit further from Moscow than my normal weekend trips. Claire had found a place that interested her, and since I didn't care where we went, all three of us booked flights to Mahachkhala, the capital of the Russian Republic of Dagestan.

Before moving to Russia I'd heard of Dagestan, but not for very good reasons. It is right next to Chechnya, which is still not the most stable of areas in Russia. Dagestan has had similar problems, as the history is quite similar to that of Chechnya. Chechnya has gotten a lot more recognition with the fighting in the region, but Dagestan has had some of it as well. Americans will recognize the name Dagestan, but not right away, and for an awful reason: the Boston bombers were both from Dagestan.

Dagestan has European Russia's southernmost point. 

Most of Dagestan is mountainous, the name basically means 'mountain land.' Throughout the entire area are ancient fortresses and abandoned cities. Wikipedia tells me this republic of Russia has the most heterogeneous population, with people from quite a few ethnic origins. All of these groups have their own language, but use Russian between each other.

Civilization has been documented in this region for a long time, nearly 3000 years. With the wide variety of peoples and languages and faiths in the area, much of the history has involved fighting. 

The two main faiths have been Christianity and Islam, though the current majority would consider themselves Muslim.

Dagestan officially became part of Russia in 1806, though that wasn't really confirmed until after the Russo-Persian War, because that is when Iran officially ceded the territory to Russia. Despite being part of Russia, locals haven't always been happy about this. There are regular rumblings about independence, which sometimes break out into violence. The republic is considered semi-autonomous, which helps keep the peace. 

Claire had mention Dagestan and Derbent early in the semester, so we'd been keeping track of the safety issues in the region for a couple months before booking our flights. There weren't any issues before, during, or after our visit, which should settle the minds of anyone who was/is worried about us.

Though Mahachkhala is the capital of the region, Derbent was where we chose to focus most of our time. Derbent is a city on the coast of the Caspian Sea, the southernmost city in European Russia. 

 Derbent considers itself the oldest city in Russia, as they have history going back to the 8^th century BC. (The fact that it wasn't part of Russia back then seems to be ignored when making this claim.)

Derbent currently has a growing population of more than 120,000. Historical fighting here has been mostly between the Persians and the Arabs, with the Russians coming in in later years. While we were there we didn't hear any other English, and we saw very few ethnic Russians.

We took a taxi from the airport to Derbent, which took about 2 hours. 

Though we'd given our driver the address of the accomodation we'd booked, it took another 20 minutes of driving around to figure out exactly where it was. We were fortunate that our driver was willing to call the phone number and get directions straight from the owner.

After hanging out in the flat for a couple hours we went out walking. Derbent is on the Caspian Sea, and there is a beach, but we quickly figured out why there is no major resort part of the local economy. The wind never stopped, which meant fine sand was constantly landing on us. 

Hanging out on a towel on a beach wouldn't be fun if you walk away later covered in sand.

On this particular day the weather was chilly, with dark clouds rolling through really fast. Since it was early November, the water was nowhere near warm enough for swimming, I was the only one of us willing to get her feet wet. I wanted to say I'd been in the Caspian Sea.

We walked on the beach for a while, and that's about it for the day. Something about the red eye flight, waiting in the airport, and taxi ride had exhausted us. We picked up food at a supermarket, then went back to the flat and just relaxed for the rest of the day.

After breakfast the next morning we started walking. The weather seemed better, it wasn't quite as windy and the sky was mostly blue. We started by going back to the beach to be close to the water a bit longer.

The beach doesn't follow the entire coastal part of the city, it's actually a pretty small area, and much of it is not very pretty. We saw one guy fishing, who looked at us like we were crazy. Apparently people don't hang out near the water here. The Caspian Sea has fishing restrictions now, because of overfishing, so I have no idea how successful this fisherman was, or if he was supposed to be there at all.

We saw what might be called an abandoned amusement park, though it was really just three or four rides that had been left to rot. Photogenic in a way, but not important at all.

The first real 'sight' we tried to see was a lighthouse. When it was built, it was on the coast. It is no longer anywhere near the coast, there is no way a ship should be using this lighthouse for anything safety related. We weren't able to get very close to the lighthouse, it is behind several walls, inside a neighborhood. Too bad. I'm not sure why it is listed as something to see, because you can't really 'see' it except for a glance from a distance.

There is a park nearby, where we took a team photo with an I love Derbent sign. We walked out the other side of this park, up the street toward a big platz. On one side of the platz we found a giant city sign, on another side was a Lenin statue, and on a third side was a WW2 memorial.

Moving on, we started heading up the hill as Derbent is basically built on the side of a mountain. We found what used to be a church, but is now a history museum. Neither the exterior or interior of the building were particularly special, but we did notice the lasting evidence of some recent fighting in the facade. Bullet holes and such, hmmm.

Moving up the hill from here took us through the old part of the city. The cobblestone streets were pretty steep, with lots of narrow alleys. Wooden and stone homes everywhere, many of them more than one story tall. A pretty area to wander through, and hope not to get lost. (I have zero sense of direction, I'd never get back to Moscow after weekends traveling if I didn't have GPS to get me going in the right direction.)

At the very top we came to the main reason for visiting the city: the UNESCO designated fortress that used to be the main protection of the city; it is now a museum. Getting to the entry of the citadel meant going up a steep set of stairs; at the bottom of these stairs two local boys harassed us, demanding money. When we said no they called us a very unkind name, sigh.

The best parts of visiting the citadel were the views over the entire area. The walls have been rebuilt to be as they were originally, you can walk along the tops most of the way around. The buildings inside the walls were lacking, to say the least. I don't know if there is a plan to redo the buildings as well.

There was a museum in one of the walls, which was quite nice. Paintings and photos of former residents, culture and life in the area. There was information in both Russian and English, at least part of the time. There were also items on display from life back then.

As we left the citadel and started walking back down the hill we realized just how big the citadel used to be. The best way I can describe it as a walled fortress in the middle of a walled city. The fortress walls still stand, and some of the city walls still stand. The area still inside the city walls has modernized, the area inside the fortress walls has not.

While we were walking Angela noticed a car parked; she pointed it out to Claire and me because the entire car had been bedazzled. Wow, just wow.

The next morning we packed up and gave the keys back to the owner, then used yandex to call a taxi. Since the taxi bringing us to the city had had such a hard time finding the flat, we expected it to be the same on the way out of the city, so we chose a much easier to find pickup spot.

The driver of this taxi was awful. He checked his phone every minute or so, if not more often. He was checking whatsapp, and even Instagram, eeek!

He also asked me to cancel the ride through the app, then pay him the same amount, but in cash. Basically he wanted the entire amount, he didn't want to pay a commission to the app. I pretended I didn't understand what he was asking.

After a scary two hours (since he wasn't keeping his eyes on the road,) we arrived in Mahachkhala. The driver let us out at the main sight of the city: a big mosque. We'd been excited to see the mosque, right up until we walked into the women's area, which was tiny. All the photos online show the men's area, with soaring, beautifully decorated ceilings. We couldn't see any of that from the women's section, it was such a disappointment.

After leaving the mosque we walked across the platz and across the street to a giant I love Dagestan sign and took a team photo. Too bad the history museum behind the sign was closed, as it was a Monday and a national holiday.

At that point we decided we were done with the city, none of us felt like it was worth wandering around, and travel apps I'd seen didn't list anything else really worth seeing. We spent the next few hours in a nearby cafe, the food was pretty good.

We walked back outside after dark, and went back to see the outside of the mosque, because it was all lit up for the evening. Very pretty.

We called another taxi, which had a much better driver, who took us to the airport. We got back to Moscow not too long before midnight, meaning each of us got home around 0130, ugh. Still, it was worth it.

I probably won't go back to Derbent or Mahachkhala, but I'd love to see mountains of the region. I'd also like to see the tiny mountain towns, and the abandoned towns. I'm pretty sure I'll need to do that on a tour, but it would be worth it.