Bobg.net » Beyond Vladimir

Things I will post about come hell or high water

Bob G — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:30:22 +0000

~~Tanks in Red square as per Mandy’s request. I hope to have at least 1 picture (me foreground, tank background probably not actually in Red square, although me in tank would be cool too).~~
My Bike, and the weather
My plans for the future, to get feedback

That is probably enough for one sitting, while I could make a huge list, then it would become daunting and I’d never get to anything. How’s that for getting things ~~done~~ started!

Did I mention it was hot?

Bob G — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 23:15:41 +0000

I’ve been here for 12 days, but it feels like a month already. I miss Russia, and I miss the mild weather. You can always put more clothes on if it gets cold, but once you are naked, you can’t get any cooler.

I’ve got air conditioning in my apartment, living would be unbearable without it. Everyone here has air in their homes, cars, buses, hallways, everywhere. One of my fellow teachers told me that it isn’t unusual for a Kuwaiti to leave their car running while they go shopping for 2 hours to keep the car cool. This is only possible because gas costs less than 70 cents a gallon, and pay here is sky high.

This week will see an average of 50 degrees Celsius (122 fahrenheit) during the day. Next month, I’m told I might see my first 60 degree (140F!!!) day! How can I describe the feeling? Have you ever stuck your face or hand into a 400 degree oven? it isn’t sweaty heat, and it blows the heat at you. Walking around outside is like having your whole body sitting on the open door of the oven. You aren’t cooking, but you know the fires of hades are nearby.

Even school buses have been outfitted with AC.

Bandwidth and Packing

Bob G — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 07:47:29 +0000

No more internet after today. This might actually be for a few days, or longer if it isn’t readily accessible in Kuwait. I’ll e-mail everyone who gave me their address as soon as I can once I arrive safely in Kuwait. I hope that I don’t have to deal with bandwidth limits there. I looked up the price of internet and it is almost 1 thousand dollars a year for the slow service. Good thing I’ll be making enough money to support my addiction!

I hope I can pack everything into my 3 bags. I’ve accumulated a lot more stuff than I brought and I don’t want to throw most of it out. Shipping is incredibly expensive because Kuwait is so isolated. It seems to me more like airlifting to Berlin during the cold war since Kuwait’s neighbors = not so friendly.

Any ideas on what I should do with my trench coat? I haven’t got much for cool/cold weather clothes, but since the average daily temperature is well over 100 degrees F, I’ll manage for a while.

All the cool toys

Bob G — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 15:28:01 +0000

The United Arab Emirates gets all the cool things. Them and Qatar. How do I know? Well, the only English speaking channel I get here in Vladimir is BBC World. The commercials are almost exclusively travel advertisements to go to India(and a thousand territories within…), Turkey(welcome home?), Malaysia(truly Asia!) or UAE/Qatar. The UAE has, by far, the best commercials. And they only cater to the rich and powerful. Its no wonder I’m looking for work in that region of the world.

Today I find out the UAE will be building the Louvre II. Yes, they will be building a satellite museum as part of the original in Paris, France. They are also building a Guggenheim museum thing too. When I find a job there, you should come visit me.

[-Via Gadling]

Krasnodar Post 1

Bob G — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 18:05:06 +0000

Today, the 29th of December, I had my first meeting with the police of Russia. Many people have heard stories of cops robbing you blind in Red Square because your papers aren’t in order or you’re missing a registration stamp you never knew you needed. Well, I had a very similar situation happen to me on the largest pedestrian street in Krasnodar. Krasnodar is a city of almost a million people in the south of Russia, so far south it rarely sees snow in the winter! I was waiting for a friend when they asked me for my papers. I thought nothing of it, this is how cops in Russia find people to fine. They also don’t monitor traffic like we do, they just pull people over at random and if something isn’t exactly right, you get fined. Needless to say, almost everyone gets fined.

But the second they saw I was from the US, they asked to check out my registration at the militia stand. I should’ve known better but I went with them (in the direction that was actually away from the stand, upon later reflection) We went about a block off the main road where they asked me to empty my pockets so they could check for narcotics, they were talking the whole time about Krasnodar’s narcotic problem while interspersing the fact that his aunt lives in Florida as we walked.

One cop tried to get me to turn around while padding me down, so the other one could steal my money. But I told them I knew my rights and I wasn’t going to do anything without a translator and without my things back in my possession. After ‘radioing’ in my information (just my name…) they decided to ‘fine’ me for having no registration 500 rubles. About 20 dollars. I argued so he said make if 1000 and he’ll let me go right now. I almost laughed, finally realizing I wasn’t in any trouble nor could these cops do anyhing to me. So I said I didn’t have the money, it was for travelling home. They gave up and told me to mind the narcotics around here and watch for cops. Ha!

It took me a good 15 minutes to calm down, even longer had my friend not shown up. I’m glad she was later than I, otherwise getting a phone call might have been a lot more interesting with the cops around…

Pictures

Bob G — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 13:51:27 +0000

Whenever pictures are in a post, I lose most of my wit and ability to tell a coherent story around them. Mostly because I’m missing lots of pictures and to string them together requires too much thought. One day, I’ll take my camera and shoot first, before admiring cool new things. That way, when I blog about it for you, you won’t have to go. The more I travel, the more you can sit in your chair and live vicariously through me around the world.

This episode focuses on a short trip to Moscow. While its not the best city it the world, it is the most expensive thus making it pretty cool.

The Hostel I stayed at is located pretty centrally in Moscow, the 8th floor of a building on Old Arbat Street (старый Арбат). Its a tourist shopping street with the most inflated prices around.

As ususal, click on a picture for a bigger version

Along this street is a McDonald’s where people can walk up and order through the specially designed Walk-through window called MacExpress. We only ate here once, and instead chose a more Russian restaurant called Теремок (Teremok). Mostly, Теремокs are just stands on the street, but we found one in a Mall not far from the train station we arrived and departed from. Not to be left out of the iPod marketing craze, Теремок shows their pancakes with filling product just like Apple. Also, I’m ordering some Russian pancakes (Блини).

When I thought about taking pictures, I was usually underground in Moscow’s famous Metro. I took pictures of the celings, the architecture and other stuff I found neat. First is A map found at each of the metro lines showing connections. Next, the lights in Mendeleev Station. Guess who he is. The Doors are your average Metro exits/entrances, I think they look pretty classy. The last 2 are Stained Glass at a metro stop, I forget which

The Russian for Escalator is Travelator. Here is a Russian Subway Travelator.

The Soviets built the Metro, and everywhere you go there are sometimes obvious symbols, sometimes not so obvious, like the one you might never see above you in the next picture. Lots of stations have Chandeliers, they aren’t delicate, but they are a nice touch.

Communism was weird, For 74 years Russia was atheist, but there are tons of churches that survived. Now that capitalism is here, they are just old buildings that don’t make much money. So lets build a McDonald’s nearby.

Speaking of food, I ate at the only good Mexican restaurant in Russia. The following are pictures of the signage, the drinks/pico de gallo, where we sat and the front room.

At the advice of our friend Alex, we went to the Sovyolevskaya Market(Совёлевский Рынок). Here there are hundreds of stalls selling techno gadgets. I was incredibly happy. There happened to be a stall selling Hookahs (Кальян) where Mandy bought a personal sized hookah with its own box. No pictures of that as of yet. The next 2 pictures are of 1) a cell phone stall and 2) an entire computer store in about 100 sq feet.

Finally, the last story for now is that of the Руководство Игрока Adventure. I looked up the Russian distributer for D&D products and their site lists an address on the north side of town. When I finally arrived it was a standard, unmarked soviet style apartment building. Whoever works for Hasbro/WotC is making easy money playing distributor from his home. Not letting that stop me, but making me mildly upset, I went to the House of Books (Дом Книги) in search of my treasure.

Once we got there, I think we found the only Russian employee who understands the words “customer service” when put together. She was very patient with my terrible Russian and even brought me over to the database computer where several unsuccessful searches were tried. After apologizing for not being able to help us we went in search of Magic cards, hoping the book I was after might be near other gaming-esque materials. Thankfully we walked right past the Magic cards and into the children’s section because I noticed the jigsaw puzzles on the top shelf. “Games!” I thought, but there wasn’t anything but jigsaw puzzles and a woman dressed kinda like a clown reading to children and making their parents buy books if the children want to hear the ending. I was crestfallen, but in my slouchedness Mandy noticed my backside was leaning up against… Exactly what I was looking for! I’m happy Mandy found it, since what she knows only looks like the second book.

Last are 2 big. The first is one of Stalin’s Skyscrapers. The second is a Panorama of Red Square. More picture posts later.

Moscow: Day 1

Bob G — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 22:00:15 +0000

Mandy and I are staying in a cheap, centrally located Hostel called Sweet Moscow. Thanks to their free internet access, I’m posting about today’s travels.

Moscow is probably the second best city in the world (second only to Rome). From the Stalin era skyscrapers, to the beautiful Metro Moscow is a city to be walked around in. It is the most expensive city in the world, surpassing Tokyo this year, but you can still manage to get a decent meal for under 3 dollars if you know where to look (and know Russian). Today we found the Players Handbook for D&D in Russian. After finding out that the distributers address was his personal apartment (квартира), we went to the bookstore. The sheer number of dumb luck required to find the Handbook deserves its own post when we get back, right now I’m overjoyed to have it. After the book was Teremok (Теремок). Kiosks that sell Russian food filled pancakes. Mmmm. Then, Nap Time.

Our evening meal came to us courtesy of ‘the eXile’ weekly newspaper/review. La Hacienda is the best reasonably price restaurant in Moscow, if you like Mexican food. I took several pictures of today, but since the wireless here doesn’t have bluetooth, they won’t be here… yet.