Coca Cola Tour!

While looking for things to do here, I figured out that there was a Coca-Cola factory here! Totally cool. However, they only take group tours, so I asked Svetlana if we could go, and she made it work! She arranged a tour and offered to let the other American and Australian I had met go with us (high school students on an exchange program with the Rotary club).




We took a long (30-40 min) bus ride out to the factory and then got a tour. We had to wear hair nets and those little booties that go over your shoes. But we saw the whole process from the beginning to end. The bottles started from this little test tube like plastic things that was blown up to the 2L bottles. Then the bottling area (it looks like a normal bottling area).

We got to taste a sample of whatever we wanted to. I chose Fanta Mandarin (which is NOT Fanta Orange). It was sweeter and smoother than the Orange. But, like all of Fanta's flavors- not distributed world-wide. It also was a New Years special for that area of  the world.

But this meant I had toured corporate Coca-Cola, a factory in Russia, and Coca-Cola World in Atlanta. Totally cool!

Military Museums

I'm a big museum person.

Like I need to go to museums when I travel.

I think this is because of my history minor/fascination.

But, I wasn't getting my museum fix here in Vlad, so I decided to rectify that.

November 8, 2014
First up, I went to the Battlements Fortress Museum on the seashore.

I had my handy dandy Lonely Planet guide with directions to help me get there.

It was as good as ever. In other words, don't ever listen to them ever. They stink. They have no idea how to give directions or make a map. They are never right.

I spent a good 30-40 minutes wandering around trying to figure out how to get in. I eventually asked a Russian who was working at a sports complex how to get in. (She also gave me bad directions, but I can see that there used to be an entrance there, so I can't REALLY fault her).

Then I decided to just try to get there the way I would have if I didn't look at Lonely Planet....guess what? It worked. Kind of annoying.

It was 200 RUB to get in for adults, but children under 5 are free (like most places here).

IT WAS TOTALLY INTERESTING...if you like history. And don't mind freezing cold wind.

There is a small museum under the fortress, which was cool to see, and in English for my non-Russian speaking readers.

I mean I guess you COULD have more knives. 

This is a must go if you like military history or have children.

November 17, 2014

Then it was the mystery war museum that no one knew what I was talking about when I asked them about it.

Turned out to be an FSB/border guard museum. You can't take any pictures, so you just get to see the door.

But it was FREE!

And it had a kitten wandering around. Which like most kittens didn't really want to get held, but rather play with dangling strings. But, like most kittens, is just too little to stop the Big Bad Cassidy from scooping it and cuddling as she explored.

It takes about 30 min to walk though, and displays are in English (some what).

Must go if you like military history.

See you around the globe!

C-56 Submarine!

One day after class Svetlana/SRAS took us to see the C-56 submarine. It was used in WW1 and theen retired.

It is a must go if you like military history, however, be prepared to not understand anything if you don't speak Russian.

Still fun to explore!

We HAD to pose with Stalin!

I was too tall for the bed!

See you around the globe!

Botanical Garden Exploration!

Svetlana, the woman who works in the international office and is wonderful and helps us with everything, invited me to go to the Botanical Garden with her and a few of her friends.

I figured Russians + pretty fall colors = photo session! And I was glad I guess that, because that was exactly what this was!

It is easy to get to the botanical garden, all you need it to take a bus and it drops you off right outside. Cost 100 RUB to get in.

But regardless, it was super fun to walk around and see all the pretty flowers, I won't over load you here, but you can check out Travel By Cassidy's FB page for more pictures!

I got in on some of the photo action!

This little girl watched us take pictures on the steps, then told her mom she wanted pictures on the step. 

See you around the globe!

"Close of Biker Season 2014"

SO there is this thing here called "Close of Biker Season Day."

1) There is a biker season? (Y'all I grew up in FL, if you want to ride your bike in January, you ride your bike in January

2) The commemorate the close of a "season"?

3) bikers in Russia?

4) why not?

Ok, let's go!


I met up with Elena again and we went to "Close of Biker Season 2014" which she had never been to.

It was interesting to say the least. A BUNCH of bikes all lined up, and people just walking around

TOUCHING THE BIKES. Touching OTHER bikers bikes. Sitting their children on the bikes.

If you know anything about American biker culture, you will understand how utterly confused I was about this. Elena stated that at a show like this, why wouldn't you be able to touch the bikes? (To avoid getting your hand broken?) Apparently that isn't a thing in Russia. So now you know!

We also saw a biker wedding. I wondered (1) how she wasn't cold and (2) how did she ride the bike in that dress?

Afterward we went to Cinnamon Cafe where I had pizza. Now this was close to regular pizza, but still wasn't "pizza."

See you around the globe!

Надежда/ Nfdezhda (Hope)

A story about this day on the VSUES website. (translate if needed)

The Nadezhda is the practicum ship for a local marine university, but it has something special- a cultural center!

We boarded the ship to what, at the time, appeared like an awkward clapping welcome thingy, but found out later that it is a customary greeting when boarding a ship like Nadezhda. We got to listen to a history of ship ship as well as explore all over!

We did an imptomtu "share the song of your country" where the only song the three Americas knew was the National Anthem (yay brainwashing!). So that happened. There is a video on Facebook for proof.

The ship was really really cool! Best explained in pics! We got to see the dorms, the classroom, the culture center, the officers quarters, and wander around up top. It was really interesting to see!

there was suddenly a sub!

 See you around the globe!

Far Eastern Federal University

There are two universities in Vladivostok: Vlad State Uni of Economic and Service (where I am) and Far East Federal University (ДФГУ)

We decided to go see ДФГУ one day after classes. You just take a bus form one university to the other. But it is a long bus ride because the university is on an island.

Yup, you read that right.

On an island.

It was built to host the 2012 Asia Pacific Economic Conference, and the the Russian State "gave" it to ДФГУ.  The conference participants and volunteers were hosted there. FYI_ Russia also built the two bridges we drove over to get there, just for the conference.

But campus was a traditional American style campus- student center, dorms, cafes, gym, and I'm assuming classrooms, but I didn't actually see any.

We think their mascot is a dragon.

Ryan decided to have fun with angles...

We had lunch at one of the cafeterias, cheap, traditional Russian food.

We mainly just wandered around the campus looking at it and taking in fresh air.


















See you around the globe!

Exploring down town Vlad!

When I woke up around 8 am my time (5pm EST the day before), I decided to go try to find internet before eating and going downtown. Sveta, the wonderful lady who met us at the airport, wanted to show us downtown today.

After walking out the dorms to go to the only place I knew with internet, I ran into a problem…the way I knew was locked tight. I started to go down stairs, but realized I didn’t want to walk down 5 flights just to walk back up them. When I exited the stairwell, I ran into Alex, who was also looking for internet!

We thought there was another exit from the dorms towards the sports hall…so we started walking that way. There is but it’s the long way around. After a helpful security woman told us how to exit. We literally walked around the building/campus.

Only to find a gate.

Which we watched a Russian jump.

We looked at each other and shrugged, then climbed the fence.

But, once we got to the place with internet, it was closed on Sundays, so we asked the security people if we could sit on the benches they were using to block the doors, but they said no.

So we sat right outside on the ground.

statue of tigers downtown

Which is a problem for Russia. People don’t just sit on the ground. But we needed internet.

After about 5 minutes, the security guard came over and invited us to sit on the benches with our legs facing out. J

Then internet!...until my ipad died…

Alex and I went to the store to buy 5 L of water, because we didn’t need anything else and you definitely don’t want to carry 5L of water when you need to buy other stuff too.

After brunch, we all met up to go downtown, taking an entirely different bus from a different stop.

The center/quay (набережная) is very calming and relaxing. There is a beach right there (so ignore my comments from yesterday if you want to) with paddleboats (called cataramans in Russian) and row boats for rent. If you walk along, there are cafes and shops full of “sea products” (aka fish) and a cute tiger statue.

They even had a place where you could work out for free, it looked really cool, but the whole 30 min there 30 min back/ outside in winter thing didn’t really appeal to me. But I might try it for the first month.

It was calm and relaxing to just walk along the seashore. I missed having that in Kentucky/Irkutsk/Macedonia. I like being by an ocean/gulf. I like knowing and I go and just be calmed by the sea.

We stopped for a drink at a super expensive bar. And I learned something new, the Russians love Jack Daniels. The whole bar was practically a tribute to Jack Daniels (with lots of different flavors).

Ryan and I wanted to try to find a matress pad (after being woken up by a pain in my hip from the bed, I knew I had to try something!) she said we needed to go to the Chinese market. (the Chinese has this market cornered in almost every place I’ve been to!) After 30 min of trying to find this matress pad, we finally do…only to realize that what we wanted was lot in translation and mattress pad had been translated to mattress cover. But this store did have matress pads, just not as thick as in the US. So for 750 RUB we decided that our comfort was worth it and quickly bought them!

We caught a taxi back, and I realized something. I had been looking at Soviet block housing, but it had been decorated. It wasn’t a straight block, but every apartment building had something decorative under the windows…take that away and it was block housing. Which goes with something I learned the other day Vladivostok was the last city to turn communist; they held out until 1920.

I do have to say…this no internet thing has made me more productive. With no please reading books left, I have nothing else to do with my time than to read the school books I had been avoiding. Now I’m almost done with them.

Class starts tomorrow!

See you around the globe!

The Beach

 Guess where we went today? Yup, the beach! We took two buses, which took about an hour, stayed there for about 40 minutes, then came back. Seemed silly for such a short amount of time there.

To get to this specific beach, you take the number 59 (possibly also 60) in front of the “grey house” or (a few stops later) the train station. You get off at the end of the line, and follow the road until it ends. It is a bit of a hike, maybe a mile or mile and a half?

But you end up at a cooll little rock beack/outlet thingy with a light house! It is directly across from Russkii Island. It was pretty, a tad uncomfy to sit on due to the rocks, but still pretty.

We stayed there for about 30 min, and then went to get food at the little cafes. (and saw another wedding of course!)

Cant you just hear the pitiful little meows?

There was an adorable little 10 week old kitten or so that was there. I wanted to take it home.

Afterwards, we took the bus back to the train station, where we then walked back to the center. We were looking to buy some USB internet that is faster than the dorms and better. After walking by a protest against the killing of stray dogs, we entered a mall. (I think it might have even been their GUM.)

They have a Cinnabun…this will be in my future. They also have the Chocolate Café that I liked in Petersburg.

We ended up not buying internet, because our guide told us to wait until Monday to get the one at the university and see how fast it was. The USB drive cost 2,000RUB ($55) and the price is 400 RUB per month (or even higher, they had it up to 1,400/month) ($11.11).

Then we went to buy silver wear! I can cook with real cooking utinsils and cut things! WOOHOO!!!

Now to go use them…

See you around the globe!

Welcome to the Far East!

I took the metro back to the airport, with the only difference being the random train change. At some stop, the train suddenly announced “The train will terminate at this station. If you want to go to Icheon Airport, please board the next train.”

Checking in was relatively painless, minus the whole you have to go to specific counters for specific flights, you can’t just check in at the main Areoflot counter.

I am consistently surprised by how easy it is to traverse security in other countries. Ridiculously easy compared to ‘Merica. I was even able to get some Duty Free shopping done (needed real face cleanser, the stuff I had in Irkutsk just doesn’t cut it).

First thing I noticed in Vlad? (The airport is nicer than most.—ok, besides that!) It is the most American approach to a city ever, when you are driving in, if you didn’t know better the (new) highway looks like any in the US. Also, the city is seemingly lacking communist block apartment buildings (I saw seemingly, because I know they must be here, but this city looks like St. Pete. Classic European buildings.

However, the “campus” is a nightmare. It is literally one building. Like Hogwarts crazy. There is even a moving staircase (AKA escalator). Technically I think there are 8 or 9 buildings, but they are all connected by covered walkways. So you don’t have to leave the building in winter. Good luck finding your dorm! I know of 2 entrances to the dorms (which close at 11pm), but both were closing around 10:20p the first night….The dorm is entered from the 4^th floor of building 6, next to the hotel (which has an elevator that apparently we can’t use?) (yes hotel connected to the “one building campus”).

I can get to the international office, the dorm (kinda), and a café with wifi. I might be able to find my class on Monday. We will see. Will be leaving at 8am for an 8:30 class, just to make sure…

We got our stuff lugged into our rooms. I mean lugged. It was up 3 flights, down one, up two. (Yes, those are correct directions, remember ALL ONE BUILDING!) Got our bedding and were able to see our rooms. They are tiny. Like I think my single room at the HC may have been bigger and here I get a roomie. Second thing I noticed? BUNK BEDS.

With no easy access….

As in, move your desk so you can stand on it to get in, cuz unlike US bunkbeds, the side is NOT a ladder….I had to wait to wake up some the next morning before I felt I could successfully navigate the “getting out of bed” thing.

The lady (Svetla) who met us at the airport took us to a nearby café where we were able to buy dinner (fettuccini and mushrooms), then took us to “the highest” point in the city. Where there is a status to St. Cyril and Methodius (inventors of the alphabet).  We got to see the last of the pretty sunset (the sun had already “set” but the colors were still there).

Then we were able to have a nice student that had accompanied us to show us where to go buy water and food (cuz you can’t drink the water here and we had an early start the next day).

Then collapsing in the feather bag, I mean mattress.

Oh did I mention that I was lucky enough to get to experience BOTH Vlad and Irkutsk hot water shut offs? No? Well, I have about 3-4 days of no hot water here…and there aren’t any buckets….

See you around the globe!

The Rest of South Korea

The second weekend I was there, we went to visit Hyun’s grandmothers, on both sides. His dad’s side grandma, fixed us lunch (yum!) and we got to see where he was born. He had memories of growing up there and it was fun to see him remember it all. He hadn’t been to see the village for 16 years. His grandma told me at one point that I was “pretty because I ate,” and I don’t think I’ve ever received a more grandma compliment.

The Next Day, we went to Deagu where his other grandma lives. We went out to eat with her and his Uncle/Aunt/Nephew. However, Hyun and the Aunt ate a chicken soup grandma made first because she called him to tell him she killed a chicken for him. It was a traditional Korean BBQ place. Which means that you cook your own meat at the table, and eat it with sides in a piece of lettuce. I had a veggie bimbop thiny again, but it was with different vegetables. The waitress did NOT want to give it to us without the meat, we had to convince her that it really Really was fine. You weren’t allowed to wear shoes inside the restaurant, but they gave you slippers for the bathroom. (Most of the time when we had to do shared slippers, I tried really hard not to think about the other people feet touching it stuff…)

We spent the night in Deagu where we met up with a boyfriend of a friend’s sister (It was a mutual friend between Hyun/Kristine/I that we met in Skopje! The boyfriend is doing the English Program in Korea (EPIK) teaching English in Deagu for a year. It was a very fun evening, with soju and magkoli of course!

The next day we drove back to Seoul, but stopped at a Korea Folk Village. Apparently, Monday is NOT the day to visit. Usually they have people doing the traditional crafts, but no one was working on them today (except for one man making shoes). They had village life, a cafeteria, a temple, a horse show, and a mask making experience (of course we had to do this!). However, it was really hot that day as well. We ate at a yummy Italian place for dinner that was almost right outside the gates.

See you around the globe!

All Around Seoul

Most of Kristine’s and my days were spent relaxing at home and just chatting with each other. I saw a lot of things, but I think you could spend 2-3 months in Seoul going to a museum a day and not run out of things to do. I highly recommend going, but you might want to go with a guide, as it was extremely difficult to figure my way around (mostly when I wanted to eat) without someone who spoke/understood Korean. As my first time in Asia, (check that off bucket list!) it was a good introduction. I, of course, still want to explore more!

a view from the top of a hill.

IPark Mall

Ginormous mall, complete with cinema. We spent our first day out here exploring and going to a movie. And trying not to drown in the down pour. We ate at California Pizza kitchen and starbucks (they are as prevalent here are they are in America). It was fun to wander around and try to figure out how to get to places, the movie theater opens before the rest of the mall, but here not every shop has their own door, so we kept wandering in different stores to be kicked out trying to find the movie theater. We watched Magic in the Moonlight, it was cute and fun.

National War Museum (Aug 24^th)

This place was amazing. It is three floors of exhibits and free to go to. There are also outside planes and tanks and things to go in/climb on.

Inside it had royal history/time of fighting between the different dynasties, the Korean War, UN peacekeeping missions, and futuristic war.

My Pap-Paw fought in the Korean War, so it was special to see the way they represented the war. What came across the most was how thankful they were for the UN’s support against the North/Communists. I didn’t know a lot about the war, but it was tastefully done. However, someone was happy to play with the special effects and they had a lot of different video/animated things to watch. They had a whole room dedicated to uniforms and information about the UN countries that helped.

The Drop- dogtags of everyone who died in the war.

However, they did like to proselytize/propagandize the history and make the North out to be devils that had no consciousness. An example: the north tried to unscrupulously gain a better position for negotiations, while the UN troops honorably held unto their positions.” We were supposed to be able to go to two museums this day, but I was so entranced that kept us to just visiting this one!

In case you wanted to know what would happen if a nuke was dropped on Seoul (as big as the one that hit Hiroshima. Hint: it's not pretty. 

Gyeongbokgung (August 26^th)

 This was the 1^st palace to be built in the Joseon Period (one of the ruling families). It is almost entirely rebuilt since the Japanese and the North Koreans destroyed it during their occupations, but it has been beautifully rebuilt as a tourist destination. To call it a palace requires a re-thinking of our western ideas. It is one one building, but rather a series of smaller building spread throughout. They also had the Korean Folk Museum here (I think you can get to it without going through the palace, but I’m not sure). It was interesting to see the stuff they had, and free to get into. According to Lonely Planet “It has three main exhibition halls covering the history of the Korean people, the agricultural way of life and the life of yangban (upper class) during the Joseon era.”

 They had a “pantry” of sauces that was outside, and back in the day, they had special servants whose sole job was to make sauce. That was it. We also got to see the changing of the guards, which was interesting. I feel sorry for them though, they wear period dress, and it was HOT!

National Museum of Korea (August 27^th)

Shows of Korea’s national treasures from ancient prehistory to ceramics to donated goods. It took me almost 2 hours to walk it all, including a snack break at one of the not overpriced cafes! It was interesting, and some of the things were beautiful, but not knowing the history of Korea, it was a little difficult to follow. About ½ way through I figured out you could get an audio guide…

Itaewon (almost every day we went out)

Shopping and food district. They had lots of American food places as well as other ethnic food. We just wandered around here a few times/on our way home.

Namsang Tower (August 28^th)

This is a great place to get panoramas of Seoul, if you can see past the smog from China. (thanks environmental externatilities!) There is a Coldstone and a few not over priced restaurants. If you spend $20 to go up to the observatory deck, it rotates as do three overpriced restaurants.

We saw a “flash mob” proposal to that “I’m bored so lets get married” song. It was cute, the girl was crying when she figured it out. He gave her a bunch of shoes, which none of us understood. But if you find a random Korean youtube video (cuz they were taping it) where the girl is in a blue dress with a white top, I’ll be in the background!

Shopping Street (unknown name)

Kristine and I went to a shopping street once to just go shopping and ended up finding a Cat Café. Where there are about 20 cats just wandering around the place and you drink coffee. It was interesting and I got my cat fill (hopefully enough to last until I get my kitty in December). All of us also went here on 8/20 for dinner (street food) and wandering.

Eating and Drinking

After the war museum Kristine and I met up with Hyun and a few of his friends from work to drink magkoli, or Korean Rice Wine. It was yummy! We only had the flavored ones there, I had a wine flavored one! It was in a gigantic goblet, totally full.

A few times we went to Mister Pizza, a pizza chain, that has REAL pizza!

Once we went to a Korean drinking place, where you mostly drink and eat anju or side dishes for drinking. I’m not sure what exactly they ate, because Korean food is not conducive to being a vegetarian. But I had a yummy salad and soju cocktail. I know this might be sacrilegious, but soju tasted like quality vodka to me. Loved the cocktail though- it was kiwi flavored.  

Another time, we ate street food and I had bimbop (sp?) which was fried veggies and egg and rice. It was yummy! I’m not exactly sure what I was eating, but the waitress assured Hyun it was vegetarian so I ate it. Trust I say. Trust. (Aug 20^th)

I even got to go to the 4^th best restaurant in Seoul- Gusto’s Tacos (but I went to the one on base). They had tofu tacos and are run by a couple from NY. They are a bit spicy. (I say a bit because my mouth was on fire, but normal people have a better spice tolerance than I do.)

Hyun hosted 2 North Korean high school students as part of an Embassy program for the night, and we went and got Baskin Robbins. Pretty sure they didn’t have 31 flavors there, but they had a lot!

Amigos Tacos- they made mushrooms taste yummy! Hard to believe. This was the 2^nd day I was in town- and needed Mexican food after dropping my passport off at the Visa Center for Russia.

I even got falafels one day! And they spoiled me with American food that they can get on base. J J

See you around the globe!