In Which Our Hero Goes to the Zoo

Just one entry this week, as I'm not really feeling up to it, and still need to get started on my homework. Perhaps later in the week if I am in higher spirits I will check in again. Anyways, this week was the week of our group trip to Kaliningrad. We left Yaroslavl' at 2am Tuesday, to drive to Moscow to catch our 7am plane. After a largely sleepless bus ride in which we were apparently stopped by the Militsia (police) for some reason, we finally arrived at the airport in Moscow. Following our flight to Kaliningrad (again largely sleepless), we got in at around 10am. We took taxis to our hotel, and my initial impression of the city was that it was incredibly ugly. I had read that most most of the attractive parts of the city were destroyed in WWII or by those damn Soviets, but I was not prepared for the level of ugliness that I encountered during that taxi ride. All the buildings we passed were cookie-cutter soviet apartment blocks, in various states of disrepair. The initial ugliness of the city, combined with the extremely irritating taxi ride (I won't get into that) and having slept for less than two hours meant that when we got to the hotel I was in less than a wonderful mood. A four hour nap helped to alleviate this situation, so I decided to go exploring the city with some friends. I discovered once we got into the center of the city that Kaliningrad isn't really that ugly. Don't get me wrong, it's still pretty ugly, but there are some very attractive buildings and neighborhoods. From this one gets a sense of just how nice the city must have been before it was decimated during and after the war. The central square (Ploshad' Pobedy, or Victory Square) is dominated by a huge gold-domed orthodox cathedral that was built in the last few years. The other main point of interest in the city is the large church on Kant Island, which has been renovated in the past few years by donations from German families who were kicked out by the Soviets. It's mostly just a concert hall now, but it does have two chapels, and one of the largest pipe organs in Europe. Unfortunately they were not holding any concerts while we were in town, or I would certainly have gone. Attached to a corner of the church is the tomb of Emanuel Kant, the philosopher, who lived and taught in Koenigsberg (the German name for the city).

On Wednesday we had a group trip to the Curonian Spit (I think that's what it's called in English), which is a narrow strip of sand dunes along the Baltic Sea, half of which is owned by Russia, with the other half being part of Lithuania. It was a really fascinating, if wet, excursion. At one point we climbed some sand dunes and then a tower and were able to simultaneously see the Baltic and the Curonian Lagoon, which is the body of water formed by the Spit. We also got to see the bird ringing place, in which they catch birds in a huge net and then tag them, record them in a book, and then release them. I had a hard time understanding the guy who was talking, but it was cool nonetheless. We had Thursday to ourselves, so some of us decided to go to the Kaliningrad Zoo. Apparently it was one of the best zoos in the world before the war, but insufficient funding and neglect seem to have taken their toll. It is a really pretty park, but the exhibits are not well maintained, and the animals seem to be hungry and sad. I'm still glad I went though, as it has been a really long time since I last went to the zoo. I got to see bears, lions, a tiger, an elephant, hippos, and a very angry elk, among other things. I also had the very strange experience of watching Sarah feed mango to a bear. Since the zoo has so little money, the keepers do not discourage feeding the animals. When we came up to one of the bear cages, people were feeding throwing acorns to the bear, who seemed to be happy as a result. Once the other people went away, and once the soldiers passed us by, Sarah proceeded to throw bits of dried mango to the bear. Bears like dried mango, it would seem. Or at least this one did. I took a pretty sweet picture of the bear preparing to catch a flying piece of mango in its mouth. Hopefully it'll still be visible if I put it up on shutterfly. After the zoo we went to the Museum of the World Ocean, which consists of some boats, and a main building. The highlight of that was getting to go into an old Soviet submarine. The old man on board was very enthusiastic, and seemed very eager to practice giving his talk in English. It was really cool. The first part of Friday consisted of going to the Amber Museum, and helping Emily buy pants. This, it turned out, was somewhat less fun than bears and submarines. Oh well. Oh, and about amber – Kaliningrad is, I think, the world's largest producer of amber. And they seem to all be really proud of this fact. Kaliningrad's hockey team is even called Dynamo-Amber (Dinamo-Yantar'). After returning to the hotel, we got in taxis and headed back to the airport, for our flight back to Moscow. Everything was a little bit delayed, and I didn't end up getting back to my apartment until 3:45am Saturday.

After getting some sleep, I went to the Icon Museum in Yaroslavl', for my culture class. They have a really beautiful collections of icons, some of which were painted in the 13^th century. On Sunday I went ice skating, and didn't even break any limbs. I would be lying if I said I didn't fall, but I didn't fall very many times, or very spectacularly, which I consider to be a good thing. I shall try to go ice skating again before too long, and perhaps might even learn to do it without looking tentative and silly. On a completely unrelated note, I need some opinions regarding facial hair. I am unsure if I'm happy with my beard. I'm having a debate with myself about whether or not I should go for just chops and a 'stache, to go with the mullet I'll hopefully have by December. So, if anyone has any words of wisdom regarding beards, moustaches, or mullets, please let me know, by whatever means you see fit. Thank you in advance.

Oh, and one last note - I just uploaded pictures from Kaliningrad, this time with real live people in them! That should placate you for a while, Teddy.