Excursion to Russia's Kola Peninsula (Murmansk Oblast)
(Text from an email written to my family)
+SEE.ALSO.CINDY.IN.RUSSIA!
I still don't know if I can quite capture all of Russia in words. Maybe it's the fact I've never traveled for a week (besides the beach) or to somewhere so different from what I've always experienced that makes it so. But I can try to jot a few things down!
We started on Sunday and traveled about 7 hours to the very far north of Finnish Lapland. We stayed at a cottage/hotel in Sevitijarvi
owned by a Sami (indigenous peoples of Lapland (Laps)) couple, had a good reindeer dinner, and learned about Sami culture and handicrafts from the wife: she showed locally made beaded wool garments and gave a few lessons in the local Skold Sami dialect, which is officially the second language in northern Lapland.
(christiane and sybille looking at a hood)
It was also our last chance at a sauna for the week, but of course it was malfunctioning and the men had to go without! Well, we could warm it up to about 40 degrees (100F) but it's not a good sauna until it's 80 degrees (I think that's around 160) and I have done sauna up to 100 (212F; but that's definitely too much).
Our next day we traveled a short distance and passed into Norway. Sadly no stamp in my passport since traveling from country to country in the EU is much like going from state to state.
But we saw gorgeous fjells and fjords and rapids,
(where's jurand? (in the middle of the rapids of course))
and got a glimpse of the Barents Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean, a major defining element of this part of the North)
before we stopped in Kirkenes and talked with the staff of the Barents Secretariat that is building economic, environmental and social cooperation among people from the Barents region (northern Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway). So it was interesting - at that point I had seen Norway and the Arctic for the first time, and made it the furthest North I may ever go (around 69 degrees north; the Arctic Circle and Rovaniemi are 66.3; and home is 36!).
It took only 10 minutes to get to the border crossing, and there we went - only four or so on the bus (out of 30) had been to Russia before, so few knew what to expect. It's a crowning achievement for those in the Kirkenes area to have the crossing, though: it was one of the world's most closed borders all through the Cold War, and tensions were always great between Norway and Russia after WWII. Now the border's been open over 10 years, and people travel between Tromso/Vadso/Kirkenes and Murmansk region all the time.
But some old elements remain all customs and passport control facilities in Russia are manned by camouflaged personnel Ari, the ASP's coordinator, was standing when the bus entered the checkpoint, and the lady came on and very sternly said Please Sit Down! Actually, going through customs was not that stressful - much less stressful than my fear of what to expect. I made it through in no time just like everyone else. And we were then headed the 250 km to Murmansk. I stayed awake until the first passport check (50km from the actual border, but in practice where people were turned away from going any further toward Norway), when a friendly gentleman with a machine gun boarded the bus!
Of course I fell asleep right after that - cold. We made it to the third and final passport control about 1 hours later. Luckily the man had a bayonet this time and not a gun! I was sitting in the front and everyone had watched me bob up and down when the bus hit bumpy spots And when the guy came to me, he kept trying to tell me to wake up, didn't work Ari came and said it in English and then he shook me and said my name a couple more times before I woke up and heard "passport" and groggily handed it over. I though everyone behind me laughing was part of my dream - I actually didn't hear about this story until we were hanging out at midnight that night! I couldn't believe my ears!
(well, etienne, emilie, and tom didn't have trouble waking up for the passport control; but sybille got quite a kick out of them sleeping, so she had to borrow my camera!)
Our first two stops were in Nikel and Sepalyarnyj, where nickel mining is nearly the whole economy for all the towns in the Northwest Kola Peninsula. The smelter was in Nikel, and one of the most surreal things was to see a rusted, decrepit factory rise high above a town of 20,000 - from about 10 miles away.
Going in was going to another world. Before I hadn't felt there was a change from Lapland in Finland, Norway or Russia geographically and ecologically it's all the same, pretty much. Sami also live all across Lapland. But this was my first time in a developing nation, and Nikel is the most striking example. The town and people aren't impoverished at all, in fact, completely the opposite. But the nickel smelter - not too many decades old - looks like a shutdown factory at home, and is unbelievable that it still functions and employs the town. All the grounds near the factory and town center are a mess, basically, and much like everywhere else, the buildings are concrete blocks - the longest lasting remnant of Soviet days - and fairly depressing.
Fortunately for the residents, the sulfur emissions from the plant go away from the town, and there is nothing - literally - between Nikel and Sepalyarnyj because all the vegetation has been killed. It was the most striking landscape I have ever seen
But the glimpses of both towns is much of what I decided was my main impression of Russia: everything visible (besides the landscape) is incredibly depressing, the winters wear down the buildings, the buildings are concrete blocks, every town has at least four stacks in the middle of it belching out pollutants, and it was cloudy most all of the time we were there (followed soon by Polar Night, two months of no sunlight (luckily Rovaniemi gets SOME sun - even if it's 2 hours of dusk - all year long)). So basically everyone should be depressed, but there's a lot of hope among all the people, in fact they're much happier than most Finns I encounter, and while conditions look impoverished, the people aren't. And it was the most impressive thing about Russia to me.
We spent three days in Murmansk, which is the Arctic's largest city at 400,000 people. It's a bustling industrial town founded on shipping - Kola Bay which feeds into the Barents is ice-free year round. I get the impression Murmansk is fairly prosperous, just not to the level of St. Petersburg (which is very Western European and developed) and Moscow.
murmansk as seen from alyosha - the city symbol (giant WWII soldier; shows how alive the war still is in the russian collective memory)
We stayed at the Polyarny Zori hotel, which wasn't too exciting, and was strange - most definitely the poshest hotel in Murmansk, and I felt completely out of place. The ruble is such that the hotel cost only $15 per night, and most everything was $3 or less in cost the whole week. It was only Russian in the sense that we were staying as the elites do, but at the same time I still found what I always want the glimpses of life in the area.
Ari had made contacts at the Murmansk Institute of Humanities and at Murmansk Pedagological State University. We spent the first day at MIH, and got to know some foreign languages students who helped translate on a city bus tour and at the harbor. We visited Vaigatch the NUCLEAR icebreaker, at the harbor which almost no foreigners get to see (who don't pay a pretty penny to go on its cruises to the North Pole!). I have some interesting photos to put on the site from there, including the control room and a video of the nuclear reactor being shown to us. While it was a bit disarming to be inside a nuclear powered vessel we were surrounded by nuclear plants and nuclear waste all week - Murmansk region is the most militarized and nuclear developed region in Russia. And while the money is there for the plants and development, the worst part is there isn't much for proper handling
THE NUCLEAR ICEBREAKER VAIGACH
that is the nuclear reactor we're seeing on the tv screen.
group shot in the helm of the icebreaker:
left to right, bottom row: finn jensen, balazs kis, christiane knoppik.
top row: helgard fischer, anna (MIH student), inga lindenau, susanna, jurand jezioro, sybille wedler, elsa marteau and MIH student.
At this point, anton (who happens to be from Russia) dropped by and we chatted before Csaba and Inga and I whipped up a pizza dinner for about 10 of our friends it was a great evening. More snow yesterday. More this morning. And northern lights last night that were AMAZING. Great weekend.
Well, the best times were spent in our free time with the Russian students from MPSU. We got to know about 10 from the Foreign Languages faculty and they were so excited to meet people from everywhere which isn't too common in Murmansk region.
They took us around the shops. Most students wanted to take advantage of the prices when we were there but I never really shop for much besides CDs and food so, I just tooled around with everyone and then we found out Olga's mother was baking pancakes for anyone who wanted to come to the family flat :)! So off we went! The most memorable experience so far definitely 17 people from 6 countries having a great time getting to know one another over delicious food. Priceless!
(adorable little boy who came up to csaba and me while we were all standing outside)
(riding the ikarus bus on our way to the pancake dinner!)
PANCAKES! by Olga's mom!
left to right around the table: helgard, christiane, tino schott, sybille, elsa, csaba kiss, adäm himer, anya, jurand, (i feel awful i don't remember her name) and olga!
anya, me and jurand.
christiane and sybille
Most of the nights were late and a lot of fun The last morning in Murmansk was hilarious when our coordinator who told us never to be late, and made the last people on the bus sing a song every day managed to stay up until 5 or so in the morning when we had to leave at 9.
marleen bosschart after 2 hours of sleep the night before
We were all waiting (with the Russian students who had a big day planned for us) in the lobby of the hotel watching the minutes pass wondering where ari was and at 9:07 the professor decides to call his room, and finds, lo and behold, Ari is still asleep. I think you'll understand how funny it was to see him come on the bus in the morning when Adam's photo is uploaded.
The day was long... 4 hours at the university. 3 more hours around town, and we were dead, and somehow ended up having the best evening imaginable with the Russian students that night. SO Murmansk was incredibly memorable.
at the university
The last few days were good too, not as exciting as the city. I actually have to leave in a minute, but I have a few photos to share later on I'll forward the one Jurand took of me. I odn't think I said, but I managed to break the handle off of my glasses and have yet to take it to the shop but he got a good black and white photo of me standing around with them. It's actually really nice.
Just to be brief... The last three days were somewhat of a blur. We spent a lot of time traveling south through the peninsula, and stopped in Lovozero
and Apatity for the nights. I slept most of the time on the bus Even worse than the passport control: I managed to sleep all the way to Kandalaksha, we had a stop to shop, and I didn't really feel like it so I slept more, and then, we had a guide for the town, I heard her say one line and hten I was out :). I managed to sleep through the bus coming to the restaurant for lunch, and everyone disembarking Ari had to come on and wake me up! I'm notorious now!
Coming back through the border crossing that opened just 12 months ago was quite an experience I'll save that for the next email. But want to get this out to y'all. Hope all is well! Take care, and travel safely (mom & dad)!
Love, -Collin.
PHOTOS FROM WHAT I DIDN'T MENTION IN THE EMAIL...
reindeer slaughterhouse in lovozero. swedish-owned, russian staffed.
UNO at Virma Hotel in Lovozero (Marleen, Bettina Pinzl, Adäm).
Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Montsiegorsk (5 years old).
traditional cemetery in apatity: gated tombstones with benches nearby so family and friends can visit, sit and chat with their loved ones.
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