Vladimir

Since arriving in Moscow, Russians have always told us, “Moscow is not Russia and Russia is not Moscow”. They mean of course that this is one huge country with a lot of different people and cultures mixed up inside. In not so many words they are telling me to go out and see it all before coming to any conclusions. Fair enough. So I have been making a concentrated effort to see more of Russia this year. Last year I vowed not to travel in Russia during winter but this year I’m changing my ways and accepting that most of the year is winter. If you don’t travel when it’s cold, when will you?

During the last week in January David and I travelled to Astrakhan, Russia. It’s a city in Southern Russia near the Caspian Sea. The town sits on the Volga River and for years its economy has relied on the fishing industry for its existence. It is where the majority of Russia's caviar comes from. At one time Astrakhan had been a wealthy city but like many other Russian port towns it has fallen on hard times.  I was really excited about driving out to the sea because the Caspian has always intrigued me for some reason. I have included it as one of the places on earth I need to visit. It has always sounded very exotic to me. Maybe that's where the curiosity comes from or maybe because it shares its shores with some of the most interesting places -- Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan. Whatever the reason David decided to indulge me and we asked the hotel to find us a driver. We have had very little success renting cars in the past and in such a remote part of the country it just makes sense to hire somehow who knows the area. And that is how we found Vladimir.

Vladimir is a grandfatherly type. It turns out in fact that he has some children and a few grandchildren. Sadly two of his sons are in jail. By the look of Vladimir’s tattoos I would make a bet that our sweet driver had done a little time himself. But he was taking his job of tour guide very seriously. At first he was quite confused by our request to see the surrounding countryside and maybe some small villages. “You want to see nature? Maybe you come back in summer”, he said to us.  After some explanation (and after consulting the only touristy brochure that seemed to exist in Astrakhan) we settled on a drive and a price. Our journey did in fact take us to some little villages and dear Vladimir tried to get me to the Caspian. But we found out that without Russian citizenship and special passes we were not getting to the sea. The Russians actually have a military barricade on the road to the Caspian. I assume it has something to do with the “interesting” places I mentioned that all have borders on the sea. My hopes were dashed and Vladimir felt badly but I gave up when we came too close to the Kalashnikovs. We did find the most amazing irony in the local Lenin statue (photo below). A fading and crumbling past, glorified in the center of town. The statue in itself made the drive worthwhile. But we also stumbled across a charming part of the country, in spite of the poverty we saw. We visited with ice fishermen and sat waiting for random cows to cross the road. We visited an age-old fish market where we were offered a wide array of fresh and dried fish. The entire day Vladimir went out of his way to try and indulge the whimsical Americans and he did a great job. Even if he didn’t fully understand my excitement over exploring the rural Caspian delta, I’m glad we did it. This was a good start on my journey to discover the Russia outside of Moscow.

Vladimir with a serious fisherman

Vladimir

Good old Lenin

Fish Market

Selling sturgeon at the market