Monday, February 28, 2005
Petrozavodsk, Russia was much better than I thought it would be. I admit that I had no idea what to expect, except that the people who spoke of Petroskoi (the Finnish name of the city) did so with an attitude that screamed warning sign. I knew that no matter what the city was like, it was going to be hell getting there and back. I was certainly right about the trip back, but the trip there was a lot of fun.
We approached the Russian border a little over an hour after setting out from Joensuu, so we got there at like 11am, but had to set our clocks ahead an hour at the border crossing, which means that the border crossing really took 3.5 hours instead of the 2.5 that it actually took. I was told that we were very lucky this time and we should be so lucky when we cross the border going the other way. The line of trucks and cars waiting to get into Finland backed this theory up, but the beer and cider and vodka that was purchased at the border helped everyone to forget this little annoying fact. Remember, I was traveling with a bus filled with bands, including death metal band, Scorngrain. I was easily one of the least drunk people on the bus, and for the entire trip as well. Not to be confused with my colleague, Markku (everyone in Finland is either named Markku or Juha) who drank like a fish, but was a good person to be traveling with. I didn't realize until we were on the bus that he and I would be sharing a room. After a few sentances we both offered a clue into our sleeping patterns, specifically that we both snore a little when we drink. The earplugs I had purchased for the concert would come in handy after all.
For some, the party started immediately after we crossed the border. I took a nap. It was not a good nap. The seats on the bus were designed for small women which meant I had to cram against the window, but this proved impossible. Once we crossed the border, everything about the roads changed and they changed for the absolute worst. They were full of choppy ice and snow that was pushed to the sides of the road which then decreased the size of the road to one lane in way too many places. We were on the bus for another 9 hours, but it went by quickly enough and before anyone knew it, we were in Kivatch, the cafe where we would eat 7 times in 3 days. This place was the local hangout, it was packed at all hours of the day and night and even when we arrived for breakfast (blintzes) the next morning there were a couple of kids sleeping at their table.
Note. there are only three pics with this post, but more will follow.
Man that cafe was smokey. Everyone was smoking and ventilation was nowhere to be found. We went to the opening of the Fm club, but for some reason I kept calling it 24 and was just about to write down 24 until I remembered that I was getting it wrong all weekend long. It was a nice little place, filled with Russian kids and a bus load of Finns. I got the feeling that the Finns have a horrible reputation as travelers in Russia. Similar to the reputation of American kids in Mexico, all tack and no taste and it showed on the local's faces. They were not too happy that there club had just been invaded, but nothing bad happeded at all. Could be that they always have a scowl on their faces, because I did not encounter a single unfriendly Russian. Quite the opposite, everyone I met over the weekend - aside from one bandmember from the death metal band (he was just too drunk and obnoxious too often to be liked) - was really friendly. Especially some of the Russian bands, they were real good kids, and they were definitely kids.
The next morning (Friday) we were ready for a full day of formalities. Director of the Finnish Russian theatre - Sergey Pronin - was a nice and charmingly weird little guy who had a lot of good ideas about cooperation in the future. Markku and I were not sure how this meeting would unfold and we thought that this would be a nice warm up for a meeting with the Minister of Culture. Yet this meeting went very, very well. I would give it a 98 on a scale of 100. The translator we brought along, Outi, was superb and a really nice girl to boot. She was with us pretty much the whole time while in Russia and this could be one of the reasons why things went so smoothly, because she was always around when things were about to get confusing. She saved everyone a lot of aggravation.
We concluded our meeting with Sergey and walked right to the Ministry of Culture for our next meeting. They were right next to each other, so the fact that it was blazing snow and cold didn't matter that much. Now the meeting with the beauracrats was good, but certainly not as good as the first meeting. I would give it a 93, because we did accomplish all that we set out to accomplish and then some, but it was just a little stiff. This impression would change later that night, when back at the Fm club we took a table in the back room only to find ourselves sitting next to the Minister and Deputy Minister who were in the process of getting tanked.
I started this a little too late, so I'll try to finish tomorrow, when I will have more pictures to show, but in the meantime here are 3. The first is the Finnish side of the Russian border. The second picture is of a trolley bus and the third is a statue on the lake near the city center.
We approached the Russian border a little over an hour after setting out from Joensuu, so we got there at like 11am, but had to set our clocks ahead an hour at the border crossing, which means that the border crossing really took 3.5 hours instead of the 2.5 that it actually took. I was told that we were very lucky this time and we should be so lucky when we cross the border going the other way. The line of trucks and cars waiting to get into Finland backed this theory up, but the beer and cider and vodka that was purchased at the border helped everyone to forget this little annoying fact. Remember, I was traveling with a bus filled with bands, including death metal band, Scorngrain. I was easily one of the least drunk people on the bus, and for the entire trip as well. Not to be confused with my colleague, Markku (everyone in Finland is either named Markku or Juha) who drank like a fish, but was a good person to be traveling with. I didn't realize until we were on the bus that he and I would be sharing a room. After a few sentances we both offered a clue into our sleeping patterns, specifically that we both snore a little when we drink. The earplugs I had purchased for the concert would come in handy after all.
For some, the party started immediately after we crossed the border. I took a nap. It was not a good nap. The seats on the bus were designed for small women which meant I had to cram against the window, but this proved impossible. Once we crossed the border, everything about the roads changed and they changed for the absolute worst. They were full of choppy ice and snow that was pushed to the sides of the road which then decreased the size of the road to one lane in way too many places. We were on the bus for another 9 hours, but it went by quickly enough and before anyone knew it, we were in Kivatch, the cafe where we would eat 7 times in 3 days. This place was the local hangout, it was packed at all hours of the day and night and even when we arrived for breakfast (blintzes) the next morning there were a couple of kids sleeping at their table.
Note. there are only three pics with this post, but more will follow.
Man that cafe was smokey. Everyone was smoking and ventilation was nowhere to be found. We went to the opening of the Fm club, but for some reason I kept calling it 24 and was just about to write down 24 until I remembered that I was getting it wrong all weekend long. It was a nice little place, filled with Russian kids and a bus load of Finns. I got the feeling that the Finns have a horrible reputation as travelers in Russia. Similar to the reputation of American kids in Mexico, all tack and no taste and it showed on the local's faces. They were not too happy that there club had just been invaded, but nothing bad happeded at all. Could be that they always have a scowl on their faces, because I did not encounter a single unfriendly Russian. Quite the opposite, everyone I met over the weekend - aside from one bandmember from the death metal band (he was just too drunk and obnoxious too often to be liked) - was really friendly. Especially some of the Russian bands, they were real good kids, and they were definitely kids.
The next morning (Friday) we were ready for a full day of formalities. Director of the Finnish Russian theatre - Sergey Pronin - was a nice and charmingly weird little guy who had a lot of good ideas about cooperation in the future. Markku and I were not sure how this meeting would unfold and we thought that this would be a nice warm up for a meeting with the Minister of Culture. Yet this meeting went very, very well. I would give it a 98 on a scale of 100. The translator we brought along, Outi, was superb and a really nice girl to boot. She was with us pretty much the whole time while in Russia and this could be one of the reasons why things went so smoothly, because she was always around when things were about to get confusing. She saved everyone a lot of aggravation.
We concluded our meeting with Sergey and walked right to the Ministry of Culture for our next meeting. They were right next to each other, so the fact that it was blazing snow and cold didn't matter that much. Now the meeting with the beauracrats was good, but certainly not as good as the first meeting. I would give it a 93, because we did accomplish all that we set out to accomplish and then some, but it was just a little stiff. This impression would change later that night, when back at the Fm club we took a table in the back room only to find ourselves sitting next to the Minister and Deputy Minister who were in the process of getting tanked.
I started this a little too late, so I'll try to finish tomorrow, when I will have more pictures to show, but in the meantime here are 3. The first is the Finnish side of the Russian border. The second picture is of a trolley bus and the third is a statue on the lake near the city center.
// posted by Howard @ 11:44 PM 
