2024 National Day Trip to Vladivostok

Compared with the name “Vladivostok”, I prefer “海参崴”, because it has “海” (sea) and “山” (mountain).

09-30 Wenzhou Business Hotel in Dongning

I don’t know when did I make my decision to go for a trip to Vladivostok. Maybe two months ago, maybe I’ve never actually made one, just settling things down while daydreaming… Anyway, looking forward to it, fantasizing about it, the National Day holidays are coming, and now I am sitting in a bamboo chair at Wenzhou Business Hotel in Dongning, tapping away at the keyboard, thinking that not surprisingly I’ll be in a foreign country tomorrow.

Woke up early due to neighbor’s renovation, it’s about time to pick up my loads and leave anyway. Got on the train from Harbin to Suifenhe, no silent environment to enjoy as usual. Later I boarded the bus to Dongning, waiting for it to fill up and depart. However, that took me two hours. It’s probably on me that I didn’t choose to take the carpool. But I really resent people actively coming to me and keep bothering me, just to let me pick their services, even though they can clearly see that I’m not interested and ignoring them. So I was piqued, chose to wait for another two hours rather than letting the annoying cab drivers make my money.

While waiting, the bus driver told us about his UFO sighting experience. It was a Mid-Autumn Festival twenty years ago, he stopped on a drawbridge to smoke, looking at the full moon in the sky. There were two stars near the moon, one was nothing particular, but the other one glowed with a reddish light. He just stared at the red star for a long time, suddenly it began to fly away, faster and faster, eventually disappeared. That was certainly an UFO, the driver told us, since no airplane could have stopped there or been that bright!

Without eating anything a whole day, I arrived at Dongning, settled in the hotel I have booked earlier, and then came out to find a restaurant. I wandered along the street with my camera, it was rainy. I don’t know if I was tired and didn’t have appetite or what, the restaurants here didn’t seem attractive to me at all. The street was not bright, with few people, and it was similar to those restaurants, cold lights with few people. I walked around multiple times finally realized, that’s the very loneliness traveling alone to a different city.

In the end, I decided to sit down in a noodle restaurant, despite the cold lights. Near the windows there were two tables of Russian uncles smoking and talking in Russian which I don’t understand. Minutes later came two more. The two knew the people at the two tables. They picked a table not far from me. One ordered a bowl of wontons while another asked for a few dumplings. At first the waiter could not understand what they were asking so he called out his sister (I should call her grandma probably.) who can speak Russian, let her deal with the language problem. They finally understood what those two Russians wanted in the end. The kid from the Malatang restaurant opposite was eating here too. He heard the grandma’s fluent Russian-speaking, seemed to show admiration for her. The grandma told him to study hard to find the world wider, or some words like that. The kid expressed that his grades were not good, had already dropped from the first place to the fifth in the whole grade. The grandma said, then study harder to get the first place back!

After a while she realized, the kid was talking his rank in the whole grade, and he was actually excellent.

The uncles at the two tables checked out, one of them was tall and thin, wearing a hat, high-fived the grandma. Uncle “Dumpling” could not use choposticks and asked for a fork. They also asked for tea later. The grandma added sugar for them.

A couple went into the restaurant. The man ordered a rice bowl with shredded pork and green peppers, and emphasized that he wanted less meat and more peppers. The chief said, why not make him a rice bowl with only green peppers? Well that’s also okay, the man told the chief. So that’s a rice bowl with shredded pork and green peppers but actually with no pork at all, and had you parked your Swordfish II just outside the restaurant?

Before I left, I asked the grandma when could I buy the ticket at the port. She didn’t know either but she said to me she could ask somebody. I went out to buy bottles of water, and the grandma came after me, told me that she had reached a person who sells tickets. But I simply said no thanks.

With beer in my stomach I felt better, started taking photos along the street. I saw a drunk guy being carried into a taxi. And while I was shooting a statue of a child under the street lamp and the national flag, I heard a girl said bye-bye to me. She was riding an electric bike. I smiled to her. “Don’t forget your stuff, it’s right there.” A can of lactic acid bacteria drink was left on the ventilation shaft with a straw. When I realized what just happened and I should thank her, she had already ridden away. That was unexpected, and I was somewhat flattered.

10-01 Arrived at Vladivostok

Started heading to Dongning port around four A.M. The driver dropped me in front of a store, telling me that’s the place where I can buy a ticket. There were more people came to here. Truth is, the door still remained closed even after 6 A.M. We found that we could directly to the entrance of the departure hall by going around the left side of the building without having to go through the store. I met a buddy (I’ll just call him “Buddy” in the following paragraphs since I actually do not know his name.) studying history at a university in Tianjing, and girls studying for master’s degrees at Heilongjiang University.

Got on the bus which dropped us at the Russian port. I was in a queue waiting for passport and visa checks by a short-haired lady. It was also women working when we entered the security check room. One of them said to the lady before me, “包立起来，姑娘。” (“Stand up your bag, girl.”).

Took a snap on the bus then we arrived at Ussuriysk. Buddy, an aunt and a grandma from Harbin, and I, we shared a cab together. The Russian driver asked, “Владивосток?”, me and Buddy answered “Yeah.” at the same time, then we both reacted immidiately, “Da!”. The aunt asked us wanting to know if we both speak Russian. I said “不会啊不会啊” (“bu hui a bu hui a”, meaning “No no, we do not.”) and noticed the driver took a glance at me, through the rearview mirror. I recalled “hui” is a dirty word in their language. The driver actually can speak some English, told us that August is the best time to visit here. We explained that today October first is our National Day, we have a week off from the work to go somewhere else.

In the hostel (There were at least four more Chinese besides me.) I settled. Buddy suggested we look for some place to have a meal. Came out of the hostel I saw an aunt smoking against the wall in the doorway adjacent. We couldn’t find the restaurant Buddy had picked so we asked an aunt for help. The enthusiastic aunt took us around and around for several times, even asked another person, still we couldn’t find the restaurant. Buddy and I thought, then that’s it, we should bother the aunt no more. So we showed our thoughts translated to Russian. The aunt insisted on the contrast, “нет” — what she said after I don’t understand — and led us keep looking for it for another while, failed in the end. Maybe Google Maps displayed outdated info. After expressing our gratitude, we chose to have the meal at the restaurant just in front of us. I ordered a burger and a glass of stout. The waitress who served us was a sweet-looking girl with blonde hair and glasses. Buddy asked me, how shall we say “Thank you.”? “Spasibo.” So we were both looking at her “Spasibo”ing to her with our clumsy tongues, which teased her and made her laugh mildly. We were even considering whether we could ask her to take a photo with us, saying that it’s our first time to Russia blah blah, and we of course would also give her a tip. But it was her time to leave, none of us were bold enough to ask for the photo, and thus we saved the tip to her. At the end it was another brown-haired girl who came to collect the plates and take the money. We couldn’t understand what she said because the words were in Russian, so we used the translator. Before I left, I also said “Do svidaniya!”, noticed she was pleased too. During the meal we also met a group of guys looked like they were from the Middle East. Someone just said “你好吗”. “你好！” I replied, and “Hello!” said Buddy. Later it seemed one of his companions explained to him that when saying hello he should just say “你好” instead of “你好吗”. (That’s because “你好吗？” is actually “How are you?” or “You all right? (You look uncomfortable.)”, and is usually more like the second one than the first one. We supposed he just wanted to say hello since that’s the most common situation for a person who doesn’t actually speak Chinese.)

When we came out, the sky was clear (It was rainy before.) and the sun was about to set. We took photos beside the Pacific War memorial statue and the eternal flame under the bridge. Focus, exposure, composition… None was correct, my photos were as bad as usual. Bought bottles of water at the grocery store, I still remembered to be polite: “Spasibo!” and “Do svidaniya!”.

Buddy was too tired to continue so he went back to the hotel. I went back to the hostel accordingly, but left there again after I organized my stuff, thinking I had to see the Eagle’s Nest viewing platform. Google Maps said it was in repair and unreachable months earlier, but I thought now is the time to check. When I got out of the hostel, found the aunt was still smoking against the wall. And I arrived near the platform. It was still in repair. I took my phone and asked an aunt at the bus stop, wanted to know if I could actually reach the platform. Google Translate was not handy, I couldn’t understand what she said. So she just pointed out the way and I do-svidaniyaed to her. Successfully, I found the platform unreachable in the end. So I just had to pick another angle to shoot the bridge. It was a windy and chilly night, I only tried a few locations before I started to walk back. Vladivostok is full of inclines which are not quite friendly to people have leg injuries like me. When I came back to the hostel once again, I found the aunt had disappeared. Standing in front of the hostel’s door, below was a group of teens walked by, talking about something. There was one holding a cake, on which written the number twenty-two. I was about to say “Happy birthday!” (to whoever…?), but I didn’t say it, just watched them walked away.

And here I am, at the B07 upper floor presidential luxury coffin room, writing my experience today. Oh, I had signed-up for the access of Zажигалка strip club. Buddy let me send him their link, I wonder if he wants to go there too.

Eleven forty-eight P.M., the television playing John Wick 4 in Russian. Before me is a Russian woman wearing purple or gray, looking at her phone and writing on a purple notebook. She almost turned the notebook sideways and wrote with her left hand. We didn’t talk. I don’t know if it’s appropriate staring at her writing. Watch TV commercials and watch her write. A cozy night, but not a common situation to me who is on a trip out of China for the first time. I want to remember the scene and the atmosphere, but I can’t. A young man came in said “你好！” to me, and talked to the woman, seemed to ask what she’s writing.

10-02 Far Eastern Federal University and Cape Tobizina

A bright morning with no clouds, unlike yesterday.

I walked nearby. Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral (Спасо-Преображенский кафедральный собор)’s bells rang. Went to the train station to buy a ticket for departure, and shot the steam locomotive. The ticket seller at the train station pulled Buddy to the window, used her hands to make a little man walking, and said, “Walk, walk, walk, walk…” (I guess so, I don’t understand Russian.) and showed him the route. Buddy was gathering info because he will leave on October 4th. We called a cab to Far Eastern Federal University (Сувенирная лавка ДВФУ, or FEFU). While waiting, the air raid sirens sounded.

We encountered an uncle at FEFU. He went to Khabarovsk from Fuyuan, and came here on September 26th. Sat at the seaside for a while, we took a photo with two students. On the platform nearby, we met a group of people who were probably middle or high-school students. They wore blue uniforms. Some guy greeted me with “你好！” and I responded “Privet!”. And there was even a guy came to me and said “What’s up?”, and shook my hand like an American black homme, so I responded with “What’s up, bro?”. Behind them were another group of people who wore the same blue uniforms. Among them, a boy wearing red also greeted me. I asked where did he come from. He just expressed embarrassedly that he don’t understand or speak English. On the platform there was a doctoral student from the Faculty of Arts studing in Nanjing and his traveling companions. The person in the Russian group that looked like their teacher asked him to introduce the Nanjing city to them. And then they took pictures together. After said goodbye to the doctoral student and his companions, Buddy and I picked seats at their stadium. Buddy started talking about MBTI. I’m an INTP, and he is an INFJ. We asked a guy near the stadium where can we find the canteen. But he said he didn’t know, because he is a freshman here. He had Ayanami Rei and Asuka charms on his backpack. When asking for directions we said hello to a student whose home is in Azerbaijan. We met a couple who were also looking for the canteen. Both of them were medical students, and the guy’s home is in Weifang, Shandong. We together found an uncle sitting in a car who was glad to help us find the canteen. He pointed it on the map nearby, but it’s not in the Building B we looked up on the website. We were lucky enough to find an international student who led us to the canteen in the a hotel, and paid for us with his card. Seemed that the Building B canteen was only available to students or employees here. The international student’s home is in Zibo, Shandong. He only has two chances to come back home per year, once during the summer vacation, and the other during Spring Festival. The campus here is so large that they have to wait for the bus to go to the classroom thirty minutes before class begins. And a session lasts for one and half an hour. More often than not there are four classes a day. Freshman and sophomore year was a challenge, because there was a caculus teacher who is extremely strict that only a Chinese and a Vietnamese from a class of thirty people passed their exam. Living here, you’ll find Vladivostok’s infrastructure sucks, and when you go back to China you’ll feel like going back to the modernized society. And every time you go back home you’ll gain one and a half kilograms weight. He also hadn’t used cash for a long time. Russians also developing payment systems that utilize QR codes printed on the receipts now. In Russia, where education is compulsory for twelve years, students also learn English. (I asked if they learn English.) He also showed us the notice FEFU sent earlier, told students that there would be an air raid siren today because of a drill. The girl in the couple selected a cutlet and it did not taste good. The international student said he only selects chicken wings or something that he can tell what it is, and he doesn’t dare to select foods that he can’t tell because he knows they taste awful.

Said goodbye to the international student and FEFU, we four took a cab to Cape Tobizina. Some people wearing the Chinese flag were taking photos there, as if they were about to reconquer the East back. Buddy said if someday I plan a trip to Tianjian, just look for him, but he will only be available before his graduation in 2026. A girl and a couple asked me to help them take photos.

When we were heading back, we couldn’t call for a cab. Buddy caught a ride, see if we can pay them to bring us back to the city. It turned that the two people in the car can speak Chinese. They were both doctoral students at Northeast Forestry University. One’s home is in Vladivostok and another’s is in Peru. I listened in the car. They communicated with each other in English, but they both spoke Chinese to us. In the car played Chinese songs like “刚好遇见你” and “平凡之路”. The Peru brother seemed talking to his nine year-old daughter. Buddy wanted to go to Ogonëk instead. The Vladivostok sister said it was good, but not cheap. And she recommended another hot restaurant called Супра (Supra). That’s the one that makes Georgian food. Buddy planed to eat there tomorrow. When we arrived, Buddy paid the Vladivostok sister a thousand.

We ordered two dished and a king crab at Ogonëk. The waiter said sorry, the crabs were sold out, and asked if we could change to another dish with crab meat. Buddy agreed. I said to Buddy with smile, that we were here for a whole crab, if it was not available then maybe we should leave. Buddy kept rubbing his forehead, seemed anxious because of my words. Luckily the waiter came back with a crab, said “Things changed.”. So we ate the last one. The environment was dark and I was tired, wanting to sleep. The king crab doesn’t look very attractive in the photo because of the dark environment, but 1.7 kg is indeed very filling.

When we left, I asked Buddy, the Vladivostok sister — named Olga (Ольга) judging from the display on her car, really asked only a thousand from you? I heard it was one and a half thousand. I meant, did we just give too little and take advantage of others? Buddy let trust him. Besides, they had said that it would be based on taxi fare, and he checked estimated cost on the app, also about a thousand. Of course that was before we made a change to the route. I thought, okay, maybe I heard it wrong? Maybe, “你就付一千五吧” is actually “你就付一千卢布”? Or, Olga just decided to let us go thinking we were tourists here? There is no way to find the answer. At the restaurant I was considering, is there a way to contact her to confirm? I don’t want to take advantage of people who helped us. But I can’t contact her. If luckily we meet in Harbin, and she recognizes me, I will aske for confirmation. But that’s basically not gonna happen. I don’t want to invade her privacy by looking for clues on the Internet like a perverted voyeur. Or how should I explain to her? I’m a fucking holmes?

Buddy and I agreed to meet at eight o’clock tomorrow. I’ll pay back the money Buddy paid for me, then we go to see the lighthouse. At noon I’ll go to the shooting range to shoot.

10-03 The Tokarevsky Lighthouse, Fireline, Supra, Watching Proformances on the Pedestrian Street

We visited the Tokarevsky Lighthouse. A lot of sea stars can be found around the lighthouse. People holding sea stars and taking photos.

Took a cab to the Fireline shooting club. I mentioned I was a client of Zhao Hui and got a discount. I have already made an appointment for the Great Weapon plan which contains Saiga Carbine Model 030 SOK (based on AK-74), Glock 17 Gen.5, and Saiga-9 sp. 42 LOT Yarovit 9×19 caliber. The coach spoke English so I had a good conversation experience. I finished the shooting after a while. They recorded videos for me while I was shooting, and eventually signed me a certificate.

Then we headed to the Супра that makes Georgian food. The staple food looked like a gaint glutinous rice ball with a filling in it. It should be flattened and rolled up to eat, and tasted like a Chinese pancake with the filling of a Chinese meat pie. Buddy also ordered a “dumpling” but it looked like a Shaomai or a Baozi. He thought there were four per serve, but there was actually one. He said this chicken filling one tasted like chicken and salad. He didn’t like it so just left it. I personally can’t get used to the taste of pork and lamb chops because the spice flavor was too prominent. They had the anise flavor. I still can’t get used to it even though I actually like anise. There was even a performance where waiters and waitresses walking around the field while shouting, putting a hat on a random person and passing the person a horn cup to drink with. The waitress who was serving us was quite pretty. Actually all the waitresses here were pretty, with the same makeup. I was attracted not by the foods but by the waitresses. The waitress poured us drinks as long as she found our cups not full. For that we kept saying spasibo embarrassedly. When we were checking out, she showed us a picture which was a note in Chinese saying if we were satisfied with her service please tip ten percent or something like that. We of course gave her the tip and went back to respective hotels. Buddy was exhausted, he will directly take the train to Ussuriisk tomorrow morning.

I went out and took another walk by myself. Firstly I went to the C-56 Submarine Museum (Гвардейская Краснознамённая подводная лодка С-56, Музей), happened to run into a group of kids who looked like elementary school students coming to visit with their teacher. The narrator was explaining to them probably something about Russian submariners, which I couldn’t understand anyway. Some kids greeted me with “你好。”. When they left I also finished my tour, and waved to the kids, saying ”Do svidaniya!“.

Near the train station I encountered Russians offered to greet me. They were Gregory (Грегори) and Andre (Андре). Gregory was a welder in the shipbuilding industry. We shook hands and took pictures.

Then I went to see the statue of Lenin. And then, Primorsky State Art Gallery (Приморская государственная картинная Галерея). It was almost closing time and I was the only tourist. I saw a dumb robot rumbling at a dark corner so I went there to check it. An aunt in the room said something, probably said that the robot was not working well, then cut off its power.

I was wondering if I should pay a visit to the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Собор Покрова Пресвятой Богородицы), but I was tired, so I went to the pedestrian street instead, and found that there was a band playing. When they were performing “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2” I even sang along, whether it was good or bad I didn’t care. Then came a girl speaking to me in English asking for donation, so I gave all my change, maybe fifty or sixty rubles, or even less. I wanted to talk to her, to ask if they were students, but I didn’t seize the opportunity, she left hand in hand with the drummer. I was also wondering should I donate them one handred yuan, but the drummer left and some people left so I left. And I found there was another guy playing the guitar and singing. My battery died recording him.

So I came back to write my blog post. My Chinese roommates were talking about ruble exchange and return trip. I checked there were at least eight other Chinese. This room was mixed with men and women, perhaps all came here because of the low price. All the people were well-mannered, didn’t cause trouble to others, and quite all the time. At least that was the impression.

I plan to go to the strip club Стриптиз-клуб Zажигалка later.

And I failed. They didn’t let me in, so perhaps I will watch the performance in my dream. When I opened the door they even laughed at me and told me to go back using gestures. I thought I went to the wrong place, but then confirmed I didn’t. I saw some Russian guys before me had entered. So I went inside the door again and asked “Is it open?”, the guard said it was open but still let me go back. He then explained to me in Russian and showed the translation on his watch, something like “It is closed today, for special maintainence.”, so I just left. I think in any culture “closde for special maintainence” is basically politely telling you “you are not allowed to enter but we won’t tell you the detailed reason”. Alright, there’s no point keep asking, which would only piss the guard off. No big deal, I still have opportunities in the future.

After I went back to the hostel, I started chatting with the three Chinese guys on my left. They were all college students. The one just besides me was from Shanxi, and the one on his left was from Shannxi. There was also a guy from Changchun in the living room. He played well with a Russian buddy here, even fist-bumped each other.

10-04 The Dome

This day I didn’t write the post, now it’s October fifth. But I kept things in my note app, so here here is the summary and supplement of the notes.

I was sad. Thinking of leaving this city, I was sad.

In the morning I took a look at the guns in a hunting supply store. I have already tried AK-74 which is twenty-seven greater than AK-47 yesterday so I didn’t spend money just for a photo holding an AK-47. I entered Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral to look at its interior, and then bought some postcards at the ВладГифтс gift store.

I heard a coin dropped when I was at the entrance of the underground passage. So I picked it up and wanted to return it to the owner. But I stopped halfway because I wasn’t sure it was dropped by that person, and I was afraid I would return it to the wrong person. Nobody came to me for the coin, probably they didn’t notice or care.

After that, I visited Museum of the History of the Far East (Музей истории Дальнего Востока имени В.К. Арсеньева), the Fortress Museum (Владивостокская крепость), and Museum of Antique Automobiles and Motorcycles (Музей Автомотостарины), also walked around the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When I was in the cab to Museum of Antique Automobiles and Motorcycles, I saw a tram on the road. When paying the fee, the driver wanted to leave me his number to let me transfer the money. I explained that I was a tourist, could not use online payments, only the five thousand rubles cash available. So the driver had no choice but to turn over the seat and search his pockets to give me some change.

And then I went to the cemetery near Сфера, Смотровая площадка (Let’s just call it the Dome.). I feel like it was inappropriate of me taking photos here. I was a tourist who do not understand Russian at all, so I wouldn’t know the life and background of the deceased here. I was just looking for special tombstones and taking photos, that was indeed inappropriate. After that I went to the Dome, encountered Zhenya (Женя) and his fellow on the back seat of the motorcycle with a helmet. These youngsters came to see the Dome, didn’t care to ride the motorcycle loudly near the cemetery. Zhenya came to me, Ni Hao, Xie Xie, Zai Jian, we fist-bumped. At the Dome I saw the most beautiful sunset of Vladivostok. Sunlight went though the tall grass, in the distance is a diagonal bridge, a couple sitting close on a log, the Big Dumb Object on my left was warmed by the sunlight with graffiti spread inside silently waiting for and watching at the people came to enjoy the beautiful scenery. People’s steps formed echoes bouncing in the Dome, unnecessary for the graffiti to respond, for they’ve already been doing it for years. I left the Dome eventually and met three girls. I said privet to them, and also said “It’s beautiful up there.”. They seemed only understood the word “beautiful”, said something I didn’t understand and laughed. Maybe they thought I was calling them beautiful. Anyway, them seemed to say something to me, but when I was about to catch up with them to ask them clearly, they seemed to quicken their pace and didn’t want me to catch up.

I took a cab to the Калина shopping mall to buy something to take home. I wanted to buy Kvass, but it seemed sold out. I asked the aunt at the butcher shop nearby and had no idea what she said. So she came out to led me, stripped over my shopping basket and spilled the goods on the shelf next to her. I couldn’t say anything but “Pozhaley!” (пожалей, I was misled by the translator, this word actually does not stand for “sorry” or “apologize” at all.) and helped her up. Didn’t find Kvass in the end.

Coming back to the hostel with a big bag, the driver asked me “Китай?”“Tourist?”“Russia very good?”“China good? Russia good?”.

I’ve walked so far this day, too exhausted to feel sad. I haven’t eaten anything so I grabbed two beers, a slice of bread, and a sausage, found a place around the Revolution Fighters Square to enjoy my beer. It was about ten o’clock, the fountain light show playing in front of me. I was enjoying the last time at Vladivostok, chilly.

走了许多路，累得脚疼，此时我已经不怎么失落了。还没吃过东西，就拿起两瓶酒，一片面包和一根红肠，去胜利广场找个地方坐下来喝酒。大概十点，眼前是喷泉灯光秀。我正享受着最后的时光，冻得直哆嗦。右侧的两个阿姨中的一位过来问我：“为什么不会宾馆，一个人在这里？自己在这里很危险”“你会冻僵的。”“俄罗斯人并不都友善，在这里可能有危险。”我谢了她们的关心，说我明天就要离开这里了，像看看这里的环境。终于喝完我的酒，已经很冷了，正想着要不要拿剩的空瓶子加入左侧（跟阿姨在一个方向，但远一些。此时我已经转了身。）青年的转瓶子游戏中。但警察来了，把青年撵跑了。看到那两个关心我的阿姨还在关厂商，我就跑去跟她们道谢，表示我会立即返回旅馆。

她看我一个人喝酒很孤独，所以刚刚来提醒我。我们谈论了我的年龄，我来这里的原因——独自享受国庆假期，拜访远东联邦大学，弥补遗憾——我的职业——程序员（她们开玩笑说我是间谍吗？我说是。是想了解俄罗斯的秘密吗？算是吧。）。还提到我的家乡是哈尔滨，普京总统几个月前拜访过的地方。戴眼镜的阿姨说，她想告诉她的朋友她在日本的生活，我用英语复述了翻译器里的中文，她听懂了，我才意识到她能听懂英语，并发现她会转述给另一个阿姨。此外，她提到她 2007 年来中国或哈尔滨的经历，还吃了烤鸭。她还问了我的年龄，另一个阿姨说我年轻。眼镜阿姨说她是个老师，听她意思来这里大概是为了工作，我问那算是某种“游客”吧，我的意思是她跟我一样不是本地人。她有个十四岁的女儿，给我看了照片，我夸她漂亮，确实漂亮。我提议我们一起拍个照片，然后，阿姨问了我的名字，请我给他的女儿打个招呼。我说这是一个来自哈尔滨的招呼，我希望你能够拥有一个美满的生活并且享受它。（Greetings from Harbin. I hope you have a great life and enjoy your life.）随后解释我不太擅长表达，并不是一个外向的人。阿姨给她的女儿录了一段视频传达我的祝福。我随后向她请教了“你好”的俄语发音。她一个音节一个音节地叫我。这真是一段美好的经历。她问我你会想回到这里吗，或者大概是这个意思。我说也许有一天我会再次拜访这里。后来，阿姨们让我回旅店，我就和她们道别了。

我不再感觉有任何的失落与遗憾。

借着酒劲不社恐，和起居室的俄罗斯哥们儿聊了起来。他不是学生，也不算游客，来这里是看望他外婆。我跟他说，我明天就要走了，我很享受在这里的时光。他分了我个茶包。他还问，为什么我悲伤，我说早上我确实有些悲伤，但现在已经没有了，这四天过得很圆满，这就足够了。他问我，我将来会学习俄语吗，我说，以前的某个时候我确实尝试过学习俄语，不过我放弃了。将来也许我会再次学习俄语。我的家乡哈尔滨，有许多俄式风格的建筑，有许多建筑最初是俄罗斯人修建的。我说我认为，俄罗斯人都是帅哥美女，你就很帅。我请求和他拍照，说我享受在这里的时光，你总是对其他人很友善，我回中国回想你的。最后，向他学了俄语的“晚安”怎么说，道了晚安，解释说我还要为明天收拾东西。

10-05 до свидания

早上赶火车。仰头一望，意外地看到了夜幕下的星辰，比平常在国内见的要多。

由于昨天买东西时没考虑回程的车费，我又找人换了些卢布。在车上我找了两次，没看到奥尔佳的身影。她也是今天往哈尔滨走，如果还从格城返回，我就有可能在火车上看见她。但我没看见。倒是看见了带狗坐火车的女子，就像昨天看到了带狗逛超市的女子。我还看见了，随着火车穿梭在城市间，在我的左侧，云雾缭绕的山丘变为山峦里倾斜的朝阳，右侧则有辽阔的海面变为惬意的朝霞。

在乌苏里斯克的“莫斯科”超市，我买到了新鲜的格瓦斯，即使是加了蜂蜜的版本，尝起来也没有国内的甜。

乘上回国内的客车，有人托我捎东西。

听大爷们说牛奶不能过关，我学王宝强把一大盒牛奶全吨了，现在在宾馆写博客时不时去卫生间喷射……大爷们买的鲜鱼、猪蹄和豆油等按理说都是不能过关的，但在足智多谋的大爷和睁一只眼闭一只眼的检查官员，中俄双方的共同合作下，他们顺利过关了。过关时检查护照和签证的女官员哼着歌。

从东宁客运站拼车到绥芬河，路上的伙伴们聊起天来。司机大爷说他推荐去济州岛，还说我们以后有钱了可以考虑买房车，因为平常旅游找地儿停车很麻烦，还告诫男同志考虑取南方的老婆，我说我在哈尔滨，按地理位置算，海参崴是不是也算南方？伙伴里有人提起大兴安岭，司机大爷推荐我们去看极光。伙伴里，紧挨着我的女生是研一，在长春上学的广东人，另两位都说她声音听起来年轻。她左侧的女生玩儿着《逆转裁判》，是今早答应帮我换卢布的人，尽管我后来没看到她，找别人换的。前面的男生家乡是河北，我看不到他的样貌。我们又说起朝鲜——司机说看到朝鲜就能想到国内七十年代的样子——餐厅香料和外国人的香水等。

我笔记就到底结束了。还在蹿稀……已经晚上九点十六了，我打算穿好衣服看看自助饺子馆儿，再喝点儿。

现在是十月六号晚上近十点，我在家里。昨天晚上的确是一个“疯狂”的夜晚。

自助饺子馆儿那时已经关闭了，我沿着街溜达，找到了“多妮娅俄式音乐餐厅”，点了个挂在架子上的羊肉，下面配有生菜、香菜、洋葱、大蒜、筋饼和酸黄瓜，还点了肉汁土豆泥、杂拌汤和两瓶米勒啤酒，花了一百四十多。餐厅中央是个舞池，舞池上面打着灯光下面喷着烟雾，大音响播放着俄罗斯舞曲，中俄两国的食客都在这里舞蹈。我又是独自坐在角落里喝酒，时不时过去瞎蹦跶两下，碰上个阿姨过生日，大家手拉手在舞池围着阿姨绕圈，拥抱她。不久后我旁边的桌换了人，来了六个俄罗斯人。似乎是罗曼（Роман）先跟我打的招呼，总之后来他们邀请我过去坐了。右侧的姐姐会说英语，给我介绍他们。她叫尤莉娅（Юлия），她的丈夫是罗曼，挎着胸包喝得很高兴的人，她的朋友还有维卡（Вика）、阿列克谢（Алексей）、迪米特里（Дмитрий，有时叫作迪马 Дима）、马克西姆（Максим）。她和罗曼住在海参崴，有个三岁的儿子，儿子和祖母住在另外的城市。后来，喝醉的罗曼开始叫我朋友。尤莉娅邀请我换场，于是来到了安娜西餐厅，在地下室，里面也是个舞池。他们点了一提啤酒，一盘小虾，一盘开心果，后来还有一盘葡萄。他们用现金付款，我说我现在没有带人民币现金，但我可以通过二维码付款，尤莉娅说这瓶啤酒他们请我了。尤莉娅谈到她和罗曼在泰国的蜜月，那时也带上了朋友们，也正是那次，泰国成为了她最喜欢的城市。她还去过上海，还想去北京、哈尔滨和重庆，永远不会去莫斯科，因为莫斯科实在是太远了，倒是会经常来绥芬河，因为这里很近。我谈到我的专业环境工程，尤莉娅说她是学生物的。像昨天的阿姨一样，马克西姆和尤莉娅提到，俄罗斯人很危险，所以我跟着他们的邀请来这里喝酒很疯狂，不过马克西姆也说，他们是友善的。罗曼已经睡着了。马克西姆开玩笑说他是一只老虎，两大爱好就是喝酒睡觉。瓦劳德来了，尤莉娅的老板朋友，看起来是个大块头。尤莉娅说他老婆很危险，而马克西姆说有一次瓦劳德说“I’m a man. I’m a man.”这样的话说了两三个小时。我们还谈了其他的内容，比如“干杯”、我是独自旅行的吗，还有些成人笑话。其实跟我聊的几乎就是马克西姆和尤莉娅，但我和罗曼一起跳舞，可能是因为其他人几乎不说英语。两点，大家想回去睡觉了。说起来有些惭愧，罗曼和尤莉娅称我为朋友，我却不能和所有人说上话，甚至连他们的名字和长相都对不上。我还欠人家一瓶啤酒，如果有机会我想下次请客招待，可不要等到联合帝国入侵地球。

10-06 绥芬河“大白楼”、中东铁路记忆馆

醒来，收拾东西、退房、寄存行李、出去溜达。在中东铁路记忆馆简单了解了中东铁路的历史，去昨天没去上的饺子馆儿搓了一顿，二十五一位真不错，还看到有些俄罗斯人也用上筷子，甚至还在饺子上倒点儿醋。喝了两瓶，回到我那个满是俄罗斯人在住的新纪元大厦，在大厅睡一觉，打发打发时间，坐火车回家。传照片、写博客，就这样。

由于使用代理，Meta 怀疑我伪造身份，封掉了我两个 Instagram 账号，并且没给我实际有效的申诉手段。我被迫与尤莉娅断了联系。这就是我有时讨厌大公司的原因——你的数据从来就不属于你；联系人工客服也越来越困难。

我本打算带回来塑封的鸽子羽毛也不知道掉在了哪里。

后来，在更换了低风险的 IP 后，我第二个账号的申诉成功了。现在和尤莉娅与罗曼聊得还不错，尤利娅看了冰雪大世界的视频之后表示挺想来哈尔滨的，并且说之后要是来中国肯定联系我。

完。