Our first stop in Russia was Vladivostok where the Trans-Siberian train to Moscow begins.

Admiral Fokin Street aka Arbat Street, is a pedestrian only street with fountain after fountain. Here we saw teenagers dancing to hip hop, the elderly reading newspapers, and families enjoying the sunshine.

Why Vladivostok?

After hearing about the Trans-Siberian train journey across Russia from one of our very good friends (shout out to Hethers!), we knew that we had to kick off our year off with this adventure. There is one flight per day from Hong Kong to Vladivostok (this is where we planned to get on the train) via S7 landing at 12:40AM. We were being a bit chicken-like and were worried about arriving in Russia near 1:00AM, so we started thinking of other options.

I went to the Vladivostok Airport website and looked at the arrivals (this is now something I do for other cities I want to go to). Lots of flights in from Korea – specifically, Seoul and Busan. Busan doesn’t have time-friendly flights for long weekends trips from Hong Kong and it is well known for being near the sea – quick and easy decision was made: we will fly to Busan first, then head to Vladivostok. Ian is finishing up our first YouTube video about Busan - so I won’t say anymore here.

Overall Thoughts on Vladivostok

It is a great entry to Russia if you haven’t been before (and you are living in Asia versus Europe where St Petersburg or Moscow are closer), but I am not sure I would pick it as the number one go to place in Russia. It just felt too much of a tourist town for me and didn’t have the same true Russian city feel that I experienced in so many other cities during the trip. If you are looking for an authentic experience in a city and are not taking the Trans-Siberian, I would suggest flying yourself to Krasnoyarsk or Yekaterinburg instead. Friends of ours loved Vladivostok though and found the night life to be great. We were not here during the weekend though, so if you want to try that out, suggest you go as a weekend trip.

Leaving the Airport

So one of our principles of travel has been to take public transportation like any other local would and avoid taxis unless absolutely necessary. When we arrived at the Vladivostok airport, we were hoping to take the airport express train into the city for 230 RUB per person (~3.50 USD). Unfortunately, we learned the train only runs a few times a day and the next one would be in about 3 hours. We searched for how to get a taxi and it was really easy: you book it through a counter inside the airport and it is a fixed price. Given it was 1500 RUB (23 USD), we went with that. Three hours in the airport meant at least 2-3 beers for each of us along with food.

Living Here

After considerable time on Airbnb trying to find a place, we ended up just booking through agoda.com as most of the places near Arbat Street were out of our price range (our aim is 50USD per night). The hostel (Gallery & More) was very funky. A bilingual guy took us to the building next door from reception and we walked up some very steep stairs to get to our private room with bathroom. The typical wooden (and stable) handrail was replaced with a chain that swung about as you held it – scary. But we got our luggage up there and were in our charming room. The general area of Arbat Street does not have great plumbing – this means you are not supposed to flush toilet paper – only your No1 and 2!!! Everything else is supposed to go in the little trash can. Yes – take a moment to understand what that means. We would keep our toilet paper in a little plastic trash bag closed very tightly. Even if you don’t stay here though, I do recommend looking for places around Arbat Street as this is the liveliest part of the city.

The Food

Generally, the area of Arbat Street is very touristy. Most cafes had Chinese and Korean reflecting where the tourists are coming from. Prices reflected that as well – breakfast at the Five O’Clock Café was 518 RUB (8 USD) and included two quiches, a coffee, and a tea. It doesn’t seem expensive, but when you start being deeper into Siberia where you spend less than 200 RUB – you realize the price adjustment to tourists.

One night for dinner, we went to an amazing wine bar (Vinovaty Zvozdy). The service was excellent here and a standout food item was raw scallops! These are from Russia in a nearby village – so incredibly fresh and sweet – possibly even better than what we have had in Japan.

The Local Market

The biggest market in Russia: Sportivnaya Market is just massive. You can take a bus a few streets from Arbat Street and get off at Sportivnaya. The mini bus (or van) is 23 RUB per person. I highly recommend coming to this market as you can buy basically anything and everything. From sneakers to any clothing attire imaginable, to fresh cheese, veggies, and plastic containers to put it in. We stocked up on our supplies for the Trans-Siberian here (I will do a separate blog post on what to pack). It is not touristy and truly a market for locals to buy and sell with each other. There were also a couple shops selling 20+ different draft beers and dried fish. Here is me:

For Views

We hiked up to Eagle’s Nest Hill – it’s a bit of a weird one as part of it is through residential streets up the hill, then suddenly there are garbage cans all over. Either way, the view was spectacular when we got to the top!!! This is a relatively easy hike, so for those of you like me who aren’t avid hikers, don’t worry – you can do it! A regular hiker would call it “just going on a walk”.

For more general water views, we also had lunch where there is outside seating by the water and had a nice little walk along this area. Lots of families with kids were walking around, as were a few couples making out publicly, and next to them some elderly folks reading newspapers – a wide diversity but clearly everyone just loves being near the water (who doesn’t?).