Wladiwostok - first impressions

We made it! We are in Russia, in particular in Wladiwostok, all the way on the East Coast.
Russia is a country neither of us has been to yet and seems a bit daunting, to be honest.
We had already been super excited about our granted visa (the process is not the easiest but actually fairly straight forward if you got all the information), but I think we were even happier once we passed immigration (Tom: I almost peed my pants when they triple checked my passport!!).

Russia is such a vast country, I still can't quite believe we'll be driving through it in a few days!
We can't start yet, as we're waiting for Hans to arrive.
Hence, we're staying in a cute hostel, high up in the hills (Wladiwostok is also called San Francisco of the East) and prepare for our adventures.
Firstly, we learned a few phrases Russian and read about food&culture. Then it was time to go out and explore.

The city feels quite welcoming and nice to stroll through once you have overcome your initial culture shock. Tom is even already able to read the Cyrillic alphabet (and I try, too), hence street and shop names as well as the signage can be deciphered and suddenly everything doesn't seem so strange and foreign anymore.
We also discover beautiful neighbourhoods, great street art and nice coffee places and we manage to get a few smiles from people we try our Russian on. I firmly believe this will be a great adventure.Read more