Primorski Krai: Vladivostok – Around the City
Vladivostok is like the Russian version of San Francisco – without the hustle of Moscow and the glamour of St Petersburg, it is set over the beautiful coastal hills, most streets descend steeply down to the ocean, and it boasts not one but two spectacular bridges. The city of around 650 thousand people it has many sides – from old tsarist architecture to communist brutalist structures to military monuments like massive submarines (it was a closed city during the Soviet Union and the home of the Soviet Pacific fleet) to the resurgent Russian orthodoxy in the form of churches and cathedrals. The downtown area is very compact and the street leading to the waterfront is packed with nice restaurants and cafes. Well, maybe it’s not yet at the San Fransicco level but it’s most certainly well above the drab of a typical Russian provincial capital.
