South Africa, Day 1

My boss who also traveled to the conference had suggested that we went a few days before the conference to tour the city and the Western Cape Peninsula a bit. So, after breakfast we took a drive through the city which is sandwiched between several mountain ranges and lies between the Atlantic and the Indian oceans. I was right away impressed with how infrastructurally advanced it was: well-maintained (and not overcrowded) roads, clean streets, well-planned neighborhoods, and the general feel of a Western country. I also discovered that the tap water was drinkable, and that there was a clean functioning restroom (with toilet paper, which is often a scarce commodity in many parts of the world) almost everywhere we went. However, as my boss reminded me and I later saw for myself, South Africa is a rather dualistic society: wealth and Western-like comforts on the one hand, and large shack-filled slums as a reminder of the long and painful apartheid era on the other. In fact, these slums, or townships as they are called, are growing in size as politicians are encouraging urban to rural migration under false promises of employment while just pandering for more “black” votes.
Since before the apartheid, South African society has been divided into three distinct color (and identity) categories: whites, blacks, and coloreds (the last one not being an offensive word or connotation). The whites in Cape Town are mostly descendants of the Dutch colonists (with some English descendants), the coloreds are the mixed-race citizens (and lighter in skin color than the blacks), and the blacks are those with a distinct tribal identity. Apartheid intensified these divisions by geographically separating the three groups and forcibly removing the coloreds and the blacks to the outskirts of the cities. While apartheid ended a number of years ago, the blacks are still the group that is more marginalized than the other two, evidenced by these ever-growing townships.
In addition to the present signs of the recent historical developments (such as apartheid), there are also numerous signs of Cape Town’s long colonial history. Having been passed several times between the Dutch and the English during the colonial times, its unique architectural style has become known as Cape Dutch, with whitewashed walls and red roofs. However, to show that the English did prevail in the end, there is a Greek-style memorial to Cecil Rhodes, the English-born conqueror of the majority of Southern Africa, whose name was later given to a large territory covering Zimbabwe and parts of Zambia and South Africa. A large tract of the beautiful forested area of Cape Town still belongs to the Rhodes family. It was a bit surprising to see such a grand-scale tribute to the man with such decidedly mixed legacy.
Cecil Rhodes Memorial


Our next stop was the beautiful Botanical Gardens where we enjoyed learning about the diverse flora of Cape Town and the rest of South Africa. In fact, Cape Town boasts more plant species than the whole of the US. It is also home to a beautiful flower species called the proteas and some other unique plant varieties.
An example of the protea flower

After enjoying the greenery and flowers of the Botanical Gardens, we decided to explore one more of the famous Cape Town attractions---its wineries. This area of the country is world-famous for its wine. There are numerous wineries surrounding the city as well as a few inside of it in a pristine and lush green area called Constantia. We visited one of the oldest wine estates, Groot Constantia, toured the old colonial home of the former owner, and sampled some of the delicious wines.
The wine estate

Even though our day ended after the visit to the winery, I have to mention one last thing that makes Cape Town stand out from the rest of the mountain seaside cities---Table Mountain. It is a unique geological formation that is quite tall, but is completely flat on top. There is a cable car that takes you to the top, but since the summer months are also the windy season bringing the strong south-easter into the Cape, the wind is often too strong for the cable car, so unfortunately during our stay we weren’t able to explore Table Mountain from the top, while having plenty of opportunities to enjoy it from everywhere in the city we went.
Table Mountain covered with clouds (Tablecloth)

South Africa, Arrival

As happens almost every time I have to make the DCA-JFK connection, the flight turned out to be all messed up, so I ended up going through Atlanta and then having to actually de-plane in Dakar, Senegal (instead of just having to sit and wait on the plane for re-fueling). However, all of that would have been no problem had my luggage not decided to embark on its own tour of the world ending up in Amsterdam while I was on my way to Cape Town. Despite the messy start to the journey, the surrounding beauty (and the knowledge that I did have a spare pair of unmencionables in my carry-on) erased the unpleasant first impression (besides, the runaway was returned to its rightful owner by the following morning). From the morning I stepped out of the airport, the pleasant breeze, the warm African sun, the view of the mountain (called Lion’s Head) out of my hotel window, and the sights of clear blue ocean all promised an exciting stay.

South Africa

I have always been curious about this country since in the early 1990s a number of Russians emigrated there. Besides, a few months ago a co-worker came back from S. Africa with scratches on her arms, which turned out to be from a lion cub---of course, since then I have been dreaming of an opportunity to visit the land where you can pet wild cats. Even though I didn’t end up getting the desired scratches from lion cubs, the trip to S. Africa proved to be even more exciting and enlightening that I had initially envisioned.
As always, the reason for the trip was a work-related conference similar to the one that took me to England this past summer. I was co-organizing a panel discussion and presenting one of our collaborators’ papers, but besides that it was going to be an enjoyable week of learning about the work that is going on in Southern Africa. The conference was in Cape Town, which is considered to be one of the main tourist attractions in the country.

California adventures, Part 2

On another lovely and sunny California day we decided to see a famous institution of learning---University of California-Berkeley. It was a nice drive along the bay---Northern California is absolutely beautiful. Berkeley itself was an interesting place. On the one hand, there is the university---even the campus had the atmosphere of a great and long-standing place of learning. On the other hand, there is the town of Berkeley---when people told me it was the hippy capital of the US, they were not exaggerating. Everything was very earthy, with lots of dreadlocked people walking around, and even some tie-dye stuff spotted around.

Next we drove to an overlook from where you could get an incredible view of the Golden Gate bridge. Driving on it doesn't really do it justice. Looking at it from a nearby cliff really takes your breath away. The sun reflecting off it made it look glowing. It is one of the grander sights that I have ever seen.



After taking about a thousand pictures of the majestic architectural structure, we went over the cliffs down to a beach. While it was too cold to get into the water, we did get our feet wet in the Pacific (cold:). We then had a mini-hike in the nearby hills overlooking the ocean and a scenic drive back, topping the evening off with a delicious Puerto Rican dinner.

California adventures, Part 1

For my birthday this year, I decided to fly out West and celebrate it with my dear friend Erika, whose birthday is a day before mine. Her and her husband live near San Francisco with their adorable white fluffy dog Lily. When I got to their apartment, I was greeted by this abominable sight:

(For the uninitiated, this Yankees blanket is a major offense to a Red Sox fan).
However, my disdain was relieved the next morning, the day of my actual birthday, I woke up to this on my door while my hosts were at work:

After Erika got back from school (she's a teacher), we embarked on a tour of the wine country. We started out at the cute and historic town of Sonoma. After raiding a fabulous cheese store, we went to a winery where we tasted some wine, learned about the history of the place, and toured a small wine cellar. Afterwards, we drove around the actual vineyard and even got to taste some grapes.

Then, we embarked on a scenic tour of Sonoma valley, which turned into a beautiful drive all across Napa valley with a stop at another vineyard, where we got to see how the grapes are pressed (with a water/candy stop at a randomly-located Dean and Deluca on the side of the road). The views of the wine country were absolutely breathtaking.

The day ended with a festive cup-cake filled double-birthday celebration

St. Petersburg, Part 6

Our last morning in St. Pete, we decided to make a quick tour of the monastery and the adjacent cemetery where many of the Russian nobility and famous painters, composers, singers, and dancers are buried. It was quite interesting walking around the graves of Tchaikovsky and Glinka and some others about whom I learned in school. Before leaving town, we had yet another sushi meal and got on a place to Moscow and a train to Vladimir.

St Petersburg, Part 5

On our last full day in St Pete's, we decided to visit one of the most famous museums in the whole world, the Hermitage. It is actually housed in the former Winter Palace, which itself is a gorgeous building. As it turned out, we weren't the only ones who wanted to see the museum---we stood in the longest line in the world for over 2 hours. However, once we got in, it was definitely worth it. After walking around the magnificent halls of the former palace, we toured the Italian halls where we had an opportunity to see some Michelangelo, Rafael, and Da Vinci, including 2 famous Madonna paintings by Rafael and Da Vinci (while trying to break through the crowds of over-excited Italians eager to see their countrymen's works). After walking through some ancient sculpture halls, we decided to call it a day---after al, you can't cover all art epochs in one day.