Some family time

After seeing Meg off in Moscow, I returned to Vladimir for a few days with my family. My brother came from St. Petersburg the next morning so we had a chance to hang out and catch up. During that week we made a day trip to Suzdal, which is about 45 min away from Vladimir and is an old historic town, which used to be the capital of the Russian kingdom at some point and was a home to numerous monasteries. Many of its old historic buildings are still preserved, so we walked around, went to a museum, and even visited an ancient church (build in the 12th century), which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The night before I left we went to our cabin in the country, had Russian-style barbeque, and took numerous pictures of a seagull that made a nest in one of the trees, chasing the poor thing off her laid egg (This actually became a family obsession throughout the evening as we tried for hours to take a picture of the bird on her nest---she was very alert and would fly off the nest the second anyone would approach. My dad, who is an old-time hunter, had me put on a dark jacket (since seagulls apparently can recognize colors:), sit in hiding for about 30 minutes, and then go from behind the fence, where we were finally able to snap some shots of the bird on her nest). Here are some pictures.

View of Suzdal

Birdhouse on one of the trees near our cabin, which is occupied every spring with new tenants

View of the Russian countryside (I used to swim in this river every summer growing up)

With my bro (that's right, the t-shirt was a gift from me and the color is not accidental---Go Celtics!)

Finally, I was able to sneak up on the poor seagull and take some pictures of her on her nest

Red Square and other sites

After spending a day in Vladimir, we took a morning train to Moscow for about a day and a half before Meg's flight back to the US. After settling into our hotel, we decided to take a short nap, which actually turned into a few hours of hardcore jetlag-induced sleep. However, once we woke up and felt refreshed, we headed out to the Moscow city center to do some sightseeing. I had told Meg that a visit to Russia can be summarized by a picture of a person in Red Square---and we got it, so Meg can now officially say that she has been to Russia.

We walked around the square, which was already decorated for the Victory Day celebration (May 9th), went into my second most favorite church building in Russia (St. Basil's cathedral), witnessed the change of guard ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier right outside of the Kremlin, walked through the Alexander Gardens (alongside the Kremlin wall) all the way to the magnificent Church of Christ the Savior (very tumultuous history) and then down Old Arbat, a very old cobble-stone street that is filled with artists (similar to Montmartre in Paris), and finished the night by eating at my favorite pancake chain.

St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square

The Kremlin clock tower (we did hear it chime)

Church of Christ the Savior

On the banks of the Moscow river overlooking the Kremlin

Quick trip to the homeland

Even though it has almost been two months, I wanted to post a quick recap of my trip home to Russia in early May. Considering that this was a very unexpected trip (you simply cannot pass up a $230 ticket to Russia!), it didn't have a whole lot of adventures, but included a quick trip to Moscow, this time actually for fun, and not for an errand. My travel buddy Meg came along for a few days (hey, her ticket was only $213!), so it was fun to show her around my city and then spend a day in Moscow walking around some of the most famous sites. Here are some pics from Meg's 1 day in Vladimir---we walked around the historic downtown, went to a couple of museums, stopped by my favorite tea shop, and even had lunch at a Soviet-style cafeteria (a restaurant made to look like the caf with decorations and food).

The Golden Gate, the symbol of Vladimir, a former fortress now a museum

In front of the Church of Assension, a beautiful orthodox church in Vladimir

South Africa, Last Day

After some work-related meetings at the University of Western Cape, I decided to have one last adventure. I wanted to see Stellenbosch, a very quaint town near Cape Town and a wine capital of South Africa, which also happens to be a location of a cheetah reserve. Cheetah was the only animal that I didn't see at the Masaai Mara in Kenya, so needles to say, I was dying to see one. Well, I got more than that: I actually got to pet two cheetah cubs at the reserve while peppering the animal keepers (all volunteers) with a million questions. It was quite an interesting experience. Even though the two male cubs were about the size of a tall dog, you couldn't just come and pet them like a big cat. You had to go from behind and very calmly stroke them on their backs without touching the heads. Since cheetahs are one of the few big cats that purr, these guys enjoyed my company and were happily purring while being interrupted from their afternoon naps. The reserve, though a small run, does a lot of work in promoting cheetah conservation. Cheetahs are extremely endangered with their full extinction predicted in the next decades unless drastic measures are taken.




For example, in the area around the reserve the farmers often kill cheetahs because they hunt and kill their livestock. To prevent this from happening, the reserve rears sheep dogs and gives them to the farmers in exchange for a commitment to preserve the cheetahs. These sheep dogs were really cute as well:). The reserve also had an extremely funny meercat and a few more animals. After briefly enjoying this lovely outing and still thinking about the beautiful animals that I got to hang out with, I went to the airport, waited a few hours for my flight (yay for Wi-Fi), and happily took off for my home.

South Africa, the conference

The conference was very interesting. Even though I was a bit under the weather when I made my presentation, our session went fine. I always enjoy interacting with African researchers as they are very dynamic and have a fresh perspective on the issues relevant to our work. I also got to meet some really cool female researchers, who are truly inspiration. Besides the presentations and discussions, I enjoyed the incredibly delicious foods, great South African wine, and good company.

South Africa, Day 2

The next day marked another remarkable sightseeing outing. Since Cape Town is located on a peninsula sandwiched between the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, we decided to dedicate the day to exploring both sides of the peninsula. We started out by driving around the city to see the different neighborhoods, including some of the poorer areas and the black townships. We then proceeded down the Indian Ocean side of the peninsula through a series of quaint seaside towns and beautiful beaches. One former navy town had a cute statue of the dog, who used to accompany the sailors when they were docked.

The highlight of the morning was a lovely visit to Boulder Beach that has a resident African penguin colony. To an animal lover like myself, the whole experience (save for the strong northeaster blowing sand in my eyes and mouth) was amazing. Just watching these adorable happy creatures hobble around, hide in the sand, play in the water, and just sit and stare at us was absolutely invigorating and inevitable made me smile.




After spending about half an hour just looking at them and snapping a gazillion of pictures, we finally left Boulder Beach to travel further down the peninsula to the southwestern most point of Africa---Cape of Good Hope.

On the way down, our car was accosted by a crowd of traveling baboons---they were crossing the road, rummaging through the trash cans (sad), and playing with their youngsters. I was almost in heaven since I absolutely love monkeys!!! Actually, they are considered a hazard in Cape Town, and there are warning signs everywhere.

After snapping some pics at the Cape of Good Hope, we went to the nearby lighthouse, where we hiked a bit, got some more amazing views of the Cape Point, which is the tip of the mountaneous range that stretches across the Cape Peninsula, and had an amazing lunch at a table overlooking the Indian (or the Atlantic?) Ocean (that's right, two oceans in one day). We drove back along the Atlantic side of the peninsula and at one of the numerous beaches we even got to wet our feet in the freezing water.

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)