Adygea

In some ways, Krasnodar is a bit like my home city of Ottawa in Canada. One of those ways is that across the river is another region of Russia: the Republic of Adygea. This tiny republic is enclosed inside of Krasnodar Krai and one of the borders happens to be the Kuban River.

Taken from the wikipedia page

Across the river from the city of Krasnodar is the village of Новая Адыгея (New Adygea) which from what I've seen during my first visit is just basically a bunch of stores, car dealerships, and where the IKEA is for the region (not including the places of people who actually live there). If there's anything of cultural interest I'd want to see I'd have to go to the capital of Maykop, which is pretty far away.

IKEA is one of the anchors in a chain of megamalls spread across the country called MEGA (specifically the one for the area is called Adygea-Kuban, Kuban being a regional area that includes Krasnodar). I mostly go to idea for the food though. One of the things the IKEA had on their menu at the restaurant was Chicken Kiev so there are some things that are found in regional IKEAs (ones back home don't sell alcoholic beverages, 0.1% is considered non-alcoholic). Besides IKEA there is AuChan (Ашан) the French supermarket (which is also in Krasnodar) and a bunch of high end clothing stores. That's pretty much all I got to say about the place.

The not-so-Swedish meal at IKEA. While the Julmust is a Swedish beverage it was made at one of their food plants in Germany.

As for how to get there, there are marshrutki that go there. You're lucky if you live on one of those routes because it costs 18 rubles per trip (for the ones issued by the mall. Not sure about the ones that are from Krasnodar that go there) compared to some marshrutki which go to malls that cost 19 rubles.

I tried to get some pictures proving that I was in there since there wasn't much to take pictures of. Apparently the marshrutka minibus needed a wash. Adygea's flag is green with some stars and arrows technically.

I tried to capture the flag but all I got was a dirty window

Подкова apparently means 'horseshoe' which you can see in between the flags

Crossing the Kuban River. Again dirty window

Medovukha

I came across this while deciding what alcoholic drink to get at one of the supermarkets.

I don't know if I'll ever find this in the liquor stores back home but according to Wikipedia at the time of linking it's a cheap version of mead. It's hoppy with the sweet taste of honey.

Besides the mead Russia's got something called разливное пиво (roughly literally translated to as "live beer") which is on tap beer you can get in a refillable plastic bottle. Quoting one of my Russian Skype buddies from the time he mentioned it:

try to find "live" beer, which is produced 1-3 days ago, and have an expiration date like - 7-10 days. It is always unfiltered and not pasteurized.

I've had the light kind because anything around the strong end just makes me sleepy and it's quite good. I think I've become a bit of a beer person since I find vodka a bit pricey (even though vodka is cheaper here than back home). For about $1.50 to $2.00 I could get 1 to 1,5L of beer (and at that price in Ontario I don't think I can get a 500 mL can)

Maybe I should post that entry on Adygea even if the pictures are grainy

The complex apartment complex

I guess it's safe to say that the majority of people live in an apartment. There are houses too but I'd say the apartment is the most common form of residence.

While this has been explain before by probably many people on the internet this is my take on it. Most apartment complexes have some sort of business at the ground level. It can be a grocery store to a bakery or even a store that sells shoes. Heck you can have some sort of educational institution or office on that first level. Above those businesses are where people live.

So how does one get into the apartment? Through the main entrance of course! But there's no main entrance to the whole building -- you got many entrances and not all of them lead to the same place.

One type of apartment building. The entrances to the apartments are on the other side of the building.

Apartments in North America, well in Canada at least, usually have a main entrance that leads into the whole building and a couple entrances that can only be accessed by the residents of the same building. In Russia there are many entrances and they only lead to one part of the building. You'd think that there would be some secret passageway that would take you from one part of the building to the other? You're looking at drilling holes into the next apartment if you want to build something like that. Even my apartment style-dorms back in my uni years, which had separate entrances for certain parts of the building, had a balcony on the second floor in which people can go from stairwell to stairwell.

The term used for these entrances is called a подъезд. If your friends are coming to visit you for the first time (or maybe they've been there before but forgot) you tell them your house/building number, you're apartment number, and the entrance (подъезд) number. The reason why you tell this is because if your building is 200 with 8 подъездов  apartments and you're in apartment 32, you can't go through подъезд 1 because that only serves as an entrance for apartments 1-25. Even if you're in an apartment building that has 2 entrances to your stairwell, that still won't let you get to the other blocks in the same building.

Then there are the elevators. A building will have one depending on the number of floors. If the building is only 3-4 stories plus the ground level (I believe) the building won't have one and if you have heavy luggage make sure that there's someone there to help you or by a stroke of luck you live on the first level. If the building does have an elevator then here's hoping it doesn't go out when you need it.

As for what's inside an apartment? I'll cover that in a separate post.

Party streamer toilet paper

Maybe this isn't something exclusive to Russia but it was something interesting when I had to find toilet paper during my first few days of arriving. The first apartment I lived in didn't have any (either given by my employer or the tenant who rented it out to them) and when I went to the nearby продукты (they're the equivalent of convenience stores here and the name translates to 'products') they had this thing. I was, at first, confused if it was toilet paper since there was no cardboard roll in the middle but why should that matter since the current apartment I live in now does not have a toilet paper holder.

The texture of the toilet paper reminded me of a party streamer. For those who don't know what a party streamer is, they're colourful rolls of paper used to decorate rooms for a party. As you can see in the image provided they're not perforated into squares so you can use as much or as little as you want. If you live alone these can last you for more than a month as far as I know. They're not quilted soft but they're not rough and scratchy either. 

Just so you know, Russia does have white, quilted toilet paper with a tube in the middle. They also sell coloured ones as well that are scented (The brand ZEWA is available here). Compared to those the party streamer toilet paper is cheap. If you ever happen to be on your travels and forget to bring a roll with you (because there are some public restrooms that use the squat toilet, chances are you won't find toilet paper there) just go into a продукты or a supermarket and pick up one of these.

Public Transportation

There are 5 forms of public transportation in Krasnodar: the trolley (троллейбус), the tram (трамвай), the bus (автобус), the shared taxi (маршрутка) and the regular taxi (такси). While I've been in all of them at least once I mainly use the first 4 depending on where I have to go.

A shot of 3/5 forms of public transportation found in Krasnodar: The tram with two cars, the trolleybus in blue, and a minibus (which could be a marshrutka (shared taxi, though technically means routed taxi) or a bus) in front of the trolleybus.

So for those not familiar with public transportation a trolleybus is a bus that is connected to some overhead wires and a tram (or a streetcar) goes on tracks. Trolleybuses uses the roads like the shared taxis and the buses.

So you may be thinking what is a shared taxi? I still have no idea even though I've used them many times. The thing is the shared taxi (маршрутка which is short for маршрутное такси which means routed taxi) either comes in the form of some van looking thing or a minibus. One way you can tell is the fare as shared taxis cost a couple rubles more than the bus, the trolley, or the tram (as of this posting, 17 rubles for the tram/trolley/bus, shared taxi is 19 rubles though there is the rare route that has 17 rubles). Another thing about the shared taxi is you have to let the diver know when and where you want to get off. Trams, trolleys and buses stop at every stop. If you want to get off at some point you either yell "на остановке!" or if you're going to get off at the next stop "на следующее". The first one is a bit easier to say if у-ю-щ is hard to say. You can also add a пожалуйсте to be polite. (Edit January 2016: The prices for public transport went up some time mid-December 2015. Prices as of this update are 20 rubles for the tram, trolleybus and bus, 20 rubles for marshrutki that were19 rubles, and 18 for marshrutki that were 17 rubles)

One thing I like about public transportation here is how to pay for your ride. There is a person called кондуктор (it translates to conductor but the person who drives the trolley/tram/bus is called водитель) who collects your money and gives you a ticket in exchange. The best part is you don't need exact change. Got 20 rubles? No problem, you'll get 3 rubles in change to save up for your next trip. Got 50 rubles? No problem, you can cover a friend (even if your friend happens to be luggage) or you can pay for yourself so you can get change for your next trip. If you think that's old school there is a tap card system but that doesn't work with the shared taxis (you pay the driver in this case). Also another drawback to this system is you have to pay for each leg of your trip. Need to change from one tram/trolley/bus/taxi route to another? You gotta pay. Going from tram to marshrutka? You gotta pay. Still it's cheaper than regular bus fare back home for me (at this posting $3.55 which lasts for 1h30 minutes along the bus and O-Train routes).

Not sure what else I can say about public transportation in Krasnodar but if you got a question then feel free to ask. Enjoy this video of a guy who got on to play his guitar:

Krasnodar

So what is so special about this place? Why the heck did I end up in Krasnodar and not some place like Moscow or Saint Petersburg? Why Russia and not a common place most foreign language teacher starters go like South Korea, Japan, or China?

People who know me in real life and in the places I hang out online know that I have expressed my interests in Russia and Turkey. I have tried to apply for JET but failed to get an interview with them. I almost went to Azerbaijan, which would have combined my interest of both countries and languages (Azerbaijani is a Turkic language retaining some Persian and Russian influences) but document issues (migration would not allow more foreign teachers). As for choosing Krasnodar over other places like Moscow and Saint Petersburg, I like some adventure in my life and even though I would still get an adventurous experience in those places the opportunity showed up for Krasnodar and I took it.

So where the heck is Krasnodar? Not sure how many people out there know this place exists or where it's located. I remember someone in the Vienna airport though it was located in Croatia. One of my buddies in Moscow I had to tell him it's south of where he is (way south) but I don't blame anyone for being bad in geography (I may know all provinces and territories in Canada as well as their capitals but ask me to pinpoint them on a map I'll probably be way off by a lot). Krasnodar is the capital city of Krasodar Krai which is basically like a state or a province. The nearby largest body of water is the Black Sea and it's quite close to Crimea. The most recent (2014) Winter Olympics were held in Sochi and that same city will host some FIFA games in 2018 (2017 if you count the confederation's cup). The city of Krasnodar is nowhere near these places but still accessible by train or some bus of some sort. Still have no clue where the heck I am? take a look here:

from here via google images

and here:

from here via google images

Note: I found these map images on google images which have appeared to come from some news/reporting sites so if you don't like the use of these images on this blog let me know. They're for educational purposes by the way.

Anyway from my impressions of the city before I got here I made some comparisons with my home city of Ottawa: Both are small but big (in terms of population), no metro (Ottawa, however will be getting a light rail system whereas Krasnodar has many modes of public transportation), and there is another region of the country across a river: Adygea.

Considering how long I've been here and the time between the intro post and this one is a lot, I still haven't seen much of the city. So far one of the coolest places I've been to in the city is Чистяковская роща which роща (roshcha) translates to grove, a park full of trees (and some monuments to things). I'll post about individual places and things that I've come across as I go along. For now enjoy this pretty picture of the park.

Чистяковская роща (Chistyakovskaya Grove) in Krasnodar

Mandatory introductory post

I'm not good with keeping things up to date or to completion so why start a new blog? I guess it's a way to communicate to the wide world without having people pry into my Facebook account in order to hear about things. What I hope to aim to post on here is things I have learned about living in Russia, specifically living in the city of Krasnodar with some comparisons to the time I've stayed in Saint Petersburg from mid July to mid August 2011. There won't be any deep, political discussions or topics in here as I don't follow them much and it's basically my life experiences here. I'm actually here in Krasnodar for a job so anything devoted to that should come first before here.

Here's a picture of me having a drink with the Cossacks