Back in America

The white nights in St.Petersburg - a time when it only gets dark around midnight and at that, not completely dark and by 2 the sun is rising. The bridges in St. Petersburg are raised at night from midnight or so on, to let the barges and other large ships, through. During the white nights it's a big celebration. People head to the water to watch.. fireworks are exploded and for folks on the water, they cruise from bridge to bridge. Great fun, actually.
The palaces in St. Petersburg are overwhelming - no wonder the peasants revolted - they were starving and the czars were livin' large.
Actually, St. Petersburg is stunning. As Putin's hometown it's gotten plenty of cash to rebuild, especially since the G-8 summit was held there last summer. I suspect if I visit again in 5 years it will be much more Parisian - and why not, much of the city was modeled on Paris more than a century ago. But they really have to get a hanlde on traffic - gridlock is everywhere and entering an intersection means taking your life in your hands.
Aeroflot - yes, I flew the friendly russian skies - more like a train with wings. No overhead bins, just a shelf - snack is a mini-homemade looking sandwich. Love that they serve the tea right from the kettle. The steward was a stony faced fellow who ended his pre flight chat with a very serious, OK?
Getting from one airport to another to head home and only know some 20 Russian words - an experience - but I managed. While most Russians are not warm and fuzzy on the street, one on one or if you need help, they're quite friendly.
And now home - coffee tastes better than I remembered, drinking water right from the tap, a luxury - Russian water's just not safe, even the locals don't drink it -
As for Tula - Tulans really like us - they like that we bring ideas and reinforce that what they're doing is either right or heading in the right direction - forward, that is.
They know they have an environment problem but push it to the back of their everyday consciousness; probably not sure what to do about it. Had a good talk with one official about efforts he'd like to see get underway by collaborating with Albany.
Tula is a lot like many upstate cities that became shabby as industry moved away and are now trying to clean up and reinvent themselves.
But when it comes to hospitality .. it couldn't have been better. Spassiba (thanks) for the memories - and 'dosveydanya (bye- see ya later).

Aiport, Russian Style

I know how Harry Potter felt the first time he boarded the Hogwart's Express.
Trying to get a cart, laden with luggage and video equipment into a Russian airport that's still under construction took some magic. As we tried to maneuver the cart over uneven ground and no one giving us room we grinned and gunned it, barreling over the roadway and through the doorway. Thus began our adventure in St. Petersburg.
Billed as the Venice of the North, this city dates back 300 years when Peter the Great envisioned and fashioned this city on swamps. He created a fortress and eventually his descendents covered the prime turf with palaces and gardens. The city now boasts magnificent museums, restored following the Soviet Era - and the WHITE NIGHTS ... it's a time of year, happening now .. when the sun never fully sets. ah, could that be a health story hook .. how do people manage?

he ain't heavy, he's my tulan

If it's Tuesday it must be ah, oh yeah, we're still in Russia.
Tomorrow we're off to St. Petersburg and the white nights. Will explain when I see the phenomenon.
Spent a couple of hours today at Tolstoy's home.. a short drive from the city of Tula. Magnificent grounds. You feel transported back to the late 1800's. As for Tolstoy's grave, it's unmarked, just a grassy mound as he requested. At the end of his incredible life he renounced his wealth. I'll have to get my book club to read Anna Karenina.
Once back in Tula the city was celebrating independence from the Soviets. The town square hosted a festival complete with the strongest man competition. He pulled 2 SUV'S some 50 feet after weight lifting and hoisting a car 12 times ( the back end ) I know that's a stretch to call it a health story, but he was one BIG Tulan.
Also, our little band of Albanians got to share the spotlight. Seems when someone from the Albany Tula alliance for any event, they're introduced to the crowd. We got a nice round of applause. I'm told Americans are the most common foreign visitors to Tula and pretty much everywhere we went in town, people knew about the alliance. (pix to follow when the internet connection is better)

Spa - Tula Style

Monday June 11, 2007


Time to say goodbye to Tula. We’ve seen so much, spoken with so many people and eaten at countless dinners prepared by locals it’s hard for me to keep it straight. Thankfully I’ve taken copious notes and we’ve got more than 15 hours of video tape. Distilling all that into a week’s worth of stories will be a monumental task, but I suspect I’ll revel in reliving this time.

It only seems fitting that we ended our stay here with a unique experience. There’s a local man, Pavel Nechepurnova, who’s an entrepreneur. (quick aside: the only other American he’s hosted besides our little delegation, the son of Charlotte Buchanan head of the Albany Tula Alliance with whom we’re traveling)
During the Soviet Era Pavel was stationed in East Germany and served as a translator. After Perestroika he tried his hand at numerous endeavors… raising and selling roses, making and selling sausages. Most recently he buys used trucks and construction vehicles, refurbishes them and sells them. To say it’s profitable is an understatement. He lives in a mansion by anyone’s standards complete with a greenhouse and a banya. The only way to describe a banya is spa. In this home there was a changing room, shower, sauna, snack room and through the greenhouse a pool some 15 meters long. This is how it works. You shower and then sit in the sauna where someone softly beats you with oak or hickory leaves that have been anointed with anise oil. After that it’s back into the shower and a swim. This is repeated. Then you take a break, have a snack – some shrimp, beer and juice were served, then back into the shower, sauna and pool. WOW! No wonder our guide Galina told us, when her parents lived in Siberia they first built their banya. Says Galina, you can live without a house, but not without a banya because a banya is for HEALTH.

Now, earlier in the day we visited with a middle class family. They live in one of the old apartment buildings. The husband and wife and two of their 4 grown kids and one grand child live there. The apartment is so humble that we were entertained in a bedroom as the living room was filled with the dining table. They don’t have a banya and their dacha, country home, is a tent on a plot of land they’ve been going to for years. In fact, when the kids were young the father piled them all into his motorcycle side car and off they went for the 14 hour ride. That’s right, 3 on the bike, 4 in the side car along with the tent and some provisions. They had a blast and we so enjoyed their hospitality. For one of the sons, the Alb-Tula Alliance changed his life as he became an interpreter and works for Doctors without Walls.

Such is Russia.

All of our hosts expressed the wish we can sit around their tables again.

Me too – but first, a little banya.

Sunday in the park with Tula

Sunday, June 10, 2007

I feel like I’ve been away a very long time. But finally, time to ourselves. I know I came to Tula to report on how the Albany-Tula Alliance has affected health care and trust me I’ve shot plenty of video and interviews with incredible people. (so far 13 tapes and each is an hour long) But I also wanted time to get a feel for the city and the people.
So, off we went to the Kremlin. Yes, there’s a Kremlin in Tula dating back to the 16th Century. In fact most Russian cities have one. Kremlin means walled city. Within its boundaries was the town… The wall was meant to provide protection..often from the Tartars (btw the Vikings spent time in Tula. There's not much left within the Kremlin walls as during the Soviet era a large church and bell tower were torn down and another church was turned into a museum. But there are two, unique tourist attractions. In the base of one of 9 towers in the Kremlin, a guy with a glint in his eye and a very dry sense of humor shows how Ivan the Terrible tortured people: very nasty stuff. Then as you climb one of the steepest staircases I’ve every climbed to the top of the tower, an impressive display of sword play; worth the climb. Back down on the ground we trekked over to the oldest church in Tula. It’s a beautiful white washed structure with green turrets. But that stop also started our day of being questioned. Seems a quartet of women, one hauling a video camera, garners attention. (Sony the photographer, Svetlana our tour guide and official interpreter, Nina Reich a Tula Alliance board member and retired linguistics professor whose family hails from Russia and she’s a fluent speaker). We were stopped at the open market ( yup .. they’ve got one too and it’s great especially if you like to bargain) .. and we were stopped at the enclosed mall adjacent to the market. I’m not sure the passes we got in Moscow mattered as much as Nina dropping the name of the Tula mayor who we visited with last week. Even in Russia, it’s not always what you know, but who you know.
Oh, we also spent time in Tula’s central park – amusement rides, bandstand monuments to celebrated Russians and we toured it all in a wagon ..check this out.
On tap for tomorrow – a stop at a health club to see how our Tula sisters and brothers stay in shape. It’s time for me to ‘pashlee’ ( get moving).

An Encounter in Russia

Saturday- June 9

Tula is a city of contradictions. There are incredibly old, decaying wooden, traditional homes in the shadow of crumbling, towering soviet style soulless apartment buildings. There are new outdoor fountains and beautiful flowers next to uneven sidewalks and unmowed grass. The city boasts a movie-restaurant – multi nightclub complex that can draw 3-thousand people, most under the age of 30, on a Saturday night but the toilets don’t work well enough to flush down paper and the water in our hotel is often turned off after 1am. Bottled water is served everywhere. No one drinks from the tap because of contaminants from heavy metals and inside the hospitals you see turn of the century technology next to state of the art equiptment.
Despite all this and the lament by young people there’s really nothing to do in Tula, a young man who’s been to the states 3 times – once for a month long work program in Albany, decides to make this town his home.
Alexy Melnikoff is from St. Petersburg. He went to Tula State University and got a degree in linguistics. Now, about 27 years old he’s helped open and then manage a successful chain of pizza shops in Tula. Then he was hired away to manage the afore mentioned restaurant- movie -nightclub complex. It all came about because of a work- travel program that brought him to the States – Cape Cod, initially.
To see him walk through the establishment he now manages you know his future is fill with many fronts to conquer. He’s got a cool, secure style but not quite a swagger. Everyone knows him and wants to shake his hand. He beams as he shows you the kitchen he designed in the outdoor restaurant called MACHO. He delights in showing off the menu he freely admits he designed based on the one Applebee’s uses. And although he’s restless, 7 years in this job, he’s loath to leave Tula. He’s got a sense this city is poised to make a comeback. It will never be Moscow – in fact, I’m told there’s an old saying, ‘when you get 30 kilometers outside of Moscow, you see the real Russia”. Well, that’s where we are – a bit further actually and the real Russia is a place that looks decrepit on the outside but is simmering with potential. The question of course is, will that potential be realized and who will help it along.
I’d like to believe a quick encounter I had at Alexy’s restaurant is telling. A young woman asked me a question. Since I can’t speak more than a few words in Russian I had no idea what she was saying. She smiled and said “speak English” .. I nodded yes and she replied “Hello Friend”.