20 June 2008: Аллей Паруса

"Hey, Drew, how are all the drunken Russians treating you?" "Have you gotten hammered yet?" "How's the vodka?" These are variations on a lot of messages I've been getting from people. I have been responding by explaining that I haven't met any drunk Russians (well, Boris was getting a little goofy, but that was just once . . .) and I haven't even seen any vodka. Something seems to be amiss. This is my standard response . . . until now.

Today was the day of Аллей Паруса (pronounced "alláy parusá"). It is basically a huge party celebrating the end of the school year for all the students. Imagine millions (this is not an exaggeration) of Russians, under the full influence of their favorite beverages, and very excited about the end of the school year, and you start to understand the chaos that descended upon the city. Karis, Dan-Bi, and I went with Galya, Boris, Katya, and Katya's brother Kostia down to the waterfront to await the fireworks. After waiting for an extended period of time, and after suffering the ravings of a very inebriated individual who seemed to harbor a certain displeasure towards Japanese people (which Dan-Bi isn't, by the way), the fireworks finally started . . . just in time for us to leave. I still don't really understand the rationale behind this, but that's okay. The fireworks we saw were very impressive, as was the accompanying light/sound show. They played Sheherezade, which is always a treat. The explosions reverberated throughout the city, setting off car alarms everywhere. Then car alarms set off more car alarms and the whole city rang with the joy of liberated students.


This is a boat. Or a "tall ship." I have no idea what it's called, but it's apparently the symbol of the city and only comes out this one day per year. I don't know where it comes out of, as I don't imagine it is very easy to hide such a ship. I asked what it's called, and someone said Аллей Парусал, but someone else said that that's the name of the celebration, and a third person said both. I looked it up, and it seems to mean a trail of ships, so who knows. As with most things Russian, no one really seems to know what's going on. It was very pretty in any case.

This is a bridge decked out in twinkle lights for the occasion. I was playing with the nighttime features on my camera . . . with limited success at holding it still. I thought this was kind of neat though.






Fireworks! I love fireworks. Please excuse the tree. Please excuse, also, my momentary forgetfulness: a video of the fireworks would have been so much more effective.