Kamchatka: The Land of Fire and Ice - Part 7: One Day, Even Your Ugly Soviet City Will Become A UNESCO Heritage Site

The statue of Lenin in PK is one of the first Lenins to see the first sunshine of the day in the world. For many years, it had seen so many different things passing in front of him: Soviet nuclear submarines, a lost Korean Air Boeing 747, the collapse of the USSR, the rise of Vladimir Putin, and right at the moment, someone dressed up like Disney character Goofy playing with a whole bunch of kids at the pier. The only thing that hadn't changed, I was pretty sure, was the Vilyuchik Volcano right across the Avacha Bay. Brezhnev said "Lenin will live forever", but Lenin couldn't possibly exist longer than a spectacular volcano in Kamchatka.

Statue of Lenin in PK

WWII Memorial in PK

City park where the WWII Memorial is located

Even long after both WWII and the Soviet era ended, Kamchatka today is still ruled by heroes of the Soviet Union

"Goofy" (Unauthorized version) and children with the amazing backdrop of a Kamchatkan volcano

"Kamchatka Ramen" set

Looking at the second hand buses and cars from Japan and South Korea, I wondered about the special relationships between this land and the two countries. I visited a local restaurant called "Kamchatka Ramen", and it turned out that the "Kamchatka Ramen" had all the features of Russian food rather than Japanese food. I heard about the warnings of "Mexican foods" in Russia. I was told that those were just the imaginations of what Mexican food "looks like" to the Russian people. The owners themselves had probably never eaten any authentic Mexican food in their lives. 

A small, wooden orthodox church and the bigger, concrete orthodox church next door under construction

Then the words of that Czech gentlemen whom I met at the first accommodation I stayed in PK rang through my ear: "This place is exactly what Czech Republic looked like 30 years ago".

PK city center

Soviet style Khrushchyovka in PK

Flowers in PK

Now I could only imagine that somewhere in that Romantic city of Prague, thirty years ago, that there were statues of tanks in the city center. Or maybe not.....

People told me that it was possible to hike up the mountain behind my hotel. I could see the top of that mountain right from my room window. Considering I had a good rest after my failed attempt to summit Avachinsky, I took a walk to the residential neighborhood made of poorly constructed wooden houses. I began to look for the trail leading up to the observation point at the top of the mountain.  

I followed the clustered, winding road made of dirt to the very last house.Behind it, there was an unmarked trail leading up to the mountain. I followed it to a point that the trail ended. The abandoned electric box made me realized that the trail was probably used by electric workers back in the days.

The Avacha Bay from the top of the hill

Old city center of PK

That was the bad thing. The good thing was that I could see the giant signal tower on top of the mountain. I continued my way up like how Columbus once sailed westwards in the Atlantic. Eventually at one point, I could hear people on the summit talking. I knew I wasn't that far from my destination.

After traversing through a forested area, I reached a path that led to the very top of the mountain. At the observation point, I realized that I took the so called "road less traveled". Looking down, the old city center of PK seemed to be no different from all the historic European cities. If you actually walk in these streets, the feelings would be very different. 

Even the grayish Soviet style buildings represent part of human history, and PK happens to be a place where this history was best kept.  After 200 years, will UNESCO declare this city as a World Heritage Site? What about Trump's border wall (if it gets built eventually)?

I followed the clearly mapped trail back to the city, back to where the sidewalks were crumbling and heavy iron doors of Khrushchyovkas were slowly rusting away. Of course, none of these was visible high above from that mountain top observation deck.

Due to Kamchatka's remote location and poor communication service, I had problem getting connected with the rest of the world while I was there. When I arrived in Yuzhno Sakhalinsk, I found out that my inboxes were full of messages from family & friends, regarding something I had no idea happened while I was in Kamchatka:

 Apparently, two magnitude 7 earthquakes took place near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky while I was there.

A giant billboard in PK

A highrise residential building in PK

I checked the time, and realized that they probably happened when I was flying in the helicopter. I was sitting there in shock, not from the fact that my friends and family believed that I was probably in grave danger by not replying them, nor from the aftershocks of the two earthquakes. I was in shock because for the whole time, the 250,000 residents of PK acted like nothing happened at all. 

(The End)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                        Chapter 12

Ivan looked around. He noticed that the area just outside of the University Library was unusually quiet. Normally students and academics going in and out of the library throughout the day. He walked closer to the entrance, and found out the answer to his question: there was a seminar being hosted right inside the library, featuring a famous speaker in the field of medicine.

Ivan took out his pocket watch. It indicated that he was one minute away from 15:00 - the time written on referral card that informed him of the dangerous situation he was in. He wasn't sure what would happen, and all he could do at the moment was to follow the instruction and hope something would happen.

Otherwise, he could see a group of SS officers heading towards him.

The clock stroke 15:00. The bells of the Sarajevo's many mosques and cathedrals began to ring in wake of the new hour's arrival. Suddenly the door of the library opened. The SS squad stopped, afraid that it was a trap set by the partisans. A female student walked out of the library building. She glanced at the SS soldiers in the surrounding area, and then walked away like nothing happened. Then two students came out of the building......... Then four........ Then many many more.

The seminar ended at 15:00! Ivan figured out why he was asked to be at the university library no later than 15:00 as he was carried away by two people in the middle of the crowd. 

Ivan and the two partisans reached the backside of the library building, where two motorcycles were there. As they were approaching the motorcycles, a group of SS officers ran to their way and began to fire. One of the two partisans got hit by the bullets immediately. Instead of heading to the other motorcycle, Ivan hopped onto the backseat of the motorcycle the other partisan was already on and took off. 

It didn't take that long for Ivan to realize that there were several black cars following them closely. Suddenly another black car appeared in the front and blocked the way. The partisan driving the motorcycle made a sharp turn into a small alley in between the buildings. However, when they got out of the valley, they realized that there were more black cars waiting for them at the other end. 

To create a gap for the motorcycle to break the blockade. Ivan pulled out his pistol and began to fire at the driver of the car that was blocking the road. The driver panicked and swerved the steering wheel and caused the car to turn violently backwards. The bullet eventually hit the side of the car, but the driver's whole reaction created a path for Ivan's motorcycle to pass through. As the motorcycle broke the blockade, all of the black cars suddenly stopped. Ivan had a very bad feeling about what was about to happen. 

Following the sound of flying bullets, Ivan fell off the motorcycle. The firing stopped, and people inside those black cars got out and walked towards Ivan's body.

(To Be Continued)