Leaving Murmansk this morning, if everything goes to plan I’ll be in Norway this evening. That means saying goodbye to Russia for the last time on this trip, which I have to say is more than a little sad. I’ve spent a lot of time here and seen some amazing, beautiful, crazy, vibrant and sad things here.

But what I’ll take away from Russia more than anything else is the generosity of the people. Complete strangers giving gifts because I happened to be in their village, friends of friends putting me up and feeding me for free. Even on my last stopover, Edward is looking after me.

I can’t express my gratitude enough, but once again, thank you to everyone. Ilya, Lena, Feel & family, Misha, Eugin, Bankir, Kiril, Alex, Anya, Nikolai, Sergei, Yuri, Natalia, Alex, Dmitri (Helgi), Oleg, Inga, Olga and Edward.

People of Russia: Спасибо и до свиданя!

Алёша, or Alyosha, is the second largest statue in the Russian Federation. The largest is in Volgograd, where I haven’t been. It commemorates the soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Great Patriotic War. (Better known to westerners as World War II).

The statue is over 30 metres high and looks west across the Kola peninsular. It’s quite a striking image against the grey Arctic skies, the only colour: flower wreaths and the eternal flame at the foot of the statue.

It was a cold bus ride to get to the statue with Ed, but worth the trip. The statue stands proud on a hill and can be seen from the city, but the photos I took from there don’t do it justice.

As I ride off to Norway tomorrow, West to the border and Kirkenes, Alyosha will be watching me leave.

Sorry if the picture’s a bit blurred, I think the radiation was affecting my camera!

With a compliment of 236, the Lenin had a large crew for a ship of its size. The main reason was the number of nuclear specialists on board. It’s said that nobody knew how everything worked, just their specific part of the ship. Modern nuclear ice breakers are much larger but have a compliment of just 110.

The configuration is nuclear-turbine-electric, initially three reactors, 6 steam turbines and 3 motors. One of the reactors was removed in 1965, the remaining two were later replaced with a newer type. The motors drive three screw’s, the largest is the central screw at 5 metres in diameter! The port and starboard screws measure just 4.2. The speed and direction of each screw can be individually controlled from the bridge, making for a manoeuvrable vessel.

The bridge itself is a conventional layout, with duplicate controls on each side of the ship. I’m here operating the port screw. I can’t believe they actually let me drive!

The Lenin is an impressive ship, the world’s first nuclear powered ice breaker. (Handy for boring cocktail parties I’m sure!). In fact she was also the first nuclear powered surface vessel and the first nuclear civilian vessel. Commissioned in 1957, her purpose was to clear the shipping routes of ice for soviet vessels off the northern coast.

Typical of older vessels, the interior is very grand and ornate. There is a lot of wood paneling and decorative brasswork, almost reminiscent of the Titanic. (Fortunately the Lenin never sank, but there were a couple of nuclear incidents in its history).

Pictured is the officers board room, with Karelian birch paneling and a 50 year old ‘bird’s eye’ maple table. (My banjo’s made of that!). The crew mess was a little plainer, but it had some great artwork. I also liked the crew tables where you could raise the edges. This was in order to keep your dinner plate on the table in rough seas!

This is the world’s first nuclear icebreaker, the Lenin. Apparently you can go aboard and have a look around. I haven’t discovered how, but Ed is asking around for us.

I’m glad about that, as with my accent it would be like Chekov asking for ‘nuclear wessels’ in Star Trek IV! Classic!

I couldn’t spend a Saturday night in a hostel room, especially when there’s a new city to explore! It was 10pm the time I was freshened up, but my room mate Эдуард (Edward) was up for a quiet pint so out we went.

Ed is from the Altaiski Krai, working away from home. He didn’t take much persuading to come out! We found a quiet pub come restaurant with an Octoberfest special of beers and cold meats. It was great for an hour or so, but then a DJ cranked up the music and it turned into a disco. Oh dear!

On the way back we called into the Black Cat bar, more or less a shipping container with a bar at one end. There was a metal band on who were petty good, I liked the head banging bass player the best. He made me laugh!

It was a microcosm of human behaviour the world over. As I watched from the sidelines I saw all the usual events unfolding. A couple arguing and making up, a young guy with too much to drink, a guy trying to chat up a girl and having no luck – friends shouting over the noise of the band. I could have been in any pub anywhere.

After the band an impromptu acoustic set kicked off, with many Russian folk songs being belted out by drunk Russians. It really was excellent night!

I made it to Murmansk! It then took ages to find the hostel, as per usual. I can’t tell you much about Murmansk as I’ve just arrived, but first impressions – it’s very grey and soviet. Almost intimidating.

So I’m in the Arctic circle, hurrah! Unfortunately there was no sign announcing the fact, so I’ll have to look around tomorrow.

До завтра!

There’s not been much to see since St Petersburg, once you get past the autumn colours of the trees and the fjords. It’s very nice, but a bit samey after 1300kms! I decided this morning I’d push on and try and get to Murmansk. It was just over 600km, so quite doable. The only minor problem was that as I lay in my hammock this morning it was raining. I don’t mind if it rains while I’m on the move, but going out in it is a different matter altogether!!

I got moving though and after about 250 km it cleared up. The sky was grey and it felt colder than it was, the temperature even got to double figures for half an hour! The last 200 km were good fun, the road drying out and the long straights giving way to sweeping bends. There was a small mountain range just prior to Murmansk, I wasn’t expecting that at all. It thought I’d be at sea level all day.

I stopped to take a picture of this power station (I think that’s what it is), because it looked cool. If I had a better camera it would make a cracking HDR. Anyway, you get the idea. And yes, that is snow on the hill!