Murmansk - The Bleak

We docked at the port of Murmansk under sunny skies and our side of the ship faced away from the port so had a decent view of a treelined shore. Having sun here is extremely unusual as it only happens 60 days a year. Our shore excursion wasn't until the afternoon - City Highlights and Oceanarium. The first thing we noticed was that the lilacs were in full bloom as were honeysuckle a full two months behind our lilac season in May. The second thing was that the lawns in the parks were not cut until the weeds were at least a foot high. The clippings were not composted but put into plastic garbage bags. The third thing was the ugly architecture of the many apartment buildings some of which had newer windows but many with windows that looked like they would never open. Plaster had fallen off and most were stained by pollution. Norma saw a well-dressed woman carrying two huge jugs of water from an outdoor tap into one building so it became obvious that many buildings had no running water. As in Ottawa, Murmansk has two seasons - winter and construction. Our young guide told us that she had no hot water in her district of the city for two weeks while pipes were being repaired. We noticed four men digging around one of the sites we visited. They only had one shovel! One would dig while the other three would watch, then they would change places. One way to have full employment numbers. Apartments either faced the port, had a decent view and were cold or faced the city, had an ugly view and were warmer.
The highlights we visited were the Palace of Culture, the magnificent Memorial to the Defenders of the Kola Land, another memorial complex in a lighthouse where we were probably the only ones on the tour to find the memorial book which listed the names of all the sailors killed in the nuclear submarine sinking (a national shame as Russia refused help offered by the international community to rescue their sailors until it was too late). We covered our heads with scarfs to visit a small Orthodox Church decorated with gilded frescoes. Then we were off to the Oceanarium which had been advertised as a centre of research for studying seals. Instead, we were horrified to find we were taken to a small building, ushered upstairs to find a small pool, and were 'treated' to a performance by trained seals along with ear shattering music on a cheap sound system. Those poor poor suffering animals. The sadness I saw in their eyes will haunt me for a long time.
Our tour bus was ancient. Many of the windows had condensation between the panes so that the lucky people in those seats couldn't see out. We were in the back and were treated to the smell of diesel fumes so bad we each got a headache. We were fortunate that we had several stops where we could get off and clear our heads.
After a tour of the downtown, it was with a huge sigh of relief that we returned to our ship. After a nap, we headed to the gathering of social travelers (singles) and to the dining room for dinner. We gained back the two hours we lost the night before so managed to have ten hours rest before breakfast this morning. This afternoon, we are hiking to a Sami camp to, we hope, lose some of the calories we have been packing on.
PS. I forgot to mention that we almost lost the obnoxious young man as he and his equally rude mother came running down the pier when the ship was 3 metres away from the dock the other day. A tug boat picked them up and transported them to the ship. We haven't seen them since so they must be laying low. Maybe they learned a lesson?