Arctic Russia

Murmansk is two degrees north of the Arctic Circle.  They have long, snowy winters but the climate is moderated by the mostly ice-free water around it.  Murmansk was the last city founded in the Russian Empire.  In 1915, World War I needs led to the construction of a railroad to an ice-free location in the Russian Arctic in order to move military supplies.  The place became known as the Murman station and a settlement grew up around it, with the help of the Russian government.  Apartment blocks were thrown up and people were promised a better lifestyle than in the south. 

These days, the population in Murmansk is decreasing, so the Russians see no reason to erect new buildings.  Unfortunately, they don't seem to see much reason to maintain or improve the ones they've got.  Here's some typical apartment blocks, circa the 1960's:

There's not a lot to see around the town.  This huge statue called "Alyosha" is actually the Memorial of the Defenders of Kola Land, which is the name of the peninsula.  He and his surroundings are about the best thing around.

Next stop was supposed to be the Solovetsky Islands, but the weather didn't look good for tendering, so we spent the night on the dock in Murmansk and headed off to Arkhangelsk.  There, we chose to stay on board.  It was apparently a good choice because there wasn't much there.  During both stops, Pati had fun trying to decipher the Cyrillic...she did pretty good if the word turned out to be something recognizable.  She got Lenin, Panorama, the name of some ship, restaurant, and a few others.

We emigrated from Russia and were on our way back to the European Union, with languages and money that we recognized.  But we were still above the Arctic Circle, and the weather looked like it.