Magadan: The City

For all of the bad things said about it in Vlad, Magadan far exceeded my expectations. I expected a cinder block town, where there is nothing to do, and nothing to see, and all the people go about their life in drudgery and hopelessness. What I found was a beautiful city, with many fun things to do, and people that welcomed me like I have rarely experienced. 

The city itself was compact; everything could be reached by foot. In the center there was a huge, beautiful church, with white stucco and gleaming, golden onion domes. I had a beautiful view of it from my house. There was a museum, a stadium, several sports complexes, several movie theaters, and a beautiful old theatre. There were shopping centers, libraries, fun cafes and beautiful art all over the city. 

On one of the first days I was there, my Magadan host mom took me to the local museum. I was fascinated to learn why this city is out in the middle of, quite literally, nowhere, where everything has to be brought in, by planes or inboats, and there are no good roads. So there is nowhere to go but on an airplane. Why?! 

Gold. This settled region in Russia really only exists because of the gold and silver mines. Historically there were the native Russians, which, looking at the display in the museum, led a life very similar to the Inuit in Alaska. They hunted walrus and seal, and got around by dogsled or the highly valued caribou. In the late 1800's the first outsiders came to the region in search of gold, and they found it in great quantities. The neighboring cities here all have gold and silver mines. Magadan is the only one of these cities located on the sea, thus the gold was brought to Magadan, and shipped from here. Of course, Magadan was used as a gulag in the 1900's. Many of the prisoners who worked to build the "Road of Bones" (the famous road from Yakutsk to Magadan) were from the camps in Magadan. Today, a large monument stands for them above the city: a stone mask, with tears falling from the empty eyes, and in the tears many faces to represent those who died in the road's construction. 

It was very interesting to walk through the museum, learn about the native culture and how the city was formed. My mom told me how they had to bring in cars, and that they were the only way to bring the gold from the mountains. She smiled as she pointed to a picture of a fleet of Studebaker trucks. "Look!" she said, "America helped too!" 

I thoroughly enjoyed the city. It was not very big, so you could walk everywhere. The buildings were quite elegant, however worn. The streets were brightly decorated for New Years, and everyone was out and going about their business. It was fairly easy to navigate, I used the golden domes of the church as my reference point. My dad joked that Magadan was the "Paris of Russia," because there was a tall cell tower right in the center, shaped exactly like the Eiffel Tower. There was the "Seine" river, which flows under the ice, past their biggest supermarket. We enjoyed the joke, and I thought it was quite a beautiful little city. Outside the city, small дерева (villages, made up of very, very small houses) were spread out on the hills in one direction, and in the other, the city went right down the sea, where many locals took their evening walks on the ice. 

Right outside my house was an ice sculpture display. When I arrived they were still working on them, but a week later they had finished, and every evening people would come to see the beautiful ice art, lit up by strings of multicolored lights. There were many sculptures by native Russians depicting traditional stories, or just their way of life. There was a comical piece, labeled "Bureaucrat" that was a face on the bottom of a foot. Some were nature scenes; one was themed on world peace. At the very end was a very interesting sculpture of a political prisoner breaking out of chains. However, my favorite was of a bird, featured often in Russian fairy tales. It was made of exceptionally clear ice, with many swirls and curls as the ice bird was just spreading its wings to take to the sky. Ribbons of white sliced through the sculpture, where the ice had cracked slightly. The light reflected beautifully off of the white, and highlighted the exquisite curves carved in the ice. I almost expected it to rise up and take flight, it was so real. 

As it turns out, I fell in love with the city everyone told me not to go to. Sure it was cold,  but that was the only drawback. Everyone in Vlad who warned me of Magadan had never been, and I can't wait to tell them that a jewel sits tucked in the mountains of Siberia.