Dagestan: Day 3

Minister of National Policy, Ted's Lecture, and Shashlik on the Beach

"I love Makhachkala"

First of all, I apologize for the delay in getting these Dagestan posts out; there are so many photos  to go through (from multiple cameras), and we did so many things that it has taken some time to sort, write, and edit it all. There are two more days in Dagestan to write about after this post, and I'll try to get them out in a more timely manner!

Our third day in Dagestan was our last day spent in the capital city of Makhachkala. Eldar Eldarov made an amazing arrangement for us to meet Dagestan's Minister for National Policy at her office in one of the government buildings off the central square. 

I was a little nervous because it seemed like a really big deal to meet such an important government figure, but the minister put me immediately at ease. She has a round, kind face, she smiles a lot, and she was so welcoming. We met with her and several other ministry employees in her office, around a large table where tea and candies were served. You can see a photo of the minister at this weblink (first photo). 

She and Ted talked for a bit about the work that the Ministry does, his work here in Russia on Buddhism in Kalmykia, and then we exchanged gifts. Ted gave the ministry a book on the history of the University of Arkansas, with lots of historical photographs. It was a small gift in comparison to the stack of beautiful books the minister gave us, detailing the culture and people of Dagestan. 

There was a secretary taking notes and a photographer taking pictures, and later in the week an article was published on the ministry website about our visit. It was all very exciting. 

After our meeting with the minister, Eldar's daughter Bela joined us and we walked around Makhachkala for awhile, enjoying the sunshine and wind-free day. 

A nice park walkway off the center square

More beautiful tulips in Makhachkala

This decorative flower shop caught my eye.

Bela showed us a nice kofenya (coffee house) where we were able to order cappuccinos and sandwiches. We hadn't had a sandwich in 2 months (We've never seen one in Kalmykia!) so it tasted extra delicious.

This coffee shop reminds me of a Barnes & Noble Starbucks.

After our little lunch and coffee break we walked down to the beach so we could enjoy the Caspian Sea again - this time in the warm sunshine. We weren't the only ones who had that idea today! There were many people sitting along the boardwalk, walking along the water, and of course, taking photos - just like us. 

I just love the image of that man sitting on the log next to the little boy.

Eldar and Ted:  future album cover if they ever start a band

A close-up of the texture of the "sand"

Bela Eldarova (Eldar's daughter) and Mackenzie

This respite helped to relax us before Ted's second big event of the day - giving a lecture to the local university's ecology and sustainable development department, in the most interesting classroom I've ever been in: the "Green Room." 

The floor under the projection screen.

Without a translator, Ted lectured in Russian about Geography and Cultural Landscape and then took questions from the students and faculty who attended.

As always, everyone was very welcoming, and we enjoyed the experience of being in a classroom in a Dagestan university. When the lecture was finished, the students and faculty posed for photos with Professor Holland. What a great experience for Ted!

By this point, Ted was exhausted from speaking Russian during our meeting with the minister and lecturing in Russian. Eldar asked if we would like to go back to the beach to relax and eat some shashlik (grilled meat, pronounced "shash-LEEK"). We agreed, thinking we would just walk back to the boardwalk and buy some kabobs to eat on a bench somewhere. But Eldar had something much, much better in mind!

Eldar called a taxi, and we stopped outside a grocery store for about 5-10 minutes while Eldar ran inside. At this point we knew that we were going to grill the meat ourselves, but we still thought we'd return to the public beach we had previously been to. 

After Eldar put his grocery purchases in the trunk, we headed off, out of Makhachkala. After a 15 minute drive we pulled off the main road and followed a dirt road out to a different beach outside of the city. It was lined with wooden shacks, closed now but probably open during the summer to sell food and drink to beach-goers. 

A man in an SUV picked us up from the taxi and drove us further down the beach to Eldar's friend's private boat house. Here his friend rents out windsurfing equipment and teaches windsurfing lessons. 

The Boat House

The men and boys at the boathouse went to work starting a fire and setting up a makeshift eating area with wood pallets. Meanwhile, we bundled up against the cold wind and walked around taking photos in the early evening light. 

With the addition of some rugs and blankets, the wooden pallets made for a nice little outdoor "dining room."

Wood burning down to make some hot coals for shashlik. At left, the samovar (tea urn) has a hollow chute in the middle where hot coals heat the surrounding water. The rock above the samovar is tagged "LOL." :)

We brought Eldar a winter hat from the University of Arkansas,
which turned out to be very useful on this cold, windy evening on the beach.

Looking away from the water, you can see low mountains and the city in the distance.

There are not adequate words to describe the deep satisfaction and joy that came from eating freshly grilled shashlik and drinking samovar tea on the shore of the Caspian Sea as the sun set behind the distant hills. The air was chilly, the fire and tea were hot, the chicken shashlik was perfectly seasoned, and everyone was in good spirits. 

In fact, as we ate, word seemed to spread that there was an impromptu grill party on the beach, and a few additional men showed up to join us. One of them even brought us a bottle of Dagestani cognac as a gift! Each time someone new showed up, we'd all shift or set up another stool to make room; it was a cozy and carefree affair. 

Grilling chicken shashlik

Along with shashlik, there were tomatoes, pickles, cheese, and fresh bread - ingredients for the perfect picnic.

View from our table

After we had eaten our fill of shashlik, the samovar was brought over and tea was served. Everyone in Dagestan and Kalmykia drinks tea - it is much more common than coffee. We usually drink tea brewed from tea bags, but on this night Eldar's friend pulled out his special samovar that has been in his family for generations. 

This is Eldar's friend - the owner of the boat house. He is filling the teacup with hot water after a dose of concentrated tea has been poured in. On the table you can see a teacup holding this concentrate, waiting to be topped off from the samovar.

This smaller teapot is for making the "tea concentrate."
The man added big pinches of dried mint, an unidentified dried herb (shown below),
and opened cachets of black tea. 

Tea is always served with an assortment of candies and cookies.

Our third day in Dagestan ended on this perfect, peaceful note. So far, we have found all the people we've encountered to be friendly and extremely generous, and we're learning a lot about the cultures and traditions of Dagestan. 

We returned home to get a good night's sleep because our plans for Day 4 included an early morning departure for Ted's most anxiously anticipated adventure: the fort at Derbent!

Dagestan: Day 2

Makhachkala (Махачкала)

Pronunciation: muh-HOTCH-kala

Our first full day in Dagestan began with an ice-cold wind whipping through the streets as we walked to the local grocery store for some breakfast. The wind does not come off the Caspian Sea, as I had anticipated, but rather from the north - an Ivan wind, they call it (as opposed to a Mohammed wind from the south).

Eldar once again picked us up in a taxi and took us to the central square of Makhachkala. This is where many government buildings are located, including the capital building, which we jokingly referred to as the "White House."

"White House" detail

Later in the day, Eldar would take us into the "White House" to meet several of his friends who work in the Dagestani government. Like Valeriy in Elista, Eldar seems to know everybody who's somebody in this town. The people we met were all very friendly and welcoming, taking time out of their busy schedules to talk with us, and they even set up transportation for our upcoming excursions into the mountains. 

Anyway, back to the square... As in many central squares in Russian cities, there stands an enormous statue of Lenin, and Makhachkala's square also sports several banners depicting Putin.

After walking around for a bit and being nearly blown over by the wind, we arrived at our first stop of the day - the Дом Дружбы Город Махачкала: "Makhachkala House of Friendship." This is a museum dedicated to the cultures of the many diverse national groups of Dagestan, as well as the neighboring states in the South Caucasus and along the Caspian Sea. If you visit their Facebook page, you can see photos of our visit in an April 19th post!

At this museum, we learned about the wide variety of traditional clothing worn in Dagestan, the lifestyle of the people throughout history, and what is being done today to preserve the rich culture of Dagestan and cooperation amongst the various national groups (34 different groups, to be exact!). We had a wonderfully knowledgeable museum guide, and the museum director himself began our personal tour. Along the way we were accompanied by a museum photographer to document our visit. 

Our tour guide at left, and the museum director at right
Photo credit: Дом Дружбы Facebook page

Photo credit: Eldar Eldarov

Photo credit: Eldar Eldarov

The grounds of the museum were very nicely landscaped, and I was sorry we couldn't hang around a few more days to see all these tulips open up!

There were plenty of other tulips in bloom in this beautifully manicured city, however, including a peony-like variety that I have never seen before but will certainly look for once we're back in the U.S.

My favorites are those in the lower right - they look like peonies but grow on a tulip stem!

After our tour of the Friendship House, Eldar took us to a high-end souvenir shop back on the central square. The ornate building was painted a pale pastel green, like an Easter egg. In the photo you can see the souvenir shop on the ground floor with the word ДАГЕСТАН (DAGESTAN) over it. 

There the shop ladies dressed us up for a photoshoot - Ted in a traditional Dagestani jacket and hat, and me in a head scarf. I think we look pretty authentic, don't you?

Photo on the right of Dagestani man and woman taken in 1904 by Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii (via Wikipedia)

If you're ever in Makhachkala, we highly recommend this souvenir shop. The name is Торговый Дом (Trading House) - be sure to ask for a dress-up photo session! 

The museum and souvenir shop were hard to beat, but when Eldar asked us what else we would like to do or see in Makhachkala, I had my answer ready. The city is situated right on the Caspian Sea, so of course I had to go stand on the beach and put my hands in the water. When would I ever have a another chance to see the Caspian Sea?

Eldar's daughter later pointed out to me that though we call it the Caspian Sea, in reality it is a giant lake - the largest in the world by area, actually. It isn't very salty, and nowhere does it connect with any sea or ocean. So I guess it is just an enormous lake, but it sure felt like being on the coast of a small sea to me!

Photo credit: Eldar Eldarov

The sand is very course - millions of small pieces of shell and rock, really. The air doesn't smell salty like being near the ocean, but the waves lap the beach (and my shoes!) nonetheless. The weather was cool and very windy on this day. 

I wore my raincoat most days to act as a windbreaker; without it the wind was bitingly cold.

The walk down to and around the waterfront took us past many interesting buildings - old and new. The building upkeep here seems to be better than in Elista, though we still saw some abandoned buildings in disrepair. Overall this is a modern city that retains much of its old charm. 

The old theater, no longer in use

Seaside hotel

After our brief jaunt down to the beach, we headed back into the city to visit the history museum. Again, as we walked to the museum we were struck by the juxtaposition of old and new, historical buildings sandwiched between sleek, modern ones.

Through the ornate arch you can see a modern children's play structure in the park.

A closer look at the museum (left) next to what I assume are offices next door (right).

Detail of museum facade

When we arrived at the museum (which was free admission, by the way!), all the lights were out. I didn't think much of it at first because people in Kalmykia and Dagestan don't leave lights on the way Americans do. It's not unusual for hallways in the university buildings and dormitory to be unlit during the day.

We learned from a museum docent, however, that they were having issues with the power at that moment. There was a good amount of natural light coming in through the museum's many windows, however, so we stayed to have a look around.

Museum interior hallway (after lights came back on!)

Museum floor detail

The museum exhibits taught the history of Dagestan, all the way back to prehistoric times. The informational signs in the prehistory room were all hand-painted on canvas and showed the animals that lived in the shallow sea that once covered this corner of Russia, and huge ammonite fossils were on display where anyone could touch them (but probably not steal them since I'm sure they weigh a ton!).

Hand-painted canvas

The colorful backdrops were also hand-painted.

We also toured rooms that showed history of wars in Dagestan (the lights had come back on by this point) and more traditional clothing and tools used by people in this area. Common elements of men's clothing were fur hats and little pockets on the coat breast for storing vials of gunpowder.

Gunpowder vials

The women's clothing was more decorative, with embroidered fabrics and lots of metal ornamentation. Our morning tour guide at the Friendship House told us that some of the most heavily ornamented costumes for special occasions could weigh up to 25 kilograms (55 lbs)!

Ted's interest was more in the history of the events of Dagestan. Below you can see photos of his favorite parts of the exhibit:

Regiment flag from the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War

Under the portrait of Imam Shamil, the leader of the resistance
in Dagestan to the Russian Empire in the mid-19th century

As we were preparing to leave the museum, a tour group of middle school students surrounded us in one of the rooms. We had been dancing around each other the entire time, as we filed in and out of the museum's many rooms (the building housed the republic's Agriculture Ministry until recently). One of the students had finally worked up the nerve to try out her English with us, and she asked us where we were from. Her friend soon joined us to practice her English, and as we chatted more and more students filled in around us, listening in and taking photos. Before we knew it, their school photographer was lining the students up to take a photo with the Americans! We finally said our goodbyes and tried to make our exit, only to be chased down by individual students who wanted to take photos with their phones and get our Facebook information. We were like celebrities!

The first two brave students who approached us. They are from a town in the mountains, down in the city for a field trip to the museum. Their English was quite good, actually!

By this point in our day we were pretty exhausted. We had a long day of travel the day before, and Ted was mentally exhausted from having to translate everything for me. Although we hear Makhachkala has a great art museum, Ted and I asked to go to a cafe and relax instead. Eldar had just the place!

Along our walk to the cafe...

We ended up in an Uzbek tea house, in a cozy back room with upholstered walls and a fabric-draped ceiling. Just the place to sink into some soft cushions, drink some hot tea away from the cold wind, and have a quiet conversation.

Uzbek tea house interior (front room)

Ceiling detail of lights and draped fabric

Our cozy little corner

Eldar ordered a variety of teas for us to try.

By the end of the day we were too tired to even go out for dinner. We ate lunch leftovers in our hotel room (in bed!) and went straight to sleep.

Our earlier lunch in the "White House" government building; the food in the Soviet-style cafeteria was delicious!