My Siberian Hat

Novi Urenguoi April 4th, 2003

From the land of the (seemingly endless supply of) ice and snow, here I am again! I finally found the souvenir of Russia that I want, that says “Russia” in big, bold letters!! My “guff, guff” hat. This certainly is a story in itself. When I first saw these hats, I thought that they were pretty cool. Someone had mentioned that they were made from dog fur (of all things!). So since a dog in Russia says “guff, guff”, the rest is history. As is turns out, its made from “enot”, which, at first, no one here could identify. They initially described this animal as a small wild dog. I was baffled. I suggested a coyote. Nope, not that, they said. Finally we checked an on-line dictionary and voila!! Raccoon! My very own rocky raccoon hat!!

Call Greenpeace on me, I don’t care. Its my piece of Russia to hang on the wall… and wear on occasion too because, one thing I’ll say is that its real nice and warm. Today was –20C (-6F) with a strong wind, but my ears and head were toasty warm.