Vacation in Ukraine
For more than a year I had no strength to sort through the almost five gigabytes of photos taken there. That is why the report took so long.
The Unfulfilled Plan
plan quite badly. Partly this was because we did not take a car. Partly because renting a place for one night at a reasonable price in Crimea is unrealistic. Especially on the southern coast in summer.
Locals rarely swim. They say it is cold. For us, though, the Black Sea water was pleasant even at night and early in the morning.
Sevastopol
Unfortunately, I have no impressions of the city at all: we walked around it once at night, went swimming during the day, drank real Crimean wine in the evenings, and slept in the mornings.
A cloud eating a mountain; in Balaklava.
Oaks grow on the slopes.
Simeiz
Making an effort to finally stop drinking in Sevastopol, we decided to go to Alupka. The taxi driver said: “Why do you need that Alupka? Better go to Simeiz!” That is how the next point of our vacation was chosen. We learned about the peculiarities of that village later.
Right at the bus station where we were brought, we were offered a hotel room for 600 hryvnias per day. That is somewhere around one hundred euros. In the end, after about two hours of searching, we found one for 350 hryvnias per day. At some woman's place.
Compared with Egypt, here it is not even clear what you are paying for. But you cannot sleep in the street. Although the tent option is not bad enough; the only downside is nowhere to wash.
I had never seen mountains before. Mountains are incredibly beautiful.
Sights of the Southern Coast of Crimea
Diva and Koshka Mountains
A staircase cut into the rock leads up the mountain. At the top there is a small platform. All the railings are tied with ribbons.
Koshka Mountain is much larger. You have to think for a long time about what exactly makes it look like a cat.
This is another mountain.
How can a tree grow on stones, huh?
And at the foot of this rock there is a nudist beach.
Ai-Petri
Visiting the Ai-Petri plateau was the most stunning thing of the whole vacation. What struck me most was the air: clean, mountain, cool air. I did not want to leave it and go back down to the hot, stuffy coast. They say Ai-Petri is run by Tatars, and there you can buy anything.
We went up the mountain by cable car and came down by serpentine road. The cable car impressed me. The serpentine did not.
Swallow's Nest
The castle on the very edge of the rock, of course, looks very impressive. The lasagna we were served had chicken and sausage instead of minced meat.
Well... it was tasty, but the aftertaste remained.
The blur in the middle of the photo is because I smeared sunscreen on the lens. I ruined almost fifty shots. The ones of Mount Diva are especially painful.
Botanical Garden
Very beautiful. An interesting amusement is crawling through the labyrinth. The little fountain in the center, which you had to reach, was visible from the very entrance.
But getting to it turned out to be far from easy.
Simferopol
Simferopol has the most beautiful railway station I have ever seen.
Nearby they sell chicks.
Odessa
It was very interesting to see what the Catacombs are.
The expression "Odessa humor" used to feel empty to me. Humor is humor. But once you find yourself in Odessa and talk to residents, the concept gains color, flavor, brightness, and becomes quite tangible.
A question to the person blocking the doorway: “Are you holding me?”
A taxi driver at the station: “Take a taxi... with a discount... Do not be afraid, you will manage.”
A monument to blah-blah-blah in the pose of “men looking for a ruble.”
The blah-blah-blah bridge, popularly known as “dick in the mouth.”
— Where should we go dancing?
— To the dance place!The Russian national game “Jewish pogrom.”
— Can one smoke in your car?
— Yes, but only if you do not inhale.Want to hear the color of local speech? Shout in the apartment in the evening: “Neighbor Zina! You are a complete idiot!”
A girl with a braid, in the good sense of the word.
DDT concert.
Just imagine: you are walking through a beautiful summer city; the sun is shining, and after lunch your mood is wonderful. Suddenly in the distance you hear something rock-like, and something familiar in it. You walk that way, come out onto the central square where a stage has been built, and see Shevchuk singing there.
First, shock.
In Petersburg you would have to wait for a concert, then buy tickets, then at the entrance they pat you down to check whether you are bringing anything in, there are tons of people, everyone is pushing... And here it is simply in the city center, without any tickets, without a crush, without police: nice and kind. After singing a few songs, Shevchuk said this had been a warm-up and the concert would be in the evening. Naturally, we went.
After the concert, a small hurricane with rain and thunderstorm swept in. I had never seen rain like that. Cars left in the low parts of Odessa were flooded up to the windows. A thunderstorm over the sea is extraordinarily beautiful, with constant flashes of lightning illuminating everything.
The next day the city looked like this.
Unlike in Russia, in Ukraine you can go to an opposition rally.
The interior of some tavern.
