Yevpatoria II: Architecture

Ready for a quick tour? : )

I'll show you the glamorous and the disintegrating, the old and the slightly-newer, the colorful and the bleak.

And here's a little reminder- Yevpatoria = 2500 years young!

Nothing of what I'll show you now is that old. We're looking at mainly USSR stuff today. For ancient stuff, check out this entry.

Let's go!

This is a monument (wall) to Yevpatoria's history and rulers. Just to the right, out of the picture, is an eternal flame...except sometimes it's off.

This is right down the street from the previous picture- maybe 50 steps away. I enlarged the picture so you could clearly see the date on the apartment building: 1912. If you make this picture even larger on your own screen, you can see the details and carvings (or what's left of them).

The sidewalk underneath the building is closed off because of falling bits and pieces but people still live here. Just like most of Ukraine, what you can see of people's living areas looks nice and modern but no one takes care of the outside.

A museum. And canons!

This kind of detailing is popular here. Tatar? Or Turkish?

An old, slightly creepy house that's for sale. There's even a round Rapunzel tower in the back.

A vaguely sinister children's sanatorium (resort), including obligatory Lenin statue.

Pretty typical, especially the colors, although people tend to use white with a blue accent instead of the other way around.

Along the main walk in front of the sea.

An old aquarium

Not sure who this is. In the background is a very upscale hotel called "The Empire". It prominently features the Russian double-headed eagle symbol. Next door is another hotel called "The Russian Sea". Kind of sounds like a political statement about Crimea, doesn't it?!

New vs old. D loves this picture.

Probably a Soviet era mosaic. I like how the woman looks just as strong as the man!

Yevpatoria's seaside is very walk-friendly. And if you're under 3 feet and 50 pounds and have generous parents, very drive-your-own-toy-car-friendly.

A mosaic of the Crimean peninsula, found near a skateboard park.

Aquarium designed like a shark's mouth. And that's only the outside!

The inside. There are two stories like this. The only incongruity? The pterodactyls in the staircase. Cool-looking, though!

And finally, in preparation for my next entry..... the sea!!

We've gone out walking every day here and noticed a significant increase in other people outside today. This could be because it's 8 марта (Happy Women's Day!) and families wanted to get outside to celebrate. Or it may be because spring is coming soon and with it- tourists. Lots of shops, restaurants, amusement parks, and hotels are still boarded up but occasionally you'll see bursts of preparations taking place.

We stopped to buy a gift for someone and the saleswoman turned out to be a Ukrainian speaker. At first I was wondering why I couldn't understand her, then I realized it was Ukrainian! She was really friendly and inquisitive and struck up a conversation with D- who valiantly tried his best to answer in Ukrainian for THE FIRST TIME I'VE EVER HEARD HIM DO SO! It was so odd that I started laughing; I couldn't believe he could do it at all! It was so weird to hear! I wish I spoke a little Ukrainian too....more than я трохи розумію or дуже дякую. At the same time, one of my co-workers knows some Ukrainian but not Russian and he feels at a bit of a disadvantage in Kharkov. People say the languages are so close, and they are in many ways...but they're not that close. It's like English and Spanish: you can try to use Spanglish in Mexico but you just feel like a freakin' huge idiot.

One more quick note about the architecture. My absolute favorite building is an old apartment building that's just down the street. It's crumbling and got one of those "so-and-so lived here from 1875 to 1926" historical markers. There are actual gods and goddesses carved into the top and around the window frames. If only it wasn't right across the street from the police station and lots of loitering cops!