Mr & Mrs!

Guess what?!

Ukrainians

There have been hundreds of photos taken lately that show Ukrainians dressed for war.


These are not those photos.

Kharkov

 Kyiv

Yevpatoria

Poltava

Simferopol

Yevpatoria in October, part 2

As you can see, Yevpatoria is a mix of the grandiose and the mundane.

Gates that proclaim the entrance to the "old city"

Yevpatoria in October, part 1

Yevpatoria- hands down my favorite place on the planet.

They say it's a hot mess in the summer time- beaches swarming with tourists, rusty Ferris wheels running nonstop, exorbitant prices. Vacations and the massive dance festival/party called Kazantip (advertised to "crazy party animals") bring tens of thousands of visitors into the city during the hottest months of the year.

In the winter the city is sullen and silent. Most of the shops are bordered up. Downtown feels haunted, empty, and unsafe. Hotels drop their prices.

For both economic and sanity reasons, we avoid the entire Crimean peninsula in the summer. Come fall, winter, and spring though, you can find us on the phone, booking a room in Yevpatoria for the following weekend!

This was our first time visiting in the autumn. Last year we managed a visit in the winter and in the spring. This year we fell victim to workaholism and only now took our first vacation of 2013. Can't complain about the timing too much though, because we found a train that left Kharkov at 2 AM, meaning we could work a regular day on Thursday and still arrive in Crimea the following morning.

View of the countryside from the train window

Plus, we ended up travelling in the first-class compartment, which meant it was just the two of us! : ) Usually we travel in a four-person compartment, which is fine but it can't compare to having your own private space. Not to mention that trains coming through Kharkov are often en route from elsewhere, so when you board at 2 AM you enter a pitch-black compartment where people are already sleeping and you're fumbling around to make your bed in the dark. Not this time!

A train ride away...

Hooray, we got our train tickets!!!! I feel like a peasant living in mediaeval Europe who rarely ventures beyond the city walls and now my farmer husband is in his Sunday best, hitching the horse to the wagon, and I (in my finest) am climbing into the back of the wagon with the vegetables and livestock that we'll sell in the neighboring city.

Well, except that we have no produce or pigs to sell.
Or a horse for that matter.
And in a very un-peasant-like manner, we'll be traveling there... СВ!!!

СВ stands for спальный вагон, or sleeping car. It's the first-class version of overnight train travel with only 2 bunks to a compartment. I've only met one person who has ever travelled this way. We usually go купе (kupe), which is second-class with 4 bunks to a compartment. Most friends and relatives travel плацкарт, which is the cheapest and also resembles how cattle are transported (if cattle could be coaxed onto a bunk. And if they drank beer in transit). D and I took плацкарт once. I told him that if he wanted our relationship to survive, then the future held only купе for us.

СВ is usually prohibitively expensive but we waited so long to buy tickets that it was the only available option. Плацкарт is usually the first to sell out, then купе. I guess the truly wealthy are too busy traveling around in helicopters and Maseratis to be bothered with traveling first-class on a train, and СВ is too expensive for most. Luckily the tickets weren't too bad this time: $50 each to get there via СВ, $25 each to get back in купе. I'm really, really excited to see what conditions are actually like in СВ, even if it merely means freedom from snoring strangers :p

I'm not going to tell you where we're headed yet, but here are some clues...

It takes about 10 hours on the train + 2 hours by bus to reach this place from Kharkiv.

It's my favorite place to visit in Ukraine during the chilly months. Everyone else says this is crazy, that it's vastly superior in the summer. But on our last visit these two cats agreed that winter is best :p Cats are never wrong, right?

And one final clue- the city is ancient. I mean, all European cities are old, of course, but the party started here in about 500 BC.

See you next week!!!! : )



PS: If your curiosity has gotten the best of you, here's the answer.

Yevpatoria II: the Black Sea in the off season

There aren't many people on the beach in March...

...but there are a lot of hungry birds.

In just a few months these beaches will be packed with people and resort rooms will be filled up.

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!