Friday, October 2, 2009
11:56 AM | 
Posted by
Ryś |
It’s hard to describe travel in retrospect, the view, narration is usually very generalized, poorer with many missing details. However I still owe you the travel report from Crimea and after all I am going to fulfill this duty.
Now when I think – Crimea – I see shrimps, Tatar markets and points-places on the map which I haven’t seen. We decided to go to Ukraine in the end of the season – when on one hand prizes are much lower and the cities and towns are not that crowded as in July, but on the other hand the weather is still excellent and you can easily find cheap accommodation. We left Wroclaw in group of 8 people just for 10 days. Well, yes double mistake – the group was too big what caused delays in every day’s plans while the time we could spend on Ukraine was really too short. But let’s put things in order…
Coming to Crimea
We have picked one of the cheapest, but at the same time quite tiring way. Traditionally we crossed the border on foot and came to Lviv by bus. Though the actual journey was just going to begin. For next 25 hours our the only mean of transport was going to be 20-wagons long train. For some, just travelling by this monster could be an adventure, but really with every passing hour I felt more intense fatigue. Fortunately Ukrain
ian big wigs decided that all the long-distance trains have to offer passengers sleeping places, what we providently noticed. By the way every time when planning to use Ukrainian railway – book the tickets in advance. You may need very big luck if you will get ticket on the day of the departure. There are three kinds of tickets – Lux (the most expensive – compartment with 2 beds); Kupe (also closeable compartment but with 4 beds) and the last one, the cheapest and the most popular – Platzkarta – open wagon with beds all along. The price difference between kupe and platzkarta is not that significant for travelers from West, so if you prefer comfortable conditions – don’t hesitate to pick this one, however going with platzkarta guarantees some adventure – caused at least by your co-passengers.
The train is crossing thousands on kilometres, hence on every bigger station, stop takes 10-30 minutes, while you can purchase some food and drinks from “babushkas” – ladies selling their homemade dumplings, pancakes and fruits. However, as Andrej – one of my train-friends – warned, you should be careful with buying caviar, which quality thrills even Ukrainians.
One-way train trip from Lviv to Simferopol costs about 17 Euros (200 Ukrainian Hrywnias), you can find and book them at this website: http://www.e-kvytok.com.ua/wps/portal
Train tickets are also offered by various middlemen, however their commission very often is 2-3 times higher than actual price of the ticket. We did such a mistake and let someone to earn for nice weekend.
Alternatively, you can fly to Kiev and from there to Simferopol – such a connection is held by WizzAir!, but then you have to mind the luggage limits.
People and Language
Before I managed to lift all my luggage at the station, I could hear very characteristic for Simferopol sentence… “Taxi, marshrouta, 5 dolarow” – that was just a beginning of a big trade, which was waiting for us when left platforms. Hundreds of drivers, hunting for tourists were deaf for our refusals. Apparently you can’t politely refuse, only flat “Niet” let us calmly go to trolley. You can always make use of that transport, but to not to overpay you have to negotiate in Russian, what put us on the lost position. Eventually we paid 8 UAH=$ 1 and after 80 minutes came to Alushta. Here comes a time to explain one thing – for all of us it was the first visit on the Peninsula. With regard to the short time, which we were going to spend there, after few discusses, the decision to visit just the western part of Crimea and to get accommodation in Alushta was made-up. That was caused by influence of my friends who used to visit that part of Ukraine and always easily found place to sleep. And actually that was the only advantage of the resort. After 5 minutes of listening and “discussing” with over shouting each other people, my pick went to Vladimir, who offered us quite good conditions for 5 dollars per person daily. He came across as making the deal of his life, but honestly speaking we didn’t get down neither. As we landed up in our new home, Vladimir took us for a short trip around the town. It seems that few Russian sentence which I managed to stammer, let him feel that I know the language quite well, therefore more and more intense, he was showing me and explaining things which we could do in Alushta. I was trying to jot down the most frequent words and find their meaning out, but eventually I had to rely on my intuition and just nod while our guide was saying millions words per minute.
There is almost no chance to have a really good trim on Crimea without knowledge of Russian or Ukrainian language. Honestly, I am not able to take them apart. As Pole, somehow I could guess the meaning of some words, however without knowledge of their alphabet and few basic sentences, which I learned last year on Rhodes, I wouldn’t be able to get answers for the most important things. During this short period I learned Russian at least triple more than I knew so far, but I must confess, that at least half of my sentences were invented as mix of Czech, Polish and Russian. Fortunately Ukrainians, who we met, were tolerant enough to not to laugh at my tries.
Alushta and Yalta
I put these two cities together, because of their similarity. Yalta as the bigger one, stays for one of the biggest harbours at Peninsula, has more interesting history and seems to be more attractive. However both – Yalta and Alushta are just the resorts, which apart from a good accommodation background, developed transportation and various restaurants and bars, does not have any advantages. Really, first association which comes to my mind when I think about them is a view of ugly, post-communistic blocks-of-flats districts and concrete beaches.
However these towns are the most often chosen by Russian visitors. Perhaps it happens because of sentiment to the places, which 20 years ago were absolutely glamorous in Eastern Block of Europe, but the other reason can be very silly. For mid-rich Russians, Crimea and especially Yalta, are the places where they can show off “their superiority” over poorer Ukrainians. Notwithstanding almost every trip which we took, was in fact starting in Yalta. The bus station –Awtowagzal – had connections to probably all the cities and towns on Crimea. By the way, every time when you travel by public means of transport, people around will be trying to reduce you to silence. And to be clear – we were having just normal conversations without raising voice, no... if you want to travel by buses, you have to shut up. However, the extremely loud radios played by the drivers don’t disturb anyone. Drivers calling us “Rybjata”, were trying to encourage us to participate in one of many excursions. But with guidebooks in hands we were trying to figure this place out on our own...
Alupka, Swallow’s Nest, Livadia and Utes
Towns, villages where the last Imperator of Russia – Tsar Nikolai II and prince Worontsow – set down the most beautiful palaces in this part of Peninsula. The most impressive is to take a boat trip from Alupka to Yalta and get out on the following stops.
Worontsow’s palace – is a pearl of an architecture in small town – Alupka. When you look at this from the land’s side, you can’t resist an impression, that you have already seen somewhere that building. It is very similar to the castles which you can find in the UK, and the similarity comes out of the British architect, who designed both – castle and beautiful gardens in the middle of 19th century. However, when You go around the palace and look at this from the marine’s point of view, the style changes absolutely. Orient elements and a beautiful terrace proves that Crimea was under influence of various cultures and nations.
Going further, you can see so-called “Swallow’s Nest “ – a tiny decorative castle, hanging on the top of Aurora cliff. The castle itself hosts nowadays a restaurant and to be honest, is not worth to get off the boat.
Palace of Livadia – the biggest attraction of the southern-west shore of Peninsula. The favourite summer place of Imperator Nikolai II, is more famous because of the Conference, which in 1945 significantly contributed to finish the 2nd World War. Exactly there, Josef Stalin convinced Churchill and Roosvelt to give my country under the “Soviet Care”, hence I have very subjective relation to that place. Anyhow, the palace is really worth seeing. In over hundred rooms are presented not only the facts of the Conference, but also personal things of the last Imperator of Russia and very interesting exhibition of pictures taken in the beginning of 20th century. Definitely number one among the castles in that region.
Utes – small village on the way from Alushta to Yalta, famous for the castle, which nowadays is hosting a sanatorium. Not worth visiting.
Aj-Petri
When you look at Worontsow’s palace in Alupka, the absolute supplement of landscape is done by one of the highest mountains in the region – Aj-Petri. There are two basic ways to get there – and both makes interesting impressions. First of them is to travel by an old, post-soviet funicular railway, which with every meter crossed up, seem to shake harder and let you feel that perhaps its one of the eternal rides of the wagon. But the wagons are going like this for 30 years and everything seems, that they won’t stop working for the next 30 years. The other way is to take a bus, which with speed of rally cars are covering kilometres of curvy roads, which structure was similar to Swiss cheese. Every time, when the driver was speeding up, I felt my stomach coming up to my throat. You have to be either drank or sick with ADHD to enjoy such a journey.
Just by the top of the mountain hundreds of Tatar’s tents covered all the area.
-“Wines, meat, hats, ovine jackets, water pipes, everything for you, mister!”
-“Where are you from? Oh Poland! I was in Cracow! Beautiful city, beautiful women! Do you have wife? Wait a second, I will bring something special! Just 5 dollars! Very cheap, you won’t find that anywhere! “
-“Are you hungry? Come with me! We have the best food here! Wine! Try this Wine! Wine for real man!...”
Eventually we managed to get to the entrance where started the climbing path and got to the top. Majestic view! Standing at the height of 1200 meters you can command a view hundreds of kilometres covered by Black Sea. The line on the horizon was invisible... sea seemed to turn to the sky, while sky was diving into the sea. One of the ends of the continent. Somewhere there, over hundreds of miles was already the Turkish shore, Asia. Below us, the forests were spread out. Forests, which were imperceptible from the buses, now were dominating on the Peninsula. Going to the top of Aj-Petri showed me, how many things I have to see, and how very few I have already visited. But I was conscious, that it’s impossible to be done this time.
Sevastopol
All-day trip done to Sevastopol was one of the last ones, done with whole group. Soon I and my brother were going to Odessa and then just two to Poland. But about this with the next point.
Entering Sevastopol, I had an impression that I am entering completely different part of Crimea. Red stars visible almost at every square, thousands of marines and cadets on the streets and in bars and finally luxurious cars with Russian numberplates disillusioned me about this who was who in that city. Sevastopol was probably the most “ordered” city from all which we have seen on Crimea. The town-planning wasn’t that chaotic as in Yalta or Alushta, but still I could easily notice various styles in the town. What is really worth visiting, places around the bay – cementary of boats and submarines, but also an oceanarium and museums are just by the shore. Very important, but impossible for us to visit place, is located out of the city – Chersonesos Tauricia – an ancient town, with ruins of Greek buildings still doesn’t let me fall asleep calmly. :)
Odessa
Odessa was an obligatory point on my route’s map. Not only because of the beauty and fame of the city, but also because of visiting my egec-groupmate, ex-flatmate Aleksei. We spent together 9 months on studies and for all this time he didn’t let us to not know how beautiful and great Odessa is. We were looking at his stories light-hearted, but the life verified stories. In my opinion, Odessa is the most beautiful Ukrainian city. I haven’t been to Kiev yet, but capital is always a capital... and has bad influences.
Odessa seems to be... not Ukrainian. It is a very cosmopolite city, with great influences of various cultures, however strongly bonded to Ukrainian heritage. Sometimes You can have an impression, that you are in one of the Western metropolises. Aleksei, who was an excellent guide, showed us almost all the most important places in the city, including famous Potiomkins stairs, Mosques and Orthodox churches, Opera house, Passages, parks, uff hard to describe everything. Let it be a proof of Odessa’s glamour, that almost half of all the pictures, I’ve taken during Crimean trip, was done in that city. And one of interesting things is, that in Odessa, on the 9th day of my trip, finally I found a sand-beach.
Crimea charmed and disappointed me. Thousands of kilometres, thousands of people, smiles and pouts, majestic and ugly views. That all stands for Crimea which I have seen. Crimea smells with Tatarian spices and tastes with sweet red wine, but also stays for wild, unknown Eastern part, which just calls me to come.
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