Eclectic Trips

Crimea landscape

Crimea is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. It’s truly magnificent with it’s landscapes, mountains and beaches. When you drive through Crimea, every corner you turn opens up a view even more spectacular than the last, and the drive up and down Crimea’s winding roads is a real pleasure.

The first place I stayed at was called Utyos- or Santa Barbara. The beaches here are not the beautiful sandy luxury, but the water is crystal clear, and relatively cool on most days. Instead of the sand, you get either large pebbles, or just concrete platforms with lounge chairs for rent. The weather was perfect throughout my stay, and I grew to enjoyed the pebbles, and diving into the clear cool water from the concrete platforms. Above Santa Barbara there is a beautiful vast park,  with an old castle- an old residence of Princess Gagarin. There is some gorgeous scenery from the mountains, and really nice, lush vegetation all around the large park.

There are small fruit stands  everywhere that sell the freshest, sweetest, juiciest fruit that is locally grown. The figs alone are worth a visit to Crimea. Another local specialty that i really enjoyed was the “LIVE” beer- a microbrew that has no additives or preservatives, it’s the best beer I ever tasted. The promenade is lined with cafes and restaurants that have very extensive, if similar menus. I loved the food here. Lots of yummy seafood, fresh veggies, great salads. “Muscles a la Crimea”- local specialty, was my favorite-muscles taken out of the shell and sauteed with onions- yum! For all the deliciousness, the food is very inexpensive. About $5-7 for breakfast, $10 for lunch, and $15 and up dinner.  As was my (simple and a bit outdated, but very clean and comfy) hotel “The quiet harbor”- around $45 a night. With all of this affordable loveliness, I kept asking myself- Why aren’t there more international tourists here? And I am pretty sure it’s the language barrier. Virtually no one speaks English here, and since there is no international tourism, it doesn’t seem like the locals have any incentive to learn.

Crystal clear water in Utyos

fruit..and fish?

"Live" beer stand

Another really beautiful corner of Crimea is Balaklava. A town famous for it’s Nuclear Submarine base.

****The base was said to be virtually indestructible and designed to survive a direct atomic impact. During that period, Balaklava was one of the most secret residential areas in the Soviet Union. Almost the entire population of Balaklava at one time worked at the base; even family members could not visit the town of Balaklava without a good reason and proper identification. In 1996, the last Russian submarine left the base, which is now open to the public for guided tours around the canal system, the base, and a small museum, which is now housed in the old ammunition warehouse deep inside the hillside.****( Wikipedia)

And that’s all cool, and the museum is definitely worth a visit. But Balaklava also has a huge beautiful marina that houses some incredible yachts. There are some great restaurants here as well. And then, there is a small marina that has dingy little boats that you hire to take you to completely remote tiny beaches only accessible by a small boat. You take a enough food and water for the day, and get dropped off at one of these raw beauties, and the boat comes to pick you up at the end of the day. If you are lucky you will see dolphins playing and jumping on the way to these tiny treasures. This is by far the best experience ever.

Balaklava at night

With all the beauty of Crimea, it comes as a surprise to me that Yalta is considered the capital of Crimea, and thus is the place visitors want to visit most. Yalta is very crowded, pretty overpriced, the beaches are packed, and thus pretty dirty. As far as I noticed doesn’t offer anything that is any more special than any of the other small, quaint and lovely towns all around Crimea. But then again, I always prefer smaller places with character to large tourist destinations, so maybe I overlooked something special about Yalta. It is definitely worth a visit though if you are around. The walk on a long promenade along the sea is nice, with some small parks and green squares along the way. At the end of the promenade, there is lovely artisan market with artists and crafts people selling their art and trinkets- some really nice stuff here. And the restaurants along the promenade are decent-they just seemed so overpriced to me compared to everywhere else in Crimea.

"Zolotoye Runo" restaurant on the promenada in Yalta

Yalta promenade

Perhaps it’s worth learning some basic Russian, to be able to come and experience Crimea with all of it’s incredible undiscovered beauty.

Crimea is what they call the “Ukrainian Rivera”  spread out along the coast of the Black Sea. It’s a place of amazing beauty, and each little town offers it’s own special “something”. When I arrived here, my first thought was that it feels like time stood still here for the past 20 years. It was apparent in everything- from fashion, to the way people interact, to the buses from the Socialist Russia era, to the ubiquitous sunflower seeds that Ukrainians are obsessed with shelling and eating everywhere. It all brought on bouts of nostalgia and a sort of joy that some things really DON’T change. I left Ukraine when I was 14 years old, so I am sure there are some things I don’t remember so well, but with my new found American and World traveling perspective there were some things in Crimea that I found outright odd.

1. They give you change in candy.

The first time it happened I thought it was a fluke, a creative cashier with imaginative methods of change disbursement. I found it utterly adorable, but later realized that somehow this is a common thing. The Ukrainian currency  is  “Hrivna”. One US dollar= 8 Hryvna-about 12 cents. But the currency wasn’t always this low, and some of the prices are still Hrivnas and Kopeikas (cents). So if a purchase requires for the cashier to give you change that includes kopeikas, and they don’t happen to have any kopeikas, they give you one or two or five hard candies that are always in jars by the cash register. I never ended up figuring out exactly how much one hard candy is worth, as the “change” always varied. They don’t ask you if it’s OK to give you change in candy, nor do they make any apologies for it, just kinda of matter of fact- here is some candy for you. I even got lollipops a few times. So do make sure all your cavities are filled before you travel to Ukraine, as you will be getting tons of hard candy:)

Crimea- View from above

2. The last page of the menu is the price list for what it’s going to cost you if you break anything.

Now this is really special. Once again the first time I saw this in a pretty upscale waterfront restaurant I thought it was hilarious, and in my head thanked whoever was responsible for providing my humorous moment for the day. Of course the next realization was that EVERY SINGLE restaurant had this particular gem of a read as the last page of the menu. Apparently it’s a common thing for people to dine, have way tooo much to drink and stat breaking things. So common in fact, that Crimea restaurants were forced to take necessary precautions for situations like these. The first restaurant, whose price list I found so amusing had plates, and ashtrays and glassware listed. The next establishment I visited had all of the above, plus prices for tables, chairs, musical equipment (they had a small stage with a band playing nightly). And one restaurant had the price one would have to pay if they destroyed the restaurant in it’s entirety. Destroying an entire restaurant sounds like no small feat, and I am not quite sure how that is achievable, but I guess they had their reasons for concern.

Last page of the menu that says " the prices of items in case you break them"

3. They sell EVERYTHING on the beach

Selling things on the beach in beach towns is a very common thing of course. And as we know the items being sold vary greatly by country and region. In Crimea the things sold on the beach are Ice Cream, Corn on the Cob,  and sliced watermelon, which are huge hits- those are the top 3 consumed items on all of Crimea’s beaches. The ladies on the beach also sell homemade pastries and “pirozhki” -knish like dough things stuffed with meat, or potatoes or cherries. Then there are sunglasses and hats and floating devices. So far so good, right? So you will hear several different people walking around the beach at any given time loudly advertising their respective goodies-

“pirozhki, pirozhki, get your fresh home made pirozhki here, I have cherry, potato, and meat. Get your pirozhki before they run out, only a few left!”

But in addition to the expected beach gooodies, there is plenty of unexpected and sometimes a bit shocking. They sell toilet paper, calling cards, soap, move tickets…and (gasp) condoms!  Why anyone would need these particular items on the beach is a bit beyond me, but it’s nice to know they are available

The VERY packed beach at Gurzuf

4. They disobey the rules and reprimand you for doing so at the same time.

I was staying at a very quaint place called “Santa Barbara” and once took the bus to Yalta. It’s about an hour away, and the roads here are truly scary, so every passenger must have a seat. That’s the rule. The rickets for this bus ride are purchased at the bus station and cost  about 2-3 dollars. It’s a very steep and winding road up the mountain to get from Santa Barbara to the main highway, and there are a bunch of little villages and a few resorts on the way up. There are always hitchhikers on the side of the road, and the bus driver would stop, pick them up and literally yell at them along these lines “You are not supposed to be hitchhiking here! This is dangerous! I can get in a lot of trouble for picking you up!”. Yet he stopped at least 5 times on the way to the highway, and of course charged the hitchhikers a small fee that he put in his pocket.

I took the bus to the train station some days later, with young female driver, and she did THE SAME exact thing. Almost word for word with the ” this is against the rules, and i could lose my job for stopping”

Why stop then I ask? And if you do stop, don’t yell at the poor hitchhikers- it’s a bit of a double standard.

Crimea's winding roads

5. It looks like they have been producing the same exact bathing suit for the past 20 years. And ALL men wear speedos

The fashion here is outright funny. It is so outdated that it’s hard to believe. Any of the older women  on the  beach could easily be cast as an extra in a 70′s Era movie. The hairstyles play  it up even more. And virtually all men wear tiny speedos. It doesn’t matter if they are overweight, young, or old. Those tiny shorts dominate the beaches here, and look even funnier in contrast with some of the women’s very large bathing suits.

The expatriate- tourist hangout on Deribasovskaya is Mick O’neil Irish pub. The place is open late and serves German, American and some Ukrainian food. Here you will hear a potpourri of International languages being spoken, some very loudly .It’s a good place to grab a beer and a snack late night, and some of the waiters speak some English sometimes, which helps.

In the Summer time Arcadia beach area is the nightlife capital. The two big clubs here are Itaka and Ibiza. Both are huge, outdoor and thematic. (yes, the theme of thematic establishment is pretty consistent here

Itaka

Itaka of course has the Ancient Greek theme complete with giant columns and an amphitheater. It faces the Balck sea, and is open late enough for the patrons to watch the sun rise. The crowd here is pretty diverse. It consists of older German, American, and Swedish tourists and the very thin, very tall and very pretty young ladies who love them. Also, crowds of young men, groups of people, Ukrainian tourists and locals, and all those that were unable to get in to Ibiza. The music here is pretty eclectic- to put it mildly. It is kind of all over the place- from Russian and Ukrainian to house, hip-hop, pop and disco. You can get a table in the amphitheater, Or hang out by the bar. We got ourselves a table and drank a pretty unreasonable amount of vodka, danced on the stage for good measure, and then moved on to Ibiza.

Dancing in Itaka

Ibiza has a much stricter door policy or as the locals call it “face control”. Here the crowd is mostly young, very hip and trendy, attractive. You’ll see an occasional older tourist, but for the most part everyone in Ibiza is consistently fabulous. Ibiza has a very interesting architectural design, reminiscent of clubs in Ibiza, Spain.

It’s a bit of a maze with many levels, a big dance floor, neon lights, smoke machines and all the other attributes of a full fledged night club.

Ibiza is mostly happening on the weekends, and hosts some renowned international dj’s. The music is strictly electronic- house, techno or trance.  Our experience in Ibiza although slightly blurry I recall as lots of fun. Soon upon entering the club some gentleman and his girlfriend graciously invited us to join them at their table. As I later found out the gentleman, Vladimir was a deputy of the Ukrainian “Duma” (The Parliament) and his lovely girlfriend Natasha was a fashion editor of a high end Ukrainian publication. We had so much fun with our Ukrainian friends, drank more vodka, and got home extremely late. Definitely an experience to remember.

So if you are in odessa during the Summer months- which incidentally is the best time to go there, and you are up for a little adventure- check  out Arcadia, and pop over to Itaka or Ibiza for a drink or two, or stay till the sun rises over the Black Sea.

The atmosphre in Ibiza

There is a saying that Odessa would not be Odessa without Privoz. So, if you really want to get to know Odessa, a visit to Privoz is a must.

Odessa Privoz- a huge seemingly disorganized bazaar, where you can buy pretty much anything under the sun is an entity unlike no other. Here you will find everything from a huge variety fresh farmer produce, meat, dairy and dry fish, to socks, cd players, cigarettes, tools, clothing old and new, and completely random things. In the dairy pavilion, the main attraction is “tasting”  all the fresh homemade cheese, milk and kefir you can handle in one day. In the fruit and veggie isles- the tomatoes are the best you’ve ever had- absolutely delicious, as are the apricots and peaches. If you dare buy  “taranka”- the very smoked very salty and pretty smelly dry fish that Ukrainians eat with beer. It’s quite delicious and slightly addictive once you get past the mild shock of the smell and the salt. The main attraction of the Privoz though are the people that sell and shop there- they are so colorful and rich in their dialect and manners.  Definitely watch your pocketbook and your wallet while you are here, and be very vigilant.

Privoz- Dairy pavillion

At the Privoz

It is a great place to grab breakfast or lunch, lively, with the best people watching capacity. They serve fresh croissants and pretty good coffee in the morning, great lunch selections and of course- Kompot- a fruit punch made from boiled fresh fruit and berries, a must try while in Ukraine. Ukrainian food is usually delicious, and very varied- there is something for everyone. On menus everywhere you’ll see lots of potatoes, ” blinchiki” which are exquisitely thin crepes, always a large variety of soups, plenty of meat, a good variety of fish and some pretty hearty “goulash” style dishes. Sometimes the food tends to be too greasy, and Ukrainians do tend to put dill on literally everything- except for dessert, so if you are not a fan of dill- you should learn the word for it- UKROP, and say “no ukrop” before you order.

Buffalo 99 on Rishelievkaya street is a good American style café, bar restaurant with nice outdoor sitting, fast and friendly service and a huge menu. Here you’ll find hamburgers and fries if you are craving American food, and lots of great sandwiches, soups and main courses. I feel that the menu and the concept was influenced by America “The Cheesecake factory” with the menu being a lot larger then necessary- supposedly this strategy will keep you coming back, as you will never tire of ordering the same thing.

Dacha on Frantsuzski Boulvar (The French Boulevard) is an old Mansion turned into an upscale restaurant. Dacha is my favorite restaurant in Odessa, and one of my favorite restaurants in the world. It will literally transport you to Odessa Summer house (dacha) circa 1950’s. Here you’ll have the whole experience complete with Gramofons  playing very rusty sounding old music, the uniforms of the waiters with fun flower prints and pink pants, to the hand written menus, to the overall décor. The service is pretty much impeccable, and the waitstaff speaks English. When you go, sit in the garden where tables are very far apart from one another, the atmosphere is very intimate- beautiful and nostalgic with tiny lights, cherry trees, and birdcages. The food is really really good, if a bit oily. The zucchini appetizer with garlic mayo is an acquired taste, but once you acquire that taste it is simply delectable, the shrimp kabobs are delicious, and the potato side dishes are just Yum!

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The lovely enigmatic city, the place where they worship dill and virtually no one speaks English…

First things first- transportation.

There is really no public transportation to speak of that is reliable or convenient. A ride in a street car is a lovely, nostalgic feat, but you won’t get very far- there are no maps on bus, trolley bus or tramvai (street car) stops, and it is increasingly difficult to figure out the route and the final destination of any of the above.

Babushka selling sunflower seeds- Ukrainian's favorite snack on Pushkinskaya street

Taxis are really your best bet, they are relatively inexpensive, you can hail one anywhere at virtually any hour. There are some things you should know: If you are a foreigner, the taxi drivers will literally charge you not only double or triple, but sometimes quadruple the rate. Taxis in Odessa are usually Soviet era old cars, they are quite charming, but sometimes it feels as if one is about to fall apart (don’t worry, it won’t). In fact, there are not many taxis to speak of- more often than not  it’s a privately owned and operated car- or “chastniki” not regulated by anyone.

So when you are looking for a taxi- hail on the street, and a car will eventually stop- not a taxi, but just any ol’ car. Locals usually name their price before getting into a taxi, so it goes something like this- ” Fontan- 20 grivna” or if it happens that the driver names a price, you kinda smile with that “c’mon, I know you are messing with me” grin, and tell them you’ll pay about half of whatever they are asking. So if they say 40, you say- no, 20. You haggle and settle on 30. While you are in the taxi and someone else hails it, the driver might stop and pick up another fare- he will most likely not be asking you if it’s ok with you

Odessa is a pretty young city- at least the parts that you will get to see. The center has a bit of university town vibe- very green, with lots of little squares and cafes everywhere. The city center is great, with plenty to do. You will see a lot of attractive young people congregating everywhere- laughing, reading, sipping coffee or hanging out in McDonald’s.

There are cobblestone streets in most of the center of the city, and all the young girls wear high heels… the heels of course get ruined quite quickly on the cobble stone, so a part of the soundtrack of your Odessa visit will be the cute noise of the exposed metal of the young ladies’ shoes knocking on the sidewalks- klock klock klock….

You will not  see many large high rises, and the architecture in the center is mostly in the old world style, with a lot of French and Italian influences. A lot of restoration is taking place everywhere in Odessa- the city is trying to preserve the antique buildings and spruce up their facades. The newly restored buildings look fresh and almost sparkle, but the ones that haven’t been touched are my personal favorites, they have retained their old world charm, complete with the peeling paint, and babushkas sitting in the old dvoriki and gossiping about what once was…..

The main street is Deribasovskaya- lots of shops, cafes, malls, street vendors selling art and souvenirs. Definitely stroll down this lovely street…

On the rooftop at a restaurant in a mall on DEribasovkaya- gorgeous view!

A lot of the city’s attractions are concentrated in the center, around the same area. Odessit’s favorites are Primorski Boulevard, on which one must visit the statue Duke De Richelieu which is the representation of Odessa- Odessa’s mascot so to say. Duke was a beloved mayor of Odessa, and has brought culture and prosperity to the city. Right below the Duke is the magnificent “Potymskinskaya stairs” which are beautiful, grandiose and impressive, and excellent for some good hard exercise. You can walk down the stairs to Odessa port, which is a bit anticlimactic, and is not particularly interesting. If you dare walk up the Potyomskinskaya stairs back to Primorski Boulevard it should certainly fill all your fitness needs for the day, but there is another option for the cardio challenged- escalator will take you back up. Right around Primorski Boulevard there is the newly restored Opera house- the city has been working on restoring the theater for a dozen years, and it is now open to the public. It is absolutely beautiful inside and out- so if you have the opportunity to see a ballet or an opera, in the Opera Theater, certainly do so.

At the end of Primorsky Boulevard lays one of the most charming spots in Odessa -Tyoschin Most- “The bridge of the mother in law” It is near the Wedding Palace. Newlyweds get padlocks inscribed with their names, or just scrabble their names on a padlock – it goes something like “Masha and Misha forever”. They lock the padlock on the railings of the bridge, and throw the keys in the water below…this act should symbolically solidify their union forever. I absolutely adore Tyoschin bridge, it has heard so many love stories, has witnessed so many unions being forged, so much young love, hope and endless possibilities. It has a very special aura about it.

At the end of Tyoschin bridge is an absolutely delightful park where you can have a bit of well deserved rest after walking around for the whole day….

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Part two coming along soon- all about food…