Crimea

[Howyoudoin]

Hello All,

We’ve arrived safely in Crimea after a two day journey which included an overnight stay in Turkey. The hotel in Antalya was very nice for a budget price but I was slightly annoyed that they didn’t sell alcohol. Although that may have been for the best considering we had a 2 hour flight the next morning followed by a 20 hour train journey.

Although the train journey from Sochi,Russia, to Sevastopol, Crimea is over 500 miles, the only part of the entire journey that I was really worried about was the 12 mile stretch over sea on the Kerch Bridge between Russia and Crimea https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Bridge .

The Ukrainians have already bombed it twice and have made it no secret that they plan to do so again and again. https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... one-attack

So it didn’t help that I woke up just as we had started to cross it in pitch black after Midnight. Anyway we are here now and it’s beautiful. I haven’t found a way to post photos yet as even with a decent VPN there seem to be certain restrictions.

What I can say is that it’s like going back 50 years to the 1970s in the UK in many ways. Kids do what they are told in the main (unless they’re toddlers). There will always be those who buck the trend but even teenagers seem to be respectful here. Perhaps that’s because parents and teachers still rule with an iron rod (exaggerated). Maybe.

People here have a meagre existence. Monthly salaries are in the hundreds, and banks are not trusted so people tend to keep a lot of money in cash. Aren’t they worried about being burgled and lose everything you say? They don’t seem to be. Most people here are in the same boat in that they have very little but the thought of stealing from someone else who has very little is completely alien to them. Or perhaps it’s because they still have a decent police force/law system here where if you were to consider something so low, you’d go away for a long long time.

Finally, although there is mosque up the road that broadcasts a short call to prayer twice a day, I haven’t seen any brown or black faces since being here. Not one. Very strange.

More to come.

HYD

[RockRabbit]

Finally, although there is mosque up the road that broadcasts a short call to prayer twice a day, I haven’t seen any brown or black faces since being here. Not one. Very strange.

HYD

Strange? The Russians/Soviets have carried out ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Tartar population from the mid-19th century onwards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars

[UncleEbenezer]

Assuming you're an obvious foreigner (i.e. your spoken Russian isn't quite mother-tongue grade), I expect you are mostly made very welcome, but how universal has that been? Do you find the occasional encounter brings tensions reflecting the current difficult international situation?

n.b. HYD's original post is refreshingly free of politics and a pleasure to read. I hope we can keep the thread that way!

[Howyoudoin]

Finally, although there is mosque up the road that broadcasts a short call to prayer twice a day, I haven’t seen any brown or black faces since being here. Not one. Very strange.

HYD

Strange? The Russians/Soviets have carried out ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Tartar population from the mid-19th century onwards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars

I’m no expert but according to my Wife, the Tatars and Russians/Ukrainians have been living together in Crimea relatively amicably for at least 30 years (where they have been given land separate to where I am).

HYD

[Howyoudoin]

Assuming you're an obvious foreigner (i.e. your spoken Russian isn't quite mother-tongue grade), I expect you are mostly made very welcome, but how universal has that been? Do you find the occasional encounter brings tensions reflecting the current difficult international situation?

I’ve been here a couple of times previously (post 2014) and on those occasions my presence was greeted with a mixture of amazement and curiosity as there is no tourist industry here now really outside of people coming from Russia on holiday and very few people speak any English. My Russian is bad outside of pleasantries and ordering essentials like beer but it seemed to amuse them greatly that I was at least trying to speak their language.

This time however, I feel much more guarded and will be very careful which establishments I choose to visit if I’m on my own. I had a slightly hairy incident yesterday where I was waiting for a tram on my own and a pissed up bloke in about his mid 30s asked me an innocuous question but of course I didn’t understand what he said so told him so in Russian and he immediately picked up that I was not a local and started asking all sorts of questions, most of which I just had to shrug to. Unfortunately he was also getting on the tram, sat in front of me but turned around facing me, and after a few more questions (always with a big smile on his face and answering all of my pidgin Russian responses with ‘interesting’) announced to everyone that I was an American, laughing his head off. Doh! I quickly reassured everyone that London (where I had already told him I am from) is in fact in the UK rather than the USA. Not sure that that is an awful lot better in their eyes but thankfully it was mostly pensioners on the tram and I was only going four stops so didn’t have much more of this to put up with.

Fair to say that I think the locals now are, like me, a bit guarded and more suspicious of foreigners than they would have been before, which is a shame.

One more observation: I was going to say that I haven’t seen any homeless people since arriving but actually I saw one this morning sleeping on the bench in the park. Another thing that’s like 50 years ago in the UK. No beggars or people sleeping in shop doorways here.*

What they do have though is homeless dogs and cats just walking the streets.

HYD

* It’s occurred to me that I am reporting everything to you about Crimea as fact, whereas in reality I am just in one seaside town in a peninsula with a coastline of 1000 miles and a population of approx 2.5m people, so things may be different elsewhere.

[dionaeamuscipula]

I had a slightly hairy incident yesterday where I was waiting for a tram on my own and a pissed up bloke in about his mid 30s asked me an innocuous question but of course I didn’t understand what he said so told him so in Russian and he immediately picked up that I was not a local and started asking all sorts of questions, most of which I just had to shrug to.

TBF I had a not dissimilar experience just off Hollywood Boulevard.

DM

[Howyoudoin]

Just two hours after I last night posted on Sunday night, I was still up working when I heard distant explosions in quick succession, 1-2-3.

Whilst I was processing this, it happened again but a little bit louder this time, 1-2-3.

Slightly worried now. What should I . . .

. . . nearer and louder explosions now which made me jump and made our flat shake.

Checked on the wife and baby but they are fast asleep (it’s about 1am now, we’re 2 hours ahead of UK).

Waited with bated breath for the next explosions but they never came. Looked at Twitter and news agencies but nothing there so went to bed.

I checked the news again the following morning and there were lots of posts on Twitter about the explosions, here and elsewhere in Crimea. Some of them were complete rubbish so be careful who you believe on there. Others were accurate though if this report in the Guardian yesterday is anything to go by.

Ukraine claims to have hit Russian air defence systems in occupied Crimea
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... 17177666e1

According to various respected news sources it seems there is likely to be a ramping up of efforts by Ukraine to cause disruption in/take back Crimea.

Hopefully not while I am here.

HYD

[doug2500]

Hopefully not while I am here.

HYD

Indeed. Not very high on my list of holiday destinations.

Stay safe and keep the updates coming.