Seeing this sign made me think maybe this was a common occurrence but thankfully we never did see any cars jump into the Black Sea. Our time at the Black Sea was fun, sometimes awkward but all in all good. To get there we took an overnight train at 8pm and arrived at 7am. From the train station we jumped on a trolley bus that dropped us off at the passenger ferry port. A ten minute ferry ride put us on the other side of the inlet. From there we hired a mini taxi bus to take us to our hostel that was 25 km away. A quick unpack and change and we were off to the beach.
The Black Sea is clean and warm in my opinion compared to the Pacific. The beach that we spent the majority of out time at was touristy with many activities there. You could play ping pong, air hockey, volley ball, pellet guns or rent paddle boats or go on rides. What we all really enjoyed was the mobile concession people. They walk back and forth on the beach selling corn on the cob, sweet breads or our favorite – potato pockets. These are like pizza pockets but filled with mashed potatoes and dill, yum yum. It was very noticeable though that Laurie and I were foreigners. This is because I was apart of the 1% of men who was not wearing a speedo and Laurie was apart of the 1% of women who was not wearing a bikini. My farmers tan was also an oddity among the multitudes of perfect tans. On one of our first days on the beach a babooshka (grandma) came over to me and started talking quite sternly at me. When she finally walked away our friends were giggling and told me that she had come over to tell me that I needed to put a shirt on so that I wouldn't burn. Bogdon later nicknamed me klubnika, which in Russian means strawberry because my pasty white skin turned pink by the second day.
We spent most of our time at the beach but we also made some trips into the big city of Sevastopol. Here we went on a boat ride around the inlet and saw many big ships and submarines.
We found a historical site called panorama. It is a museum built in memory of a great battle in 1855 where Russia fought off the invading troops from Great Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia. I was impressed. We also did a trip to the Avka(aqua) park with some of the youth. This was a nice park but it only had one flaw...no hot tub and since it was a cooler day Laurie and I decided to leave early to warm up. However our money was not wasted. The Aqua Park had hot showers...oh yes and we took advantage of them since this was our only hot shower while we were gone.
The hostel we stayed at had a summer shower, which means they fill a big water tank on the roof and let the sun warm up the water. This is a good idea and I'm sure saves a lot on energy costs but for some reason the water decided to stay cool, which on hot days is a blessing but on cool days is a challenge.
We had the opportunity to get to know some of the youth better. The ones that spoke a little English were easier for us to visit with but we also did some activities that involved little communication, like playing Twister, Uno and Chess, or singing and eating together. Here, Pasha and I are getting to know each other a little too well.
However the language barrier did become a little bit of an issue. Laurie and I felt a little on the outside since we could not speak freely with everyone. Sometimes we were a bit clueless on what was happening around us but this is not a new experience for us being here in the Ukraine.
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