Adlerkurort: long wanted to write
For a long time I wanted to write a post about Adler and, in particular, about Adlerkurort, a resort town, as the locals call the territory from the Vesna boarding house to the Frigate building. Now the time has turned up, we are returning to Moscow by train. I’ll make a reservation right away that our family loves this place, we bought housing in this territory and come here several times a year. Our sympathy for Adler is subjective - we like the place and that's it - so the topic “Yes, for this money in Turkey you can... ” I consider a completely different branch of discussion.
This summer, it has become noticeable that the resort town ceases to be the center of cultural and entertainment leisure, the emphasis is increasingly transferred either to the embankments and beaches of central Adler (in the area of Bestuzhev Street), or beyond Mzymta to the Olympic venues. On the embankment near the new Mandarin complex, worthy restaurants of proven chains have appeared, along its entire length there are wide sandy beaches equipped with everything necessary. Therefore, for a beach holiday, it is now better to settle closer to this place, and for evening gatherings with a mug of beer or a glass of wine, come here, to some Frau Marta. If earlier the embankment was divided into 2 parts by the Yuzhnoye Vzmorye sanatorium, now a transit passage has been opened through its territory and the walking distance has become quite worthy. Well, for more active entertainment, people come to the Olympic Park. Here you have karting, electric cars, scooters (full-fledged, for adults, with good dynamics), and a modern children's town, and beautiful singing fountains.
For those who, while relaxing in other areas of Sochi, used to come to the Resort Town for entertainment, I will say frankly - do not waste time. The dolphinarium does not work here, apparently, the dolphins were transported to the Riviera. The oceanarium, which looked modern 10 years ago, has remained the same. From children's entertainment, the same funny and old horror room, rental of hoverboards and cars for the smallest. Well, there are shooting galleries with imitation of real weapons, which is good. But they are all over Sochi.
The beaches of Adlerkurort: Coral, Izvestia, Dolphin, Fregat are no longer separated from each other. About three years ago, they were backfilled with sharp gravel, which the sea has not yet had time to smooth out, so entering and leaving the sea is uncomfortable without special shoes. The beaches are extremely overcrowded, especially "Coral". It is clear that for those living in the private sector on the other side of the sea from the street. Lenin, across the footbridge, this is the nearest beach. Everyone goes here, they don’t even take 100 steps to the side. By 10 o'clock, there is simply no place left on the beach for passage to the water, and in the surf zone there is not a single crack among human bodies. Only by miraculously making your way through this rookery and sailing to the buoys, you can swim in clear water with pleasure, it is better to do this for several hours so that the torment of leaving and entering the sea is not frequent.
Part of the upper tier of Coral Beach, from where you could take great photos earlier, is surrounded by a blind wooden fence, to which is attached a bashful piece of paper with the inscription: "FOR WOMEN". What it means, I personally do not understand. Where then is the place for men and what are these women doing all over the beach if their place is there? Perhaps it was planned to make a place for topless sunbathers, but they did not dare to write this. In addition to everything, I want to say that the entrance to the toilet on the beach has become free, and the toilet itself is reasonably clean. It used to be inconvenient - you are in swimming trunks, and you pay 10 rubles... And, of course, jet skis and water bikes are welcome here, for example, we used them several times with pleasure.
In the years of our first visits, when the weather was not swimming at sea, we always went to the outdoor pool with sea water. And this time we went, the children wanted to remember. Entrance 400 rubles, but only the entrance. For skiing from the hills 500 more. The pool is filled with people so that it is not only impossible to swim there, it is difficult to move among the bodies there and it is simply not hygienic to dive there. Well, there is a strong feeling that in this liquid the percentage of sea water is already equal to the volume of the natural one from visitors.
But there is a pool near the boarding house "Spring", it is 30 meters long with fresh water and quite deep, about 2.5 meters, probably. You can enjoy swimming there. There is a zone for children, there are fountains and "artificial flow". Entrance costs 1400 per person. Put on a bracelet, you can go outside and come back. You can have a bite to eat in the cafe, food is served on tables right next to the sun loungers. The only element discordant with this splendor is a sullen guard in heavy combat boots and a black T-shirt, who is trampling at the entrance. In general, the security on the territory of the boarding house "Spring" is kind of wild, I ran into her 2 times, in both cases it's funny.
We sit with the children on sun loungers, the youngest puts on flippers. This gentleman comes up in army boots, in my opinion "Mikhail" on the badge. Further dialogue:
Mikhail: I noticed chips in your bag.
Me: Yes, there is a sealed package of chips in the bag. So what?
Mikhail: You can't eat chips here!
Me: Nobody eats chips. They are sealed, lying in a bag with children's things.
M. : Take the bag to the storage room!
Me (already smiling): I can't carry the bag, we need beach things.
M. (sighing): If you don’t take it, then I... I will apply... Impact!
Me (trying not to laugh): Interesting! Try to apply influence on me.
M. : (pouting with anger): I'll call security!
Me: Call, and be sure to call the police. Can I help you?
People on the nearby sun loungers began to giggle too. Some other pool worker came up and took the guard aside. He no longer came up, stomped outside.
The second case. At 6-20 in the morning with my son we ride bicycles, like every morning. We pass by the Vesna boarding house, where cars bring people to the main entrance, where during the day there is no crowding from people hurrying to the water park. Behind us is the exit from a large parking lot, that is, we are clearly in the traffic zone. And early in the morning silence, fresh air.
Suddenly, a similar man in black shouts: “Stop! Bicycles are not allowed here! »
I stopped, I became interested, the dialogue began again:
- Why not?
- It's the way it is with us. Or rather... not allowed on bicycles!
- Who is not supposed to? Where is that written?
- Well, in short, I say no!
- Well then, we're moving on.
- (into the radio) Second! Second! I am the first! There are two cyclists, meet, delay!
We are driving, a “second” waddlingly appears from the doors of Vesna, who was smarter than the “first”, looked at how we slowly drove past and lit a cigarette without uttering a word.
These guards are obviously counting on fear, on the mentality of a downtrodden little man in front of a man with a walkie-talkie. If you run into them, ignore them. Unless you're really violating the rules of the law, not the opinion of a fighter with a single file in a baseball cap stand, and if you're not intoxicated, then they can't even lay a finger on you. And the boarding house "Spring" itself is a great place, many people lived here and praise it. There is a good Japanese restaurant here. The building has a branch of Sberbank without queues with a bunch of ATMs.
Cycling around Adlerkurort from 6 to 7-30 is a special pleasure. The air filled with the aromas of southern plants, positive people-larks who either do jogging or, like us, roll kilometers. Squirrels jump along the cypress alleys, some of them brave. They go down the trunk to you and look straight into your eyes: “Well, did you bring a nut? » If you bring it, then they take it right from your hands and gnaw it. You can safely drive past the "Dolphin" and past the "Coral". But closer to 8 o'clock the bike has to be laid up, it becomes crowded.
Over the ten years of my observation of Adlerkurort, many of the once cool restaurants and cafes where you had to book a table for the evening in advance have deteriorated significantly. It became long, tasteless and impolite. I won't list them - it's easy to walk around and see establishments where there are few or almost no people, where he sings for himself, and during breaks, some "talent" scares away the remaining visitors with his smoke right in the establishment. I will name only establishments where you can have lunch and dinner with pleasure and without fear. Fans of Italian and Japanese cuisine will find 2 restaurants near Vesna. The prices there are Moscow, but the quality is guaranteed. The only negative is that you can only look at the same promenade where vacationers tired of the beach go back and forth. If you want to sit with a romantic view of the sea, you need to go to the center of Adler, to the Mandarin complex, to the embankment.
If you just need to have a quick lunch and feed the children, then this can be done in canteens. One of them is opposite the entrance to the Coral building. There is no air conditioning, in the heat you can sweat there. But the quality of the food is acceptable and not far from the beach. Several times the son wanted to eat, but the rest did not. He took exactly 190 rubles, left on his own, took mashed potatoes, goulash and juice. And he returned happy. And 2 more canteens on both sides of the pedestrian bridge across the street. Lenin near the stop "Izvestia". On the far side from us it is called “Em and Em”, but I don’t remember the name of which from the sea side. These are self-service establishments, but with a completely restaurant quality and a choice of meat, fish, vegetarian dishes and all sorts of pannacott-tiramisu. In order not to spend 1.5 - 2 hours sitting in a restaurant, it is much more convenient to go here, spend 1000 - 1200 rubles for four people and, with huge portions, take anything with you. For this prudently lie plastic boxes.
And for barbecue lovers, I advise the only correct place, proven over the years - "Shashlik Yard". It is on the main promenade, somewhere opposite the dolphinarium. It is very easy to find by its delicious smell and crowds. A lot of barbecue, mostly pork, is prepared and dismantled here. The patency of the place is high, everything is fresh, the wait is no more than 3 minutes. It happened that I brought barbecue from here to Moscow by plane, which caused delight among my friends. Well, of course, you can immediately order grilled vegetables, take the sauce and... enjoy.
In general, it's a pity in the south to waste time on gatherings in restaurants, you need to quickly have a moderate snack and do something active. For example, go to play tennis. Clay courts are located between the Coral and Vesna buildings. Entrance behind the children's dance floor. The cost of renting a court with rackets and balls is 400 rubles per hour. You can play until late at night, the lighting is excellent. Courts with artificial turf are located at the other end of the territory, near the Frigate building.
Unfortunately, there are no horizontal bars on the territory of the Resort Town. There was one near the "Coral" - they demolished, expanded the playground. It seems that Russia is a sports country, but here you will not find the simplest sports equipment, the most common in the Soviet years. It is clear that as such Adlerkurort has long been gone, all buildings have become separate enterprises. But no matter what they are called: a boarding house, a sanatorium, a spa hotel, the essence is the same for everyone: inside it is quite comfortable, and at the exit there is a common passage area and close crowded beaches with sharp pebbles. And although in general the territory is monitored, it is quite clean here, but there are no new improvements. Who will build the horizontal bars or restore the monumental works of Tseretelli, if it is not clear whose?
There are more and more fences and fences with an incomprehensible mission. For some reason they fenced off the oceanarium! From whom? On both sides, impenetrable fences surrounded the path through the cypress alley! What's the point?
In general, the Kurortny town has become an ordinary microdistrict of Adler, since there are not so many cars driving around the territory. But from here it is very convenient to go on excursions. For example, fishing in the Imereti Valley or Skypark. But these are already other topics.
View from the window to the mountains
Coral beach at noon when almost everyone is gone
Such corners still exist
