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Crimean sketches

13 April 2017 • Travel time: with 13 April 2017 on 13 April 2017
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There is a wonderful corner of nature on our "old" Earth. It is called CRIMEA. Everyone knows him. And most of you, my dear readers, of course, have been there more than once, right?

And me? And, of course, I was there. However, I didn't drink honey beer, and my mustache didn't flow and didn't get in my mouth ...I don't have a mustache. But, okay, jokes aside.

When I hear the word "Crimea", it always creates an unusual excitement in my soul. For some reason, it reminds me very much of the feelings of a person who has experienced the most wonderful feeling he can experience in his life - the feeling of love.

Indeed, how can you not love this unique peninsula, which is undoubtedly the most interesting "object" of the entire Black Sea coast?

And always, after the trip there, there were some memories dear to me in my soul ...Indifference had no place in my soul.

And I think that Crimea has made a great contribution to this ...

That's why I want to talk about "my" Crimea.

[]


I personally have an opinion that our Crimea is unique in its uniqueness to the whole Mediterranean, and therefore you can have a great rest here and go there a couple of times. So just to make sure that our Crimea is better! Sevastopol. West ...[]

Of course, in anticipation of your legitimate outrage, I would say that I consider this a huge exaggeration, but still there is some crumb of truth in my words?

I visited Crimea several times. In different periods of his life and under different circumstances. But he always discovered something new in him.

I called my story about Crimea "Crimean sketches". Sketches were once called short TV shows dedicated to some beautiful places of our then vast country.

Under the light light music on the TV screen were footage dedicated to nature or, for example, the magnificent monuments of various cities of the USSR.

These few minutes allowed viewers to relax, to rest between watching "cumbersome" TV programs on Soviet television, which have always been of high quality. And now there is no such thing… Everything free from programs and movies "air" time is full of advertising. "Time to make money"! They forgot about the beautiful. And sorry…

I decided to compose my story from such small "sketches" of my Crimean adventures, which remained forever in my memory. Both happy and sad; and bright, and not very… Why did these moments remain in my memory? Who knows… It already happened.

So ...

"DRAWING" FIRST - "Simferopol seat"

1990, summer, July. The USSR was left to live a small year.

I'm going to Crimea for the first time.

Not alone, of course, but with his father. After all, I am only 14 years old. We are going on a trip as part of a tour group gathered at the Lviv Travel and Excursions Bureau for a trip to Kerch.

Our train is almost 3 hours behind schedule. They stood at the Pyatihatka station in the Dnipropetrovsk region for a long time due to a road accident. We were not involved in the accident.


Our reserved car is completely packed. Even some cargo shelves are occupied. Greedy conductors are to blame: they left the "under-ceiling" passengers. And the next car is half empty. There the conductors are more decent. Summer, hot, stuffy… This is the first, but unfortunately not the last trouble that awaits us on this trip. It is difficult to breathe in the car. We are very tired of this in just a day. Everyone is looking forward to the end of the road.

Finally! At half past seven in the morning our train arrives at the Simferopol railway station.

Let's go out. Uncles walk along the platform and shout: Yalta! Who to Yalta? ».

I, who did not lean on the young man, still do not know who they are. And these are the famous Crimean taxi drivers. On their "Volga" take vacationers to the South Coast. They tear "in black".

50 rubles (almost half the salary of a Soviet engineer) for delivery? Netushki! And the bus must be waiting for us.

And here's the second trouble - no bus is waiting for us! The leader of the group, a woman of retirement age but still very energetic (war veteran, captain of the medical service) and my father, who helps her voluntarily, are trying to find a way out. But the Kerch travel agency is "waving away" from us by phone - they say we can't help. Tickets for the regular shuttle bus from Simferopol to Kerch are available only for five o'clock in the evening. Some cowards loudly declare that if they did not feel sorry for the money spent, they would get on a plane and fly back.

Finally, in response, probably to the tenth call to Kerch, they offer to solve the problem in this way - the same day buses from Kerch to Simferopol return two tour groups from rest. We have to "catch" at least one of these buses.

Their numbers tell us. But where they take people, to the train station or the airport, Kerch travel officials do not yet know. What do you say ...In general, the Soviet, or rather, "scoop" service.

So far we are sitting at the station. Finally, around noon we will find out - the buses will arrive at the airport.

With all the suitcases and "bags" we get on the usual city trolleybus and in the sun (because it's already 12 o'clock in the afternoon), pouring later, we get to the airport. We sit in the shade under the Crimean pines and wait. And we hope that on this day we will still see the sea…

SECOND "DRAWING" - "Sadness Adzhimushkaya"

The same year 1990. We are resting for the second week.


The epic of getting to the place of rest ended successfully. At the Simferopol airport, we, the "homeless", were taken away by the same bus that brought those leaving the Crimea. We drove to Kerch for a long time - five and a half hours.

The driver turns out to be a Lviv resident who married a Crimean woman. When he finds out that we are from Lviv, he asks: how is it in your homeland? And how in Lviv? Yes, as almost everywhere in the USSR. Things are bad. Perestroika has reached a stalemate, the country has only one year left to live with a tail. The "evil nineties" await us all. But we do not know yet. And this is good.

The guide warns that the bottom is cold - up to +12 ° C. On the "surface" - +35 ° C! We need jackets, but we don't have them. Did not take into account. Nothing - we will suffer.

Grandma-ticket artist jokingly suggests that women with children from the group take off their skirts and put them on their children. Everyone is laughing.

What went down. Steep steps lead down into what seems to be deep darkness.

The tour begins. We are walking on a stone path. It's dark. Lighting is provided by electric lamps installed at the level of the knees; they are located at a distance of several meters from each other. They burn dimly.

The guide says that it is special: so that the visitor can quickly understand what a tragedy happened here… The woman also warns that getting off the lighted road, turning into the side aisles is dangerous - you can get lost or fall somewhere. Quarries occupy a considerable area, and finding a missing person will be very difficult. We walk this "path of sorrow" for an hour, listening to the sad story of people who fought and died here in agony. Cold and dark.

The lamps below are barely lit ...On the right and left we sometimes see stone halls carved in stone. In them you can sometimes see rusty weapons from the Great Patriotic War, some boxes, piles of stones, from which the defenders of the quarries made protective walls. It was especially sad to see a camera with children's toys, an old pram… Our guide told us that here, in the quarry, then, when the retreat of 1942, even a few trucks drove in - then the entrance was blocked.


Yes, it was a sad tour. But that's the end. We rise to the surface - to the sun, to the heat. We are back in time.

"DRAWING" THIRD - "Russians came"

We are still in Kerch. More than half of our vacation time has passed here.

Near our hotel is the city promenade. Once there was the main city beach.

But he was "stuck" in a stone and now to "take a sea bath" you need to go to the neighborhood Arshintsevo by bus for 40 minutes. It's not very nice. Especially to return from there in the hottest time of the day.

The embankment "rests" on the port, near which is the sea station. My dad and I go to the port and train station every day to see the ship. Because we love them. We are both mariners. Books about sea adventures are one of our favorite books. During one of our "visits" to the sea station we are surprised to see wooden masts with sloping sails. Accelerate the steps.

After all, we like sailboats even more than the metal boxes of modern ships. Even high-speed "Comets" on hydrofoils, which regularly go from Kerch to Sochi and Gagra, are not so interesting to us. At the pier we see three wooden boats from the times of Kievan Rus.

It's simple.

Members of the historical club from the city of Rostov-on-Don, on exact copies of the "vessels" of the Russians, sail across the Azov, Black, Marmara, Aegean and Mediterranean Seas to Egypt. Such is their "march to the gate" of Alexandria of Egypt. And now it is twice as interesting for us to come to the port!

A few days later, near the same berth, we find a small ship that looks like a tug. This is a repair shipyard of the "new Russians". On his deck you can see folded spare oars and other "equipment" necessary for hiking and sailing. By the way, every boat has a diesel engine - still in the courtyard of the twentieth century.

The tours are called "Faith", "Hope" and "Love". And the tugboat is not called "Sofia", no. It's called - "RUSSIA"! On this occasion, from one yawn, which is always a lot of revolving around these most interesting ships, we accidentally hear: "Well, Russia!


To me, too… »This is in the sense that it seems to a citizen that such a name should, if given, only to an ocean liner - no less. Although, in some ways, probably my uncle is right. A tiny ship is something for that name…

Boats stand at the pier of the sea station for several days. The crews even arrange a small performance in the "Old Russian" style, with the performance of epics, the performance of buffoons and more. We really want to see how they sail. We hope that he may set sail. We have already seen modern yachts in the port, but the departure of these ships, which sailed to us as if from the depths of the ages - it's completely different, how much more interesting spectacle!

Sorry ...Didn't see.

One of the next days, approaching the station, we are disappointed to see an empty berth and the disappearing stern of the "final" tour with a "storm" of water behind. The guys went on the diesels. The tug stays in the port for a few more days, then goes too.

Happy journey "good fellows"! You are truly well done!

FOUR "DRAWING" - "Ascent"

We have not left Kerch yet.

Mount Mithridates "reigns" over the city. It is named after the king of Pontus Mithridates Eupator, who ruled them before the new era and for some time even, quite successfully, competed with Rome, which is gaining strength. He is also known for being so frightened by poisoning that he accustomed his body to poisons so much that when the Romans defeated his army, seized his kingdom, and he wanted to die, the poisons could no longer "help" him. I had to put my neck under the sword.

At the top of the mountain we see a large obelisk. It is erected in memory of those killed during the liberation of Kerch.

From afar it looks like a huge bayonet. It can be seen that there are artillery cannons near it, which seem like toys from below. Dad and I are interested to look at him nearby.

Since our group is not offered excursions there, we decide to "climb" the grand staircase, which was built simultaneously with the installation of the obelisk - on one of the anniversaries of the Victory.


Mix, heard by chance, the phrase of one "tourist" from the group, which, unlike us, makes his tour of Kerch by bus. Uncle tells a friend that "...now let's go to Sapun Mountain. " If the mountain is in the Crimea, then it is only Sapun-mountain and may be in his opinion. Sapun Mountain is located in Sevastopol. Connoisseur…

We start the rise in the morning. Stairs are long, with many platforms, decorated with unpretentious "stucco". It is easy to climb. Sometimes we make stops at the sites, explore the city and the Kerch Strait, which are more and more open to us.

And finally the top of the mountain. We are standing near the obelisk. Its height is about 10 meters.

At its foot - four artillery guns, looking around the world. These guns, as we later learned, were used by our troops during the liberation of the city.

After admiring the views of the city and the straits, we return back to the city. But not by stairs, but by road. Yes, of course, longer, but it's easier to go uphill ...

FIFTH DRAWING - Taman

We have to leave soon. An excursion to Taman, to the opposite bank of the Kerch Strait - to "Lermontov" places is organized for us. Remember the story "Taman", which is part of the adventures of "The Hero of Our Time"? Yes, these are the places from the adventures of Officer Pechorin. Everything is arranged there as in the story. To attract tourists and, so to speak, to acquaint the general population of the USSR with the works of the great poet and writer.

We cross the strait on a regular boat.

By the way, the traffic in the Kerch Strait was very intense in those years. For a long time, my father and I could sit somewhere in the shade on the Kerch embankment and watch the passage of ships. Here and there ...Here and there ...

We pass the spit of Tuzla, which is an island in the middle of a strait overgrown with forest. We do not understand, of course, the "apple" of what discord it will be in 12 years between Russia and Ukraine. It is clearly visible from Kerch - even individual trees can be distinguished with the naked eye.


We moor to the pier Tamani. We are led up headlong to the estate of smugglers, where Pechorin had to go so unsalted. We see the courtyard described in the story "Taman". It is surrounded by a high fence of stakes. There are several wooden huts with thatched roofs. There is also a well with a "crane".

Of course, all this is just an exact imitation of what is described in the literary masterpiece of Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov, but it looks great.

And the view from there, from the steep shore, is wonderful. After listening to the guide and wandering on our own, in our free time, on the territory of this "literary museum", we all return together, in groups, to the boat. I have a funny adventure here - I can't understand why another flag will be "rinsed" over the Taman City Council building. In a sense - not the flag of the USSR, but another - very similar, but still not like that. I'm already opening my mouth to ask Dad how this can be. And here it "comes to me" that we are in the RSFSR! All right! This is the flag of a fraternal republic. I will say in advance that this is the only case so far when my foot stepped on the land of the then RSFSR, and now - Russia. My Motherland…

We board the boat and return to Kerch.

Nothing more interesting is happening this day.

"DRAWING" SIX - "Alupka - a town near Ai-Petri"

The year is 1995. I am 19 years old.

After a four-year break, my dad and I went to sea again. Before that, our last trip was to Odessa in August 1991 - before the same "coup". Then came the "bad" times.

And again I went to the sea with my dad, although I became a healthy forehead, because, despite the seemingly "adult" age, I was not an adult - smart. It has already happened. That was what it was. You can't throw words out of a song, as they say. And he didn't have his own money - he was a student, he had a meager scholarship. But, on the other hand, I do not regret it at all. My father is a very extraordinary man. He knows a lot, understands a lot in life. And I am 100% sure that if I had gone to sea not with him, but in the company of shalopai of my age, I would have spent those days with less benefit…


It belongs to the territorial formation called Greater Yalta, which, in addition to Alupka, includes Livadia, Mishor, Koreiz and Simeiz. Alupka in Tatar means - "fox hole". It is quite wide on the beach.

There are Alupka and Alupka-2. Alupka offers a magnificent view of the Ai-Petri rock, because it is located below it. The most famous Crimean cable car, laid on its top, is clearly visible. When we were traveling by bus from Simferopol to Alupka, on the way the driver picked up a "woman who voted" - apparently his old acquaintance. From the conversation that ensued between them, we learned that, it turns out, on Ai-Petrinskaya "rope" recently there was another state of emergency. The driver said that the electricity was suddenly cut off on the "rope" and people in the cars "hung" in the hot July sun for eight (! ) Hours.

The woman sighed and questioned her friend - they say, but how did they solve the problem of sending natural needs, which inevitably had to face them, among other things.

Alupka is not a city, as it is officially considered, but a rather large village.

Its "housing stock" consists mainly of private houses and cottages. There are several five-story "Khrushchev". The main object in the city is, of course, the most beautiful Vorontsov Palace, built in the XIX century. And also known throughout the former Soviet Children's Sanatorium. Beavers. And the house of the pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, Ahmet Khan Sultan. But I will tell about them below - in separate "sketches".

What about Alupka herself? I try to say briefly and in essence.

These are… Narrow streets winding along the serpentine along the sea… Wonderful views of the sea and the Crimean mountains from almost every corner of it… And the good people who live there are very difficult and not easy. But who are always happy to visit their nice town!

"DRAWING" SEVENTH - "Filming"

The year is the same - 1995. We continue our vacation. Sea, sun… Let's go to the semi-wild Alupkin beach.


When we first came to this beach, it turned out that I was "dark uneducated. " I sincerely believed that on the southern coast of Crimea (hereinafter, for short, PBK), as in Kerch, the beaches are sandy and was very surprised to see instead of yellow (or, at worst, gray) sand, some bare . Pebble beaches - pebbles. Accordingly, the depth of the sea near the shore is greater, because the pebbles are carried by the waves to the shore. And sand - no. Therefore, near the sandy shores often stretch large shallow waters.

All this to me, "darkness", my father explained. On the Alupkin beach is, known throughout the PBK, the rock "Frog". She looks very much like a frog ready to jump. Its height is small - only 5-6 meters. Fans of diving like to dive from it. I didn't jump - I'm not a "sea soul". I swim badly. I dive, especially.

But these beach impressions, of course, are not the main thing that I took from my first trip to Alupka.

I have already mentioned that the Vorontsov Palace is located here. This is a unique site that seems to be even a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was built for Count Vorontsov - Governor of New Russia. The same - "half-sage-half-ignorant" from the caustic epigram of Alexander Pushkin. Which was not true at all. Alexander Sergeyevich as a poet was great, and in "universal" terms was a rather small person. Mot, reveler, impassable womanizer.

It is so nice to walk on shady neat alleys and alleys, under the relict Crimean trees. There are streams and cascades in the park. Individual rocks and green-green meadows, so evenly trimmed. The British still like to arrange such lawns in their parks.

I heard, then, while watching an informative TV show, that in the 19th century when interesting foreigners asked English landscape architects how they managed to arrange such nice lawns, they replied that there was no secret. You just need to water and trim the grass regularly. But to do so for 300 years!

"DRAWING" EIGHT - "In Yalta"

Yalta ...The capital of PBK. Our Soviet "Nice" ...Of course, we couldn't help but get acquainted with it. And so, on the third or fourth day of our first "voyage" to the PBK, we went to look at it.

We arrived by local bus on the route "Yalta-Simeiz" and back. It really was a traditional city "Ikarus", which is quite close to wading through the curly serpentine shore, a thin highway of local importance. Slightly surprised by the inscription on his board - Do not enter with ice cream! ». Like this!


In other cities of the USSR, as a rule, dogs were not allowed on public transport, and here - with ice cream. Apparently, there was a serious problem for the Crimean "transporters".

In general, vehicles can travel along the coast of the South Coast by 3 highways. First - on the best of them South Coast Highway. Secondly - this is the road below, where this bus goes. And, thirdly - another road, which is even lower, but about which, unfortunately, I can not say anything, because I did not have to move on it. I only heard that it is even harder to go there - and the turns are much more and the road surface is worse.

So, let's go. The road takes us an hour. "Ikarus" turns a serpentine road, coming to all villages, delivering and taking away passengers. And it does it quite well. It's even amazing how such a machine can unfold in other corners.

But finally we are in Yalta.

We start our movement from the bus station to the sea - to the most important street-embankment of Yalta. We go down a very ordinary city street of a very ordinary middle city of the Soviet Union, furnished with quite ordinary five-story buildings - "Khrushchev". City transport is moving intensively. Noisy, hot, dusty. So far we do not see anything special. In general, as I learned later, living in Yalta is very uncomfortable. The name itself comes from the Tatar word "yayla", which means - deep valley, hollow. That's right. Yalta is located in such a hollow. There is a lot of transport in it. Exhaust, respectively, as well.

They rise in a cloud over this very "yayla", and the rays of the hot Crimean sun arrange such a "bath" under this "lid on the pan", which, oh, how unpleasant it is to walk around Yalta in summer!

And here is the promenade and the port next to it.


At once a number of pleasure boats in the port catches the eye, for some reason they do not stand near the berth, but on the piers, on special supports. So that you can inspect them, by sea, "from keel to cage. " Turn right, leaving the port on the left. We pass the city beach. The water near the shore is intensely green, muddy-muddy. It is understandable - the port is nearby. How can you swim in such water? ! ! And how good in our Alupka! The sea there is very clean! Yalta port, by the way, is small - a very small harbor. However, in it we notice an ocean liner of some "foreign" state anchored.

Okay, let's move on.

What to argue - a good place, this main embankment of Yalta!

This is such a "seaside" boulevard. To the left is the sea. On the right - restaurants, cafes, cafes… Of these, the restaurant in the form of a brigantine attracts the most attention, on a smaller scale, of course.

He seems to be so called, and apparently this "brigantine" is standing there, sailing, and now. However, this may not be the case. I was in Yalta even later - only 4 years ago. But everything has changed since then.

After a long walk, looking at the sea and the city with the port, not in a hurry, we return back, the same way, to the bus station. After an hour of shaking a serpentine ride back to Alupka. So we got acquainted with Yalta.

"DRAWING" NINE - "Famous sanatoriums of Alupka and Simeiz"

In Alupka there is not only Vorontsov Palace. On its large territory and in the nearby village of Simeiz, there are several sanatoriums.

Two of them deserve a little talk about them.

The first of them is the famous for the whole Union, children's sanatorium named after Beavers. His celebrity, however, is quite sad.

Once (running ahead, it was already in 1997, not to return to this topic), going to the sea in the evening to breathe the sea air and admire the sea views, accidentally heard a "mass-trickster", already old uncle, on the accordion he played various melodies for children and sang songs to them. Not all, however, were children. "Why do you girls love beautiful…" - this song, although it was composed a long time ago and was sung by our grandparents, still, despite the current times and customs, I think ten-year-old children sing too early.

It is not very good that next to the Bobrov sanatorium, literally behind the fence, there is a TV tower PBK.


Again we go in the morning to the favorite beach with the rock "Frog", walk there in the evening, admiring the sunset ...With pleasure, more than once, go for a walk in the park of Vorontsov Palace, once even join a tour of the palace and park.

For the first time in my life, I had to tie museum shoe covers to my feet, which I had seen before either in movies or in the next series of the cartoon "Well, wait a minute! " »About the adventures of the Wolf and the Hare in the museum. It is understandable - the floor in the palace of the most beautiful ancient parquet, which must be preserved. Inside the palace is very interesting. Everything is so ancient… Especially impressive are the huge paintings of masters of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the small conservatory of the palace, in addition to exotic plants, exhibited busts of former "owners" of the palace - from the family Vorontsov, of course.

Dad, half-jokingly, half-seriously, quietly, so as not to disturb the guide, tells me that I'm in profile - poured the first owner of the house. Ta-a-a… Something similar in the shape of a nose… We look with great interest at the rooms that Mr. Churchill occupied in 1945, during the Yalta Conference. It is understandable why he was settled here by his friend, "Uncle Joe" (IV

Stalin): the Englishman, of course, would be more pleasant interior of his temporary apartment in the English style. And the palace inside really resembles the home of wealthy Englishmen of Victorian England. After all, many members of the Vorontsov family were "English".

In general, we finally got acquainted with Alupka's architectural masterpiece and inside, too.

ELEVENTH "DRAWING" - "Famous Sevastopol Panorama and Dolphinarium"

The Pope offers to go on a sightseeing tour of Sevastopol. In 1996, he and his sister were already there.

Nothing special is happening along the way. Mountains - right, sea - left. But isn't that enough? Crimean species can be admired endlessly! Excursion "Ikarus" selects tourists to the settlements of the South Coast. Of their names, I remember the most "Katsiveli". Translated from Tatar, it means - "guard", "guard". It seems so.


We do not know yet that in a few hours, on the way back, we will have a small unpleasant adventure, but which will still have one pleasant consequence. As they say, it happens that "there is no disaster without good. " But about this later.

In Sevastopol, as I have already written, we were in the center of the city, on the Count's Wharf, near the monument to Admiral Nakhimov. I still remember visiting the aquarium or something like that. After that we visited the Panorama of the Defense of Sevastopol in the Crimean War.

It is a large round building with a huge art canvas around its inner perimeter, painted by battle artist Franco Rubo, depicting one day (the day of the city's most dangerous assault - June 6.1855) defending the city. Written simply incomparable! We looked at him with admiration.

There is a "real" part in the panorama of the battle: between the circular observation deck and the canvas there is a strip of land a few meters wide, which very realistically reproduces some of the escarpments, dugouts and other fortifications of those hot days.

The impression is that you are standing on one of the Sevastopol hills. And here it is, all this comes to life and slips in, and you hear the noise of battle…

Unfortunately, what people can see now is just a copy of the original canvas. The original one was permanently damaged (burned in half) in 1942.

, during the second, even more heroic defense of Sevastopol. What was left was taken out of the besieged city on the leader of "Tashkent" on June 25.1942. in Novorossiysk. As "Tashkent", continuously attacked by Nazi aircraft, but fiercely repelled enemy attacks, was severely damaged during this heroic transition, the surviving paintings of Panorama almost all came to a complete standstill.

After the war, Soviet artists were able to recreate that masterpiece. A low bow to them for this!


And our tour ended with a visit to the famous Sevastopol Dolphinarium. This is the first time I've seen this wonderful show live, and it's hard to take my eyes off it. Dolphins, killer whales, sea urchins, cats ...What they just did not show to enthusiastic viewers! I especially liked the first "artist" - a huge sea lion. A huge carcass emerged from the water and easily jumped onto the podium.

Then the "artist" held out his flipper like a coach's hand, returned to the audience and waved another flipper - said goodbye. All this, of course, to loud applause! Dolphins, as always, were incomparable in their dexterity and intelligence. I was especially impressed by their squeak. After all, they have their own language, comrades! You certainly know that. And the killer whale, rolling the coach (in a standing position) on his back, whipped his tail on the water!

The first rows of spectators were covered with a whole waterfall of sea water - to their complete delight! After all, the day was very hot! There were under 40 degrees. For Sevastopol, as I learned, it's not so much. There was, however, a small "spoon of tar" in this huge barrel of honey. For some reason, the killer whale did not want to swim out of the aviary, as she was not asked to swim out. It didn't even help that the trainer jumped into the water and lured the animal from there.

But, in general, everything was great!

That's how we got to Simeiz. There they caught a "trip" to Alupka. Although from Simeiz to Alupka walk 15 minutes. We are still tired. But this is all nonsense.

After all, this day was a great benefit!

"DRAWING" OF THE TWELVE - "Kayak Gate and the temple at the edge of the abyss"

The year is the same - 1997. We signed up for the second tour of the South Coast. This time not as far as the first time - we go only to Foros and back.

At least that's what followed from the story of our female guide. According to her, it was here at the end of the XIX century that a story took place, in which there are signs of wonder. The daughter of one of the Russian magnates (I do not remember the name she named), who had estates here, did horseback riding in these places. Something frightened the horse and he, as they say about frightened horses, "carried" - right into the abyss. And stopped only at its edge. Apparently listening to the prayers of a frightened girl.


And the grateful father built the Church of the Resurrection here at his own expense. The official version states that "...the church was built at the expense of the owner of the Foros estate, a tea maker A. G. Kuznetsov designed by Academician N. M. Chagin in memory of the "miraculous salvation" of the emperor Alexander III and his family at October 17 1888 at the station Tags of the Kursk-Kharkiv Railway".

This church is small. Outside, it was already restored at that time, but inside ...During the years of ideology of "historical materialism" in the country, this church has suffered greatly.

Children with cerebral palsy from all over the former USSR are brought here. But about the dolphinarium below. Now my story about Partenit.

All my impressions of that trip are shrouded in the fragrance of the Crimean nature that wakes up. The Crimean spring is not at all like ours ...You see the mountains and their foothills becoming greener, you feel the gusts of the sea breeze on your cheeks, which is getting warmer and warmer every day ...And these scents of Crimean flowers and various exotic plants ...

No one will be able to stay on his back at such a moment! The dolphin turns into a living torpedo! They fight the sharks in such a way - they accelerate and hit them with all their might, after which the toothy robber floats up with his belly or quietly goes to the bottom and will never harm anyone again. Sorry, distracted again. So, the child, of course, releases the fin of a dolphin and a few meters just flies over the surface of the water until it stops. Hear a scream, then a roar… The child is stressed! But it is necessary! It is needed to treat this damn disease that can make a person disabled for life. Like this.

It ends with the child being placed on his back in the water, the dolphin swims up and presses against his head for twenty seconds. These seconds it affects his nervous system with infrasound, which is also very useful for the treatment of cerebral palsy. This is how the "working" part of the week is organized in a small dolphinarium in Partenit.


And of course, we visited the only "dolphin" show during the working week. It lasted 40 minutes. Funny nimble animals and their trainer staged a fascinating show for us. Tricks on the water and in the air… Drawing one of the dolphin paintings, which could then be purchased at a mini-auction.

Then we took pictures with dolphins. These clever incomparable animals as a team jumped out of the water on the bridge, a man approached and took photos. You could put your hand on your back. I touched - it was a pleasant feeling of wet skin.

But dolphins cannot stay out of their usual habitat for long. If their skin dries, they die.

And then we got the opportunity to swim in dolphins - for a fee, of course. I was "lucky" to be Jesse. It was a little bit exciting. But, at the same time, it is funny to feel the slapping of a dolphin's tail on its bones.

Jesse made a circle around the pool and "brought" your humble servant back to the "berth". And there were customers whom the dolphins did not want to ride. Delphiniha simply sailed away from the man and did not want to swim to him anymore. This is because, as the coach explained to us, they feel which person is in front of them - good or bad. Yes, that uncle really made an unpleasant impression. A dull look, a silly smile. They are smart, animals are dolphins! They are really real friends of people. We were one of the last to leave the pool.

We had to walk from the locker room to the exit twenty meters along the pool. While we were taking these few dozen steps, one of the "dolphin girls" emerged from the water several times. It was as if she was escorting us

Here are the "dolphins" adventures.

"DRAWING" FIFTEENTH - "View from the window of the Sevastopol train"

And here is the year 2010.

So far, the "extreme", as the pilots say, for me in my meetings with the Crimea. I came here again. This time - to Sevastopol. And again, not alone.


I see myself on the platform of the Simferopol railway station, which is waiting for the train to Sevastopol. How I got to Simferopol is a "separate song". I will not dwell on this. I will only say that I had to make a "hook" through Kyiv, because buying a "direct" ticket to the Crimea from Lviv in early July is just fantastic. You understand why, I think. At least that's been the case for many years.

The spring of this unfortunate 2014 has not yet come. But that's not what my story is about.

So, Simferopol railway station. Beginning of August. Heat. The height of the bathing season. Human waves roll past me. Who is already returning to their native penates from the sea. And who, like me, just came to get some health "from the bounties" of the Crimean climate.

From the window you can see the Crimean mountains, but we, of course, will not enter. We leave them "on the left side". We drive through a number of hills. Only one of the names of the stops is remembered - "Mackenzie Mountains". It is almost in Sevastopol. These hills are named after General Mackenzie, who commanded the British Expeditionary Forces during the first defense of Sevastopol in 1854. Along the way I still notice strange sand mounds. Quite a few ...What is it? I don't know… Let's move on.

At least that was what I heard in the 1980s.

Kozacha Bay, which is almost at the exit from the main bay of Sevastopol, was then a closed object. In Soviet times, saboteur dolphins were trained in it. To be more precise - kamikaze dolphins. Clever animals were taught to swim to the ships of "ideological" opponents and to detonate a bomb mounted on their bodies.

They did not feel sorry for them, the poor… "Cold War"… If people did not feel sorry, let alone animals. However, as I remember from previously read magazines and journals of varying degrees of solidity, this fact is not documented. Although the fact that a dolphinarium was arranged here for the treatment of children indirectly confirms this. Well, it's a matter of historians: to understand what is true and what is not.

We go there every day.


Some of the clients lived there - on the territory of the base. It was possible to rent a room. We happened to be able to look into one of these rooms. No amenities. Some of the residents were even forced to sleep on an air mattress on the floor. For the sake of children's health, people were willing to suffer. There was one family that came from Germany. Not Germans, no. Our Soviet emigrants, I do not know what wave. My daughter was brought for treatment. Because here it is probably not many times, but dozens of times cheaper.

The children who were treated in this "race" were of various age groups - from 4 years to 15 years. Apart from the family from Germany, I remembered the oldest girl, who asked everyone what her name was and how old she was. Why was that to her? With the wonders of the child, or… I sincerely felt sorry for them, these children. And it was a pity for my parents… Although who needs my pity… And how can it help? "Pity" was found ...

What a huge treasure - the health of your children!

There is the Count's Wharf, there is a monument to Admiral Nakhimov, a monument to the Lost Ships ...All the most precious things for a Russian man to know, respect and protect are there. And not only Russian! Sons and daughters of probably all the peoples of the USSR shed blood for Sevastopol in the Great Patriotic War. And they were then, to tell the truth, one people ...

From our Revolution Avenue we reached the center by ordinary trolleybus. This rarity had a very "Soviet" appearance.

He was what I saw in my early childhood. They are probably many years old, and the equipment works! And quite well.

In the center, we naturally "directed our feet" to the main historical monuments of the city. Inspected them in turn. We walked along the embankment…

In general, walked around the city. And took pictures, of course. And how without it!

But, of course, the purpose of our little voyage was not the castle of If. First we went to the North Side. On its shores preserved ravelins, which in the XIX century were the main "strongholds" of the harbor's defense. Ravelins are powerful forts armed with several dozen guns. They reliably covered the harbor from enemy invasion. Their walls are white, so they are clearly visible from afar. Then we passed the narrowest part of the bay, where it has a small bowl on the south side. Here, during the Crimean War, 1854.


a floating bridge was built, from which the Russian command promptly transferred reinforcements from shore to shore. The owner told us not only about it. He talked about the buildings and structures on the shore, which immediately catch the eye. Of course, we could not pay attention to some beautiful buildings of the XIX and early XX centuries.

They now have various city institutions. In particular, a very beautiful building, which houses the Marine Aquarium. I visited there in 1997. In fact, there are many inhabitants of the seas and oceans of the Earth. We also liked the building of the Sevastopol Palace of Youth and Children's Creativity. The guide did not forget to mention the companies that service ships. After all, Sevastopol is a huge port and sailors here are the "main" people.

After our boat (here I am writing these words and so the cartoon song from the childhood is remembered, where there are such words - «… the boat is running along the water area!

No, no, this is not the spirit of the present time in which I write my miserable "sketches" that happened to me. It's just that many years ago I had to hear the following words: "Why should Russia conquer Crimea, if it already buys it in parts? ».

What we saw then, it seems to me, was already largely Russian property. Well, the fact that then still did not do without some "conquest", then why and how it happened, we will know in many years, when the stamp will be removed "top secret" from those documents, the content of which we do not yet know .

Sorry, I'm back in the slums of big politics. Although, I do not like her at all, to be honest. Yes, I like to return the word. I have such a sin.

Good - enough chatter. So, we come to Yalta. We see the rock "Sail" and "hanging" over it "Swallow's Nest".

This decorative "castle", built, as you know, I think, all who have been to Yalta at least once, in 1912, can not miss any of those who did not swim to the sea to Yalta from the west. Ta-a-a! Impressive object!

I heard back in the 1990s, on my first visit to the PBK, that this castle is so fortified on the shore that it will not fall into the sea, even if most of the rock on which it stands collapses. Like this!


While our boat was entering the bay, we managed to admire the castle. Well, in the end, moored. However, before that, almost at the berth, there was a tragicomic accident. Our boat "made a sharp turn" to get exactly to the pier and it was tilted. One old woman, in order not to fly overboard, clung to me with a shout and stayed with us, good thing your humble servant, as it turned out, and with such unexpected tides at sea can keep on his feet. That's it. It even got a little funny to me ...I, it turns out, am a "sea wolf"! And I set foot on the Yalta land again.

But not in 13 years, as in Alupka, but only in 2 years, because in 2008, in that Crimean incomparable spring, which I have already described above, we were in Yalta. What about without it?

"DRAWING" THE NINETEEN - "35th Battery"

We are still here in the hero city of Sevastopol. Not far from the final stop of our minibus (from which we have to walk a little more to our bay), we see a large sign on the road every day, which reads "35th battery". In the end, interested, they decided to find out what kind of object. Returning from the next session of the dolphinarium, we got out at the nearest stop and went in the direction of the shooter. I had to go not far. We soon saw several caravans and a bunker. When we got closer, we saw a board with an inscription, which he explained to us.

It turned out that this is an armored battery of coastal defense, built in front of the Great Patriotic War and designed to protect the southern part of Sevastopol from the sea and, in part, from land, because the range of its weapons was several tens of kilometers.

And also the story of our guide about the last days of the defense of this stronghold in 1942. About how bravely her defenders fought ...That all the interior of the battery was killed by the wounded ...We were led along a narrow chase (one and a half spans of my shoulders), which led us to the sea, where there was a berth for ships . So, the guide said that this passage, where it is difficult to separate two people, was also clogged, and the pier, the remains of which we saw from a hole drilled in the rock and located at a height of ten meters above sea level, collapsed under the weight of those who got on it and waited in vain for the arrival of ships.

In vain, because, as we now know, the army defending Sevastopol was deliberately abandoned by the Soviet command. No one was going to evacuate our soldiers. It was a so-called gambit. But a terrible gambit.


Our soldiers had to die and detain the enemy with their deaths. That's what happened ...

I was also struck by the words that in the bay we saw, all the water was red with blood… The terrible thing is war… Only in such places do you begin to realize it at least a little…

When the tour ended, our dear guide gave us St. George's ribbons with the inscription "Sevastopol. 35th shore battery. It was the most expensive thing I brought from the Crimea

"DRAWING" OF THE TWENTIETH and so far "extreme" - "Goodbye Crimea! »

This sketch will be the last (sorry, extreme - yes, extreme) and short.

So, I see myself on the platform of the Simferopol railway station. Hot August night ...Night train to Donetsk goes ...

And your author is obliged to share with you all the interesting and wonderful things that he will undoubtedly see and meet in the Crimea.

As they say - "in secret to the world"!

"Purcua pa", as the French say?

Why not?

Alexander Kotlov

m. Lviv, January-June 2014

Translated automatically from Ukrainian. View original
To add or remove photos in a story, go to album of this story
Ялта
Севастополь. На главном городском пляже (пардон за эту и все другие фотографии - лучших нет...)
Севавстополь. Главная бухта
Севастополь. ВМФ России
Севастополь. Та самая подлодка...
Севастополь. Северная сторна
Севастополь. А это, вот, я....
Севастополь. Бухта у 35-й батареи
Бухта Ласпи с высоты птичьего полёта
Алупка. В английском парке Воронцовского дворца
Алупка. В английском парке Воронцовского дворца
Алупка. Воронцовский дворец
Алупка. Воронцовский дворец
Алупка. Воронцовский дворец
Алупка. Воронцовский дворец
Панорама частички ЮБК с прогулочного катера
Ялта. На главном
Вид на трассу
Это вот я...
Драгобрат красив любой!
Зимушка-зима здесь самая настоящая...
Наш
Вид на селение
Драгобратские ёлочки...
Вид на трассу
На верхушке горы Жандарм
Вид с горы Жандарм. Куда-то в сторону Петроса...
Лыжники-фанаты!
На подъёмнике
На вершине Стога
Жизнь прекрасна!
Горы
Улочки Драгобрата
Улочки Драгобрата
Улочки Драгобрата
Осторожно - падают сосульки весом 10 т!
Улочки Драгобрата
Ещё одно драгобратское
А это вот такой дом на колёсах, а не
Улочки Драгобрата
Та самая часовня
Драгобратские
У нижней станции кресельной дороги
Лучший магазин сувениров
Улочки Драгобрата
Улочки Драгобрата
Драгобратское
Драгобратские
Есть на Драгобрате вот такие мостики...
А это настоящие кони. Или кобылы!
Осторожно - берегите головы!
Драгобратский
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