Rest in Crimea. Simeiz. What you need to know.
We traveled on the 207 train "Moscow-Simferopol". The train still Lenin probably rode on it. Linen gray wet, the last passengers just did not have a few sets. Mattresses one and a half times more than a shelf, fall down. But pillowcases are one and a half times smaller than pillows. I think Ukraine before meme trying to get into NATO, it is better to learn how to sew pillowcases.
I went on the recommendation of friends: a decent, clean hostess, a decent room with three beds - $ 30 per day for everything. So everything turned out: clean, dishes, TV, toilet, shower and everything else for a normal existence, except for the fact that from 9 am to 4 pm there is no water in all houses. Canisters, bottles stockpiled for future use. You come from the beach - you can’t wash yourself, go to the toilet, well, it’s quite problematic (without water).
There is a decent dining-cafe "Simeiz" not far from the station (we lived near the bus station), inexpensive and clean and tasty. If you are going to rest in Simeiz, then I recommend it. The best of what is offered in season. And also if you want chebureks, then next to the bus station in a tent, they cook only to order, you come up and in a minute the order is ready. Believe me, these are the most decent chebureks, we rested for 3 weeks and tried everywhere. We went to have lunch at the cafe "Zurbagan". For the first borscht with donuts. I almost broke my teeth about these stale donuts.
Transport links are good, you can get anywhere you want without any problems. Simeiz-Simferopol by bus 30 hryvnias (180 rubles) from the nose, by taxi 50 hryvnias per person or 200 hryvnias from 4 (for a wheelbarrow). If you do not know the rates, then taxi drivers can rob you to the bone. In the building of the bus station in Simeiz, stuffiness to a fainting state of 50 degrees, like in a stone bag. The workers of the mind are not enough to make a window so that there is a draft. In stores, sellers work without a cash register and without checks.
The most unpleasant impression is from the store, which is located on the ground floor of the Ruslana cafe (the corner store says Ruslana on one side, and Ukrainian cuisine on the other, 20 meters from the bus station. Rude traders, I don’t want to call them sellers. Prices change in their own way discretion in the morning, one evening, for the same products, others, no price lists, cash registers. Rude, constantly squabbling with buyers. Observed repeatedly. In trade, all the worst of the "scoop" is taken. Even my mistress does not go to this store precisely because of scams with prices But the most important thing is not this.
Simeiz is buried in mud and rubbish. The streets are so filthy, there is 10 times more rubbish next to each trash can than a container can fit. Dumps are flowing, the stench is utter. In parks and on beaches, the situation is even worse. There are no toilets at all, only one I saw on the beach for many vacationers. Heaps of shit (sorry), as well as a persistent smell of urine in parks (parks and the sea act as toilets), garbage has not been removed for years, you can see it. Walk through the park like a minefield. In the morning you come to the beach with broken bottles and the same crap. The air in Moscow seemed like a greenhouse to me after such a rest. A real ecological disaster, trouble.
By the way, the bottom is rocky and instead of the beach there is one narrow strip, there used to be a beach of normal width, but now an embankment with cafes has been made at the expense of the beach. There are two berths, one abandoned with protruding rods, rusty remains of pipes in the water. In front of my eyes, the boy cut his leg, because nothing was fenced off. Sun loungers (3 hryvnia or 18 rubles per hour) were taken because the entire beach was covered in cigarette butts and broken glass. Dirt is washed into the water even by the worker of the pier, who gives out catamarans and boats for rent. Cigarette butts, cigarette packs and everything else he washes out of a bucket with water into the sea 15 meters from the beach itself. To my remark, he said with undisguised anger that all this dirt is from you, that is, from vacationers. He very much reminded me of a poacher who cuts the belly of red fish, takes out caviar and throws the fish into the forest. There are no controlling bodies in Ukraine, anarchy. And it is felt in everything.
But the resorts on the beaches are clean, we saw it from the ship. By the way, be careful when renting boats: if you are without a watch, they will try to heat you up for money, they swam on a catamaran for an hour and a half, they will say that two. We took a catamaran four times and tried to take extra money twice, we had to show our wristwatch, then we fell behind. I took a few pictures of the park and the beach, I'll show you if you want to see before you go to this town. Better not to go there. People forge money and the rest does not concern them. Everyone pays money for trading places, but no one cleans up the trash after themselves. And why if everyone has one desire for the summer season from vacationers to hit the jackpot fatter, and then sit for almost a year in a littered city until the next season. But I don’t blame the merchants, the city administration and the Crimean authorities are to blame. if they exist.
Don't poke your nose into the parks in the evening: there is not a single light bulb, the granny sits by the ladder and sells flashlights for 20 hryvnias so that her legs are not broken. I didn’t see the janitors, the money for their maintenance settled in someone’s pockets. For 20 days we spent $1.500 for two. for accommodation and everything else, they didn’t show off, they went on an excursion twice. Prices are more expensive than in Moscow. For this money, you can go well to Cyprus and even to Spain (even if only for a couple of weeks). You will think about it before you go to Simeiz: a dirty, smelly town with a "soviet" service, or with its complete absence. And the places themselves are beautiful, breathtaking (this makes it even more offensive that everything has been turned into a srach).
By the way, I advise you to buy a card for a cell phone "Ukraine Jeans" already in Ukraine. Incoming all-free (from Moscow for example and all of Russia), and outgoing 6 rubles a minute to all cellular and home (from 8 pm to 8 am). For comparison, if I called on my Megafon, then incoming-36 rubles / min and outgoing -46 rubles / min, the difference is hoo! We went to the Crimea because we remembered about foreign passports at the last moment. Now I'm applying for a passport and I won't be fooled like that anymore. In general, Crimea should be returned to Russia until it is turned into a garbage dump. Everything that I wrote is true, I can confirm with photographs. It’s better to leave the cordon, where at least the resort places are clean and the service is up to standard. Decide for yourself to warn my case.
