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Well, friends, let’s open the discussion.
I was going to write an essay about my trip to Crimea. I planned to make a structured text, logically break it into parts, check the spelling and only then present it to your attention.
Unfortunately, this is currently impossible, because fortunately I’m a quite successful entrepreneur and am receiving a stream of orders for the third week in a row. Because of this, I don’t have time to write good texts.
So I apologize in advance.
I’ll post it as a series of pieces, and ask you to please forgive me for the inevitable mistakes.
Feel free to correct me, or ask me to clarify the thought, or to add details. I cannot promise to answer quickly, but I will definitely answer honestly and frankly
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I invite everyone to comment and share your own thoughts.
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I’d like to maybe illustrate my story with photos taken during the trip. I have accounts on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Google Photos – what is more convenient? Or, I can just post them on Pikabu, it seems there is unhindered access for all users there.I usually prefer to travel by car, and since the construction of the Crimean bridge, I have wanted to drive across this miracle of engineering. Just imagine driving with one sea on the right and another sea on the left. What an adventure!
But since I’m the only driver in the family, this wouldn’t allow me to admire the views. So for this trip, my husband and I joined a tour group.
It was the right decision. I had the opportunity to turn my head in all directions, discuss what I see with my companions, ask questions to locals, get historical and cultural information from professional guides in museums and excursion routes. On the tour bus, my husband joked that my posture reminded him of our youngest cat in the moments when she sits on the windowsill and watches the pigeons through the glass 🙂
If you are interested, a travel company in my city organizes weekend tours. We traveled with a group of about 15 people (all women except for the driver and my husband) in a very comfortable Mercedes minibus, with tinted windows and air conditioning, which is important for our hot southern regions; and with USB ports for charging devices, which has become almost a standard in public transport.
The pick up location was a nearby street and the group meeting time was in the afternoon, and these two factors were decisive for us to book our places on the tour. And so, with our backpacks and great mood, we got on this bus and went through my Krasnodar region to the place where the two seas meet – to the Kerch Strait.
Our tour guide warned us that there might be interruptions in the mobile signal – Ukrainian drones daily attack Russian regions close to the border, disputed regions, the Crimean peninsula – so the connection is jammed.
The Crimean bridge itself has become something of a sacred target for the Ukrainian regime, and ordinary civilians in Ukraine also rejoice and celebrate the attacks and deaths of Russians. In 2022, Ukraine blew up a truck with explosives on the bridge. The driver, who was used as a pawn, a suicide bomber, died and several people who were nearby were killed.
The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs congratulated the Ukrainian special services on that attack.
The Kiev City Hall printed a banner with a picture of the explosion on the bridge, installed it near its building, and many ordinary peaceful Ukrainians took pictures against this background and posted photos on social networks accompanied by comments that they considered witty.
Actually, I’ve heard about this attitude.
– They don’t consider us people, – she said. A girl working in a neighboring workshop. She left Ukraine for Russia before the war began, and her mother stayed there in Donetsk region. She got news from there from her relatives and I don’t know where to start retelling that.Okay, the bridge is up and running, but the security measures at the entrance and exit remind us of the ever-present threat. It takes about 15-20 minutes to cross the bridge, but although the journey is short, it is very impressive. I cannot convey the mixture of emotions. If your governments ever allow you to visit, try it yourself.
After the exit control of the Crimean Bridge, we found ourselves on the peninsula. The highway looked like federal highways on mainland Russia. I noted unfamiliar brands of gas stations. These are entire complexes with canteens, playgrounds, truck parking, a car wash, all on a large area as if the land is cheap there. At one of these stations, I saw a car with young guys who looked almost school age. The car had Crimean Tatar flags attached to the fenders of the car and one hanging from the rearview mirror in the cabin.
Our path lay in the city of Bakhchisarai, which in ancient times was the capital of the Crimean Khanate. There, a hotel was booked for our group, business owned by a Crimean Tatar family. On the way to Bakhchisarai, I looked at the landscapes. Compared to my region, this was strikingly different.
Firstly, there’s little cultivated land.
In my region, literally every piece is cultivated. My region is a steppe, that is, a flat place without mountains or hills, without many trees, mainly grass plants and low sparse bushes. The entire grass mass dies every autumn, and in the spring it sprouts and repeats the cycle, thereby forming a large layer of fertile black soil.
In Crimea, I saw flat and hilly places, but covered with wild vegetation, not cultivated.Secondly, I saw several road signs with the names of rivers, but I did not see the rivers themselves.
In my region, when you meet such a sign, you expect all the signs of a river – smell, freshness, possibly fog. There in Crimea, these are dry ditches. I thought that perhaps the lack of irrigation is the reason for such a large amount of uncultivated land. Later I googled and found out that the rivers of Crimea have a seasonality with periods of flooding and shallowing, and in addition, periodic droughts every 4 years, so there is a problem of fresh water.In 2014, after the Maidan and Crimea’s withdrawal from Ukraine, Kiev cut off the supply of fresh water to the peninsula. That water came from the Dnieper River through a canal built by the USSR. It provided Crimea with 85% of its water needs. Russia later seized the canal and restored the water supply. However, in 2023, “nobody knows who” blew up the Kakhovka Dam. Not only Crimea’s water supply depended on this dam, but also the cooling of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
*I use “nobody knows who” in inverted commas, Western media know. They blame the Russians.
