Digital Wanderer

We live as long as we fly

☰

Crimea — 13, Yalta and the road to the Swallow's Nest

2012-01-16

We drove and drove, and finally made it to Yalta. It's quite nice there, especially on a sunny day. There's all sorts of stuff.

A city street filled with parked cars, with shop and cafe facades on the left and the white building of the "Wine and Crimea Theater" in the center background.

Houses with curious signs

 

A bustling paved square or promenade on a cloudy day, where people are strolling. A large cruise ship, mountains, and sailboats are visible in the background, and a pigeon is in the foreground.

A promenade with unpretentious amusements for vacationers

 

A city square with inflatable children's rides, set against a backdrop of hills and mountains partially hidden by low, thick clouds.

Like these ones

 

A bronze monument to Lenin on a tall red pedestal towers over the square, with a park and mountains in the clouds in the background. In the foreground of the paved square stand cyclists, one of whom is looking at a phone screen.

Lenin is more alive than all the living

 

A large white cruise ship MSC Opera is moored at a concrete pier under a cloudy sky. In front of it by the pier are two small boats, and figures of people are visible on the pier itself.

Cruise ships drop by

 

Two smiling people in large black 3D glasses, one with a bandana on his head and a dark jacket, the other with a red bandana around his neck and a gray t-shirt, are sitting in a dark room, presumably a ride.

Dropped into a “7D” cinema

Scientists are just exploring the possibility of our universe consisting of 11 dimensions, while entertainers have already created a whole 7!

It looks like a cabin designed as a shuttle; it shakes, and air blows at you (not sure about water). The 3D picture itself is so-so. Overall, it's an amusement for a specific crowd, and it costs something around $8-10 for 5 to 10 minutes, but you could go once.

Two men are standing among bicycles and bright rides in a park; in the background, a futuristic structure with the number 70, a McDonald's building, and a fluttering Ukrainian flag are visible.

This is what the local high-end entertainment industry looks like from the outside

 

Two cyclists stand on a paved square: a woman in black adjusting her bandana, and a man in a helmet and a light green jacket. In the background, trees, mountains, and a "Cristall Sushi" sign are visible.

Sushi has taken over the world

Meanwhile, we, like hardcore touristos, are cruising on our biciclettes in our cycling gear along the colorful tiles by the sea.

A young man with glasses, carrying a bicycle, goes up the concrete steps by the sea; behind him walks another man. On the horizon, a white lighthouse and moored ships are visible under an overcast sky.

I could've totally ridden up that!

 

A smiling female cyclist in a red bandana pours water from a red vending machine with the inscription "Carbonated WATER" and the USSR emblem, holding onto the handlebars of her orange bicycle.

Exploiting the brand, well, it's cute

 

A long row of white payphone booths with the words "PAYPHONE" and the "UZTELECOM" logo on top, as well as blue door handles, stands along a paved path. Dense green trees are visible in the background.

Payphones are still a thing

 

A coastal landscape with several yachts moored in the sea harbor in the foreground. Behind them, a city at the foot of mountains is visible under a partially cloudy sky.

The yacht in the foreground is called “Yana”. Latvia sarauj!

 

A view of a seaside promenade with silhouettes of people and a decorative ship-restaurant standing on stilts in the water under a dark overcast sky.

No idea what it is, but it grabs your attention, which is exactly the point

 

A bustling promenade of a southern city with strolling people and an obelisk, overlooking a seaport with yachts and a cruise liner. In the background, green mountains covered in clouds, and houses spread across the slopes.

A picture from the past

When we drove out of Yalta, we made it to the Livadia Palace. We didn't go inside; instead, we found the 7-km long Sun Trail.

The trail is basically a terrain cure, which means this.

Terrain cure (from French terrain — terrain and German Kur — cure) is a method of health resort treatment that involves measured physical exertion in the form of walking and climbing in mountainous terrain along specific, marked routes[1].

We'd occasionally bump into runners and hikers on it, but we ourselves brazenly rolled along on our biciclettes. The views were pretty dope, see below.

 

A panorama of a landscaped park with tall cypresses and manicured bushes, descending to the sea under a cloudy sky, with an asphalt road in the foreground.

Livadia Palace

 

A young woman in a black bandana with a white pattern and a black jacket looks directly at the viewer. In the background, a well-kept park with a fountain, flowering bushes, paths, and tall trees, and on the horizon, mountains and a city.

Olya

 

A Latvian survey protocol for old trees with many fields for coordinates, weather conditions, and various characteristics. The form shows blank fields, checkboxes, and handwritten numbers "3.40 m".

Clouds and the sea

 

A view of the dark sea under a gloomy sky, with coastal buildings and mountains, seen through branches of bushes with red berries in the foreground.

Bushes

 

Six cyclists and seven bicycles on a white semicircular colonnade overlooking the sea under a cloudy sky.

Biciclette tourists and columns

 

A white-stone palace in the classical style, surrounded by dense green and golden trees on a hillside by the blue sea.

Another palace

 

A panoramic view of the dark sea under a cloudy sky, framed by pine branches on the right. The white Swallow's Nest castle is visible among the greenery on the rocky shore.

More clouds and sea

 

An elderly man in a blue Cossack costume, with an oseledets and a white beard, is playing the bandura while kneeling. A cyclist is visible on the left, and market stalls and a "Tsar's Kitchen" sign are in the background.

Saw an old guy exactly like this in Gdańsk

 

A young woman in a light t-shirt stands on a mountain trail at the foot of a large rock covered with graffiti, including a small flag of Ukraine. Next to her is a stone signpost with inscriptions and arrows, and at the top of the rock among the trees are two men.

Rocks

 

A gloomy mountain landscape with the dark sea stretching into the distance, and a rocky shore overgrown with forest. An unfinished multi-story building is visible on the mountainside, and a cross is on top of the rock.

More clouds and sea

I liked it in Yalta, but I liked riding along the trail even more. Too bad we didn't make it to the end — we took a turn towards the Swallow's Nest.

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