Ukraine in retrospective!

Yalta – Soviet’s former amusement park

I had great expectations of Yalta. I had imagined a beautiful city with old buildings from the era when European kings and Queens used to spend their summers. So my disappointment was unbearable when I realized that Yalta is a large amusement park, where they played bad music and drink alcohol in public areas, terrible!
The road from our hotel to the beach, was a long street adorned with street vendors and rides. Street vendors sold same stuff as you will get anywhere as well as drinks(?). Inhabitants consume much alcohol, resulting in one of Europe’s lowest life expectancy – 50 years.

But a curiosity, fascinated me, they have retained the old street names from the Soviet era, so you can still run up Lenin Street and the statue of him in the harbor is still there. According to the Mayor’s, Soviet times is a also part of our history and should not be removed. He’s so right so right.

Steer clear of the public beaches they are overcrowded. We paid us in one of the best beaches, although the price is low, the service is good. However, one must be prepared for the new rich fat Russians drinking vodka all day, and it’s a strange sight as they lay like walruses with their very beautiful ladies at their sides.
There are many good restaurants in Yalta, but there are also many bad. Villa Sofia is, apparently,a great restaurant. People stopped to have their picture taken outside. We however wanted to eat there, but was met with a rather patronizing attitude. The food however was fantastic.
At two restaurants we dined, some of the guests got so drunk that they simply fell asleep at the table. A sad experience, a boy of 7-8 years was around the adult table and bore clear signs of the situation. Waiters did nothing to stop the drinking, but served even more booze. These experiences is st ill stuck with me, and by that I’m struggling to recommend Yalta.

In addition the restaurants play loud music, making it almost impossible to have a conversation. Besides, nothing is so annoying as 2-3 songs vying for attention in your ear. The music is also bad, almost miserable.

The traffic is nicer than I expected, but be careful. Two of our drivers drove as if they had stolen the cars. One driver was more on the leftside of the road than on the right. He showed me his driver’s license to prove that he was a good trusted driver… !? They have however begun to stop for pedestrians, but make sure the car coming behind has stopped as well!

Bring a lot of smiles in the bag when you travel to Ukraine, they need it. These people have suffered much and therefore they need all the support they can get. I gave away all my smile on the trip and was therefore a bit empty when I got home. There will be a while until I go back to «the border country» Ukraine. Ukraine is in fact land on the edge of Russia, the soil is black, while the country next door the soil is light and therefor it is called Belarus.