Ukraine: Trip One

Ukraine

Trip One

A Travel Biography

By Frank Keith

Copyright © 2014 by Frank Keith

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Table of Contents*

Foreword

Day 1: Arrival in Simferopol

Day 2: Alushta

Day 3: Sevastopol

Day 4: Alushta

Day 5: Store Party

Day 6: Shopping With Tasha

Day 7: Shirokoye & Great New Friends

Day 8: Yalta

Day 9: Exhaustion

Books and services by Frank Keith

*Click chapter headings to return to table of contents

Foreword

Time period of travel: June, 20 to June 29, 2013

Cities and towns visited: Simferopol, Sevastopol, Alushta, Yalta and Shyroke.

The Ukraine … its dimensions make it the second largest nation in Europe and seventh in size by population. And as I was writing this, it has been a source of top news for months.

But this is not the reason why I wrote this little travel autobiography. I arrived on my very first visit to this nation months before the people first went to the Maidan Square, which eventually culminated in the nation’s largest and exceptionally eventful demonstrations.

It was a peaceful country upon my arrival and stay back then and the people’s main concerns were their everyday lives … their survival with little means. War, separatism, a neighbor’s appalling propaganda machinery, Maidan, flight MH 17 … no one knew yet that these things would be a part of this nation’s near future. No, I wrote this piece simply because I like the country and especially its people, and I had unusual things happen to me.

During my first visit the Ukraine was just another east European nation. It did play a role in a few movies, but essentially for most people it had remained an obscure place. At best it was known to have been a member of the former Soviet Union, or the nation where Chernobyl is - actually the nuclear cataclysm there. I knew about as much of the Ukraine as the average person. Well, maybe a bit more than average. Due to my job, over the years I had met quite a few people from this nation and Russia too. I’m also a history buff with emphasis on WWII, and perhaps this is why I consequently learnt a thing or two more about this part of Europe than most people. But I had never been there before nor had I met its people - I mean those who had remained there and not emigrated.

Naturally I was aware that many unknowns were awaiting me on this trip. This is always the case when you visit another country for the very first time. But somehow I suspected that it would be a more unique experience than usual. What exactly this uniqueness would be I simply had no inkling. I somehow knew that this would not be your average, run-of-the-mill vacation. And I was right. I never expected to be treated so kindly, and although there were other factors involved making this an unusual trip, this alone had made it all the more worthwhile for me. I don’t want to claim that this will happen to everyone, but it did to me. And this is my story, I hope you enjoy it.

Day 1: Arrival in Simferopol

It was the 21st of June 2013, and I was sitting in a passenger plane belonging to an air service company I never thought I’d ever use. The airline is Aeroflot.

My mind was busy with thoughts about my newest endeavor, which had already begun. Whereas I’m now flying to Russia, my actual goal will be the Ukraine. Although Russia, to most people, is the embodiment of the former Soviet Union, the Ukraine was also a part it and a very important one at that, second only to Russia.

I sat by the window of the Russian owned aircraft staring at the beauty outside … with medium blue skies above and intense sunlit white clouds below. The engines hummed at a constant elevated level. The plane seemed to be parked, so smooth was the flight. A couple of passengers spoke with one another, and here and there a child whined. Sometimes bits of Russian could be heard above the sound of the engines. I strained my ears to see if I could understand a word or two. I could not, but the foreign language made me reflect back to years gone by. This flight, my first visit ever to the former Soviet Union, was well before the stirring events at Kiev’s Maidan and all its terrible aftermaths, thus naturally I thought only about the happenings of recent history that was the Cold War and the post Cold War periods.

To me it felt surreal to be flying to a country which years ago embodied the evil empire. I am a child of the Cold War, and I’m sure that many of you who can also remember this part of history vividly enough can imagine that a trip to a former soviet republic could be seen as an out of the ordinary place to visit, especially when compared to going to somewhere like Cancun, for instance, or Rome. It has been twenty two years ago already since this empire had come to an end, I pondered. Relations between the former Soviet Bloc and the West had been more or less relaxed up until now. Why some former USSR members have even joined the EU and NATO over the years - eagerly, I might add.

It was former President Ronald Reagan who first used the term evil empire to describe the Soviet Union during his address to the National Association of Evangelicals on March 8th, 1983, in Orlando, Florida.

It was President Ronald Reagan again who said in his speech in Berlin on June 12, 1987: General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

Three and a half years later, as of 26th December, 1991, the USSR no longer existed: It was declaration No. 142-H of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union that officially ended it. The previous day Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR. The Cold War was over.

My thoughts leave history for a spell. I turn away from the window and let my eyes roam inside the aluminum tube that the plane is. I see that the stewardesses are passing out drinks again. I glanced at the other passengers and looked back to the stewardesses. I’ve flown much in my life and they were all alike, more or less, and this one was no exception, being in every respect very much like any other. The food and the services on board were equal to anything western airlines offer too. If it weren’t for the Russian language spoken aboard and the Cyrillic writing on the plane here and there, you could think to be on a flight from Miami to New York. And although there were still many unknowns awaiting me during this trip, the positive first impression of the flight put me in an optimistic mood.

It is interesting to note that Aeroflot used to be the largest airlines in the world … during the Soviet era. It is also one of the oldest, its origins going back to 1923. Only KLM and Quantas are older. It is a member of Sky Team since 2006 and its current size is ranked at number 27 worldwide, according to ASK/Week (Source: Innovata).

Oddly, the plane I’m sitting in is no Ilyushin or Tupolev, but a Boeing. In a way I was pleased about this, knowing of the good quality of this company’s products, but also somewhat disappointed. Since all my previous flights were in planes manufactured by various western nations, I would have liked to experience a flight in a Russian-made aircraft. This would have been a nice change of pace - just to see how it is and naturally to brag about.

The flight was a typical one, as said before, and the only time when I felt something like excitement was when the plane landed. Having never been to Russia before I practically absorbed everything I saw as the plane descended over Moscow. I don’t know what I expected to see; the land looked no different from the dozens of others that I’ve visited. Yes, everything looked ordinary from my elevated perspective.

Moscow too looked like any other city from this point of view, and only its huge size is noteworthy. It was a nice sunny day and while the plane circled once above it, still in respectable height, I could see the city for a long distance away. It is a very huge city indeed. With nearly twelve million inhabitants it is the largest metropolis in Europe. It’s very fitting, seeing that Russia is also the largest nation in Europe … and the world too, for that matter.

My optimism of the flight was further emboldened upon my landing at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport, the hub of Aeroflot. As a footnote; the airport is actually around 29 kilometers (18 mi.) from the center of Russia’s capitol city, near the town of Khimki. The plane finally came to a standstill at what is more precisely called Sheremetyevo 3, with its Terminal D. This part of the airport was finished in 2009, and its design as seen from above is supposed to symbolize a swan. I once looked at an image of the building’s layout; you must use much imagination to see a swan. But nevertheless, I was immediately impressed by its tasteful modern architecture and pleased by its immaculate cleanliness as I walked to my next station. It has a more cheerful atmosphere than most I’ve seen. Overall, it’s definitely one of the nicest airports I’ve been to.

I inadvertently managed to join a long row of people at some point. It was but one of maybe eight or ten other long queues in the big hall I walked into. After standing there for several minutes I saw that some lines were reserved for Russian citizens