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Music and Art at the Ukrainian Institute of America
Posted by Constantine in Crimea on August 04, 2005 at 13:57:49:
from Kyiv post
Everybody knows Yalta and Sevastopol. But there’s more to the sun-drenched and sometimes charmingly ramshackle world of Crimea than the glossy tourist magnets. The following lesser-known destinations are proof. Assembled by Post staff.
1. Yevpatoria
This sleepy sanatorium town has been settled in one way or another for 25 centuries. It was a big 19th century trade center before becoming a popular dacha-building spot during the late Tsarist era. Now it’s a great place to visit not only if you want water, sun, and huge pale-blue summer skies, but also if you’re enthused by the Black Sea region’s ancient history – Tatar remnants rub up here against bits of the area’s Greek, Roman and Russian imperial past. Yevpatoria was also a center for the Karaites, the Turkish people who accepted Judaism as their religion, and who made their sometimes ghostly mark around the peninsula.
It’s the Karaite traces that will perhaps be most compelling to amateur archeologists. You’ll have to take a look at the Karaite temple, known as a kenas. There’s an unearthly quiet here: grapevines hang from the ceiling, and water murmurs in delicate fountains. On the temple grounds you’ll find Caraman, a cafe that serves Karaite cuisine. Try the nakhut-ashi, a soup made out of peas and mutton (Hr 5), the khamur dolma, which are sort of pelmeny floating in broth (Hr 4.8), or the pilaf of mutton and prunes (Hr 8.50). The restaurant is located at 68 Karaimska. Phone: 8(06569)33-035.
Hours: Noon to 10 p.m. daily.
How to get there: Train 286 leaves Kyiv for Yevpatoria daily at 7:35 p.m., arriving at 11:42 a.m. A coupe place costs Hr 46.84 one-way.
2. Dzharylgach Island
This is cool: a wild and pristine barrier island off the south coast of mainland Ukraine, due west of the northern end of Crimea. No, it’s not technically Crimea, but being in Kherson oblast, it’s close enough, and it’s good.
Dzharylgach is for campers. Sleep out on the lovely sand flats, listening to the movement of the fragrant air and the chitterings of the seagulls. If you believe the reports, wild horses and sheep can be found on the island – but to see them, you’ll have to backpack into the island’s interior.
Dzharylgach is also for swimmers, because it’s got nice beaches with soft yellow sand. Which, of course, sets it apart from Crimea, the narrow, rocky beaches of which are probably the worst thing about it.
There’s great diving off Dzharylgach, and try the roasted tiny fish available from the cafe near the boat landing.
How to get there: From the Kherson train station, the Kherson-Sladovsk route bus leaves every 10-15 minutes. Take it to Sladovsk. Tickets: Hr 20. Ride takes 90 minutes.
From Sladovsk, take the ferry to Dzharylgach Island. The ferry leaves from Sladovsk and back from Dzharylgach about eight or nine times a day. An adult round-trip ticket costs Hr 15. For information, call 8-097-285-7791.
3. Novy Svet
Seven kilometers from Sudak, this tucked-away settlement is the site of a big nature preserve. The place is perfect, a nook full of sparkling bays, mountains that cantilever over you and stone grottoes that freak you out. The way it’s surrounded by cliffs keeps the bad weather out – the weather here is soft and consistent. And the air is tonic with the scent of pines and gnarled old junipers. When you think of Crimea in all its rustic, sun-baked, rocky, Mediterranean-vibing glory, Novy Svet is what you think about.
What to do here? Walk through the stone caverns of Golitsyn Grotto, named after Prince Golitsyn, the Russian nobleman who in 1878 founded in the settlement its eponymous champagne-growing vineyard. (It’s still in business.) Or swim in the Blue, Dark Blue or Green Bays, each hemmed in by rock and named after the color of its water when graced by the Crimean sun. (Blue Bay contains Tsar’s Beach, which is where, it’s said, Nikolai II liked to bathe his royal self.) Or hike through the hills first, and then hop in the water to reduce your temperature back to reasonable levels.
Some local screwball, by the way, offers an attraction called The Leap into the Future. Pay Lecha Hr 20, and you’ll be tied into a rope harness and dangled over a dramatic ropy precipice. We’re informed this is rather popular.
How to get there: Route buses from Sudak to Novy Svet leave every 10 minutes. Ticket: Hr 2.
4. Foros
Foros is Crimea’s southernmost resort town, jutting out into the mind-blowingly blue local waters. The name is a legacy of Crimea’s ancient Greek colonists, and translates as “wind” or “favorable wind” or “gust.” Indeed, sailors know that Foros (as opposed to sometimes calm-deviled Yalta) is always blessed with a nice breeze, bringing the scent of sun-drenched pines down off the stunning mountains, and the smell of salt up from the sea. Excuse us the cliche, but Foros is indeed a little paradise.
The most striking thing in Foros is the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, a jewel of a building perched on a hill 412 meters above the sea. You get dizzy just looking up at it from the road. It was built in 1892 by an apparently obsequious local tea merchant to commemorate the Tsar’s surviving a train accident. Take the winding road to the church and you’ll see lovely mosaics and dizzy-making Black Sea views. Here’s a bit of Soviet trivia: until 1969, the church was a snack bar for visiting tourists.
Here’s another bit: Foros is also the site of the dacha in which Mikhail Gorbachev was held under house arrest during the failed hard-line coup in 1991. You can see the bright orange roof of the ugly structure from the road. Now it’s an official residence of the Ukrainian president. It’s right next to the lovely old Foros Lighthouse, in fact. You can’t visit the latter, because it’s an official strategic point, but it’s worth driving around and checking out.
Foros’ Cape Savych is Crimea’s southernmost point. If you want to swim to Turkey, here’s where to start from. It’s only 263 kilometers to the north Turkish coast.
How to get there: From the Sevastopol bus station, route buses leave every half hour to Foros. They’ll either take you to the village itself, or let you off on the road above. Tickets: Hr 7-8. Ride takes 40 minutes.
Where to stay: Renting rooms in Foros is relatively expensive, costing up to $30. Camping is a pleasant option.
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