Holiday in Crimea

[The Natural]

After travelling for three days, we are now in our rented holiday apartment in Kerch. MIL is also here with us.
It is very hot, over 30 degrees centigrades.
Noticed big improvements on the road from Simferopol to Kerch. Well over half of it is made new and road construction continues. However, the reckless driving is the same as before.


Gas cost 38-40 rubles per litre and taxis are very cheap. We went to the centre today to exchange money and shop groceries. It is a few kilometres to drive and the driver waited for us, at least an hour and it cost around 8-9 dollars.


Now we will go down to the beach, but boy it is hot. Probably best I keep up the intake of liquids, hehe.

[John of Hesperia]

After travelling for three days, we are now in our rented holiday apartment in Kerch. MIL is also here with us.
It is very hot, over 30 degrees centigrades.

Now we will go down to the beach, but boy it is hot. Probably best I keep up the intake of liquids, hehe.

Here in southwest USA, we are expecting temperatures of over 40 Centigrade this week, and humidity of less then 15-20%.    30 is heaven for us!!

Have fun at the beach.

[BillyB]

the reckless driving is the same as before.

Got warn people you're in town and to stay off the sidewalk! Thanks for the report. Let us know about the good, the bad, and the ugly...if you find her in Crimea. Photos would be nice.

[The Natural]

Here is a few photos. The first one in the arrival terminal in Simferopol, the others of the apartment we are renting and one of Erik sleeping in Moscow.

[The Natural]

From the beach this evening. This is a very small beach which is just a couple minutes walk from our apartment. They have a much larger beach in another area of Kerch, but for that we need to take a taxi.


Erik love it in the water which is very comfortable. He didnt want to go out of the water again.

[The Natural]

From Russia with love to Larry 

[Larry1]

From Russia with love to Larry 

Thank you

I hope none of the forum assholes take a shot at you for posting that pic.

[The Natural]

Thank you

I hope none of the forum assholes take a shot at you for posting that pic.

Why would they mind a photo of kids on the beach? 

[ML]

From Russia with love to Larry 

Just proves what others here are saying.

i.e. Financial hardship in Crimea now. 

Women cannot even afford to buy the complete swimming suit.

[The Natural]

Just proves what others here are saying.

i.e. Financial hardship in Crimea now. 

Women cannot even afford to buy the complete swimming suit.

Yes, we should all do our best to help these poor women out. Perhaps take them in and give them a nice bed to rest in and give them clothes to wear afterwards 

[fathertime]

Women cannot even afford to buy the complete swimming suit.

She wears that incomplete bathing suit incredibly well.


Fathertime!   

[The Natural]

In the afternoon we took a taxi to the center of Kerch. I find Kerch beautiful and just love the pedestrian street pictured here. No traffic, just lots of people walking by. We sat down in a restaurant there and ordered pizza and drinks. Erik fell asleep in the taxi and slept for quite a while.


Wife asked me to take him and go and buy him a baloon. Two rather young girls tended to the sales and I asked them if they speak English. "A little" they both replied while making a gesture with the fingers. They was very amused to learn that I was a foreigner and as we walked back, I saw them giggle and talk like girls that age often do. When we all walked back, Erik saw more toys he wanted and we gave in. The same girls was there and they asked my wife where Im from. My wife went into a shop and I walked to throw away some trash. Then one of the girls came running with a 100 ruble that she failed (unknown to me at the time) to give back in change of a 1000 bill. Thats the photo I took of the two girls at the bottom here.

[HoundDaddyLee]

Very nice photos Natural. Looks like a wonderful trip.


HDL

[The Natural]

Very nice photos Natural. Looks like a wonderful trip.


HDL

Thank you HDL, we are enjoying it here very much. More photos to come.

[The Natural]

As per request from a forum member here, I brought along my camera and took some photos in a supermarket in Kerch today.


Part 1:2

[The Natural]

Part 2:2

[fathertime]

Thanks for the photos Natural...looks like lots of food...Pepsi (a US company) owns Lay's, and I saw lots of Lay's potato chips of your photos in Crimea...


Fathertime! 

[The Natural]

Thanks for the photos Natural...looks like lots of food...Pepsi (a US company) owns Lay's, and I saw lots of Lay's potato chips of your photos in Crimea...


Fathertime!

Thank you FT. Yes, they have Lay's, Pepsi and Coca Cola too. And Smirnof vodka with a Russian label. MIL bought a bottle before we came, but she did not know that it is American :-) But I have never seen it with a Russian label, so that will be for bringing home as a gift.

[BillyB]

I'm getting hungry looking at those sausages.

[mendeleyev]

Pepsi was the very first American plant to be allowed into the Soviet Union and they have have continued to maintain a long-time presence there. Lay's are produced in several Lay's facilities around Russia. They come in a variety of flavours from Shrimp to Caviar, etc, flavoured chips.

The Putin reverse sanctions against import of Western foodstuffs does not generally apply to Western companies that have permanent factories in Russia. Thus, Heinz products, Coke, Pepsi, and a ton of other products already produced inside Russia are exempt from the Kremlin's sanctions.

A lot of foodstuffs that are banned still make it in, albeit at higher prices, due to technicalities written into the Eurasian Union agreements. A product banned by the Kremlin still may find it's way in via either Armenia, Belarus, or Kazakhstan, for example. The government conducts periodic raids, just to make a point, but soon those items somehow reappear on the shelves. One official told me that it is a "safety value" of sorts--he estimated that a totally secured ban would lead to discontent but that as long as items are generally available, even at inflated prices, the public would not complain.

[mendeleyev]

Smirnov is not American, but is one of the most popular imports into America. It is as Russian as any other Russian vodka, distilled locally in Russia for the Russian market.

The brand was founded in 1831 in Moscow by Pyotr (Peter) Smirnov. Today it is owned by a British holding company and is sold in over 100 countries.

[The Natural]

I thought Smirnoff vodka was American. They sell it in Norway and labelled Made in USA.
But apparently this vodka with Russian label is not the same, it is Smirnov. I was informed of that by a Russian who is renting an apartment where we are. He had talked to my wife and yesterday he talked to me. His English is limited, but understandable if not too complicated. He told me he used to be a seaman and knew English better 20 years ago. Now he works in directing ships through the Kerch strait, dont know the English name for this work. He told me 70 000 ships go through there every year.


Later on he came to our deck and wanted to have a couple of shots of Smirnov with me and my sister-in-law who was sitting outside here. They were going to have dinner with some medical collegues of his wife who is a retired doctor. Funny guy and very socieable.


Sister-in-law also has a limited knowledge of the Enlish language but with the aid of vodka her skills improved markedly 

[SANDRO43]

Now he works in directing ships through the Kerch strait, dont know the English name for this work.

Maritime pilot?

[Hammer2722]

Smirnov is an original Russian vodka but it is distilled here in the states as well as Russia and widely distributed so it may not be surprising to buy a bottle distilled in the USA.

Enjoying the trip report Roy.
Thanks

[mendeleyev]

Smirnov is an original Russian vodka but it is distilled here in the states as well as Russia and widely distributed so it may not be surprising to buy a bottle distilled in the USA.

Enjoying the trip report Roy.
Thanks

Correct. Part of the confusion is the spelling of the name (Смирновъ), Smirnov/Smirnoff. The "ov" at the end of the Russian name is spoken in Russian more like "off" due to a Russian grammar rule that has to do with how certain letters are spoken at the end of a consonant cluster.

The history of this vodka is a fascinating story set within the Communist revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

When Pyotr Smirnov died, his son Vladimir fled Russia after the Bolshevik revolution and set up shop in the city we today call Istanbul, then later moved to Lviv which at the time was in Poland (today it is a Ukrainian city). For a few years his main distillery was in Paris. Smirnov struggled outside of Russia and to stay afloat the company began to sell licenses to the recipe (called "#21") to Western distributors. Obviously, it eventually took off in the West.

The Soviet Union had banned the brand inside Soviet territory due to the fact that Smirnov had fled the country. However when the Berlin Wall fell, Smirnov/Smirnoff was allowed to set up shop again. During the "Wild West" days just after the fall, local governments who could not afford to pay salaries often paid teachers, hospital and street maintenance workers and the Red Army in bottles of the vodka which they in turn sold for cash.

Seeing the resurgence of the brand inside Russia, in the early 1990s some Smirnov family members who had remained in the CCCP set up a separate company marketing themselves as the "original Smirnov" vodka using an earlier recipe. A few years later they lost the right to the name after a protracted court battle.