From Simferopol to Fiodosia, Crimea

Hello from Simferopol. I'm staying here with a lovely family: Zhenya, Elena and their six teenagers, five of whom they have adopted - more or less - from a local orphanage. What a lively bunch.

They found room for me at their dinner table as well as an empty bunk bed in the girls' room. I am indeed blessed. Above is this dear family plus Sam, back row, visiting from Oklahoma.



So here is a map of Crimea, the part of Ukraine that dangles down into the Black Sea. We're in Simferopol where Zhenya preaches for the congregation here. But Friday we headed to Fiodosia, two hours east on the coast.

Our route above on taxi-van was two hours to Fiodosia, an ancient city on the coast.


From there we went south of there to Ordgonikidza. There we attended a fine Christian conference, the University of Jesus.


Folks from all over Ukraine attended, 470 in all and it was a taste of heaven. The singing was magnificent.

The fellowship was so encouraging. Several folks from the US attended, including Stan from Oklahoma. Stan has been in visiting and helping in Donetsk for many years.



Alexander, above, preaches in Donetsk and broadcasts a weekly television program. Among the conference attendees were folks who have responded to the TV program and wanted to learn more about God and his plan for people. An invitation was extended and 17 people decided to become Christians. We went to the beach for a baptism service.


We were there quite a while. The service was very special. Above one young lady just prior to her immersion.

Train South to Simferopol, Crimea

Tuesday evening I caught the overnight train direct from Rostov, southwest to Simferopol, Crimea. Please see map below.

Simferopol is the capital of Crimea, an independant republic of Ukraine, as I understand it. Off-season, 350,000 residents. The city mushrooms each summer to one million. Needless to say, this is quite the resort area. Or rather, Simferopol is the connection point for travel to points south and resort area along the Black Sea.

In our train car was a group of guys was traveling together. They were a swim team and I considered them good security. Not that safety has even seemed much of an issue. Then again, I feel constantly surrounded by a flock of guardian angels.

They are from Astrakhan, a city near the Caspian Sea. Nice guys and well-mannered. Two were in my compartment and more about that later. . .

Just after midnight we were at the Russian border for an hour, as per routine. And then 30 minutes later, at the Ukrainian border for half-an-hour. This chops up the sleep, waking up to answer questions, open luggage if requested and such. Always nice to get through that and eventually get lulled to sleep as the train lurches along.

Wednesday morning, fields of harvested sunflowers on the north side of the tracks.


On the south, fields with hills in the distance. The Sea of Azov-Black Sea would be not far beyond.


You know athletes, they do need their sleep. So here it is 10:00 a.m. and they're catching up. But here's a view of a train compartment.


Sleeping swimmer on top berth and my spot was below.



Train stopped at Djonkoi for 18 minutes or so. Our train, right was next to another train, direct from Moscow to Simferopol.


Sign on our train: Simferopol (Crimea, Ukraine) to Kislovodsk (Russia), which would be in the Caucaus Mountains, a resort area in southern Russia.

Care for some fish? Here's something yummy for sale. This fellow was hawking his fish along the train car.


Some caviar on the side? Following the fish man was the caviar guy. Question: Is the caviar guy also a cavalier guy? One can only assume.


Our compartment ended up be the gathering place for games. Here a couple swimmers play nardi. It seemed to be quite entertaining and attracted an audience.


But UNO is my favorite. I usually travel with a set and then have a bit of a dilemma when folks fall in love with the game: to give away my own cards? Or to mail a set to them? In the past, I've done both. Now I don't even think about it. Anyway, UNO was quite a hit with this bunch. They caught on quick and put a quick end to my winning streak.


UNO, continued. I bought these cards in Rostov, believe it or not. So this version is multi-lingual, I guess you could say. The cards have no words on them, only symbols. And the directions are in Russian, Polish, Czech.

So that's a quick tour of the train trip from Rostov-on-Don to Simferopol, Crimea. Thanks for coming along!

Squatters Rights

Finally I managed to capture a squatter. Or rather to shoot a squatter. Several of them, with the camera of course. Let me ask you this: When you're waiting and your legs get tired, are you tempted to squat? Well some folk here do that and the very sight hurts my knees. But let's have a look anyway. . .

Last week at the train station in Ivano-Frankovsk, Ukraine we were buying train tickets for me. And over there I spotted a squatter. It was the chance I'd been waiting for. . . to capture a squatter. Just for you.


We were waiting around because suddenly it began pouring rain and you know us pedestrian types, we're not venturing out in that especially when the umbrellas are at home. Silly, silly to come out without the umbrella, which in Ukrainian is called a parasol.


So a look back at the original squatter and it appears to be contagious. He's joined by squatters friends. Dear friend Lyda, partially visible here on the left, was so helpful, letting me hide the camera behind her. But she did have to laugh at me, that I found this so interesting. And here's why: the next day look what I spotted in the kitchen. . .



Here's Lyda herself peeling potatoes. Never mind that some of us do this sort of thing over the sink, peeling into a bowl of some sort. Lyda peels squatting, the peelings falling straight into the trash. Squatters have their rights, you know.

Well, whatever works!

How about you, dear blogging friend. Do you find squatting as comfortable as sitting?

Across Ukraine: Through the Window of a Train

Train north from Ivano-Frankovsk to L'viv, western Ukraine.

View from my lower berth, across walk-way looking east.


On the curtain, Pre-Carpathian (Railway), the line at the foothills to the Carpathian Mts in southwestern Ukraine and into Hungary.


View into the next along the walk-way.


Out the window. Where are we - southern Ohio? Kentucky? Nope right here in Ukraine.


Ah, yes. An Orthodox church, looks like at this distance.



Could be. . . east Texas.

Well, arrived in L'viv for a very nice day of sightseeing with new friend Larisa.


And while there I took so many photos, so many rainy-day photos with dear Larisa holding the umbrella over me and the camera. . .


. . . that I put my camera away for a while. And which is why as the L'viv - Adler train was chugging across Ukraine from northwest to southeast, I needed a break from dear Olympus 4040Z. Even good friends need some time apart, don't ya know.


. . . which is why rather than capturing for you the Dneiper-Petrovsk area and our passage over beautiful sparkling rivers and such, I managed to haul the camera back out later only in time to catch coal mining area of southeastern Ukraine, the Donetsk area.



In the southeast, we passed field after field full of spent sunflowers. From a distance the colors were pretty. But here is what I managed to capture for you. See, I had a few really important things to think about at the time, such as my high-stakes UNO games going on with neighbors. Just kidding about the stakes part. . . they weren't high at all. ;)

How about you, dear blog readers, what have you done to pass the time on long-distance trains?

Yippee Yahoo Back in Rostov

Just off the train across Ukraine. Map gives general idea.


Monday I guess it was, took the 3-hr trip from Ivano-Frankovstk north to L'viv, as per the yellow line above. Then overnighted in L'viv with dear Larisa and her husband (previous post) and then sometime recently - it must have been Tuesday afternoon, caught the L'viv to Rostov train, a direct route as per the blue line above.

Oh, but that blue line is deceiving. I know because this time I checked up on things: plotted our train stops on my spiffy map of Ukraine and I must say we zig-zagged our way across the country, went slow and stopped, stopped and stopped some more. Which is why it took us 29 hrs. I have no idea how far. That's a question for another day. . . Can you wait for that information? I certainly can.


So here you have two flags of Ukraine flying together in unison. The flag is so simple but it represents the blue sky over the golden harvest of Ukraine. And whizzing flying past the train window was all that blue and gold.


Dear Bogdan and Larisa in Ivano-Frankovsk. This dear family allowed me to camp out on their living room coach for an entire week. They're so very special. And I could write a whole chapter in a book about them. Which is exactly why I went there. . .