belasaraskaya peninsula and beyond

a bit late but here ya go xx


**

the trip from downtown mariupol to the belasaraskaya peninsula on the sea of azov, takes about an hour in a mashrutny taxi ~ otherwise known as a minibus ~ and costs around about AUD$1.

but! in the careening comfort of piotr viktorovich's lada, it's not only much quicker but another kind of adventure altogether. especially, if you're spoilt rotten like i was and forever given the privilege of the front seat sans ankle-biters while between five and seven passengers cram into the back...

i expect piotr's family are quite well off, having two televisions, a washing machine (that even works!), a car AND a garage in which to store it are all pretty strong indications. but even so, piotr turned the car engine off while we waited at traffic lights and always liked to coast downhill.

of course, he never but NEVER turned the blaring russian musika off, not even when the engine was off. i guess this is why the battery went flat and all six passengers had to get out and push ~ this preference for music over starting your car was a situation i saw repeated time and time again.

we could have gone swimming in mariupol, t'is true. it is, after all, a port city. they say the water's much cleaner on the peninsula but the rubbish strewn streets and lack of bins anywhere in sight lead me to think otherwise.

when we got there, piotr's mate's place was full so we wandered round the corner past shipping containers converted into summer homes, past piles of rubbish beneath signs declaring 100 hrv fines (AUD$25) for just that, past absolute mansions that looked like they belonged on the OC...well...almost, and found ourselves a room at rima ivanovna's place for about AUD$5 a night.

it was nothin fancy, just a room with four beds in it. but the bonuses included a shared fridge, an air-conditioner, of sorts, and lo and behold ~ a tv, snowier you never did see: we were content.

the days that followed, five of them, consisted entirely of sleeping, eating, drinking and lazing around on the beach with the many bikini-clad dyevushki ~ and yes, your typical ukrainian glamour queens they were but i, myself, was fascinated by the constant stream of men...no, it's not what you think! i don't mean the ones stumbling drunkenly around in what looked like their sunday undies!!

i mean the ones who, along with young girls and babushka's, roamed the sands touting all manner of yummy treats: piroshki, ice-cream, wafered caramel wraps, sweet corn treats, fruity cakes and, what trip to ukraine would be complete without sunflower seeds! so impressed was i that i contemplated taking their portraits for a ukrainsky beach calendar ~ if they can sell a moe girls' calendar*, i can damn well sell a ukrainsky beach calendar and WHAT a souvenir!!

*darren6964 is selling one on e-bay if you're interested!



amidst all this was beer for breakfast, wine for lunch and vodka for dinner, followed by beer of course but, never fear, the alcohol didn't even attempt to replace the food, merely thoughtfully augmented the steady flow of fried delicacies and the remnants of salad buried beneath mountains of mayonnaise. yup, NOW you might understand that spare tyre i mentioned...

but after five sweet sun-drenched days and not ONE visit to the pricey discos ~ AUD$2.50, i mean really, how dare they?! ~ piotr viktorovich reappeared and our trip back to the mud-streaked streets of nikolayevka aka home sweet home began. the power station was still in a state of disrepair thus, there was no hot water and the task of daily ablution as challenging as ever.

now i'm in austria and yea, it's clean. but it's a helluva lot less interesting.