by Auslander
We both do not like to travel and since the rampant corruption in the orc dog show circuit drove us out of the shows after Sophia earned her championship five years ago we rarely go far from our little ‘village’ on the north side of the harbor. However, we had no choice but to journey to Moscow Region early in April.
With orcland closed to the peninsula there is no passenger train service to Russia. With all the airframes falling of late my bride is terrified of flying so we went by train. This involved a driver to take us to Krasnodar on the mainland, the city proper, to catch the train and pick us up on our return from Moscow and bring us to Sevastopol. I will describe this long journey warts and all.
First stop was the train station in our city to purchase tickets. The train station itself is totally renovated, restored to what it should be inside and out. To say the station is spotlessly clean is an understatement and we well remember how shabby it was under the former occupation. Service was perfect and the tickets were electronically generated on the spot and handed to us. We arranged a private compartment on the fast train to and from Moscow. Total cost was $200 each for the round trip. Since the train is overnight the compartment is a sleeper.
Our driver picked us up at 05:00 on the scheduled day. The drive is long to Krasnodar, we estimated around ten hours of actual driving plus who knew how long for the ferry to the mainland. We also had to stop for a few minutes every hour or so, this so I could get out of the car and walk a little. I have an old wound to one leg and this is being troublesome after all these years plus my old back injury is reminding me daily of my carefree and uncaring younger days. The driver does speak fair to good English so we conversed often during the drive.
We picked up the H 06 not far from the house. This road goes to Simferopol and skirts around Bachti Sarai to our east. The road is in fairly good condition until just east of Bachti Sarai where it begins to alternate between relatively smooth road to rather rough but far from impassible stretches. For years the orcs renovated nothing, they just patched over patches when absolutely demanded. However, according to the monies ‘spent’ on roads in our city and the peninsula all the roads are pristine and recently totally rebuilt. This little foible partly explains the huge number of mansions built in our city and the peninsula over the last twenty years. Poor Mr. Aksyonov has his hands full trying to make some order of the mess he inherited from the orcs when they were invited to leave Krimea a couple years ago. One of their favorite little corruptions was to get paid for huge road and bridge work and not so much as a spade full of soil was turned. Those orcs who turned their coats are trying mightily to continue with their corruptions and some are succeeding.
Going through Simferopol is easy at 06:30, hardly anyone on the rather rough city roads at that time. An hour later and the traffic resembles Moscow in microcosm, hardly moving and difficult to get from point A to point B. On the northeast outskirts of Simferopol just past the ring road we picked up the P 23. This road is the main road all the way to Kerch on the east coast of Krim.
The first 30 kilometers or so the road, although two lane, was wide and in excellent condition. The driver said this section was one of the first road projects Mr. Aksyonov initiated when he was elected to head Krim. The lanes themselves were wide and the shoulders were properly graded and even with the road surface. This heavenly experience ended at 30 klicks as we rounded a curve and ran smack in to a normal Krim road, rough, patched in random fashion and not well done. This of course slowed the now growing traffic to about 60 KPH for the next 50 or so klicks. At the end of the 50 klick stretch we came upon heavy construction equipment blocking part of the road, no one to direct the traffic in to the one lane available, no barricades or signs announcing what we ran in to and the work crews just beginning to arrive, eat breakfast on the roadside and have a couple smokes. A major surprise was the drivers themselves managed to drive in one direction on the one lane then they would stop and let the other direction drive for a while. I suspect this was arranged by the truckers on their radios as any lane shift was initiated by a very large semi that stopped in one lane to allow the other lane do pass.
The workers seem to think that 09:00 is a good time to start work. For the remainder of the journey to Kerch we passed half a dozen areas under heavy construction, sometimes these constructions a klick long. I did observe the methods used and I think the road will last for years and be capable of handling the increasingly heavy traffic and heavy trucks using the P 23. This construction is not the usual patch and resurface deal extant in Krim. In some construction areas they were taking the road down to the sub foundation and completely rebuilding the road. These roads were designed and built in Soviet times and no one conceived of the huge numbers of vehicles and the very heavy trucks in use today. The very few bridges, generally short, were also given the total rebuild and generally replacement treatment. However, no thought was given to eventually widening this major feeder to two lanes in each direction.
The equipment in use for the construction was generally new and good quality and condition. Most of the actual construction equipment was foreign and most of that from Japan. The heavy trucks were a mixture of about 50% Kamaz and 50% European. I saw not a single worn out and tatty army surplus Kamaz or Ural working the construction areas.
The asphalt being laid was very thick and of top quality. The construction crews were large for the heavy work and well supervised and as the morning advanced at all the areas of one lane traffic there were signs warning of the single lane area and traffic direction crews to keep things flowing smoothly. Traffic moved well all things considered but I will mention that perhaps things would have been better served if the companies doing the actual work were ordered to start at Kerch on one end and Simferopol region on the other and meet in the middle, either that or start at the worst part near Feodosya and move east and west. Instead there were stretches of fully reconditioned roads and shoulders interspersed with frequent long stretches of the usual patched and rough peninsula roads.
As we progressed towards Kerch the land began to rise as the P 23 neared the coast. It was in this roughly 60 klick long stretch where we ran in to the worst sections of road. In several areas the road was completely gone, nothing left but the remains of the foundation and so rough that traffic was crawling through the worst parts and there were plenty of ‘worst parts’. The only way to describe this area of the main feeder from the mainland is appalling and rivaling the worst I’ve ever seen in Africa. Congratulations, orcland, you have managed in 20 years to lower yourselves to the worst of Africa.
As we entered the Kerch Peninsula the roads did improve somewhat. There were no more stretches of totally destroyed road and a few sections were pretty good, considering. We also took note that the entire journey from Sevastopol took us through many areas that could be cultivated and they were husbanded for crops and quite well I might add. As we entered Kerch itself the roads were the same as our city and Simferopol, some good and some of indifferent maintenance. Just past Feodosya the P 23 ended at the E 97 and the rest of the Kerch Region was on the E 97. Our driver had a very good GPS system that gave excellent directions constantly although it did not warn of construction areas.
Kerch itself was easy to traverse but there were few and somewhat small signs directing one to the ferry terminal. Without the GPS we would have wandered around a bit trying to find the terminal.
On arrival at the terminal the facility was found to be in excellent condition, read mostly new. First stop was the Kassa to pay for the ferry and get a talon for the security inspection. Total cost one way for the car and three passengers was 2000 rublay, not quite 31 bucks. The pleasant young lady in Kassa did not blink when I handed her my Russian passport but she did examine it with a special little electronic magnifier to make sure the Propeeska stamp and the official stamp were real and wet stamped. She then informed us that the ferries might be delayed due to heavy weather at the other end of the crossing. However, in half an hour we were moved in to the security inspection building. This inspection may to the untrained looked not too strong but to my experienced eye it was quite thorough and included little seen sensors around the entire individual bay. What little luggage we had was removed and run through the same machines as in aerodrome, pronounced good to go and off we went to the ferry lines. Another thirty minute wait, then a very large, read ocean going, ferry arrived. They loaded cars first and when that lot was exhausted they started to load the heavy and not so heavy trucks. Everything was organized very well and all was very efficient. In due course the ferry was loaded. We had gone to the upper deck after our car was loaded, the driver stayed with his machine. From the upper deck, which included a good sized food bar and ample toilet facilities which my bride pronounced as spotless, we observed and she photo’d the freight car ferry unloading on the other side of our dock. The load of train cars were about half tank cars, a few box wagons and a pretty large number of flat cars, all the flats loaded with green vehicles and equipment with crews.
The crossing itself took little time. In the far distance through the haze we could see large numbers of floating cranes working on the new bridge system. The landing, named Port Kavkaz, sits on a very narrow spit of land coming from the mainland. The unloading was very efficient and orderly and off we went through the usual security border post in Krasnodar at the land end of the spit. We were given a cursory look, passports were checked and we were sent onward.
The change between Krim and Krasnodar Krai is as night and day. The roads are pretty generally flawless and I took the time to observe the conditions of the side roads and intersections and there was no difference between the E 97 and the other roads. The roadsides were clean and since late spring had arrived tractors with special mowing equipment were mowing the roadsides and this was obviously done often, it was not their first cutting by any stretch of the imagination. Gone were the ever present discarded trash and bottles seen in Krim and Sevastopol Region.
Every square centimeter that could be was under cultivation with numerous late model tractors with workers planting the fields. The villages and small towns on the route were clean and orderly with very few tumbledown houses visible either along the roads or in the distance. I have no illusions that such structures exist in the krai but we saw only one close to the main road and it was in process of the land being cleaned and there were two men with rolls of plans standing at the sagging fence gate. Someone is managing Krasnodar Krai quite well. The E 97 became the E 97/A 290 which not too far in to the mainland journey became the A 146.
The remainder of the drive to Krasnodar was uneventful, the road good, the traffic moving along in an orderly fashion and the towns and villages pleasant to view as we passed through. When we got to Krasnodar City we had an unpleasant revelation. The GPS system was not operable in that city and of course our driver had no map of the city or anyplace else. He made the mistake of trusting an electric device. It took us a while to find a shop that had a map and we then proceeded to find the main railway station. We caught our train which was on time almost to the second and started our overnight journey to Moscow. The train was spotless inside and the service was first rate as was the food.
We accomplished our tasks in Moscow and the journey back to our city was chapter and verse identical to our journey to Moscow. Not much had changed with the road work in Krim in the week we were traveling out and back.
We have no intention of leaving our city and peninsula for the mainland. On the other hand it is infuriating to see what our city and our peninsula should be, could be and eventually will be. If genetics hold true I have about another twenty years left to annoy people with my writing and annoy Officialdom in general. I doubt I’ll live to see Sevastopol and Krim make all the changes needed but I also have no doubts my wife will. We did not like Moscow, the pace of life is far too frantic for us. We are quite happy in our little ‘village’ in Sevastopol and after seeing Moscow traffic again we no longer squeak in the slightest about the minor delays we have here.
Auslander
Author, Never The Last One & An Incident On Simonka
Have you guys seen this? Seems USAis forcing the Ukrainian regime to fulfill the Minsk 2 agreement.
“The Assistant Secretary of State also mentioned that Ukraine should provide amnesty to separatists.
http://uawire.org/news/nuland-the-us-insists-that-kiev-grant-special-status-to-separatist-republics
Nuland: The US insists that Ukraine grant ‘special status’ to separatist republics”
http://uawire.org/news/nuland-the-us-insists-that-kiev-grant-special-status-to-separatist-republics
Never believe a serial lier, it does not matter who they work for. Nuland would not know the truth if it swam up and bit her on the butt. An orc can’t tell the truth if their life depends on it. Minsk was agreed to for one reason and one reason only, that reason being to stop NAF from chasing the orcs to roughly Poland.
Nothing will change, the sanctions will be extended every six months for a few more years.
Well, I dont care so much for the sanctions, the sanctions are good for Russia, it forces the lazy Russian government to develop their own country instead of making themselves dependent on others.
I am more interested in seeing the conflict in Ukraine end finally. With Donbass getting full autonomy inside Ukraine, Donbass will be free to determine pretty much everything, from economics, to electing their own judges and officials to determining who to trade with and what to do with the taxes, and of course they will keep their armies. And as soon as the war is over Russia will flood Donbass with investment making it the best place in Ukraine. Donbass will be a pro-Russian fortress inside Ukraine.
After the war ends, the cultural war begins, with Donbass being the core of the pro-Russian culture and Lvov being the core of the anti-Russian pro-USA culture.In the end more regions will want to join prosperous Donbass and leave miserable pro-USA Ukraine. And Novorossiya will form naturally, from economics, cultural and politics instead of war.
makes sense nobody person. just be somebody. there ya go, somebody.
Those are the reasons why Kiev will never fulfill the Minsk agreement!
If the US cuts off the $$$ to Kiev, they will get a real response. Until then, I don’t believe they are serious about forcing compliance.
I dont actually know why USA would want the conflict to end.. But perhaps Russia has made some backdoor deal.
To me it seems like only negative things will happen to USA if there is peace in Ukraine.
1. Ukraine cant join NATO or EU.
2. Sanctions on Russia are lifted(atleast from EU side)
3. The Ukrainian government is overthrown either by nazists angry that there is peace or by the people angry at their low livingstandards.
1. Ukraine cant join NATO or EU. – of course not,the US wants to have Ukraine as a buffer zone and the EU is now wanting the same.
2. Sanctions on Russia are lifted(at least from EU side) – sanctions will not be lifted because those sanctions have been and will be decided in the US.The EU has not much to say,gets the orders from US.
3. The Ukrainian government is overthrown either by nazis angry that there is peace or by the people angry at their low living standards. – as long as the Ukrainian government is playing at the will of US this will not be allowed to happen ONLY IF the Ukrainian peoples are willing to take the hard way.
“seems like only negative things will happen to USA if there is peace in Ukraine.” – this will be decided again in the US.And if there will be a war,that will not end good for the US.
1. No, Russia wants Ukraine as a buffer zone, USA wants Ukraine as a frontier country.
2. No they are not lifted.
3. USA is not all powerful, it fails constantly and all time. If there is in Ukraine I believe it will fail in Ukraine, of course, a even more extreme russophobic government may take it places, if for example there is a nazi coup, either way the current government will vanish.
4. All war in Ukraine is good for USA, but bad for Russia.
I really enjoy your posts. Possibly my favorite reading here. I was hoping to visit the Crimea this year but I’ve already made a commitment to friends in Tiraspol, Transnistria. Maybe next year……..
Give us a couple more years to clean up more of the mess left by the occupiers and finish the bridge, then by all means come for a visit.
I wanted to see if Nuland’s assertions of horrible danger to anyone who visited Crimea were true, and also, since I used to live near the California town of Sevastopol, not too far from Fort Ross on the Sonoma County coast, had a sort of nostalgic yearning to see Crimea and Sevastopol for myself. So I went to Moscow for the 70th anniversary Victory Parade, standing in for Obama, I suppose, who is too petulant to give Russia its due for defeating the Nazis. If I was expecting Nuland’s prediction of getting hauled off to a gulag were believable, I was sorely disappointed.
In fact, a couple of times, since I speak only a smattering of Russian and can barely read, much less understand, I wandered in to places, such as the Officer’s Club, or Putin’s place to stay, and was politely ignored or politely indicated that this is not a place for me to be. If she were at least a little truthful, I might have been hassled, but never experienced anything but politeness. I am just a dump American who wandered into the wrong place.
Anyway, I spent a week in Sevastopol, mostly walking around the main part of the city, which I found to be one of the most beautiful places to visit I have been to.
I can understand why people have fought over Crimea for so long, It is really a stunningly beautiful place, with good climate, beautiful ocean, clean air, and so on.
You are very lucky–or perhaps very wise–to have situated yourself in Sevastopol.
Hope to see you there on my next trip, when I can scrape the money together.
You will find that Russians will at first be standoffish but once they get to know you a little they are the most friendly people you will ever meet. It was an amazement that in our journey once we were on the mainland the moment people understood we live in Sevastopol they were quite talkative and all inquired as to ‘what really happened there’. Most were stunned to learn that I am foreign and married to my little heathen for over a decade plus I opted to stay during and after our revolution. We had some quite pleasant, interesting and spirited conversations during the long journey.
Quite excellent, fascinating too. How did Auslander find Saker? Or visa versa?
I tend to write what I see and that is what this article is about, exactly what I and my bride saw on the trip. I am pleased you like the writings.
I’m sitting here trying to remember how Saker and I found each other and finally the two brain cells rocketing around in the void of my cranial cavity came close enough to set up a static charge and generate a thought. I was given a link to Saker’s blog by if memory serves Larchmonter back in early ’14 after I posted on a news story. I started posting on the blog and it kind of grew a bit.
Saker and I met in US in late fall of ’14 when I had to go there. Turns out he lives not far from where I was staying with friends so we arranged a couple day visit. He and his family are great people.
For those who intend to perform this travel: Some weeks ago there was a very detailed description on http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/ of what needs to be put into consideration when travelling from Crimea to Kiev either by bus, bus/train or your own Crimean car.
Including what _not_ to do unless you ask for trouble.
Travel from Krim to Orcland? To do that now you are asking for trouble and you will probably get it.
Hello “foreigner” (your USA-german rooted name translated to English for those who don’t understand german),
oh, wtf.
Apparently I was so tired that I had confused Kiev with Moscow (no joke / on a 2nd note: What’s actually the difference, other than current chaos and evil cirumstances???).
And before reading your article I first went to bed, but wanted to quickly share the other link because I thought Crimeans’s _need_ to read it and for us others it is certainly interesting.
Now I notice I somewhat confused the capitals, but nevertheless, the rest remains standing as said:
Cassad 13.4.2016:
Из Крыма в Киев
http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/2702810.html
The very road I hope to travel on in 2018 when the bridge opens. I always wanted to drive the trans siberian, but for now Crimea is a more realistic goal. I’ve done London to Moscow a few times on my own via both Finland and Latvia without any problems except the queues at the EU border in Latvia can be horrendous. One year it took me 24 hours as the queue was 120 cars plus and seemed like over a kilometre long moving a 8 cars per hour. Another year, I had an unscheduled stop to discuss a traffic violation – can’t overtake traffic in a construction zone – but after discussing it with the DPS for an hour in Russian (I speak it reasonably well, they didn’t have the heart to process me and ruin my holiday so they let off and wouldn’t even accept the liquid “refreshment” I offered as a thank you. Finally arrived at the tour base on Lake Selegir at midnight after a local taxi driver showed me the way for the last few km for free. Anyone who says Russians aren’t kind or courteous is simply ill informed.
Congratulations on your travel writing. Better than watching an actual video of the journey. Makes me want to visit. I was actually in Yalta as a young boy. I did like the place and the people.
Thank you, Auslander, for sharing this little vignette.
It makes me want to become one of those obnoxious tourists you have talked about. Even though I know barely a word of Russian, it sounds like a nice place to be a tourist.
And lots of history over there.
I live in an international tourist-mecca type of place—was born here, actually, no washashore moi. I find that the actual washashores are very judgmental, more so than most of the natives. Sort of like more catholic than the pope.
I try to be tolerant of the tourists. Tourists make an easy target for Everyman’s and EVerywoman’s daily spleen attacks, and they can be annoying, no doubt about it, but let’s bear in mind that we are all tourists somewhere and sometime.
Ultimately we are all just tourists on planet Earth.
The planet may well have the same feelings toward touring Homo sapiens sapiens that some Hss’s have toward tourists.
Katherine
“Those orcs who turned their coats are trying mightily to continue with their corruptions and some are succeeding.”
Well said! What, in your opinion is the best way to bring heat down upon them? Media? Reports to the head office of the particular department on the federal government website? Political opposition groups? (Non liberal of course.)
The same corrupt officials I finally finished with years ago in “Ukrainian Crimea” are now going after my wallet like gangbusters in Russian Crimea. Stalin where are you?
Nice article. I have often wondered what it would be like to ground transport in and out. I am in Moscow now, and it was difficult (and expensive) to get a flight in to Simferopol this time. (Too close to Pasha and May victory celebrations.) I have some time, and actually thought seriously about it the train to Krasnodar, but then I scored some reasonable air tickets today (kind of reasonable.)
I don’t buy tickets online from Moscow to Crimea anymore because I can’t get a schedule that corresponds to my international flights online, but it is easy at the counter in Moscow. I underestimated the heavy traffic price rise this time though.
I can usually breeze right through with some 5000 ruble tickets. This trip I had to wait a day to get one for 10,000.
On the spot to fly yesterday, was business class only for 43,000 rubles (Yeow!)
I do enjoy your articles and find them to be spot on.
Thanks, Auslander.
And do carry on annoying officialdom, and your city in particular…
But expect that what the French call “gabegie” (the sum total of mismanagement, corruption, sloth, selfishness, ill will, etc,) is a specific and frequently chronic disease to which the civil servant is particularly prone, and which, when unchecked, is wont to reach epidemic proportions.
So, give them no rest, and mobilise others to do the same: that’s the only medicine available so far.
Dear Auslander,
I guess it was a long time ago (although it seems like yesterday) when long-distance telephone calls were so expensive that we used them only for relaying bad news or good news events, such as a birth in the family. Back then we wrote a letter to tell about a trip we had made, or of recent weeks’ happenings — to parents or siblings or friends. Your little “trip report” gave me that old feeling, Auslander, of having received a letter from friend or family far away. It’s a warm and cared-for feeling. I’ve read it several times, and I will probably read it more times.
I would especially like to watch the building of that bridge. That’s an awesome project! Is there any online “progress report” I could tune into? And I’d love to know when you get puppies and maybe even see a photo of the dear little things.
Thanks for taking the time to write.
Love,
Grandma
Thank you for your compliments, Grandmother.
There are many truths tucked away in my fictional books including references to the culture in this city as compared to mainland Russia. The mainlanders do view many of us as quaint and very many here do speak an older Russian that is not laced with the slang and such you will find in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
We refer to our little valley on the north side of harbor as ‘the village’ even though we are well within city limits. I rise early, usually around 05:00, and I enjoy nothing better than sitting on the porch with my wife while we enjoy a cup of coffee with Sophia snoring at our feet, listening to the world come alive. At 06:00 there is still not a sound to be heard, simply complete silence. Not long after the horses boarded not far from our house wake and call to each other, the birds start to sing and flit about. At 06:30 one can hear the trumpet calls at the near Navy bases and at 07:00 the bells at St. Nikolas high on the hill overlooking us begin to ring signaling the day has begun.
When people, especially foreigners, mention perhaps moving to this city I always tell them don’t do it, life is difficult and tedious, the roads are miserable (true), the water is not good, food is bland, Officialdom is difficult to work with and there’s KGB on every corner. They believe it.
I’ll find some Youtube about the bridge for you later today.
As promised, Grandmother, here are two links to videos about the bridge. When you view these two you will see many more links on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdyEg2KJvEA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Vm3MV3BpZg
Kind regards
Auslander
Took me a while to realize when he says orc he means Ukrainians.
I was like “where in Middle Earth does this man live?”
We use that name for them because we are fully aware of what they have done since late 2013 and we consider that name a kindness. You do not want to hear what the evacuees told us after we dug them out of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk after Strelkov retreated 05 July ’14.
Interesting article . it was interesting to read about how daily life is in your neck of the woods
Write more often