A Journey to Crimea and Odessa in the Ukrainian 2012

In the summer of 2012, I flew from Batumi, Georgia (then Georgia) to Simferopol, Crimea via Kyiv. I had really wanted to travel gracefully by boat from Batumi across the Black Sea, but the boat schedule did not work out, so I had to give up and travel by air. Simferopol was a transit point, and soon we were on our way to the city of Feodosia. At the time, Crimea was still in Ukraine. It was annexed by Russia about a year and a half after my visit.

*Please note that the photos are of low quality, as the prints were taken with a smartphone.

The market leading to the beach in Feodosia. We had no plan at all about where to stay. The signs were in Cyrillic, which I didn’t understand, and almost no one spoke English. I happened to enter a diner, where a friend of mine called me because he spoke English, and helped me out in various ways. The people in the city were very kind to me even though I could not understand their language.

The beach at Feodosia seemed to be a famous tourist destination for the locals, and many tourists were visiting at this time. However, these tourists were people coming by train from Russia. They are people with money in Russia who come here for summer vacations.

The local Ukrainians were grateful for the money that the tourists were dropping off, but they had mixed feelings about the fact that they were doing business with the Russians.

I didn’t go to the beach, but rather to google maps, which showed me that there is a road from Crimea to the Ukrainian mainland (?). I was curious to see if I could break through the narrow road that led to the At a quick glance, it is about 100 km to the mainland. A stupid plan by a bored backpacker. (I was a working person at that time, so I didn’t have much free time, but I think I’ll never get rid of my backpacker temperament. ……)

Of course, I have nothing planned. I’m going to go all the way and try to see how it all works out.

At this time I was able to charter a car and driver, so I decided to just go.

It just looks like this.
A lake on one side(Syvash lake) and the ocean(Sea of ​​Azov) on the other.

↓Video, note that the sound is loud.

Since we were in a regular car, we were not able to force the land to sink slightly. But I was very happy to see and feel that narrow road.

Perhaps a four-wheel drive can break through, but since Crimea was annexed by Russia, this narrow road also seems to have been divided into Russian and Ukrainian sides, and the border line is drawn on google map. (as of Feb 2022)

Then back to Simferopol and on to Odessa. Since this was a rushed trip, our stay in one city was short.

Market in Odessa. I love markets.

A couple and photographer shooting in Odessa.
I am a wedding photographer myself, so I thought it would be fun to shoot in this kind of scenery.

Here are some Ukrainian cats and dogs!
It was cat heaven.

There are many things that happen in our daily lives. But one day, such small things as shopping, eating, playing with cats and friends, and so on, are suddenly turned upside down. In Japan, this is sometimes the case with disasters.

I look forward to the day when I can travel freely again.
I wish for a better tomorrow than today and a better future than tomorrow.