Ukraine

Reading anything aimed at a tourist visiting Ukraine and no doubt you will be told about the beautiful shore of the Black Sea and that is a must see for any trip to the country.
The Crimea peninsular jutting out prominently from the southern shores of Ukraine is meant to be the diamond that sits proudly on top of the countries seaside crown; but for me its like a once beautiful flower bed, now overgrown with weeds and filled with decay of the past as now left as an untended mess.
Let me explain.

Ukraine is a relative newcomer to the independence scene and as such is still sorting out the abundance of issues that come with that and trying to find its place in 'Europe' and as I'm shore there are more pressing issues there seems to be not a Hryvnia spent on the seashore or from the looks of it anything soon.
I am not the best person to comment on such areas as most of my life has been spend in and around beaches and the ocean and so I guess I have some expectations, not such high expectations I thought.
Let me introduce the town of Feodosia, 180km east of the main resort town of Yalta and perhaps off the radar for any 'Western' visitor. You can make up your own mind on weather you would like to spend your precious summer holiday here.

A two and a half hour marshrutka (mini-bus) journey from the bustling 'capital' and transportation hub of Crimea, Simferopol (€2); drops you off at the bus station and in the usual Russian/Ukrainian way your left to fend for yourself as the 30 people you were riding with mysteriously disappear into the dust. At first I thought I got off at the wrong town (which seems to be happening quite a bit lately!), but after confirming that I was in fact in Feodosia perhaps I had misread my dubious map and this wasn't at all a seaside town that I have thought.
The reason for the doubting is that from the view of the the bus station it appeared to be that of a port; the silhouettes of dock cranes peaking above the horizon as a cargo train screeches by violently in a cloud of sooty smoke and dust. This can't possibly be the right place, I knew I should have Googled it to at least see what was there before I set off; It wasn't until I saw a family walking across the car park with an assortment of inflatable toys that I knew a beach was near. As never being to a beach in my journeys through Russian speaking countries, the word is yet to enter my Russian vocabulary and after trying an variety of Spanish, French, Italian and mixing and matching the different sounds plus throwing in the Russian word for water I finally resorted to a a swimming motion in the hope of some understanding.
Having spent 17 hours getting here I wasn't in the mood for these games and so jumped into a taxi for a 15 minute journey to a hotel that the taxi driver assured me was of 'good standard', sometime its just so hard to not thing your about to be fleeced here. That early evening it was time to see just what the next 3 days of beach side living here would be like and after coming from Odessa another seaside 'resort' town and funnily enough home to Ukraine's biggest port my expectations weren't so high but all those glossy pictures I kept seeing gave me hope.

I arrived, I am here and well I am frankly disappointed.
I should point out this is a Russian tourist hot spot with I would say 90% of the people here being from Russia, Ukraine and other CIS countries and so having very different standards to the of the 'West' but I still don't understand why they can't take a little pride in a place that could be something really special.

Just the different smells emanating from here, i wish the pictures could tell; they are just furious. The smell of decomposing garbage wafting through the air is enough to make me pack up my bags and head inland. Piles of garbage left everywhere; on the beach, in the beach, in the water, on the road; I definitely would be building any sand (or actually pebble) castles here for being to worried about what I would dig up! Another smell to frequent my nostrils is that of dried salty old fish, as sellers of this product troll the beaches and line the streets with racks of there stinky stock. The last thing I can even imagine wanting to eat on a stinking hot day is the carcass of a fish, but people do and they seem to love it.
The first problem I encountered was actually finding where the beach was, in hindsight I should have just followed the smell but normally you just look for the countless multi-level buildings and apartments lining the coast and bingo your there.
I did find the water, that of the port which I hopped didn't include the beach; and it didn't. The beach was situated 200 meters beyond the port wall and lined with inflatable jumping castles, rusting amusement parks and pack with an assortment of bodies randing from the enormous older ladies through to the tiny ultra superficial girls who are mostly mothers (can someone tell me what the birth rate is here!!!) with there Speedo clad husbands usually a couple of meters behind with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. I still am trying to work out how practical it is to wear make-up to the beach, let alone reapplying it after swimming.

I have a lot to understand about the Russian beach culture, and well the Russian culture in general. I have been in Ukraine for nearly a month now and the frustration is starting to build. i understand none of it and it all seems backwards, wrong or just the long way round. I have another 2 weeks by the shores of the Black sea heading to more populated areas so hopefully I will start to understand just a little a bit.