Deckard's trip report - POST #6
Adaptation and Alupka * July 5th - end of July, 2001
I still couldn't believe where I was the next day. But it was real, and Luda took me for a walk in the city, and we spent the whole day together. The dreamy feeling went away, but the feeling I had about Luda did not.
In the next couple of days, I gradually began to wake from this long fairy tale dream, and realize where I was. I was in a totally alien world. I began to learn that I really could take very little for granted. This included hot water. Oh, how I missed being able to take hot showers whenever I wanted. Hot water was in fact only available for a short while in the morning, and usually for a couple of hours in the evening.
The water from the tap was also not drinkable, and would have to be boiled first. Although I knew about it already, I experienced both of these things for 3 months.
Of course, there were many other things that I had to adapt to, as anyone not in their own turf would have as well. I began to miss English, although I did pick up a lot of Russian while there.
Luda and her family took very good care of me. I would often help Luda wash dishes after meals, and sometimes helped out in the garden, and various chores around the house.
A couple of days after my arrival, the whole family and I went by car to the coastal town of Alupka, which is two hours by car from Simferopol, and close to the city of Yalta. There the sisters and I vacationed for over three weeks, while the parents were there some of the time.
While in Alupka, we stayed in a couple of old rooms in an old school. I had my own room, while Luda and her family had their room. Rent was very inexpensive. There was an orphange in town, on vacation from Russia, and we would eat three meals a day which were prepared for us by the local cooks that were servicing the orphans. This was also very inexpensive, and amounted to about several US dollars per day for both Luda and I. It was nothing to rave about, but certainly a good variety of healthy food (although we could not pick from a menu, they would just serve us what they had made).
There was a shower house about a 4 minute walk from our rooms. Sometimes we had to wait for our turn, if there were others waiting for it as well. Again, I missed my hot showers 24/7, and the water was usually cold. Oh well, builds character I thought 
. The ladies weren't complaining, so I didn't either .
Almost every morning, we would walk down to the beach and sun ourselves on the rocks and swim in the Black Sea.
****SIDENOTE*
The Black Sea is beautiful. The water was clear everyday that I saw it, and it was teeming with signs of life. There were small crabs searching among the rocks, and all the time there would be children hunting for them. Jellyfish were common, and fun to look at. Small fish could be seen swimming in schools. Ships of all sizes could be seen far off the coast usually. The water itself had a greenish tinge when looking at it close to shore, and looked a dark blue farther out on the horizon. The sea would sometimes be rough, with rough waves crashing into the rocks on some days, yet on other days, the water was as smooth as glass like a lake, and looked almost like you could walk on it. I had never seen such a variation in such a large body of water before.
****SIDENOTE*
After a few hours, the sun would be too hot, and we would come in for lunch. Then Luda and I (alone usually) would go for a walk, sometimes just around the neighborhood of the school, and sometimes actually we caught a small bus into the center of Alupka.
Several times we caught an "excursion" bus, and for almost a whole day, we would be on some sort of guided tour. This tour could last from only 9am -2pm, or it could go from 8am - 6pm. Some of the cities that we visited included Sevastopol and Yalta. We saw many beautiful palaces, fortresses (Sudak) , mountains (Demerdji, Mangup), a small castle (Swallow's Nest), the best Botanical Garden I've ever seen (Nikita), and more. These were always the most interesting days for me while we were in Alupka, I would see so much, and spend the entire day with Luda, with whom I was growing closer to.
The excursions costs me about $24 for both Luda and I, and I thought they were very reasonable, given that they lasted so many hours.
We brought her sister on some of these trips, and she had a great time too, as well as taking pictures of Luda and I together.
I had brought the book "Watership Down" with me on the plane, and this we read aloud together very often, sitting side by side, usually taking turns reading when we were tired of reading aloud. But there wasn't enough time to finish the book. I gave Luda a small stuffed realistic looking rabbit that we called "Hazel", which she liked very much.
We had had a wonderful time in Alupka, but at the very end of July, we returned to Simferopol.
---- To be continued in POST #7 ----
