The Crimea!

Today the train pulled into Simferopol a few minutes after 11 this morning. The Embassy sent a driver to get us but it turned out to be Andriy, the driver’s Dad. This was a very good thing, I later realized.


We drove to Yevpatoriya in the car and saw the picturesque countryside.

We arrived in Yevpatoriya about one hour later. I decided to extend the stay for 4 days after the Embassy invited me to speak at their annual American Studies conference. The topic for this conference is the Obama administration and so they wanted me to talk about the implications of his election in the context of American race relations. I’m giving that talk on Monday and will do another one on engaged learning on Tuesday.

After arriving in Yevpatoriya it was nice to shower and change clothes. These overnight trains can be nasty, although I was in the luxe/first class cabin last night and that was a significant improvement over the second class/kupee cars.

We had lunch at the university cafeteria…tomato and cucumber salad (which is served with almost every meal in this country), mushroom soup (even though it is hot here and these places don’t have central air conditioning), bread, rice and fried pork. I was able to get some Nescafe instant coffee, which was good, but as you might imagine, lunch was disappointing. 

Then I walked around. This place is like a cheesy, carnival beach town, described as being similar to Coney Island in the 1960s. I saw the beach and waited for registration to begin. I bought some kvas, which has evidently recently been outlawed on the streets of Kyiv, but not here!

I registered and then the walking tour of the city commenced. This was not a great tour, although I certainly learned some history.

I learned that this place had been a Byzantine settlement since 1475, that it came under Russan control during Catherine the Great’s reign, and that she named it Yevpatoriya (translated to mean Peter, as in Peter the Great of Russia, and me). The Crimea is known as being far more diverse than the rest of Ukraine, and it is because of the interesting ethnic history of this place. There is a sect of Judiasm here that is evidently somewhat unique, and the Crimean Tatars, a Muslin ethnic group very distinct from Orthodox Ukrainians, are slowly but surely rebuilding their numbers in the Crimea. Many of the Fulbright students come here to do oral histories with the Crimean Tatar population.

We saw some interesting buildings, such as the Russian HQ during the Crimea War, which was fought from 1854-1856 between Russia, France, Great Britain, and the Ottoman Empire, largely over the status of religious sites in the Crimea. Florence Nightingale gained her reputation as an innovative nurse during the Crimean War. Also, the origins of the word balaclava (remember that thing I wore in the winter here that covered my face?) are Crimean…during the Battle of Balaclava the soldiers wore similar coverings on their faces, thus becoming known as balaclavas.

I didn’t learn all this on the tour, mind you. I read about it from my guide book and combined it with some teaching knowledge.

We saw some Greek ruins from about 500BC.

We walked (very, very slowly) to one of the main squares and then took a trolley bus. We passed a mosque, a cathedral, and finally arrived at another mosque that is largely in ruins.

We visited a mosque that dates from the 17th century. At some point it was used as housing for the Russian Navy, and now it is a tourist site and ethnography center.

The small covered areas are for the dervishes to go, mediate, and be inspired to come out to dance.

Finally, the tour ended. It was extremely drawn out. I had plans to meet Tim and Lillia from the Embassy and the keynote speaker, Allen Lishtman of American University, later that evening and wanted to get a cup of coffee first.

I found this awesome Turkish café tucked beneath an old city tower. This place was awesome and took me back to Istanbul! I like this…the Crimea has enough Ukrainian so that you feel like you are still in Ukraine, but has this ethnic, Muslim influence as well. I’m enjoying this Tatar influence immensely.

I headed back and saw some interesting places along the walk back.

I enjoyed dinner. We went to a Ukrainian restaurant that had Tatar influences. I had some really good Crimean sweet red wine. They are known for producing sweet reds here. I later found out the grapes are 30% sugar, which is evidently very high sugar content in grapes…perfect for making sweet reds.

I had fun with Allen and the embassy folks…great dinner crew, and great cherry varynky.