Vacationing in Crimea, Evpatoria

[Markje]

Evpatoria , 2016 Version.

To Evpatoria, The only thing remarkable that happened on the trip was an upgrade to business class.

I never flew business class before, and although it was very nice, I didn't consider it worth the money (4x the usual ticket price!!) for the extra's offered.

- A nice extra-comfy seat.
- Being addressed with your name when the cabin crew wanted something
- A 3-course menu, with various choices for each course. ( The napoleon cake was very nice).
- Free onboard movies, same offerings as the cinema's had + some older movies until about 2010.
- Free onboard music (didnt check out the collection).
- Business-bus , so you weren't stuck with the rabble when exitting the plane. Wasn't worth it either, it was so small and old I felt a marshrutka would be better. Although not aeroflots fault technically, that one was on Sheremetyevo airport.
- Seperate passport control line. I had time to kill so I rejoined the rabble and didn't use it. You should have seen the look on the faces of the other business class travellers.

So sunday was nice and quiet, we went to the beach and I immediatly noticed the many roads that had been repaired in Evp. Especially the big holes were gone right in front of mamochka's flat, which meant taxi's could now take us home instead of dropping us off as close as possible on a street corner.

In the evening we wanted to eat at a restaurant, but Shaslick wasn't available to 8pm, so we went to the next one , which was sort of a fast-food/restaurant combo. They had already fired up their bbq, so Shaslick it was.

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Next day :Surprise surprise, my Wife + mil had arranged for a minivacation. My mil would watch our son for 2 days and I was off with the wife to some super-luxury enclave in Saki, close to Evpatoria where my Aunt-in-law lives. Having a condo within 100m of the beach and restaurants etc. etc. was indeed very nice. And because we were alone, having a stroll as a newly-inlove couple was also very nice. (If one ever ever ever goes there, club Malibu should be club Malibooooooooh , in my opinion.).

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Around Evpatoria:
- The Dolfinarium is definatly worth the money, nice show and the animals look well taken care of. (which is sometimes not the case in East-europe).
- The Dino-Park is small, but pricing is cheap and the robot-dino's look very real for about 20seconds.
- The Aqvarium with fish is also worth the money. Quick visit but quite fun.
- The best places to eat imho are: Bistro (restaurant), Gamlet (luncheon) and Volodia. (funnily enough, Bistro is more of a restaurant environment whilst Volodia is more a semi-fastfood thingy, good if you want good food and very fast service, they also support taking stuff home to eat there.).
- Bad places to eat: Just 2 , a pizza place.. I don't even remember their name but it was awful. Galjon. Although it seems nice and the food is good, the music gets on my nerves after 2 hours. I later learned from Lena that it was mostly Muslim music. They repeated the same 3-4 songs over and over again.

- Aqvalung swim-paradise: Never been there, but the word on the street is that its very nice.

And then of course the beaches, the beaches on the west side of town are all-sand with a nice 2% slope into the sea, meaning you can walk for about 40-50m into the sea. Swimming here is confined with a floating rope, because of other water activities. (Fee to enter this beach is P100,- per person, children under 12 free.) even more to the west near the next town are also nice sandy beaches where swimming is more allowed because there are only water-bikes there . On the further beach, one is also allowed to light up their own BBQ and have homemade shaslick. Facilities are small though, only 1 vendor stand and on busy days they are sold-out near 2pm already. (Free visits, no fee)

Mark.