So I’ve got pages about the air travel, the hotel, the restaurants and transit system in Mariupol. What else is there to talk about? Well, not much, I guess, but since my other pages are essentially disjointed, I thought it might be nice to give a little cohesion to things.
If you’re curious about the title for this page, 144 feet (or 44 meters) is the average elevation above sea level of Mariupol. See there’s always madness to my methods…
Oh, the things I’ve seen…
Travel broadens the mind, of course, and for me the real pleasure of visiting other places is not to see the things that get into the guidebooks. Sure, it’s nice to hit a museum or see some landmark — those are always great photo ops — but for me the real fun is in seeing how people live. I like to imagine what my life would be like if I lived in the place I’m visiting. Yes, doing such is a little harder when you don’t speak the language, but you can still get a good sense of what life is like observing people, walking around the busy commercial areas and the not-so-busy neighborhoods, and just experiencing all the sights, sounds, smells and whatnot that are around you.
Most of the pictures I took were along these lines. Nothing special; just shots of things I found to be interesting, especially when compared to the life and world I know. Be sure to check out those photo pages; naturally I could write a thousand words, but it’s nice when the pictures can do it themselves. Or at least mostly themselves; the photos all have some captions and descriptions, so be sure to read those too.
One thing I promised in one of those captions was a link to a good picture of the mosque in Mariupol. This is a place of local pride, even though most of the people in Mariupol are Russian Orthodox. My friend Anna, as well as the translator and guide I was working with on this trip, all advised me to definitely see the mosque. Unfortunately, the day I visited was rather rainy and overcast, so the mosque didn’t have the stunning appearance that you see in the linked picture. I took a couple so-so shots, but they aren’t anything to brag about. Also, the mosque isn’t open to the public, so no pictures from the inside. Oh well, perhaps the next time I’m in Mariupol I can try again.
Click for a larger image
Going native
I had the opportunity to go through a couple open air markets; I’m sure there are more around than the two I saw. Mariupol does have supermarkets, which are very similar to Safeways and Krogers; the open air markets seem to be more like really big farmers markets. Although there were some vendors selling clothing, jewelry and other non-edible goods, most of the spaces were people selling fruits, vegetables, breads and spices. One of the markets has a butcher’s area too; it was in a large, warehouse like structure, with wide open doors (so people could come and go) and no obvious means of refrigeration. It seemed fine — I mean, for a place where all sorts of animal parts that are just laid out on metal tables — but I doubt I would be comfortable buying meat like that. I didn’t spend a lot of time in there.
The other open air market was quite similar, although here the warehouse building was more for permanent retailers. (There may have been a meat section, but I didn’t see it.) These retailers had a lot more in the way of clothing and shoes, as well as other sundry items like perfumes, toys and small electronics. I’m not sure if this is indicative of Mariupol or Ukrainian society, but there seemed to be a lot of dark clothing and shoes available.
The only real shopping I did was at the grocery store a block from the hotel. Although I’m getting better with numbers in Russian, the thought of buying on the street and possibly needing to haggle didn’t appeal to me; I wanted to see a price. (I didn’t actually see anything I would consider as haggling, so my fears there may have been baseless.) The big thing I bought? Water. As I’ve said in the past, you don’t drink the water from the taps there; you have to buy bottled. You know how it is recommended that we drink 8 glasses of water a day? I don’t think the people in Mariupol got that recommendation. I drank plenty and usually had a bottle of water with me, but that wasn’t the case for the translator and guide I worked with, nor most of the people I saw on the street. I would have been super-thirsty if I followed those people’s examples, but I suppose you get used to it. (I did have some melon while I was there — it was like a white honeydew melon; I haven’t seen it in the US — and it was really juicy, so maybe people get most of the moisture their bodies’ need from the foods they eat. At least, that’s the theory I’m going with.)
Off the beaten path
One of the more interesting and unusual places I visited this time was the Mariupol cemetery. I’m not the sort of person who typically goes to such places, even when on vacation, but it was suggested to me and I had a guide to help me find it. So I went.
[slideshow id=4] (Click here for a larger view of these pictures)
The Mariupol cemetery has been around for ages (probably not quite since the city’s founding in the 17th century, but still a long time) and it is huge. I haven’t been the Arlington National Cemetery but I’ve seen pictures, and like those pictures Mariupol’s cemetery seems to be very large, covers the surrounding hillsides and everything. My guide (who didn’t speak a lot of English, but was still able to communicate quite well) told me that Ukrainians don’t “believe” in cremation; as a result, the cemetery just keeps on growing.
The cemetery has a nice little Russian Orthodox chapel by the entrance, and the primo sites are right up there too. Although you can’t take it with you, if you had the money, you can make sure that people will always remember you for that. Some of the monuments were very impressive; some even had seats and tables so visitors could really spend some time there. However, as you moved farther from the entrance, things became far less impressive. Headstones became simpler and then virtually non-existent. Sites upfront are well-tended, but those farther away become more and more overgrown with weeds. It’s really rather sad and sobering.
The place is divided into many sections (or sectors, as the signs are labeled), and certain sections are used for specific types of internments. There was a place for orphans, another for John and Jane Does, and so on; there was even one for drug overdoses, although I’m guessing that’s only used if the family doesn’t go with a more “normal” section. Bodies are laid to rest facing eastward (toward the rising sun), which leaves the feet where the headstone is. There is a separate section for Muslim burials, and here the graves face south-east. I asked my guide if this was in order to face Mecca, which makes sense to me, but she didn’t know.
A day at the beach
Mariupol is right long the coast of the Azov Sea (which is a piece of the Black Sea that was been sectioned off by the Crimean Peninsula and a jutting piece of Russia), and at one time was a seaside vacation resort. However, as industry has increased, the resort status has definitely fallen, especially in light of Ukraine’s poor environmental regulations. However, you just need to go a little bit up or down the coast and you’ll find plenty of seaside places that have expanded because of Mariupol’s fall. My guide took me to one of the oldest and largest of these seaside locations — Berdyansk.
Berdyansk is about 90 minutes (by bus) west of Mariupol. It had been a long-time fishing city and still has a working port; however, it seems that most of their business these days comes from tourists, and not just out-of-country tourists like me. Berdyansk also has some mineral springs and during the Soviet times, especially around the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, some large spas were built in Berdyansk. These were similar to the santitoria built in the US from the beginning to the middle of the 20th century, like Kellogg’s famous Battle Creek Sanitarium. The Berdyansk sanitoria still exit and are quite popular; people from all over Ukraine and parts of Russia come to these places for family vacations.
Berdyansk definitely knows how to cater to its visitors, and has built a large pedestrian mall that joins up with a well-developed seaside/boardwalk area. I took several pictures while in Berdyansk, although about a third of them came out too blurry to use. (Stupid camera; it can take pictures from a moving car, but stationary pictures confuse it.) The pictures and captions should tell you how I spent a sunny and tiring day in Berdyansk.