The Extreme Marathon
The Moby Concert
At the Beach in Sevastopal
Nightlife in Sevestopal
Playing Football and Salsa-ing with Students
Hirsonese: Greek Ruins and Cliff Jumping
Balaclava: 14th Century Castle
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Thank you to Bean for hosting the pictures and thank you to all of you that have been reading and commenting. I truly appreciate hearing from you.
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Denishi:
I have found heaven in Ukraine. I thought I would have to give up climbing for two years for Peace Corps. I rued that I got sent to the northern part of the country, because I hate the cold.
It turns out that some of the best climbing in this part of the world is fifteen minutes from my house.
Welcome to Denishi: a cliff wall hundreds of yards long with more than thirty bolted routes. People from all over Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were there, climbing the routes by day, swimming and fishing in the Teatriv river that winds before the cliff wall, or camping on top of the cliff itself.
Climbing at Denishi--taken by me while climbing
When we arrived, I immedietly wanted to hit the rock, but Carrie insisted that we set up camp first. The Polissya crew supplied us with a tent, a brand new LOAP one. When we found out that they had rented it for us, we insisited that we pay the rental cost, but they repeatedly refused. That is Ukrainian hospitality.
We climbed with the crew that day, the crew did a night swim in the river (it was way too cold for me, so I sat on a rock with Diana and laughed at them as they yelped every time they dove into the water), and then we ended the night around the campfire. My friend Kolia had brought his guitar and I had brought mine, but his was so old we couldn't get it to tune up to mine and so just passed mine around. I played the one of the two Ukrainian songs I know and they sang along, but they didn't know the lyrics to the second. Ironically, they did know the lyrics to "Hotel California", though, so we sang that one instead. They insisted I play some more, so I did a few more songs with Carrie singing, but I felt really weird having ten Ukrainians watch us play songs they didn't know, so I gave the guitar to Kolia.
Kolia on guitar
It turned out he was a fantastic player (so, it turned out, were a few others) and they were all great singers. I sat there for hours, sometimes asking Diana for a translation of this or that word from the songs that I didn't know, but mostly just quietly listening. We went to bed at about two, but the Ukranians, having just pulled out the vodka, kept playing and did so until five in the morning.
Dima, Pasha and Carrie with their headlamps
Diana at the campfire
Carrie, Diana and I crammed into the tent. Carrie and I had each come with a pack full of climbing gear, food, clothes and sleeping bag. Diana had come with a bottle of water and a tote bag. She had brought a sheet, but had no other camping gear whatsoever. I gave her my sleeping pad and slept on the ground, getting one of the worst nights of sleep I've had in a while between the hard ground and the Ukrainians periodically breaking out into laughter.
But no matter, the next moning we were up and climbing (kicking the hung over Ukrainians out of bed) and climbed the rest of the day. It was, in short, amazing.
When I have kids, they're going to be like these two, playing with quick draws while their parents climb the rock
Tired after a route