Crimea V: Ay Petri

One of the chief features of southern Crimea, and something that is always with you in Yalta, are the mountains. They don't rise all that high - the tallest one is something like 1,500 meters above sea level - but when they rise up almost directly out of the water, that's still impressive. Most of southern Crimea is actually a very thin strip of land between the mountains and the Black Sea, from a few hundred meters to maybe a kilometer or two. Yalta itself is almost completely surrounded by them.

The tallest one in our vicinity was Ay Petri, or St Peter Mountain. The top was surrounded by fog pretty much all the time, but the road up there was an incredible experience, with lots of places to stop and admire the views. We first drove to Alupka, where there's a cable car, or gondola up to the top.

When we arrived we joined a group going to the top in a van. We were promised several stops on the way, and best of all, the trip only cost 50 Hryvnas - the exact same as the cable car. Additionally, even the gondola ride, which is quite terrifying in itself, doesn't give you as many near death moments as the car trip.

I want you to envision the following: An old caravan with nine seats and no discernible shock absorbers. A driver who doesn't speak a word of English, but who keeps regaling his otherwise Russian-speaking audience loudly, while giggling in an insane manner. A wild drive, cutting corners and almost going front to front with meeting traffic on numerous occasions. A drive where you're bouncing around so hard you can feel your kidneys turning to pulp along winding, steeeeeep roads up a mountain. A driver who takes you on the OUTSIDE of the safety fence at a viewpoint. This was our ride up Ay Petri. And for your information, my two Ukrainian friends were laughing like lunatics the whole way, not exactly the most assuring sign.

About half way up there's a stop where you can pay to go look at a waterfall. Due to the dry summer there wasn't much water left but you can also have your picture taken with a big ass bird or a monkey. Naturally I chose the monkey.

All the way at the top, where the fog is heavy, there are numerous stalls, mainly manned by Crimean Tatars. They're hawking all kinds of stuff up there, but not trusting myself with foreign money I only ventured briefly into one stall. I still came away with a Tatar dress and a pair of camel hair mittens... *sigh* Then we took the nerve-wracking gondola down again.

All pics of Ay Petri and surroundings can be found here.


The waterfall, which is quite a sight when there's water I'm assured.


Make up your own damn jokes. It looks like he's getting ready to headfuck me!


The views down to Yalta and Alupka are incredible.






From the plateau behind the top of Ay Petri:


His Highness, sultan Ghost:


The view from the gondola. Sweet Jeebus, I hope those things are regularly serviced.