Sun-drenched Partenit in summer. Wooden sun loungers on the pebbles you have to claim early in the morning. The most delicious honey baklava and the freshest coconut cookies that I haven’t been able to find anywhere else for 12 years.
An abandoned football field with knee-high grass that is so pleasant to lie in. Fig trees heavy with fruit that you can pick just by walking down the street to the sea. Cape Fiolent and a narrow strip of wildbeach, where ‘savages’ from all over the country gathered each summer.
Livadiia and holidays with my parents. Lifts that take you up through a tunnel in the mountain. Balaklava with its underground military base, which at the time was considered a relic of a bygone era. The legendary Yalta embankment. The Bakhchysarai Palace. The tram from Simferopol. And many other towns and memories you can still take out of the box, roll between your fingers, and breathe in with your eyes closed.
And how the Donbas steppe smells of wormwood...
