Sea, sea... and some more sea! :)

It's a lovely Sunday afternoon again... And yes, you've guessed it right, I'm at the seaside again ;) Since the weather is still really nice (actually, it's even nicer than during the summer, because it's not that hot anymore and you don't see crowds on beaches everyday), I try to go to the seaside everyday. Sometimes I even take my small (but growing) army of Minions with me ;)

This particular selfie was taken on Friday, today they're being lazy at home :) Honestly, I don't even know how I survived 24 years living far away from the seaside! It has such a positive impact on my mood and it's good for everything: working, studying, letter writing... Of course, I realize that after a couple of years of living hear I might feel less enthusiastic, but for now I see absolutely no reasons to limit myself :) And actually, I'm going to use this chance to tell you a bit more about the sea - and about my city at the same time. It feels so great to finally be able to say "my city"! As far as I can't remember, I'd never use this expression in Lviv, because it simply never felt this way... It only felt like a good hub to travel from. Being able to say that I love the city I live in is such a positive change for me, so I hope you don't mind my enthusiasm ;)

Railway station, Trains and steel mill in the background ;)

On Monday I went to the beach, which is just next to the railway station. When I first came to Mariupol, which was in 2009, I didn't realize that sea was so close, so I spent 2 hours looking for the sea together with my friend :P But in fact all you have to do is to walk over a pedestrian bridge, watch the lovely landscape with trains and a steel mill (I'm not sure which one of them is that though) and after a couple of minutes you're on a beach.

Sea and clouds on Monday

But usually I go to the central beach, which has no trains and no steel mill on it, simply because it's the closest to the city center, post office, university and other places that I visit everyday. And there's that nice cafe, in which you can drink tea sitting just next to the sea (and if the waves are big, you can also get a bit wet) :) I suppose you won't be surprised if I tell you I still swim in the sea, because I'm probably going to do it until December, when the sea is likely to get frozen. But so far I'm not the only one - the summer doesn't seem to be over yet here.

A rare chance to see me almost naked :P

And finally my favorite beach, which I rarely come to, because it's quite far away, but today I'm here for the first time this month :) Why is it my favorite one? Well, maybe because it was exactly here that I've seen Ukrainian seaside (that day in 2009... after 2 hours of searching for it around the city), maybe because it's totally unique? You don't see beaches with steel mills just next to them very often, right?

Unique seaside :D

In case you think it's some kind of a beautiful cliff on this picture... Well, I have to disappoint you: it's just a huge mountain of steel mill's garbage, which has been growing for several decades. The steel mill itself is a bit farther and can be seen from the beach. In fact, it's not a very good thing, because it pollutes the sea and spoils the landscape (from the normal people's point of view), but at least it's unusual. And actually, it's a very nice district, at some point I considered searching for a flat to rent here, so I could live in a block of flats and still see the sea from my window. The only problem is that this district is the closest to the front line, so I didn't want to risk. Now it's been totally calm for 3 weeks, so I'm not afraid to spend my Sunday here, and let's hope it'll stay this way.

The Sea of Azov is generally very shallow, but on this beach it's even more visible. I think you have to walk at least 300 m away from the shore if you want to swim. Today the level of water is even lower than usually, so there are a lot of small, sandy islands and seagulls walking around. Of course, there are more beaches in Mariupol, but sometimes I also have to study, so I haven't been to all of them this week ;) But you can be sure there will be more seaside pictures coming soon... No matter if you want it or not :P

Last but not least, this week's mail :) 

From Søren in Iceland

I've only received one letter this week, from my dear friend Søren in Iceland. He has also sent me a chocolate with salty liquorice, which I really love, but which is unfortunately unavailable in Ukraine :) It's so great to have friends, who remember about your weird tastes! ;)

For Erin in the USA

But there's been more outgoing mail, since I've been trying not to let my work dominate my life totally. I've sent a letter to Erin on Monday.

For Bahanur in South Korea

And on Thursday I've sent a letter to Bahanur, for the first time since she's moved to South Korea :) Just don't tell me I'm using too many stamps :P

For Evi in Greece

Today I've sent an intro letter to Evi in Greece. We've meet on FB by accident, when she had problems joining a penpalling group in which I'm an admin. The truth is that I've been very behind with this group, just as with everything else, but once we started chatting, we decided to start writing to each other :) Which is a great coincidence, because I really need someone to practice my Greek with, but I didn't want to start writing with any random Greek person. I've written 2 pages in Greek (okay, those were very small pages in very big handwriting...) before switching to English, which I think is quite a good result, if you consider that I started learning Greek just 1,5 month ago. Although I'm sure I've made at least 100 mistakes ;)

I hope you're all having a lovely Sunday too and I wish you a great beginning of the new week!