Crimean Adventures

1. Cable Car 2. Ai Petri Mt. 3. View from the top

My trip today was, well, interesting. My friend, Shannon and I took public transportation to the cable car station that takes you up to Ai Petri Mountain on the other side of Yalta in Crimea, Ukraine. We had been wanting to go for some time, mainly to visit one of our friends from the Tatar area where we live. She works 7 days a week from 6:00am to 10:00 every day for 3 months during high season as a cook / waitress up on the cliffs of the mountain. She has been asking us to come visit her for months now, so it was time to go!

Well, see this cable car. It looks nice and modern, but I'm afraid it was built in the late 40's or so and I don't know how often they replace the cables, but the cars were ancient soviet technology. We were going up to 4,000 feet and to say the least, I was quite scared. I know the Lord did not give me a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind... I was beginning to think that had I chosen the bus instead, I would still have a sound mind and not be afraid. I'm not one to get the eebie jeebies from heights, but today was an exception.

Let me paint you a picture. We took an hour and 35 minute bus ride from our city to the Yalta bus station. Then we waited for 15 minutes for the one bus #27 that would take us to the Cable Car station. Then we realized everyone had the same idea today and there we stood in line for an hour and 20 more minutes as we waited to get on the cable car. And, remember, personal space is not 3 feet in every direction here in Ukraine, it's more like 2 inches, and lines aren't the nice theme park, watch a movie while you wait type.. they're more like mobs that are squished together with a constant underlying panic that someone will cut in front of you because there's no clear mark for who's in front and who's in back, etc.
Anyways, we made it to the cable car to find out that they stuff up to 25 people on one of those little things, with no seats. By the time the 25 of us in our car were up to 3,000 feet and I could see that if the rope were to break we'd all be gonners, I began to think that I had chosen something of an unsound mind. ;)

Well, we made it and we're fine. No more drama. We surprised our friends and ate a wonderful meal and hiked up to the highest point. The air was cool and fresh and we sat at the top and just prayed a prayer of thanksgiving to God for his beautiful creation and for the people all around us to know Him and His salvation.

Once we made it to the very top we noticed rag trees. That's what I call them anyway. They are posts and/or trees that have strips of material tied on them. Some very warn and faded, and others brand new, but there must have been over a thousand strips. Every strip represents a wish. I asked a man and his wife if people really believed that their wishes would come true, and he looked at me as if I was crazy. He said, "of course they do, it's like a religion." I don't know if they think because the nature is so beautiful that there must be a nature god that will answer their prayers, or what? It reminded me of the "Mars Hill" passage in Acts 17 where Paul preaches to the crowd about their monument with the inscription 'To An Unknown God.' He commends them for being so religious and then lets them know who the real God is. I think God was trying to tell me not to be sarcastic or mocking in my attitude toward these silly looking rag trees, but to consider that every rag represented a hope and wish, which in turn represented a person... a soul. They truly believe, they are just believing in the wrong thing.

"Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else." Acts 17:23b-25

P.S. I had to use some pics from the internet, because of course, I forgot my camera. But, Shannon took some, so I'll post those as soon as I can.