A holiday of a life time

To start with, I’d like to say that in my view the whole point of holidays is to change the scene and to switch off from everyday monotonous work or studying. Actually, there’re a lot of options of how one can spend their holidays, but the choice depends greatly on the amount of money one is ready to spend on it. As for me, while I’m still a student I can’t afford going to some seaside resort or on a tour in Europe, but nevertheless I always try to make my holidays unforgettable. And so far I remember having a holiday of a life time only once.

Well, I was still under age and was about to finish school, but I had never been to the sea. Actually, it had been my silver dream since the childhood. My parents knew that, and when I passed my entrance examination to MSLU with flying colours, they bought me a tourist voucher to the Crimea. To be on the safe side, I booked the ticket in advance in a compartment train in a through train. As I didn’t want to have heavy luggage to carry, I packed into my bag only the most important things. Yet, they were quite a lot: I took two swim-suits, a few towels, shorts, blouses, a pair of fashionable shoes, a camera, goggles and the like. The time in the train slide very quickly. My travelling companion was a charming young couple; they made jokes and told a lot of interesting stories. Soon the train arrived in Simferopol—the gateway to the Crimea, but my destination was Alushta, the second largest town on the Crimea’s southern coast after Yalta. About an hour’s ride over the most picturesque mountain scenery and—here I am! I took up my residence in a small comfy hotel which was situated in a ten-minute walk from the sea, and it had a restaurant on the ground floor and a café nearby.

As a rule, daytime entertainment in sunny weather centered on the beach with peddler's trays selling ice-cream and chilled cocktails, and children making sandcastles. People of all ages were enjoying the sunny weather: the youth didn’t come from the water during the whole day; adults on the contrary often didn’t bother to go swimming. They were happy just to sit in their deck chairs and occasionally go for a puddle with their trousers hitched up. Each day until it wasn’t too hot I was lying on the sand, basking in the sunshine, and swimming in the mild waves of the sea. But of course I didn’t spend all my time just bathing—quite often I went on various excursions. The most wonderful were the trips to Bakhchisarai with its exotic “Fountain of Tears” and to the ancient Feodosia with its famous sights: the Aivazovsky picture gallery and the Grin house-museum. Also I went sailing and even tried to drive a wave-runner. For the evenings or when it was raining I could go to a bowling alley, dance hall, or to an all-night disco. Moreover, I found a lot of new friends, at parting we exchanged our addresses and promised to write to one another. But probably the most breathtaking thing was the sound of the waves breaking on the shore in evenings. To tell the truth, the days were not very diverse, nevertheless, I liked every minute of my holiday. The impressions were so many and the sights were so exciting that was just overwhelmed. I think I’d never forget my first real travel.

rapidly expanding—which grows very quickly

a burlesque—a cartoon

is geared towards—aimed at

tiny—very small

to be obsessed with—зацикливаться на чём-либо

an integral part—неотъемлемая часть

deprive of—лишить чего-либо

vestige of the past—пережиток прошлого

goggles—солнцезащитные очки

hitched up--подтянутый

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