the family is all here

Here it is – the real martial art. Everything else is circus and childishness. That's precisely why martial art cannot be applied in its full magnificence for sporting purposes. It was created for self-defense and war. And in both, the most important thing is to preserve life and health – both your own and those we protect. And if we play at a duel, if we think about how to cause less harm to the enemy and not cripple him, we might fail at this responsible and primary task – to survive and eliminate the threat with the least losses. Hence, true martial art is deadly serious in its very essence, and it is, of course, not for everyone. But I could be wrong, for I am far from perfect in this. Just thoughts out loud.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END = Day 34 =

Arrived in Belorechensk. A little more and I'll start treating this town like home. I caught myself feeling that my journey is beginning to come to an end, that the midpoint has long been passed. As if I'm gradually being shifted onto another wave, and everything is becoming not as adventurous and not as thrilling as it was before...

THE FAMILY TOGETHER = Day 35 =

Today I plan to head to Crimea. For tomorrow, I've already booked a BlaBlaCar ride to Feodosia. I'll go through Krasnodar. I'm leaving this evening so I can be there by morning. At Andrey's place, only Sonya was home. Today she did the splits for the first time. Little acrobat. )) She got out her school album and I accidentally started describing her classmates – what they're like, their character, who's friends with whom, who loves whom, who holds what position in the class, what status, who studies for what grades, etc. I managed to pull out quite a few accurate facts about some of the kids. Sonya was very surprised at how I managed it. She thought it was impossible to tell anything about a person from a photograph. But I proved the opposite. Before leaving, I called everyone for a group photo by the cedar tree in the backyard – Andrey, his sisters Anya and Violetta, Oksana, Sonya, and me.

Everyone was in a very good mood. We said a warm goodbye. I felt that this time I was leaving for good and in the near future I'm unlikely to come back here again. I had already grown used to these folks; they had become like family to me. Andrey drove me to the bus station, and I went to Krasnodar. Arrived late in the evening. The driver moved the trip to Feodosia from 3:00 to 6:00, so I slept a bit at the station. By morning, I went to the meeting point where he picked me up. The car was, to put it mildly, so-so…

CRIMEA – 15 YEARS LATER = Day 36 =

In the morning I set off for Feodosia. The driver – a funny kid, he talked a lot the whole way. Dag, as far as I understood. Somewhat reminiscent of a chatty African-American from American action movies. His car was barely alive. Throughout the entire trip, he periodically got out to fix the muffler. Something was constantly rattling in the back of the car. What exactly was rattling – he didn't know himself. And after we crossed the strait and were already on Crimean territory, his gearbox broke. After Kerch, we had to drive only in third gear, so stopping was very