NIGHT I HAD A PINT AND A STEAK IN ‘BELFAST, CRIMEA’ – BEFORE THE LITTLE GREEN MEN ARRIVED

BRIAN OGLE recalls a pint and a steak in a pub called Belfast now in Russian occupied Crimea……

The Belfast pub in Yalta city centre, just behind the Hotel Bristol

BELIEVE it or not, there are no fewer than 14 towns or cities with the name Belfast in the United States, two in South Africa, one in a suburb of Christ Church, New Zealand and one in the St Thomas region of Jamaica in the Caribbean, some 25 miles east of the capital Kingston.

But the most unusual Belfast I discovered for myself is in Crimea, in the famous port city of Yalta, setting for the famous, or infamous, Yalta Agreement between Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill which re-drew much of the map of Europe after the defeat of Germany in the Second World War.

The table at the Livadia Palace where the Yalta Agreement was signed by Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill

The Belfast in Yalta, Crimea, is, believe or not, a pub, which I discovered just behind the Hotel Bristol where I was staying some six years ago, a couple of months before Putin’s Little Green Men stealthily and surreptitiously annexed Crimea, then a semi-autonomous region of Ukraine.

Now it is out of bounds to business people, cruise ships, holidaymakers and traders from much of the rest of the world which still regards Crimea, quite rightly, as Ukrainian.

The writer with Yalta seafront in the background

I smile now as I remember trying in vain to get anyone in Yalta’s ‘Belfast’ pub to speak or understand even one word of English, but I couldn’t complain, as my Russian and knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet was non-existent. Actually it was limited to Da, (yes) and Nasdrovia or Zdorovie (Cheers, or Let’s Get Drunk). Still, I had a pleasant few hours, a couple of drinks and a decent meal in Belfast, Crimea, but never managed to find out why It had the name of Northern Ireland’s capital city.

I can’t help wondering now if Belfast, Crimea, is open these days or is it too in lockdown due to the virus.

When in Yalta, I did visit Livadia Palace, on a hillside overlooking the Black Sea a few miles to the north west where the Yalta Agreement was signed, and for a few Ukrainian Hryvna when I was there (now it’s Russian Roubles), I had my picture taken standing at the very same oval table looking over the shoulders of images of the three Allied leaders. However, it was the chance discovery of a pub called Belfast in Yalta which arguably made the bigger impression…