Crew members of Regina Maria warship (the flagship of Romanian Military Navy) relaxing after completing their rehearsals for the following week's Navy Day. An annual event, on Navy Day various naval f...

Navy war ships are opened to public for Navy Day, held in Odessa for the second time since Russia's seizure of Crimea in 2014.

Vanea entertains customers in a small cafe on the beach in the popular resort of Zatoka where each night he sings and acts as DJ, playing music.

Youths from a folk orchestra singing patriotic songs on Navy Day, an annual event where the navy opens up various of its facilities to the public who are free to come and examine equipment and weapons...

People swimming under a white cloud in the Black Sea, off Otrada Beach.

An Ukrainian Navy officer looks down at the sea during Navy Day ceremonies held in Odessa for the second time since Russia's seizure of Crimea in 2014.

Young people who've spent the night partying sit on the shore enjoying the sunrise, a ritual for almost all visitors to this small 'hippyish' resort, close to the Bulgarian border.

The Regina Maria warship (the flagship of the Romanian Military Navy) seen through the waves of a rapid boat approaching it.

A young woman and her grandmother feed swans that have swum up to the shore at Mangalia. They usually live along the freshwater shores of the Danube but sometimes migrate along the coast to southern R...

A man lies on an inflatable mattress as people leave the beach at the end of the day. In the background the wreck of a Greek ship stranded on the shore in 1968 can be seen. It has now become the symbo...

A group of soldiers belonging to the armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh at a border post with Azerbaijan. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) is a de facto independent republic that came into existence...

A couple swim in the sea at the Eforie Sud seaside resort.

A fisherman sits on the shore watching the rising moon and the Evanghelia (The Gospel), a Greek ship wrecked in 1968. After various failed attempts to remove it from the water it eventually became the...

A young boy, wearing a Navy cap and swimming in an inflatable plastic ring, prepares to get hit by a wave during a day at the seaside.

A boy touches a Stingray, a British manufactured torpedo used by the Romanian military, on display on the tourist promenade during the Navy Day. During the celebrations some navy ships and their weapo...

Navy recruits checking and unloading their equipment after they performed a parade on the sea during Romanian Navy Day. Watching from the seaside promenade is the mother of one of the officers and she...

A man swims in the Black Sea near Pitsunda.

A man swims in the Black Sea near Pitsunda.

A man sits on a towel on a beach. In the background a construction project, which was destroyed in the war between Abkhazia and Georgia in 1992 - 1993, is visible.

People sit under streams of hot water pouring out of pipes at the Kyndyg thermal springs.

A man uses his shoes to swim in the Black Sea near Pitsunda.

Nina (front) and her daughter fish from a concrete jetty. They need the fish to supplement their meagre diet. Nina get EUR 50 from her state pension. She used to work in a local fish canning factory b...

A woman swims in the Black Sea near Pitsunda.

A man and a woman float on an inflatable mattress near Pitsunda beach.

Russian tourists dance near the shore at the Sukhumi Red Army Sanatorium, a holiday complex owned by a Moscow army regiment. It is still used by Russian army officers and their families, but with rece...

A woman and a boy stand on the pebble beach at Sukhumi. A cargo ship is visible in the distance.

A girls jumps into the water from the remnants of a concrete structure on Sukhumi beach. A boy swings gets ready to swing into the water on a rope suspended from the concrete structure and bathers enj...

A local artist paints a wall and landscape near the beach in Sukhumi.

Tourists view and photograph monkeys in cages at the Institute of Experimental Pathology and Therapy in Sukhumi. The centre was the first place to conduct primate testing in the world. Today the run d...

Policemen chat and play cards with a boy near the beach in Sukhumi.

A tourist holds onto a bear which is being led by a hawker who offers tourists the opportunity to have their picture taken with the bear. Children pet the bear enthusiastically.

A man and a boy look over the black sea from a concrete platform.

A man lies on a towel on the pebble beach at Gagra, the busiest seaside resort in Abkhazia. Dark clouds gather over the mountains in the distance. Gagra is a mere 20 kilometres from the Russian borde...

A view of the beach in Pitsunda with mountains in the background seen through a broken window pane.

A woman sits in a boat as a boy swims past.

People going for a swim in Zatoka, a cheap Black Sea resort destination in Ukraine popular with Moldovians.

Three young women sunbathe at the edge of a run down Soviet era housing estate by the Black Sea (out of the picture).

Tourists eat lunch in a canteen in Zatoka, a cheap Black Sea resort destination in Ukraine popular with Moldovians.

A female tourist, holding a rented snake, poses for a photograph on a beach in front of a plastic palm tree in the cheap Black Sea resort destination of Zatoka.

An empty outdoor cafe in the Igneada resort on the Black Sea.

A clowder of cats waits for scraps outside a fisherman's cottage.

A couple stand next to a VW Camper van on a cliff overlooking the Black Sea.

A woman plants seedlings in a small vegetable garden next to the Black Sea.

Tourists dance on the stage during a break in a folk show depicting the traditions of the Circassian people. In the villages between Sochi and Djubga there are numerous such places offering Russian to...

Fishermen on Lake Razim work together to make their catch. Most of local fishermen are Lipovani, descendants of migrants who left Russia in the 18th Century to avoid religious persecution.

A young man, with a cat, looks out of the window of his mother's apartment in Shusha during his last summer holiday before joining the Military School in Yerevan. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) i...

An ostrich and a zebra walk in the grounds of Tbilisi Zoo, overlooked by a Soviet era apartment block.

A woman looks into a mirror as she sits on the beach next to the Black Sea. Behind her lies the wreck of a Tanzanian ship that was stranded on the shore during a storm in 2007.

12-year-old Vanea rests in the prow of a fishing boat. He left school to work for a fisherman in the village of Sfistofca. The inhabitants of the Danube Delta live an isolated existance and make a liv...

Bread and fried fish, the main meal of the day in Ceatalchioi village.