Spring Break Part 2 - Yalta
So, we caught a bus to Port Kavkas. It's not a very long distance from Sochi to Port Kavkas, but it's a long bus ride because of the winding mountain roads. We were on the bus all night, and at one of our stops we saw this winner: the Fart Casino.
Unfortunately we didn't have any time to play slots there. We arrived in Port Kavkas around 5 AM and realized that it's not really a city at all. There were concrete walls with barbed wire all around, and not much else. It was a pretty intimidating sight, especially since it was still dark out, but soon we spotted the "Морской Вокзал" sign and headed that way. We were able to catch a ferry across the water as the sun was rising.
We landed in the city of Kerch and went through Ukrainian customs. One guard started chatting with me after he realized I was a foreigner who could speak Russian. He asked me where in America I was from and when I said Minnesota, he said, "Oh, Minnesota Timberwolves!" It was nice to know that a guy in Kerch knows something about my beloved state.
From Kerch we caught a bus to Simferopol, a transportation hub, and then finally made it from there to Yalta. We rented a nice two-room apartment from a girl who studies in Kiev and then headed out to explore the city. Yalta is beautiful, surrounded on three sides by mountains and overlooking the sea. There are shaggy trees and vines crawling all over, giving it kind of a mysterious feel. There are lots of fruit stands and little shops, but no big supermarkets (none that we saw, anyway).
The next day, our only full day in Yalta, was absolutely beautiful. We spent most of it on excursions outside the city. Our first stop was Livadia Palace. It was owned by Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, and was the site of the Yalta Conference in 1945, attended by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. The palace overlooks the sea and is surrounded by beautiful gardens and woods.
Here are Sara and I solemnly remembering three great leaders.
The inside of the palace is a museum that contains information about the Yalta Conference and the tsar's family. This is one of the rooms where Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met:
And this is the courtyard where they had the famous picture of them taken:
After eating ice cream and blini, we caught a bus back to town and another bus out farther from the city to Alupka, where the Vorontsov Palace is located. We didn't know anything about the history of this place, but wandering around its beautiful grounds and gazing out at the sea, we didn't care.
On the way back we hit up another famous castle, called the Swallow's Nest. It's in a stunning location, but even though it was built almost 100 years ago, we thought it looked like something out of Disneyland.
On our last day in Yalta we went down to the main square near the sea. Overlooking the square are both Lenin:
and McDonalds:
We took a ride on the cable cars and got a good look at the city.
But this sign made it very clear to us that you can't just stay on the cable cars and ride forever.
That afternoon we caught a bus back to Simferopol and from there an overnight train to Odessa. Next time: Odessa and bonus: the breakaway republic of Transneister.
So, we caught a bus to Port Kavkas. It's not a very long distance from Sochi to Port Kavkas, but it's a long bus ride because of the winding mountain roads. We were on the bus all night, and at one of our stops we saw this winner: the Fart Casino.
Unfortunately we didn't have any time to play slots there. We arrived in Port Kavkas around 5 AM and realized that it's not really a city at all. There were concrete walls with barbed wire all around, and not much else. It was a pretty intimidating sight, especially since it was still dark out, but soon we spotted the "Морской Вокзал" sign and headed that way. We were able to catch a ferry across the water as the sun was rising.
We landed in the city of Kerch and went through Ukrainian customs. One guard started chatting with me after he realized I was a foreigner who could speak Russian. He asked me where in America I was from and when I said Minnesota, he said, "Oh, Minnesota Timberwolves!" It was nice to know that a guy in Kerch knows something about my beloved state.
From Kerch we caught a bus to Simferopol, a transportation hub, and then finally made it from there to Yalta. We rented a nice two-room apartment from a girl who studies in Kiev and then headed out to explore the city. Yalta is beautiful, surrounded on three sides by mountains and overlooking the sea. There are shaggy trees and vines crawling all over, giving it kind of a mysterious feel. There are lots of fruit stands and little shops, but no big supermarkets (none that we saw, anyway).
The next day, our only full day in Yalta, was absolutely beautiful. We spent most of it on excursions outside the city. Our first stop was Livadia Palace. It was owned by Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, and was the site of the Yalta Conference in 1945, attended by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. The palace overlooks the sea and is surrounded by beautiful gardens and woods.
Here are Sara and I solemnly remembering three great leaders.
The inside of the palace is a museum that contains information about the Yalta Conference and the tsar's family. This is one of the rooms where Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met:
And this is the courtyard where they had the famous picture of them taken:
After eating ice cream and blini, we caught a bus back to town and another bus out farther from the city to Alupka, where the Vorontsov Palace is located. We didn't know anything about the history of this place, but wandering around its beautiful grounds and gazing out at the sea, we didn't care.
On the way back we hit up another famous castle, called the Swallow's Nest. It's in a stunning location, but even though it was built almost 100 years ago, we thought it looked like something out of Disneyland.
On our last day in Yalta we went down to the main square near the sea. Overlooking the square are both Lenin:
and McDonalds:
We took a ride on the cable cars and got a good look at the city.
But this sign made it very clear to us that you can't just stay on the cable cars and ride forever.
That afternoon we caught a bus back to Simferopol and from there an overnight train to Odessa. Next time: Odessa and bonus: the breakaway republic of Transneister.
posted by Joanna at 5:15 PM
5 Comments:
"Output Obligatory"
I can think of several meanings for that ;-)
Jealous!!
Me = also jealous.
Awesome pictures! I especially like the flag at sunrise.
The awesomeness continues! Was it cold? You guys seemed to be pretty well wrapped up in all those pictures. I expected more skin from a trip to the Crimea.
-misha
In response to Brooke, thanks to Sara and Eric for the pictures (the flag one is Sara's). My camera broke (it's not digital anyway) and I'm mostly just hoping that Sara doesn't check my blog and see that I stole all her pictures (I'm sure Eric doesn't care if I steal his).
To Misha, it was both cold and warm. We had at least one beautiful day in each city. But sometimes it got cold. Here in Vladimir now it's super hot. Too hot to teach, but we're managing...
Holy shit, those pictures are amazing. I can only imagine it was even more awesome in person...yes yes jealous, me too. Too bad your camera broke....you should steal everyone else's digital photos and burn them to a CD...and then show them to us at our *ahem* REUNION :)
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