Ukraine - Crimean Peninsula

On to Yalta and the Crimean Peninsula: What a beautiful place!

In Yalta there is a boardwalk, a few “touristy” restaurants and shops, a small beach, and buses or trams to everywhere else. Local buses were convenient to get out to different areas of the peninsula, all for about 10 cents. And the best part? The whole bus helps out the tourists (who are a rare sight), by announcing the stop, giving directions to get off the bus and pointing out the route to the destination. What nice people - they made a big difference in the enjoyment of this trip.

Livadia Palace was the site of the Yalta Conference, where Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin met to play poker and drink cheap wine. The palace is now a group of museums, including old photos of the conference, a biography of Tsar Alexander who lived there before, and a rotating exhibit of artwork. The best parts were the gift shop with the very kind young woman who speaks a little English -- her kids are learning English in school and so she studies their books -- and the gardens around the palace, peaceful and full of colour, including the fantastic fall colours I had been missing since living in places where fall doesn’t really happen!

Fall in Ukraine --- Livadia Palace

Cable Car to the mountain top --- Bus station

There is one large mountain peak with a bit of snow at this time of year, and it seemed to be calling for a visit. So it was a long bus ride (for 10 cents) and a scary cable car ride up to the top, and there was the mountain top with snow, views out to the sea, and a little village set up just for the tourists. I think I almost got married to a man selling home-brewed wine in recycled soda bottles. We danced, he smelled like vodka and cigarettes, and we tasted some foul wine. All in the name of cultural experience!! I’m not sure what I agreed to, but I didn’t give away any camels and he didn’t follow me home, so perhaps I’m safe for now…

Snow-woman -- Marriage dance?

CC to the marriage agency!

Lil Bo Peep looking for "Sheep" -- Snowball fight

Alpaca with beautiful carpet on its back

And then the fun stuff… the zoo and the winery. The zoo was just something else to visit along the bus route, and it turned out to be interesting although depressing. They sell food at the entrance, so the visitors can feed the animals -- I figured out later that the zoo probably cannot afford to feed them, so they are relying on visitors to pay the entry fee and buy the food… Most of the enclosures were concrete floors and wire fencing, with some indoor areas for protection, but certainly not appropriate habitats for these animals.

The winery, on the other hand, had everything it needed to produce all kinds of sweet wines, mostly port and muscat. I participated in the tasting (with speech all in Russian) and winced at the syrupy flavours. I decided the place was reputable though, since Gerard Depardieu had visited recently! (He is also a well-respected vigneron, with his own winery in France.)

The trip home was uneventful, except for the empty airport 2 hours before the flight, the Baileys and pretzels for lunch, the drunken air traffic controllers, the questionable safety of the plane again, the huge argument over the Ukrainian air ticket, and the surprise delay of the flight. Life is an adventure!

Enjoy the pics,

CC

Some local vodka tasting -- Cars in Ukraine

Strange activites -- The mushroom lady