The crimea peninsula

May 20-23

We worked our asses off during the week so we could take time off the 2nd wknd to go down to the black sea. Getting there was a big chore. Our final destination was Yalta which is a small coastal town on the southeast side of the crimean peninsula. The nearest airport was in simferopol which was 2 hours taxi ride north. I flew into simferopol late friday night and met L the next morning when he arrived by overnight train from odessa where he was visiting one of the plants. When I got into the simferopol airport friday night and it was a tiny terminal with no desk counters, nothing but a big room. Outside the people were being picked up by family. I didn't see any obvious taxi stands but a few guys approached me for taxi. I knew to expect 30-50 hrynas for the 10km ride but boy, they must have thought I was stupid tourist. first they said that it was at lest 16km and will cost 200. I told them 30. One by one the 3 would punch in a number on their phone and I would shake my head. Meanwhile they could see I had a taxi phone number on the paper in my hand so they had to work fast. they would come back with a lower number and I would shake my head and kept trying to call the taxi number which wasnt working!! Finally one of the guys punched in 50 and I agreed. This was less than 7 bucks but it was the principle of it, I didn't appreciate being ripped off. Because I was alone for one night here I picked the best hotel in the town. It was supposed to be 4 stars but I could see it was typical hotel here which was old, built pre-war and hasnt been renovated since then. You can tel that it must have been pretty fancy in its early days but now just looks tired and worn down. It had a peculiar smell but seemed clean enough for one night.

The next morning L met me at the hotel and we took a taxi to the train station to catch a trolleybus to yalta. It's advertised as the longest trolleybus ride in the world. More than 2 hours and 27 stops before we get to yalta! big difference in cost though (only 10 hriynas versus 400 for a taxi). By miracle our taxi driver spoke very good english and thought we were crazy to take the trolleybus. "who the hell told you to do this?!" It was so funny because he said we were the first tourist he has taken to the bus station. Well, it turned out fine. It was like a excursion bus because there was a lady on board that talked the WHOLE TIME. She was like a tour guide who was telling us about the points of interest and history of the place. Too bad it was in russian and we didn't understand what the heck she was saying.

Our hotel in yalta was awesome. The oreanda hotel was right on the beach and had a spa! I got massages both days we were there! We were also right next to a boardwalk that ran along the ocean and up to the marina. It was a lively boardwalk with shops, restaurants and music. Apparently this place is overcrowed during the high season which starts in 1-2 weeks. It was already crowded when we were there so I can't imagine.

I really wanted to see Livadia palace (pics above). It was the summer home to the last few russian czars. It was a favorite place of the last czar who tried to ask for asylum at this palace when he was overthrown. I have always been fascinated by the history of the romanovs so this was exciting to me. Laszlo wanted to see the same place for an entirely different reason. This palace was where they had the yalta conference where president roosevelt, churchill and stalin met to divide up europe after wwII. The treaty was signed at this place but it was also where roosevelt stayed while he was here. There were so many more displays and pictures of roosevelt and I had wondered why,duh. The other leaders stayed at separate palaces. They did this because roosevelt was ill and in a wheelchair. I learned so much more about the affects of wwII from L because he learned much more about it in school. It was impactful to see old hand sketches of the old and new borders of europe and imagine how 3 people sat around a table to divide up countries like it was a board game.

THe extensive grounds around the palace was so beautiful. We were high on a hill so you can see the ocean below and yalta in the distance. Not sure why they call it the Black Sea because the water was a gorgeous turquoise blue, especially when the sun comes out. We decided to be adventurous and walk through a forested trail down to the water. Ok, we totally underestimated the distance to the water but it was one of those things where I felt compelled to keep going and not waste our efforts going down. Ofcourse in the back of my mind was if we are going down down down it means we will have to at one point turn around and go up up up!

It was fun but by the end I was sweating like a pig. The weather is not hot but it was humid enough to make me sweat. At this point I was missing the dry air of az!