{"id":291,"date":"2012-10-09T23:16:48","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T22:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/?p=291"},"modified":"2014-11-30T16:56:53","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T16:56:53","slug":"tuesday-yalta-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/tuesday-yalta-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday – Yalta, Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today, we arrived in Yalta, our final port in the North of the Black Sea before heading South-West towards Istanbul. It was a little cooler to start off with, and when we looked out at passengers heading off on early tours, it was raining, and many were wearing winter coats and sporting umbrellas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We headed down the gangplank to the quayside with no clear plan of action other than to potter around town and see whatever there was to see within walking distance of the ship. No sooner had we exited the port gates, however, than a chap approached us and asked if we’d like to join his little mini tour. We looked over his shoulder, and there behind him was a small blue mini-bus, with only two remaining seats. We asked how much, and he told us it would cost 18 euros each for a two hour excursion. Hm… seemed rude not to; so, we agreed, and took the last two free seats in the bus.<\/span><\/p>\n

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All credit where credit’s due; our guide was an affable young chap, with a very good command of English, and a pleasant manner about him. As we drove along, he told us all about how life had been growing up in a dictatorship, and comparing it with how life was like now. With a degree in languages, he’d been on the KGB blacklist for having spoken out about how life really was back then – interesting fellow.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Our first stop was the Livadia Palace, famous for being the chosen location for a historic meeting between Churchill, Roosevelt and Lenin, in 1945. It’s an impressive building from the outside; it should be – it belonged to the Romanov’s – another time, another era… We didn’t see inside, although the offer was there for anyone in the group who wished it. As far as I know, there was only one couple who paid the few euros entrance fee, and discovered that the only piece of furniture remaining inside is in fact the table at which the three leaders sat.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Our next stop was at a point overlooking what is known as The Swallows Nest; a castle built on a clifftop that is now an Italian restaurant. It’s a strange little building, set in a precarious position; only really notorious for having been rebuilt a couple of times, and that the rock it stands on was split in two during an earthquake. Other than the view of the castle, there wasn’t a great deal else to do there other than peruse the three or four gift shops that lined the road at that point.<\/span><\/p>\n

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On the return journey, the guide had the driver pull over to the side of the road so that he could take money from everybody. Despite being very polite about it, it was all a bit of a rigmarole; he asked us not to give him any tatty notes, and didn’t seem overly happy about people giving him coins. One chap asked if it was okay to pay in local currency, which totally flumoxed him; he took out his caculator, and it took him ages to work it out. We paid our 36 euros in exact money – ie. a 5 euro note, a 20 euro note, and the remaining euros in coins, which had been given us in change for buying a couple of things in the gift shop. He checked each coin so thoroughly, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d bit into them with his teeth to confirm that they were real and not made of chocolate.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Once everyone had paid up, he let us off the bus, outside the cathedral – goodness knows what would have happened if someone hadn’t had the right money….<\/span><\/p>\n

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We checked out the cathedral, which was more interesting on the outside than the inside (it was dingy and not very pleasant at all, inside) and then headed for the cable car. It took some finding, and once we’d paid for our tickets, we waited for a car to come by so that we could jump on…. and I really do mean; JUMP on…. Each car was a two-seater job; nothing fancy, and with not a great deal of space to spare. Jumping on proved eventful, and I can’t imagine any amount of practice improving the technique; the car swung about wildly, making it difficult to get on in the time allowed – then you had to lock the door before it left the ground… it wasn’t any easier getting off the other end…<\/span><\/p>\n

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It was worth the trip, though; At the top end, the views across the city were quite stunning. The mountains behind us rose majestically, their heads in the clouds in places, and a short walk brought us to an impressive war memorial – a huge circular construction, like a giant portion of a pipe on its end, with inscriptions all over it. We had no idea what it wa commemorating as it was all in Russian – quite impressive nevertheless.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Once back in the city, we walked the length of the promenade before making use of the only free wi-fi we could find – in MacDonalds!<\/span><\/p>\n

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We left Yalta at 5pm, and set a course for our next destination – Istanbul…..<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Today, we arrived in Yalta, our final port in the North of the Black Sea before heading South-West towards Istanbul. It was a little cooler to start off with, and when we looked out at passengers heading off on early tours, it was raining, and many were wearing winter coats and sporting umbrellas. \u00a0 We headed down the gangplank to...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions\/292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peterwoolley.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}