Gloria and Piter in Crimea

       Our vacation plans called for a venue with diverse cultures and variable geography and somewhere on water. If it meant exposing ourselves to new languages then that would be a bonus.
    We decided to go to Istanbul, Turkey but we knew it was a big city and that after a few days of sightseeing we would be eager for a new adventure. So we focused our search around the Black Sea and pondered what the Crimean Peninsula would be like. WE had been to Russia and to Ukraine in the 80's and were all too familiar with the old Soviet ways including not being able to travel just anywhere we wanted. So would a trip to the "Krim" be our answer for adventure and the experience of new cultures? After checking out prices and routings with Turkish Airlines we discovered that Turkish Air flies regular flights between Istanbul and the Crimea. WE had initially wanted to take a boat but ,after some discussion, decided to shun the stuffy atmosphere of a cruise ship. Ferries don't run in the fall or winter so flying was our remaining option. After considerable researching,planning,and checking out message boards, we struck "gold".We were introduced to Eugene. Eugene is a travel guide who lives in Simferopol,Crimea.

    Simferopol has the only airport serving the Crimea so the plan began to take shape however Turkish Air only arrives and departs on certain days. Then we learned we required a special entry visa from the Ukrainian Government and that would take some days . We requested an application from the Ukrainian Visa Office (http://www.ukremb.com/) and mailed it along with our passports and the fee. It took exactly 2 weeks for the process. There are several Visa offices in the USA and addresses on the WEB. Internet applications are not accepted. There is a Brama Message Board (http://www.brama.com/travel/crimea.htm ) for questions about travel to Ukraine that were very helpful and answered our many visa questions. http://www.brama.com/ua-consulate/visa.html#HowToApply
   With the Visa completed it was time to figure out hotels and places we wanted to visit. We began corresponding with Eugene by email and he made many suggestions about our lodging after learning a little about us. We are budget minded but do like privacy, complete bathroom facilities and access to good food.
WE had arranged to take the VIP service at the Simferopol airport prior to arriving. The Vip service enables travelers to by-pass much of the hassle of entry...and did not having to wait in lines. Keep in mind the Simferopol airport is a small airport.We we were met by a nice girl and taken to a small mini bus. The bus drove in the dark to the back entrance of the airport. We met Eugene quickly and then went for tea in the VIP room. WE of course had to complete forms that required us to list personal items such as cameras, rings or watches and how much money we had. WE then paid for the V IP service that was something like $15.00 each and we were free to go.
    We would spend one night in Simferopol since we arrived so late (1:30 A.M.) and then head south for Sevastopol the next day. For Simferopol we chose the Tavria Hotel and Eugene made the reservations for us. They do not accept credit cards but the hotel was quite good. It is not near the downtown area but a good place to begin an adventure in the Krim. Some internet based travel agencies for Ukraine require a hotel reservation fee but we learned by writing to hotels we could make our own reservation. It (the fee) was a difficult concept for us to accept.

    The Tavria Hotel introduced us to our first traditional Ukrainian breakfast. Breakfast was found in another building on the hotel grounds. Breakfast was a large meatball, with kasha and cole slaw. I later found yogurt too. WE had a very memorable experience here as we met over a dozen old
    Soviet soldiers celebrating 60 some years of their involvement in the Great Patriotic War (WW II). We were given a honorary pin depicting the celebration and many photos were made.
    After this experience Eugene picked us up about 9:30 A.M. or so and we were off for our first full day of sightseeing in Simferopol. WE enjoyed seeing the many buildings and the re-building projects in the city. WE had a great lunch here of traditional soup with typical Ukrainian cuisine. I recommend that anyone considering travel to Ukraine for the first time need to research the varieties of foods available.

http://www.ukraine.online.com.ua/coockers.htm and
http://www.geocities.com/NapaValley/4795/national.html
http://www.russianfoods.com/recipes/item0017E/default.asp
While these are available in the USA unless you grew up in a Russian or Ukrainian community in the USA you would not be as familiar with the cuisine. My husband is of Rusyn decent which, and grew up speaking the Rusyn language and certainly eating many ethnic foods of Russia. This was a very important element of our trip to the Crimea.
See more on food when the Tatars are mentioned.
We were to stay in Krim for 8 days so we arranged to stay in Sevastopol and Yalta and travel out of these two cities for day trips. WE wanted to learn the history, eat traditional food and have a good time too. WE even learned about the "Charge of the Light Brigade" and just exactly where it took place.
   Choosing hotels was a difficult task for us. It seemed we could not get the information we really wanted to help us choose. The hotels we did choose were perfect for us and we pass on their names and addresses for anyone to research. Our problem is that we research too much and always think maybe the grass is greener somewhere else. One thing we did learn is that one time we inquired about a village in Crimea and someone responded with "nothing to do there", "just a small seaside village". Ummm....well, that is exactly what we wanted. The nothing to do turned out to be one of the three most interesting hikes we took on the trip. The village was Novy Svit and we will talk about it later.
In Sevastopol we chose the Yard Hotel specifically since at the time of our research it was the only hotel that seemed to have direct email.
Yard Hotel :
Astana Kesaeva str., 9
Sevastopol 99038, Ukraine
tel. 0038 (0692) 42-98-51, 42-98-57
tel./fax (0692) 42-98-52
E-mail: yard@stel.sebastopol.ua
WWW: http://www.stel.sebastopol.ua/yard

The Yard is a very nice 3-4* hotel. For us it was good since we had Eugene and his car.
The Hotel is away from the downtown area and would require a taxi drive and too far to walk for the weary tourist. We stayed here one night. The restaurant is modern and there is an attractive outdoor garden to dine also.
WE decided to stay in Sevastopol for 2 more nights as there is so much to see in this area. We moved to the Sevastopol Hotel. A large white massive stone structure in town.....a typical tourist hotel with a somewhat disappointing breakfast experience. The hotel is well situated in the city and overlooks the harbor. We had a huge room consisting of a sitting room and a separate bedroom. Following old Soviet ways we had to leave the key to the room with a floor monitor. The hotel was fine in every respect.
Sevastopol Hotel
Address: 8 Nahimova prosp., Sevastopol, 99000, Ukraine
Tel: +380 692 543-671
Fax: +380 692 543-448
www.allrussiahotels.com/hotels

In Yalta we chose the enormous Yalta Hotel. They are set up to deal with tourist. There are lots of shops, restaurants, within walking distance to the beach area.Our other choice was the Oreander which is based in Yalta on the promenade. The Yalta Hotel requires a taxi or other means of transportation to get down to the main part of Yalta. It was good for us. They have email and making a reservation over the internet was easy.All credit cards accepted. Eugene has other places for visitors to stay and he can arrange for lodging if he knows what is important to his tourist.

Yalta Hotel 4*
Address: 50 Drazhinskogo ulitsa
Phone : +380 (654) 350150
Email: umnov@hotel-yalta.com
Fax : +380 (654) 353093
http://www.hotel-yalta.com.ua/index_eng.htm

WE stayed in an apartment in Novy Svit which Eugene arranged for us. This was a nice experience for us as we wanted to meet people and learn how they live. A nice woman who spoke English managed the apartment. She made our breakfast. The view of the Black Sea was great. Eugene can help here. It is helpful for anyone desiring private rooms in the Crimea to be specific in what you want,i.e.private bath,easy walking distance, breakfast included....and to just ask Eugene.


Our big adventure in the Crimea included hiking and climbing in the mountains and exploring caves that are unimaginable to anyone that has not been here. This part of our visit to the Crimea had to be the most exciting and memorable part. Yes, we saw all the historical things like monuments, museums, the panorama but nothing prepared us for the wonderful scenery of the southern part of the Crimea. Keep in mind you don't drive on some paved road to these areas. Eugene has great confidence in his Sierra (car) and he drove us to off the beaten path places...sometimes a path was hardly visible. My husband and I tried to prepare for this vacation by walking some before we got here. It helped! Anyone coming here needs to be physically up to these walks....we walked and climbed through caves high up in the mountains. WE saw a few beautiful monasteries chiseled out on the side of a mountain. Women display their crafts along some of the hiking routes. I noticed hand carved wooden items and finger paintings. A particular breath taking experience was the climb down a long well. Archeologists are trying to discover the source of water that the early inhabitants had way up in the cave cities. They have discovered a well that may eventually lead to new understandings of how the cave people survived.

Palaces,Museums and Fairy Tale Park
    The palaces near Yalta were a pleasant surprise rivaling any in Europe. Nowhere had we ever seen such great paintings of Russain Tsar's and Tsarina's. Seeing photos of Nicholas II and his family and also of Catherine the Great made those long ago history classes come to life. We saw
Voronstov Palace of English Gothic and Moorish motifs.The great paintings here included French,English and Russian masters. Livadia Palace with beautiful gardens famous for the Yalta Conference in 1945 of Roosevelt,Churchill and Stalin.We got lucky here and saw a ballet being filmed. Massandra Palace houses more paintings of Peter and Catherine the Great. It is built similar to Versailles. The Fairy Tale park (Poliana) consists of wood carvings depiciting nursery rhymes. The large carvings are worth a quick look.

    Sh!!! Don't tell anyone we were here.
Back in the cold war days Soviet Subs had to be repaired somewhere. When asked about the greatest experience we had on our vacation to the Crimea this might come close to being our answer. A must visit is to the picturesque village and harbor of Balaklava. For it was here that a very secret submarine repair factory exists inside a mountain with access from the Black Sea.
This could be something out of a Steven Speilburg or OO7 movie. Just make sure Eugene's little flashlight is working or better yet bring a flashlight.A miner's hat with a light might help to. Soviet Subs entered from the Black Sea through a tunnel cut out in the mountain. Repairs were made in a dark and narrow area. We hiked through this tunnel stepping over drop offs to the sea below. I fully expected to be rescued by OO7 or even George Clooney would have worked..Balaklava has been off limits even to the Ukrainian people until the late 1990's. You haven't lived until you meet Victor and take his boat out into the harbor and into the Black Sea.

    The TATORS...no, not the potatoes but the Tartars or the Tatars!!
We had to have a quick history lesson as to just who the Tartars were. The Crimean Tatars are Turkic people who lived in the Crimea for over 7 centuries. They moved here with the Mongols and other groups from Eastern Europe. They established their own Khanate in the 1440s -1783 but during World War II, the entire Tatar population in Crimea fell victims to Stalin's oppressive policies and were deported. Today more than 250,000 Crimean Tatars are back in their homeland, struggling to reestablish their lives and reclaim their national and cultural rights against many social and economic obstacles.
http://www.euronet.nl/users/sota/krimtatar.html
Eugene decided we needed to experience real Tatar food and go somewhere for a traditional meal. So after a long day of hiking in the caves we figured Eugene would take us to a nice restaurant somewhere in Sevastopol. Wrong.. WE drove way out in the country and met
   A family of Tatars that would be our chefs for our evening meal. After climbing up into an outdoor raised bed-like platform called a takta we waited rather skeptically for our dinner. The family cooked outside on an open fire and we had seen them rolling out the dough for various food. We were served "chee-borek", a traditional tatar dish made with a filling from a round piece of dough and fried. We had Tartarian tea and a bowl of pears and sweet dough for dessert. It was a great experience. A few days later we were up in a small Tatar village and we walked through an open air type area where they were again cooking on open pits everything from rice, stuffed dough pieces and soups.