Crimea - a romantic trip for 2

After a couple of weekends that Peter spent in the office or on some business trips, it's time to relax. THE place to got this time of the year: Crimea, more precisely the city of Yalta. We pick hotel Bristol (http://www.hotel-bristol.com.ua/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=55&lang=en), directly at the harbour and supposedly the oldest hotel in town, but revently renovated (that's most important when traveling in Ukraine). The hotel is nice and worth the price (900 UAH for business class room with south-balcony), we can recommend it. It serves us well as basis for our trips scanning the area:

1) The highest waterfall in Ukraine, about 13 km from Yalta, according to the guide 100m high. We get a taxi (50 UAH) to get there, pay 20 UAH entrance fee and walk about 2 minutes from the street. In short - forget it, we spare you the picture.

2) The hidden lake Karagol: After this greatest laugh of the day, we walk about 1 hour uphill along the road, to find the next supposedly big attraction, a mountain lake called "Osera Karagol". Well, after 1 hour no lake is in sight. Remembering the vast quantities of water we just saw on the waterfall, we suspect the lake may have disappeared. When we venture into one path in the forest looking for the lake, an invisible, barking dog stops us soon, so we quickly head back to the main forest road.


3) The way: So we decide to try what we haven't done for more than 20 year - hitch-hiking! We know what to do to stop an ex-soviet car, and it works! Already the first car stops. It's a car that still has the printed letters on it from some Geman company that used it when it was (almost) new, before it was sold to the East. Now it's driven by a family coming from the Donbass-area. A typical Ukrainian family with father + mother + 1 kid + 2 grand parents (that's why the Ukrainian population is rapidly shrinking, from today's 46 million to forecasted 26-35 million in 2050). The trip is fantastic with them. We have some nice basic discussions and take a foto while stopping at a view-point high up in the mountain. They leave us at the pass close to the peak, as they continue to another place from there.

4) Ai Petri - the highest mountains close by, offers a magnificent view of the complete area: We leave our newest friends and walk towards the summit & top station of the cable car. On the way we meet a couple of paragliders having fun (one of them shouting while flying past us: "I go home now!"). After about 30 min walk we end up at a rather touristic place run by Tatars selling almost home-made stuff. Peter's first encounter with them is disappoiting: they are real Muslims, the well-deserved beer has to wait some more hours. Anyway, the food is good and we finally see that their camels are very well educated. They even go to the toilet without a guide!

After this highlight, we buy Pakistani-made slippers for the girls and take the cable car (UAH 50 pP) down to Alupta. Great scenery on the way down from 1200 meters to 0 above sea level within 15 min.

5) The Yalta conference:

a) We start with the "Voroskin's palace" in Alupta. The crazy & rich governour of the region built this palace as a mixture of scottish & arabic design mid of the 19th century. That's why it hosted the British delegation during the Yalta conference. Churchill once said that he thought one of the lions in the garden looked like him. Make a bet.

b) Next on the list: Livadia Palace in Yalta, the summer house of the Zars (Alexander III and Nikolai II are omni-present here). This is where the Yalta conference took place Feb 4-11, 1945, and the American delegation stayed during the conference. A big building that smells a lot of history. Visiting the inside is mandatory for anybody aware of history. Besides memories of the Yalta conference, the exhibition gives a good overview of the Romanovs' life in Yalta. From the palace 677 steps lead down to a semi-private beach. There we close the day with our first swim in the black sea - perfect water temperature, rather clean waters and hot gravel stones on the beach.

c) The Russian Delegation: Next day we check out the place where Stalin and the Russian delegation stayed during the conference - Massandra palace, just east of Yalta. The former "Jagdschloss" of the Zar is built in French style, and in many respects resembles the "Hermes Villa" in Vienna, which was built for the same purpose - a hunting lodge for the emperor.






Important observation: Did Stalin prefer this place versus Livadia because the stone creatures here show more appetite than Churchill's lions before?

















6) The Romantic Evening: starts in Gursuf, a village about 15 km east of Yalta. We have an aperitif at the beach and then dinner in the best restaurant close to the beach, called Meraba (thanks to our friend Anna for the recommendation!), including tasting of the famous "Krimsekt/Champagne from Crimea". Great view, happy faces & good food. Don't miss this place!