When travelling in Ukraine, don't expect gourmet-experiences (except if you run into a an exceptional run down joint in the Carpatian mountains on the way to Bukovel where they serve the best shashlik ever! "Café Kafka").
So we were not hoping for much.
But we discovered some places, where you take off your shoes to sit up high on cushions at a very short table, surrounded by water pipes and Tartar food. Such a new experience, we really enjoyed it.
The first such place was on Ai Petri mountain, just before boarding the gondola down to the valley. The camel toilet was our highlight. Food was OK.
The other one was at the western end of the beach front in Yalta. Food was almost OK.
The most overwhelming impression on Crimea was an overload of sound in every restaurant and pub and on the street. We actually left a place early, because another bad singer had activated his microphone.
Throughout the country, we find it hard to find a restaurant without a running TV. On Crimea, they have TVs plus very loud music. So just be prepared!
The travel guide said about eating on Crimea "be prepared for bad food at totally overboard prices". We cannot confirm this. Comning from our home base in Kyiv, the food was average, prices were surprisingly low and the service was delivered with more smiles than we were accustomed to.
20090629
First evening in Yalta
Having arrived at the hotel, we quickly moved on to Yalta pier, where boats take off for longer and shorter excursions. We chose a short excursion along the shore line, but before we took off, we had a bite to eat right on the water front. We saw a colourful parade of people strolling along and having a good time. It is really worth the contemplation!
Then we boarded the boat (35 UAH per person) and paid another 10 UAH each on board to be allowed access to the upper deck......
There we sat and admired the coast line, past numerous castles (the one where Churchill stayed, the one where the conference took place, and the numerous ones that were built by good and very bad architects as you can see above).
The highlight of the trip was the swallow's nest, a curious fortress-like building hanging over a cliff, built by a romantic German in love for his adored Schatz.
We had heard that today it houses a bad pizzeria and is very disappointing on the inside, therefore we opted for this external approach only. Based on our experience, this boat trip is highly recommended by us to all visitors to Yalta as a first teaser.
Back on the shore, we strolled westward along the pier and saw a lot of eateries, people out in the water in th
e dark,
and street musicians at work. What a nice place.
e dark,
and street musicians at work. What a nice place.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.
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!
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!
Travelling with e-tickets....
.... can sometimes be a test for your nerves.
On Friday, we took off for our well deserved "parents-only" break to Crimea and left the happy kids behind in Kyiv with Vika.
At Borispol airport, we presented our passports as identification for our tickets. Peter had purchased them online (and over the phone) and our names were on a list that we had a glimpse at...... but a man who was constantly on two phones (sometimes in parallel) informed us, that our tickets had been cancelled that same morning. Cancelled?
Take off was scheduled for 13:20h and it was now 12:40h.
We did not even have the phone number of the booking agent, so Peter called his assistant for help. She was not in reach of any internet terminal and could not help. The well proven reception desk of his company's office in Vienna/Austria helped us out and soon after Peter was on the phone with the people that he had booked the tickets with.
They shared his amazement at the course of events and could not understand it either. They had neen informed via email in the morning, that our tickets had been annuled, but didn't know why.
So Peter hang up and hunted for 2 new tickets. He managed to get this organized. But the lady insisted on cash payment. The clock was ticking. The two ATMs in the departure hall did not work. In the meantime, Sylvie had been handed boarding passes. Peter and the ticket lady ran back to her booth, where she miraculously discovered a machine for processing credit cards...... but not on first attempts, of course!
In the end, we stood in line with the other passengers headed for Simferopol on Crimea. And we took off and landed safely :-)
Upon arrival, we were greeted by a cab driver with our name on a sign. We had asked the hotel to arrange this for us. He took us to the hotel for the agreed sum of 450 UAH, and the ride took 1:40h.
On Friday, we took off for our well deserved "parents-only" break to Crimea and left the happy kids behind in Kyiv with Vika.
At Borispol airport, we presented our passports as identification for our tickets. Peter had purchased them online (and over the phone) and our names were on a list that we had a glimpse at...... but a man who was constantly on two phones (sometimes in parallel) informed us, that our tickets had been cancelled that same morning. Cancelled?
Take off was scheduled for 13:20h and it was now 12:40h.
We did not even have the phone number of the booking agent, so Peter called his assistant for help. She was not in reach of any internet terminal and could not help. The well proven reception desk of his company's office in Vienna/Austria helped us out and soon after Peter was on the phone with the people that he had booked the tickets with.
They shared his amazement at the course of events and could not understand it either. They had neen informed via email in the morning, that our tickets had been annuled, but didn't know why.
So Peter hang up and hunted for 2 new tickets. He managed to get this organized. But the lady insisted on cash payment. The clock was ticking. The two ATMs in the departure hall did not work. In the meantime, Sylvie had been handed boarding passes. Peter and the ticket lady ran back to her booth, where she miraculously discovered a machine for processing credit cards...... but not on first attempts, of course!
In the end, we stood in line with the other passengers headed for Simferopol on Crimea. And we took off and landed safely :-)
Upon arrival, we were greeted by a cab driver with our name on a sign. We had asked the hotel to arrange this for us. He took us to the hotel for the agreed sum of 450 UAH, and the ride took 1:40h.
20090609
Gas for the People!
We took this picture in a village approximately 30km out of Kyiv. We have seen many more very similar installations throughout the region and we can confirm that all pipes are easily accessible for any interested party..... and just in case, there is uncertainty about the matter, the word "gas" is written in big cyrillic letters on the fence.
Getting ready for Easter
I know, Easter is long over, but I still want to share this observation with you.
People in Kyiv get ready for this very important religious day (or for the beginning of spring?) by applying a lot of (mostly) white paint on various parts of streets, sidewalks, fences and trees.
As a result, it all looks freshly cleaned.
The kids were told, that the paint contains some chemical ingredient, that keeps off unwanted insects, but this could not be verified so far.
The kids were told, that the paint contains some chemical ingredient, that keeps off unwanted insects, but this could not be verified so far.
20090531
The Treasures of the old "Seidenstrasse"
Who in Europe has not heard of Samarkand?
But where is it ? Does it still exist? What country does it belong to?
Peter is currently working in an organization called "EECA - Eastern Europe & Central Asia", which includes most of the territory of the former Soviet Union, i.e. today's CIS (GUS)-Countries. Uzbekistan is one of them. So the management team of this region had one of its regular meetings in Uzbekistan. A team building activity besides the usual management talk gave more possibilities to experience the country side, including the fabulous city of Samarkand.
Some history: Samarkand used to be a central trading point on the "silk road" over may centuries. Its roots go back to long before Christ, and in the islamic world its mausoleums for relatives of the prophet and mosques are well known as the ones with the "blue domes".
Cutting it short: If you ever find an opportunity to visit Samarkand, do so! We were visiting this city with a professional guide who tried to make us knowledgable about a city and country we had not known before. I will not repeat the numbers ... it were many! Such as the 1018 stars that Ulug Bek identified and registered in the 15th century.
Most impressive were not only the mausoleums that were built sometime between the 10th and the 17th century, with a peak round the 15th century when Samarkand was the capital of an empire reaching from India to Egypt, from Mongolia to Central Asia, Iran, Irak and even the European parts of Turkey. Some touristic highlights : Mausoleums of various chiefs (Tamerlan, Ulug Bek, and his decendants - there are at least 2 names for each of them, so don't worry about the names at all), the shrine of Ulug Bek(supposedly the biggest single piece of Jade around the world), the astronomical observatorium (Sextant) he built, the mosque that was devoted to Ulug Bek's most loved wife, the "City of the living King" and last but not least the 3 big mausoleums on the central square (see picture above).
In today's life Peter was impressed with people's positive approach to life, their ubiquitous drive for trading and most of all - the strong emphasis that the (seemingly straight forward authoritarian) government put on education in this remote place. Even a farmer whom Peter met in the mountains round Samarkand, spoke as "foreign" languages Russian and even some words German which he claimed he had learned at school. Almost everybody speaks Uzbeki, some sort of Farsi and in many cases Turkish as the basis of life.
Food in Uzbekistan: get ready for some basic, but fresh vegetables, followed by Pilaw and lots of grilled meat from lamb, beef and chicken. Those who know the tradition of shashlik in Ukraine will find the same also here, in similar quality but without pork. Peter and his colleagues had a fantastic evening when cooking Pilaw from lamb and beef at a semi-private house in Samarkand. An unforgettable experience!
Also unforgettable: the local currency "Soum" is only available in such small notes that if you want to pay for a dinner for a couple of people, you literally need ot bring a suitcase of cash with you (and they usually don't accept credit cards), and the Soum is not convertable. So before changing Dollars - think carefully how much money you might need, but also think about how much you can carry at a time!!
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