Best Eastern Primorskaya Sochi

... There is a crudity and simplicity about the Russia we saw that accords with the written views we have previously come across. Is it something to do with the Russian personality or the regimes they have endured or both? Probably a melange of the two one would think. They are hard, often cruel and cunning, folk and have plodding attitude which shines through in their dealings with others. This latter applies particularly to officialdom of whom we ...

... a date with her new boyfriend, Manuk, when her old boyfriend, a rough Georgian named Mancho, grabbed her from behind by her hair and punched her in the face. Manuk and Mancho, one with a gun and one with a knife, wanted to fight, but Elina got in the middle of them. Everyone survived, somehow, and Elina went on to date tall, dark Manuk, until she suspected him of cheating on her. She left; he never called again; now, Elina says she loves him ...

The first of our eastern block countries. The news about Sochi was that they were waiting to see the outcome of their winter Olympics bid. We heard when we arrived back to Sydney that they were successful in that bid. The only issue I have with that is that they will probably need to have an etiquette crash course as I found them particularly unfriendly. You would imagine if they were practising hosting the Olympics that they ...

... but it doesn't really show much of the town. Today is a day at Sea. These days are quite boring because there are so many guests onboard that we can't really use any of the guest facilities, so I end up working most of the day. Tonight Verne Lundquist from CBS Sports is the entertainment so I might go watch that for a lack of something better to do. I have put pictures from Kusadasi and Yalta up. Take Care,