Hotel Pension Massandra Yalta

... and the fruit stands were open. How can these people stand to be outside in the cold all the time? They are all bundled up against the cold but they sit there day after day. Last night, the drink vender was holding a hot water kettle in her hands to keep warm. This morning, one of the flower ladies was standing on a cardboard box to keep her feet off the cold concrete. The internet cafe boys asked how I liked the weather and I said it was cold and they had ...

... there had been no reason and no written orders so no one ever really knew who gave the order. All of this came out when we were visiting the Palace where the Yalta Conference had been held. The bottom floor of the palace is a museum to the Yalta Conference while the top floor is a museum to the Romanov family and there are many home photos of Czar Nicholas and his family. He stated many times that he was a military man and he ...

... we were getting very tired, lugging our bags in and out of town, up and down the street, bus to bus, taxi to taxi, until finally, Jon came back saying that there was this man who would take us to a camping space for 60 grivnas. We hopped in, and he took us on a scenic ride of the hills. Yalta was an interesting city in that the mountains flanked the city, rose into the clouds, the clouds being a prominent feature over their forest capped peaks, just as sunshine was always ...

So here we are!! Its late in the night, there are no light nowhere, and we, a bunch of anarchist youth, smelling and seeing sea in the background, with backpacks, sitting at a crossroads, talking to each other, trying to figure out whats next. First we decided to go to buy some food for beginning: dont go never to the sea without food with you!! The main reason was food of course, but the second was the noise and lights of the cities, which we could see and hear. Few ...

... Stalin in 1945. Got there without hassle, walked around the gardens and the palace and then headed back into town. Grabbed some quick food from a street vendor and caught a third bus to the botanical gardens. The gardens were pretty, but nothing spectacular. It was nice and relaxing though, and I spent about 2 hours wandering through them. I think they might have been better if I hadn't seen what the area had to offer yesterday. The best part was towards the end ...

... daughter (maybe 8 years old or so) to guide our way. The guide seemed to really know her stuff and kept stopping to point out different things. Too bad it was all in Russian and I didn't understand a word. I was the only one who didn't speak Russian and the guide seemed to pick up on this fairly quickly and made an extremely appreciated effort to explain (mostly sign language with the odd English word) some of the more interesting stuff to me. The hike wasn't along a trail for the ...

... onions, egg salad, tomato and melted cheese. After my interesting dinner, I wandered back down the promenade to my lovely room. I realized on the way back that a lot of signs are in English, just using the Cyrillic alphabet (or a lot of the words are extremely similar to English). I think I am starting to catch onto the alphabet quite a bit. When I got back to my room, I enjoyed all my new modern conveniences. I sprawled out in my wonderful bed and watched a bit of TV ...

... his study, the desk where he wrote "The Lady with the Little Dog" and other stories and "The Three Sisters" and "The Cherry Orchard." He loved to entertain and held regular salons of all the contemporary Russian writers, artists, actors and musicians. Maxim Gorky visited here often and had a favorite bench in the garden. Dr. C. liked to garden, planting over 150 species of bushes and trees in the gardens around his ...

... princess he captured. In those times you were allowed four wives (who each had their own house) and an unlimited number of concubines (who shared a dormitory of their own). Each of his four wives had a pecking order, the first ruling over the rest. The Khan wanted the Polish princess to take the place of his first wife. Unfortunately for him, his prowess on the battlefield and horde of treasure didn't much impress the object of his affections. She spurned his offers, gave ...

... it on all three sides like a huge amphitheater, a terrain that gives it its almost subtropical microclimate. I check into the Hotel Oradea at the weste end of naborezhna Lenina, the seafront promenade where Chekov's "Lady with the Little Dog" first met her lover. The hotel was built in 1907 and must have been a beauty in its day, but a series of unfortunate facelifts have left its interiors much more '80s Westin than early 20th c. But to be fair, let's hear the other side of ...