The Doctor is Out
Trip Start
May 12, 2006
1
17
20
Trip End
Jun 03, 2006
After spending most of a cloudy morning locating a photo store where I could buy a new memory card (having filled the one I'm using), I set off to see Chekhov's house, cabbing up into the hills above Yalta. Outside the museum it started to rain and I simultaneously realized Dr. C's premises were closed for the day. A guard let me into the grounds and gardens for 10 hua and I at least got a few shots of the outside.
I decided to walk back to the hotel, an easy choice since there was little traffic on the road and no sign of a cab, but of course once again my navigation skills failed me. I feel a bit like a pinball released from the spring bouncing from street to street and covering twice the ground I need to. Finally admitted defeat and flagged a passing cab back to the hotel.
Tomorrow I'll have Yvgeny's services again and we'll head east along the coast. In the meantime, I'm the prisoner of Yalta. I decided today that I'd just call this a vacation within a vacation and spent most of it reading Malcom Bradbury's "Doctor Crimanale," which of course you should rush out and buy, too. After tomorrrow's excursion, I'll have one more day in tourist heaven and then another driver will take me to the airport in Simferopol on Wednesday to catch my flight back to Kiev.
Bonus advice: Never order a martini in Yalta. It did contain gin but was drowned in vermouth and came in a highball glass with a slice of lemon and two olives. Something has been lost in translation.
I decided to walk back to the hotel, an easy choice since there was little traffic on the road and no sign of a cab, but of course once again my navigation skills failed me. I feel a bit like a pinball released from the spring bouncing from street to street and covering twice the ground I need to. Finally admitted defeat and flagged a passing cab back to the hotel.
Tomorrow I'll have Yvgeny's services again and we'll head east along the coast. In the meantime, I'm the prisoner of Yalta. I decided today that I'd just call this a vacation within a vacation and spent most of it reading Malcom Bradbury's "Doctor Crimanale," which of course you should rush out and buy, too. After tomorrrow's excursion, I'll have one more day in tourist heaven and then another driver will take me to the airport in Simferopol on Wednesday to catch my flight back to Kiev.
Bonus advice: Never order a martini in Yalta. It did contain gin but was drowned in vermouth and came in a highball glass with a slice of lemon and two olives. Something has been lost in translation.


