After our stop on Ephasus, we spent the following day at sea, traveling through the Bosphorus Strait and into the Black Sea. The trip was very scenic. The hills of Turkey on either side were rolling and had gorgeous buildings with red tiled roofs, which really popped against the green of the trees. Turkey would not let anyone forget that they own both sides of the strait: there were huge flags of Turkey on either side. Eventually, the hills gave way to the Black Sea and we were on our way to Yalta, Ukraine. It is interesting that Ukraine is divided the way it is, but this section of the Ukraine is to the east of the section Russia owns that is on the Black Sea (Ukraine has land on the west and the east of Russia on the Black Sea). This area is also in the Crimean, which has an interesting history of its own. At any rate, we arrived in Yalta and were off for an excursion to a couple of palaces.
The first palace that we visited was the hunting camp of Tsar Alexander III. The grounds were lovely, with a gorgeous lily-filled pond in front. There were some interesting statues of what I believed was Pan, as well. The palace itself was a bit eclectic, with a mix of baroque, classical, and renaissance architecture.
After our visit to the palace, we went to another palace which was the summer residence of Tsar Nicholas II. It also served as a meeting place for Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill after WWII where they discussed how Germany was going to be divided. It was an interesting building, all white, with an amazing view of he Black Sea.
After visiting the two palaces, we made our way back to the ship. We then sailed on to Sochi, Russia, which is where the 2014 Winter Olympics are going to be held. As a result, most of the city was under construction. We had a nice long walk along the city's promenade along the Black Sea, seeing many of the town's old buildings, including one of the area's oldest libraries. We then took a drive to Stalin's summer residence. Man, this thing was probably one of the ugliest buildings I have ever seen. The outside was painted a moss green color that reminded me of baby food. The inside wasn't quite as bad, but the window treatments were hideous. I kept thinking to myself, "Ok, I'd have to knock out that wall to really open this room up, then I'd get rid of these floors and put in some nice wooden floors, and of course, the window treatments have got to go." It was an interesting visit.
We then went to a natural spring which reeked of sulfur, but apparently it has healing properties. After a quick visit, we headed back to the ship. That night was karaoke night on board, and to say I tore that up would be an understatement. I made several new friends that evening, which was nice because I really hadn't met too many people my age. After dancing until almost 3am, I stumbled back to the room and hit the sack. Thankfully, the next day was a sea day as we sailed to Sevastopol, Ukraine. I had a nice message and otherwise recovered from the late night the night before. At Sevastopol, I decided to not go on a group tour and do my own thing, which is exactly what I did. I strolled around town, taking in the local sights. This town is the base of the Ukrainian navy, and they leased a large portion of their base to the Russians, so there were tons of naval ships and military guys around. I headed back to the ship for lunch and walked around some more that afternoon. That evening we set sail for Odessa.
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