Crimea lays at the most southern part of Ukraine. It is a parliamentary republic which is governed by the Constitution of Crimea in accordance with the laws of Ukraine. The capital and administrative seat of the republic's government is the city of Simferopol, located in the center of the peninsula. Crimea's area is 26,200 square kilometres. The peninsula is bounded on the South and West by the Black Sea. The eastern tip of the Crimea is the Kerch peninsula, separated from the Taman peninsula (a projection of the mainland) by the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov.
Crimea is rich in history, but I am not going to give you a history lesson here, so If you want to know more, google Crimean History to learn more.
Our Journey began on Friday night after work. None of us had packed, so it was a mad rush to get home, pack and get to the train station by 8pm to catch our overnight train to Simferopol. 
Now I have travelled on the Southern Aurora train from Melbourne to Sydney overnight as a kid, so I knew what sleeping on trains would be like, but Ukraine trains are hardly the Southern Aurora ! There was sections where 4 people could bunk and then opposite that was two bunks going length ways with the train. Only two toilets. per carriage.
We did however, get a mattress, pillow, linnen and blankets ! It was reasonably comfortable and most people slept. I cant sleep on planes let alone trains but I think I managed to get an hours sleep during the 10 hour journey.
We arrived at Simferopol around 5.30 am. The aim was to sightsee along the way to our Apartment in Alupka. The first stop was Bakhchysaray (back-chee-sa-rye) where the Khans original palace, cute Orthodox Church and Cave city are the main attractions.
We hop onto one of the many local busses we were to take that weekend.
Crimea is very Mediterranean with small very windy streets that taxi drivers like to practice their rally skills on (more about this later), people sitting on their doorsteps or balconies watching the world go by. Bob, you can put this on your list of places to visit in Eastern Europe next year.
Limestone rock faces are the feature of this place and they are impressive. I had the urge to abseil off them, but we had too much to see and I think I have had enough thrills on the ICE in Kharkiv to last me a while.
The Church, built into the lime stone rock with its gold dome was the first stop. It is possibly the smallest and prettiest I have seen. The Souvenir shop in the front of it spoilt it though!
The front of the church
Love this pic of the Monk walking
the dog up to the church
They love their Tulips in Ukraine
Ok that is enough of Churches, the real interest for me lay in the mountains across the valley. Chuftut-Kale (chew-fewt-kar-lay) rises 200 metres along the bluff plateau and houses many caves and structures where people lived between the 6th and 12th centuries by descendants of the Samaritan tribes. Its an amazing place and hike up the mountain where you pass the locals every 20 metres selling souvenirs. The locals carry all their stalls and souvenirs up the mountain every day to make a living. I can tell you, we were taking regular breaks from the hike, but these locals just kept walking until they reached their spot to sell their goods
Having a break !
Mishka and two of his harem
Mishka flying !!!!
Hmm, the Lovers!!
Sorry mate, we will try to be
a little quieter next time !
Having a break on the way down
A truely amazing place and worth every aching muscle in my body!
A bite to eat, then we move onto the Khans Palace.
The locals keeping an eye on things
The small winding streets
The enterance to the palace,
Unforunatlely surrounded
by sreet vendors
Catherine the Great spared the Khans Palace from her mass destruction during the 18th century on the basis is was sweet and romantic.It is not a grandeur structure but it has intricate designs of Persian and Italian style.
The Golden Fountain
white marble inscribed with
gold leaf
The fountain of tears
Bakhchisaray Fountain or Fountain of Tears is a real case of life imitating art. The fountain is known as the embodiment of love of one of the last Crimean Khans, Qırım Giray Khan for his young wife, and his grief after her early death. The Khan was said to have fallen in love with this Polish girl in his harem. Despite his unmoved cruelty, he was grievous and wept when she died, astonishing all those who knew him. He commissioned a marble fountain to be made, so that the rock would weep, like him, forever.On visiting the fountain, Russian writer alexander Pushkin was so moved by the tragedy, he wrote the poem "The Bakhchysaray Fountain (1823)
I was puffed!
We caugh the bus back to the bus station and continued our journey on to Sevastopol where we caught another bus to Alupka our resting place for three nights
Sevastopol bus station
As we close in on the southern coast of Crimea, we are greated by huge cliffs that span the coast. Amazingly high and very graphic. Did I say Ukraine was flat ? Certainly not here in the crimean region.
We Finally reach Alupka and wait for a taxi to take us to our apartment
Where we were greeted by a large pod of Dolphins ! I estimated about 16 -18 of them cruising in the calm afternoon Black Sea about 200 metres of the coast right in front of our apartment.
Off to dinner and we polish off a meal and two bottle of local Crimean Red wine. We were exhausted and absolutely fell into bed that night
And that folks is the end of day one on our Crimean journey. A huge day and a huge blog. I have had to sort through hundreds of photos as three of us took cameras. Given day two was just as big as day one, I will stop here and have a break. Until tomorrow...........
xm
Hehehehe..... beat you to it Mishka. I posted the first one!!
ReplyDeleteNo no no. I was first. I posted mine yesterday at 18:08 :) So I won! :P
ReplyDelete