Home

Late on Monday night (the 20th) we arrived home at Melbourne airport. The Qatar flights were comfortable, even though delays meant that we had a very tight connection at Doha.

So -

• we've travelled halfway across the world by train, logging over 11,200 km on the trains in about 9 days of travel
• we've travelled by plane, train, taxi, trolley-bus, tram, marshrutka (mini-bus), metro, monorail, ferry, car and foot
• we've found Lake Baikal and swum in the Black Sea
• we worked out how to explore the battlefields of the Kursk salient
• we've been to four previously "off-limits" cities - Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Sevastopol and Balaclava and even taken photos of Russian military installations that would once have had the secret police on our backs
• we've eaten the local cuisine of Siberia, Georgia, Russia, Crimea and the Ukraine
• we've failed to find Russian wine, but we did find and sample wine from Australia, Chile, France, Italy, South Africa, Crimea, Bulgaria, Turkey and "a melange of European countries"

Now we have to acclimatise to the cold and darkness of a Melbourne winter..........

Leaving Istanbul

Today, Sunday 19th, was our last day in Istanbul.

Topkapi Palace from the Bosphorus

This is an amazing city. It has a huge population - claimed as around 25 million (the population of Australia and NZ). For such a huge city, it all seems to work remarkably well. Sure the roads can get crowded, but it isn't gridlock and everybody handles it all with remarkable good cheer. In fact, the overwhelming impression of Turkish people is of their welcoming nature. It can be a taxi driver, a shopkeeper trying to entice you into their carpet store or restaurant, the staff at the hotel or the person on the other side of your attempt to bargain in the bazaar - invariably they have a smile and a welcoming manner and they don't hassle you.

Maiden's Tower on the Bosphorus

The core of Istanbul is the water - the Bosphorus splits the city (into Europe and Asia) and the long Golden Horn harbour further splits the European side into a northern and a southern section, with the Sea of Marmara forming a southern bound to the city (which spills around its edges). All the water is alive with shipping. Masses of ships seem parked or queued in the Sea of Marmara and a constant stream of ships threads the channel up the Bosphorus, with only about 400 or 500 metres between them. All around this, flocks of ferries dash across the Golden Horn or between Europe and Asia, with the whole organized chaos working like a well oiled machine.

As our plane left at 7:30 pm, we decided to venture to Asia on the ferry. We took a ferry to Kadikoy, about 35 minutes from the Sirecki landing near our hotel. The trip gives you a wonderful view of the busy waterways and a great view of Istanbul, particularly of the older part contaning the Topkapi, the Haya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. We wandered around Kidikoy and had a morning tea. This wasn't a tourist area - there was no English in evidence.

Sunday crowds on Istikal Caddesi

To continue, we took a further ferry back to the European side to an area north of the "new town" called Besiktas. We walked down from the landing alongside the large Dolmabahce Palace (the palace of the Sultans from the mid 1800's). Given the length of the queue, we decided to skip the tour and walked steeply uphill to Taksim at the head of Istikal Caddesi. This was heavy work in the heat and humidity, so we stopped for lunch and a beer on the terrace of a restaurant called Haci Baba. We had a tasty Ottoman meal called Lamb Tandor.

We strolled down Istikal Caddesi, which, if anything, was even more crowded than it was when we were here on Friday night. We arrived back at our hotel to drop a few things and then headed off for some last minute shopping and a final beer at our nearby rooftop terrace.

Shortly after, our taxi arrived and delivered us to the airport and our flight home via Doha. The green park strip bordering the Sea of Marmara was crowded with Istanbul families enjoying picnics and bar-b-ques.

Istanbul - Day 2

After breakfast on Saturday 18th, we set off for the Topkapi Palace, the palace of the Ottoman sultans. It was a short walk from the hotel. The day was another hot, humid day in the high 20's.

On the verandah outside the council chambers

We spent some hours exploring the Topkapi Palace, the primary palace of the Ottoman sultan from the 1450's to the early 1800's. It consists of four courtyard areas, each more private, with buildings devoted to audiences, pavilions, a circumcision room, barracks, administration and sleeping, along with a separate area reserved for the functions of the harem.

Considerable use is made of colourful glazed tiles, of painted areas and of inlays (mainly mother-of-pearl), with fountains and pools. A treasury contains stunning masses of gems and objects along with relics important to Islam (such as the rod of Moses, the sword or David or parts of the prophet's beard).

View over the Bosphorus from Topkapi Palace

Set high on a rise, the final part of the palace offers excellent views over the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn.

We stopped for lunch (the classic Middle Eastern fast food of a doner kebab) and a soft drink to relieve the impact of the heat and humidity before heading off to Beyazit Camii, a square before the great gateway to Istanbul University. A hike in the heat around the University walls brought us to Suleymaniye Camii, the grand mosque complex built by Suleyman the Magnificent in the mid 1500's (before the Blue Mosque).. Recently restored, the interior is large and full of light.

We continued to explore before walking back to the Grand Bazaar. We explored more of this maze and found a few more items to complete our shopping requirements, before taking the tram back to our hotel.

In Suleymaniye Mosque

It was "beer o'clock" so we headed down the street and up to a terrace bar overlooking the main street. As trams wizzed by beneath us and the masses strolled in the street, we had some beer and nuts.

Later we headed for our last evening meal in Istanbul. It consisted of a meze plate, followed by a dish of meat and vegetables on a heated metal plate, accompanied by a Turkish Chardonnay/Sultana. The wine was from Izmir (on the Aegean coast) and was quite refreshng.

Istanbul - Day 1

Today, Friday 17th, was our first full day in Istanbul. So, we did the tourist things.

Basilica Cistern

First was the Basilica Cistern. This is a marble-column supported underground water tank, which dates from the time of Constantine. Water was feed to it from over 19 km away by an aquaduct. The lighting is low, which creates an atmospheric space. For film buffs, this space appeared in "From Russia with Love", or, if you follow the Turkisk version, it would be "Greetings from Moscow".

Aya Sofia interior

From there, it was over the road to Hagia Sofia (or Aya Sofya), which was built on Justinian's orders in 537 and dedicated to Holy Wisdom (apparently, if you transliterate the Greek word for wisdom, you get "sofia"). Until the Muslim Conquest in 1453, it was the largest church in Christendom. Thereafter it became a mosque, until it was converted to a museum under Ataturk in the 1930's. The hulking exterior is definitely impressive, but the vast interior with its great soaring dome, wonderful spaces and remnants of splendid mosaics is superb.

Inside the Blue Mosque

Across way is the Blue Mosque (the Suntan Ahmet Mosque). Opened in 1619, it is a very large mosque that outwardly resembles Aya Sofia (though it is slightly smaller and more delicate in appearance). Inside, it is full of light with a blue glow from the tiled walls and the dome with painted blue inscriptions.

Adjacent to the Blue Mosque is the area of the ancient Hippodrome. Today it is a paved area, which contains a 3500 year-old Eqyptian column from Karnak and the remains of a 479 BC Greek bronze victory column from Dephi, in the shape of three intertwined serpents in a spiral.

We walked up the main street (Divan Yolu), avoiding the frequent trams that sped by, passing tombs and cemetries containing notables from the 19th century, until we found the column erected by Constantine in AD 330 to celebrate the dedication of the city as the capital of the Empire. History weighs on you as you walk around this city.



Ready to shop in the Grand Bazaar



History over - it was now time to venture into the Grand Bazaar, a medieval maze of thousands of shops selling everything (jewellery, carpets, textiles, leather goods, antiques). It is confusing and maniac, but great fun with the searching, bargaining and dealing done with a great spirit. We did the tourist thing - seeking, bargainning and buying, with a break for a Turkish lunch.



Finding an exit from the Bazaar, we hopped on a tram back to our hotel to deposit our bargains. Then it was back to the streets for a wander around our area. We were back to the Spice Market and around various streets in the area. Streets seemed to be given over to purposes - we found a street of wedding dresses and a street of men's cloth (and tailors). Our hotel, by the way, is in the street of automotive spare parts. We had a Turkish tea (strong tea, best taken with liberal amounts of sugar) as we wandered.



Cracking the claypot to release the Anatolian stew

Back to the hotel, we deposited our further purchases, before exiting to find dinner. We chose the restaurant directly opposite the hotel, which proved a good decision. We had beer with a meze platter (various dips and bread), followed by a Turkish cabernet sauvigon with an Anatolian stew. The stew is special - is is a mix of meats and vegetables cooked in a clay pot or urn (a bit like a clay flower vase); the meal being released by breaking the clay pot with great ceremony. It was actually very tasty and the wine was good. To finish, we were given a glass of raki, the popular Turkish spirit similar to ouzo.

To Turkey

After another excellent Londonskaya breakfast, we slowly packed and headed for Odessa airport. The "taxi" arrived and we set off. Apparently, a decaying road infrastructure and an abundance of maniacal drivers results in the Ukraine having a disproportionate road toll. We saw examples of Ukrainan driving at their best on the trip to Yalta and this final drive through Odessa ensured that we didn't forget the stylish intensity and devil-may-care approach of the best Ukrainian drivers.

At high speed, and mostly on the wrong side of the road, we arrived at Odessa airport. While there seemed to be only three flights leaving on the day, the Ukraine had deployed the full majesty of its bureaucracy. After multiple passport inspections and multiple scans of our luggage, we finally got on a plane. Turkish airlines were actually very good, with plenty of room in Economy and a good lunch (what else, turkey sandwich).

Istanbul airport is about 60 minutes outside the city. We were met by a hotel driver, who took us into town. Mostly, this was a good trip (unlike our Ukrainian experience), but the last few kilometres involved an interesting transit of a maze of very small and very packed streets, which gove us some impression of the old town.

Our hotel, the Maywood is in the old town area (Sulthanamet), very near the key sights, and where most tourists stay. The hotel is excellent; small rooms are clean and well-appointed and staff are friendly and helpful.

To acquaint ourselves with Istanbul, we headed off for a stroll. We found the seafront near the railway station, an area called Sirecki. We could see the Bosphorus on the right and the Golden Horn off to the left.was a mass of people and the water a mass of craft, particularly medium and large ferries.

Spices for sale



We had a look at the New Mosque (completed 1663) and then the Spice Bazaar. This Bazaar has vendors of all sorts, including jewellery and clothing, but with a large number of sellers of spices and of sweets. Stalls were piled with mounds of colourful spices or of various flavours of Turkish Delight.



Ferries jockey at high speed to get under the bridge



We crossed the Galata Bridge to the "new town" area of Beyoglu (whch only dates from about 1300). The bridge was lined with fisherman casting lines from long rods into the waters below. Crossing the bridge we saw the madness of ferries charging across the harbour and under the bridge, travelling at full speed and barely missing each other as then jockeyed for position. It's possible that they are driven by Ukrainians.



On the Beyoglu side, we took a funicular (the Tunel) to make the most of the climb for us and then strolled up Istiklal Caddesi. Most of Istanbul was strolling this pedestrianised street with us. Smart shops, embassies and very many restaurants line the street.

Strollers on Istiklal Caddesi

 We had a beer at one place and found another for dinner. The "mixed grill" wasn't impressive, but the tight mass of restaurants in the small side street were doing good business and enthusiastically seeking new customers.

We walked home, down the hill from Galata Tower, across the bridge and followed the tramline back to our hotel. The fishermen were still hard at work.

Odessa - Day 2

It's Wednesday 15th, and yet another morning of blue skies, low 20's and high humidity. The hotel breakfast was the best that we have had, but this isn't a high bar to exceed.



Vorontsov's Palace



First objective was an exploration of the area immediately around our hotel. At the end of Prymorsky Boulevard we found Vorontsov's Palace. Vorontsov, who owned the mush more impressive Alupka Palace near Yalta, was the third governor of the city. The palace, built in 1826, is n a fine classical style but is somewhat dilapidated and unloved and doesn't seem in use now.

Potemkin Steps

Back towards our hotel we come to the Potemkin Steps, made famous by Eisenstein's 1925 film (Battleship Potemkin). They are a broad set of steps and landings, leading down to the port area. We headed down the steps and had a look around the passenger terminal, whie surveying the port areas all around us. The port is large, with many cranes, but there seemed few ships and few cranes in operation. After that we got some exercise by walking up the steps.. The steps are designed to be wider at the base and to gradually narrow as they rise, which creates the illusion of greater height that is correct. A statue of Duc de Richelieu, the first governor, is sited at the top of the steps (which may have originally been called the Richelieu Steps).

Londonskaya Hotel

Back up on Prymorsky Boulevard, we continued to another Puskin statue and, behind it, the pink and white colonnaded City Hall.

After a brief stop to collect our beach gear, it was off to the beach at Arcadia. This beach area is about 8 km outside the CBD. We took the option used by the locals to get there - firstly a mini-bus (called a marshrutka) to cross the CBD, followed by a tram. The marshrutka was jam-packed and cost about 33 cents. The tram was a longer ride, but cost only 12.5 cents. Given that the trams are crowded and were last serviced before the revolution, they probably make a profit.

Arcadia beach

The trip to Arcadia is along a tree-lined boulevard. Fences, parks and homes of the well-to-do of tsarist times line this road, varously converted to kindergartens, parks or sanitoriums. The end of the line, Arcadia, announces itself by the numbers of high-rise holiday accomodation blocks (a sort of mini Gold Coast look). A stroll through an arcade of stalls and outdoor restaurants gets you to the water (almost). Much of the beach area seems given over to private clubs (mainly dance clubs, which apparently are very polular at night), with only small sections being publically accessible.

We found a section of beach and appropriated a small segment of sand. Russians of all sizes and shapes packed the sand, basking in the sun, much like a sea lion colony. We had to try the water, so we committed oursleves to the ewaters of the Black Sea. t was all rather like Port Phillip Bay - reasonable water (you can't see the e.coli) and cool without being freezing.

Pryvoz Market

We had a bite and a beer on the stroll back from the beach to the return tram, which was much less crowded than the one that brought us here. The tram dropped us near the train station, which is adjacent to a market called Pryvoz. This is a large market, spread over about six blocks, selling everything - textiles, hardware, fruit, vegetables, spices, meat and fish and everything else besides. We wandered around, before catching a trolley bus back downtown.

The trolleybus stopped beside a place called "Murphy's Irish Pub", which we took as a sign from the gods. We alighted and went in search of Murphy. After a drink, we walked the short distance back to our hotel, though it did involve another hike up the Potempkin Steps.

Building on vul Gogolya

We cooled off and dropped our beach kit. We set off in search of Odessa architecture, which meant a walk along Prymorsky Boulevard to Vorontsov's Palace and across Tyoshchyn Most (means Mother-in-Laws Bridge - reputedly built by a 50's party apparatchnik to ensure his mother-in-law could get home and not have to stay over). This got us to vul Gogolya, which has a number of interesting buildings.

We checked the local mall (Galereya Afina before finding a nice bar on City Garden for a beer and a snack.Following more walking, we landed at a Steakhouse on Derybasovskka for a  meal. It was really very good, if expensive by Ukrainian standards - chateaubriand, wild boar steak and a very acceptable Odessa Cabernet.

We continued to walk down Derybasovskka till we found Mick O'Neill Irish Pub. An Irish Apple Pie, a Jamieson and a Black Russian made a fine experience. We were proud to have found two Irish pubs in the one day.

This was our last day in Odessa. Tomorrow, we are off to Turkey.

Odessa - Day 1

Our last train at Odessa station

At about 8:30 our train pulled ito Odessa Station; the end of this line. It's also the end of our train travels. We've come about 11,000 km fom Vadivostok, which surely would qualify for steak knifes if Russia Rail had a frequent miles program. That's nine nights of travel and a small quantity of vodka, beer, "wine" and packet noodles.

We soon found our hotel, but, as this is a class establishment, check-in isn't until 2 pm. Leaving our bags, we set off to explore Odessa. Firstly, we looked for breakfast. While restaurants are abundant, most seemed to be busy cleaning up from the night before. We found a Japanese place that offered breakfast. It took some time to arrive (we probably had to wait for the chef to come in), but it was otherwise fine.

The city is about 200 years old, founded by Catherine the Great (or maybe Potemkin or one of his lieutenants, depending on your historical religion) in the late 18th century. The city was occupied during the GPW, but wasn't trashed. This means that most bulding seem to date from the late 19th centrury to the 1930's - solid piles built to display the wealth and pride of their owners. The streets are not wide, but are generally lined with what look like plane trees and are therefore quite attractive.

Odessa Opera House

The Opera House is a beautiful building, built by the Austrian architects of the Vienna Opera in the 1880's. We called in and picked up some tickets for tonight's performance, which cost us about A$18 each.

Our stroll continued. The city is fairly compact, so that while there is much to admire with the buildings, avenues and parks, it doesn't actually take a long time to feel that you have seen the city.

The city gradually got moving, so that by lunch time there was reasonable life in the streets. We had lunch at one of the many sidewalk restaurants - borsh tfollowed by a meat roll. By now, it was check-in time, so we headed back to the Londonskaya hotel.

Pushkin lived here for two years - hence the statue

This is one of the old and grand hotels of Odessa. It is on Prymorska Boulevard, a short distance from the top of the famous Potemkin Steps (which area  broad set of steps and landings leading down to the waterfront port area). The hotel is reminescent of Melbourne's Windsor and has been well cared for. Our room proved to be the best of the trip - a spacious portico, with an adjoining bathroom, with double doors to a large space, with two queen beds, belle epoque chandelier and wall lights, high ceilings and a number of dark wooden tables, desks and cabinets, looking out at the trees of Prymorska Boulevard.

In the evening, we put on our best travelling kit and headed for the opera. The opera tonight is Pagliacci. While it is commonly partnered on the bill with Cavalleria Rusticana, tonight it was the whole bill. This means that we have a short night, or that it takes longer to sing in Ukrainian.

Gilt on the boxes at Odessa Opera House

As it happens, it is great night at the opera, with the opera sung in Italian (with Unrainian surtitles). The Italian name, Pagliacci, is transliterated into Russian as something rather like Payatsi, which then appears on the English translation of the playlist as Paytsy, which all, sort of, makes sense if you listen to the sounds only. If the Opera House is a beautiful building outside, it is magnificent inside. Years of renovations have brought back all the original glory. Sparking marble, crisp white plaster, wonderful space, ranks of boxes and the most opulent gilt everywhere makes the interior very special. After the building, the music was very good and the opera enjoyable (but not great).

At the conclusion, about 8:40 pm, we headed off for dinner. We found a Ukrainian restaurant, where we had dishes like salmon caviar, borsh and vareniki (the Ukrainian version of pelmeni), with a good Moldovan chardonnay.

Western Crimea

Monday 13th bought the same weather again. This is our last day in the Crimea - tonight we take the train to Odessa.



Monumental GPW sculpture



As the day warmed up, we desided to have a stroll to walk off breakfast. This became more of a forced march, as we pressed ourselves uphill to find a sometimes visible monumental sculpture in the heat and humidity. Around us, Sevastopol shakily stirred to the working week - this was about 9.00 am, but there's not much hurry and no rush hour here.

Finally, after much back-tracking and a number of hills we found our objective. A statue of this size is pretty difficult to hide and it was placed on top of a hill. The statue commemorates the role of the army and the navy in liberating Sevastopol in the Great Patriotic War. Is is visible from parts of the harbour - except where is is obscured by the large concrete Hero City Obelisk or by the large concrete unfinished apartment block.

Anna picked us up and we headed off. first to St Clement's Monastery, near Inkerman. You can see the site of teh Inkerman battle from outside the monasterery. The monastey itslelf is a small establishment with accomodation and a small church partly set into a limestone cliff face.

Next stop was the Khan's palace at Bakhchysaray, which was the paalce of the head of the Crimean Tartars and ruler of Crimea until Catherine II seized the area. The palace is an Islamic structure, largely of wood and stone. It resembles the more grand Islamic palaces of Turkey and Spain and with some similar features like ornate doors and fountains, a harem and open meeting rooms with intricate decoration, all set in a garden of roses and shade trees. We toured the palace.

Uspensky Monastery

Next stop was the nearby Uspensky (Assumption) Monastery. You approach by a rising path to reach the monastery set high into the cliffs. A small gold-domed church is built into the limestone. From here, you can get a good view of the narrow valley and the steep cliffs on either side.

This area is home to Crimean Tartars, who were expelled by Stalin in 1944 and allowed to return in the early 1990's. We had a late lunch at a Tartar restaurant, whcih proved very good, supported by some real fresh oprange juice and Crimean lemonade.

Boarding our last train at Simferopol

Next stop was Simferopol railway station. After a wait, our train arrived and we boarded for our last train trip. This was a very new first-class compartment, though it proved to the over-heated in the now familiar style. The countryside outside was flat agricultural land, generally sown with large fields of wheat. We had a final train meal ("we have meat, fish or chicken") in the restaurant car, with a Chardonnay of unknown origin, as the train rattled across Crimea.

Sevastopol - Rest Day

Today is Sunday 12th and it's a rest day, with nothing planned.

We are maintaining our record as "sun gods" - the day was cloudless and warm. We took a stroll in the morning. We looked in on two churches - but were full, with everybody standing. At one, street sellers sold bunches of flowers or green leaves to churchgoers who carried them into the church, but from our brief look inside, it wasn,t clear what the purpose was.

Sailors & marines at the war memorial

Further on we found a crowd at the 41-45 War Memorial in Nakimova Square. Russian flags were flying and there were ranks of sailors and an honour guard of marines, along with a military band. We suspect that the celebration was for Russia Day. In a brief ceremony, various anthems were played, the marines snapped to attention, a group of assembled dignitataries advanded to the memorial carrying flowers and then the marines and the banded smartly marched off. Everybody then dispersed.

Everyone strolls in the park on Sunday morning

We called in on the Black Sea Fleet Museum. Russian-only captions made this difficult, be we got some sense of the fleet history that was being being described. There were many Russian sailors about - there seemed to be some sort of concert or assembly near the Fleet Museum, presumably for Russia Day.

Sunday is clearly the day for family strolling in spite of the rising heat and humidity. We found a flea market and an art market - both of similar quality.

Lunch was Japanese and wasn't bad, particularly if you prefer very lukewarm miso. Of course, it was the weekend, so it wasn't possible to put sushi nto a square bento box. Fortunately, it was possible to put it into a round container.

Cruiser Moskova - Russian flagship

We had a rest for a while and then headed out for a harbour tour in the somewhat cooler late afternoon. We spent 45 minutes in a small boat cruising the harbour, mainly seeing the dark grey ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and the lighter grey Ukrainain Navy ships.

Our hotel has a restaurant with a large marble balcony overlooking part of the harbour. We had dinner there, which gave us the opportunity to sample a local Inkerman dry red, which wasn't bad.

The Southern Crimean Coast

On Saturday 11th, we were collected by Anna and taken on a tour of the southern coast of the Crimea. It was yet another cloudless, sunny day of about 27 C.

Inside an underground submarine pen

First stop was Balaclava, a small town south of Sevastopol which has been occupied for 2500 years. The remnants of the 15th century Genoese fortress of Cembalo can be seen on the hills above the harbour. The town has a brilliant natural harbour that made it attractive to seafarers - narrow and easily defended, with a S-shaped sweep of water and with the entrance largely concealed from the sea. It's too small for large ships, but it attracts many pleasure craft. It's shape also attracted Stalin, who ordered construction of an underground submarine storage and maintenance facility here during the cold war.

Michael & Anna in the underground arsenal

We visited the Balaclava submarine facility, which was decommissioned at the end of the Soviet era. The underground submarine pens are only large enough for the small diesel-electric subs that the USSR operated in the Black Sea, but the facility seems very secure, with large blast doors, and very well equiped, with dry docks, maintenance facilities and an arsenal. Apparently the USSR stored nuclear munitions in the arsenal.



From there, we crossed the Balaclava battlefield valley and drove along the southern coast of the Crimea, with the road perched between rugged montain cliffs and the sea below. We paased through Foros, which has two attractions of note. It contains Gorbachev's dacha, where he was held under house arrest during the abortive 1991 coup attempt and also the small gold-domed Church on the Rock, perched high on a crag overlooking the sea.



Alupka Palace view

Next stop was Alupka Palace. Built by the immensely wealthy regional governor, Count Vorontsov over ten years from 1830, ths palace is part Scottish castle and part Mugal fantasy. Winston Churchill stayed here durng the Yalta conference in 1945. The palace has a wonderful garden with great views, stretching steeply down to the sea.

We had a great lunch at a restaurant with spectacular views. The main sight was Swallows Nest, a tiny "castle" precariously placed on the very edge of a sheer cliff overlooking the Black Sea. We had an feast of caviar, vodka, chicken kiev and crimean white and enjoyed the sunshine and the views.

The Yalta decisions were made at the far table

Next stop was the Livadia Palace near Yalta. This was the site of the 1945 Yalta peace conference which detemined the shape of post-WWII Europe and various displays reflect that conference. It was also the favourite holiday destination of Nicholas II and his family. It doesn't feel like a palace, but much more like a family home, with rooms that are wood panelled and "family sized".

Yalta beach

We drove to Yalta and had a strll along the waterfront promenade. There is very little beach; just two small sections of pebbles, both packed with people sunning themselves like a tightly packed group of seals. An ugly restaurant shaped like an Eqyptian boat on tall stilts protruded out from the promenade across the water. The promenade was crowded with tourists enjoying the Saturday sun. Yalta must be impossible at the peak of the season in July/August. Most tourists here are Russians, though there were some French from a cruise ship in Yalta harbour.



From Yalta, it was home to Sevastpol via the same cliff road. This is a fishing area, so we had a good fish meal at a harbourside restaurant.

Crimea Day 1 - Sevastopol

Our train arrived at about 5:40 am, which was 30 minutes late. Of course, we didn't understand that there was a time zone change, so we were up an hour too early.

Anyway, we met our guide and were driven to our hotel in the centre of Sevastopol. We got our room immediately and caught up on missing sleep. After a few hours, we had breakfast and did a preliminary recon before we met our guide, Anna, for a tour.

The Foggy Bell at Khersones

Sevastopol is a very attractive city on a large and pretty harbour, so that it has a Mediterranean feel in the blue skies and sunshine. There are a number of coves and inlets within the harbour, with the main harbour being over 7 km long. Both the Russian Black Sea Fleet and the Ukranian Navy are based here, with ships of both evident in the harbour. The Russian Fleet is a major employer, because of its use of Sevastopol services and companies.

We were driven to the nearby ruins of the Greek (and Roman) city of Khersones, which was founded in 421 BC.. At its height in the 4th century AD, this was a city of about 20000, though the city didn't die out until about 1400. This site includes remnants of Greek and Roman houses, fortifications and a theatre, along with subsequent alterations by the Ottomans. Famously, the Rus leader Volodymyr the Great was baptised here in 989 AD and thereafter launched the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia.

From there, we drove to the Panorama Museum on a nearby height, which was the positon of a bastion defence in the Crimean War. This consists of an immense painting (115m x 14m) in a circular building, with 3-D props in the foreground (much like the Belgorod diorama), which portrays the siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean war. The seige lasted 349 days. Of course, the Crimean War made no real change to the status quo, other than the loss of about 500,000 men (Russia "lost", but in the peace negotiations kept Crimea and Sevastopol).

The "Valley of Death" at Balaclava

From there we went to the Diorama Museum on Sapun Mount, just outside the city. The diorama is dedicated to the assult on this mount by Russian troops to reclaim Sevastopol in the Great Patriotic War. The diorama is again a large painting (25.5m x 5.5m) with 3-D foreground props. It is well executed and vividly depicts the final rapid assalt which freed the city.

The observation deck in front of the diorama looks out over the Valley of Death, where the Charge of the Light Brigade happened at the Battle of Balaclava in 1854. It is a wide valley, with numbers of small rises, which today is largely vineyards. With some instruction, it is possible to understand where the battle occurred and how the famous charge happened.

Harbourside restaurant in Sevastopol

From there, it was back to town. We were guided around part of the town, including squares and monuments, before we farewelled our guide and settled in for a beer by the waterfront. We continued to wander and after another beer, headed off to a well regarded local restaurant for an excellent fish meal washed down with some Inkerman sauvigon blanc - yes, we had found something close to Russian wine (actually Crimean wine, but it once was part of Russia and also part of the USSR).

It might be worth making a brief comment about ethnicity here. Eastern Ukraine and particularly the Crimea is peopled mainly by Russians, with Russian the local language. In many respects these people feel disenfranchised by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and their loss of Soviet (meaning Russian) identity. Western Ukraine is apparently different, with people seeing themselves as Ukrainian and speaking that language. The Russian Fleet is here in Sevastopol until 2042 (at least).

Belgorod

A Katyuska at the Dioarama

Thursday 9^th was our last day in Russia. We loaded our bags into Alex’s car and headed off to the Diorama. This wasn’t yet open, so we had a stroll in the park. Belgorod has numbers of parks and seems to have preserved its trees on the streets. The town of about 300,000 seems clean and well cared for.

We had a look at the Diorama. The by now familiar collection of Soviet armour was evident at front and back of the building. Inside, the diorama is actually quite impressive. It consists of a large, semi-circular painted background, with a life-sized battlefield in the foreground. You view this from a balcony about two metres above the battlefield. The whole effect gives some understanding of the confused and violent environment of the Prokhovovka battle with its mass of tanks and infantry.

Following a coffee, we had a look at the Regional Museum, which surveyed the local fauna and history from the Neanderthals to the current day, including mammoth tusks and bones and stone age flints and axes.

We visited mass grave and memorial for 2500 locals who were killed by the Nazis during the occupation. We then headed off to the city centre for lunch. Lunch was at a popular buffet restaurant, a style which seems common in Russia.

Shortly, it was time to head to the station, where we found our train to Sevastopol. We have all four beds in a second class compartment, so we have it to ourselves. Russian immigration locks the train at the station and deals with the departure formalities without problem.

The train moves off. A stream of entrepreneurs pass along the corridors offering clothes, trinkets, money exchange and heaven knows what else, a process that continues for some hours. This is something that we haven’t seen previously.

Our Second-class compartment

It’s only a short distance to the border, where Ukrainian immigration officers board. One didn’t seem to like us or our passports, so he wandered off  to find a comrade who spoke some English, with sounds of “Australian” resonating down the corridor. We didn’t understand the concern, as we had the correct visa. We were asked for evidence of where we would be staying or details of the tour company we were using. They weren’t interested in our Russian tour company, but luckily we had a confirmation for our Odessa hotel. Still they persisted – “tourism?”; “how long are you staying in Ukraine?” We liked the next question – “do you have any Australian money you can show me?” – which prompted a confused “no” from us, even though we were both thinking that this was a Ukrainian shake-down. They lost interest and stamped our passports.

Our train stopped at Kharkov, where numbers of passengers alighted. About an hour or two later, three men flashed id-cards and wanted to see our passports and tickets. They had very little English. The examined our passports in detail, muttering over our Ukrainian visas. We explained that we were Australians, that we got the visa in Australia and we were travelling to Sevastopol and Odessa. After some more muttering, they gave us back our passports and with a gruff “good luck”, left us. We can only think that they see very few non-Russian tourists and were are therefore somewhat suspicious.

We now knew something of why Russians told us that they preferred to holiday in the Red Sea, Turkey or Cyprus, where service standards were higher.

The friendly welcome for tourists in the Ukraine is starting to look an exaggeration……..

We then rolled on though the Ukrainian countryside into the night. We hit the sack early, as the train was due in Sevastopol at the unsociable time of 5:05 am the following morning.

Prokhorovka



View of Kurst Salient Memorial



Our train pulled into Belgorod on Wednesday 8th on-time at 7:23 am, where we were met by Alex, who was to be our guide. After checking in to our hotel, we set off.



Our objective was to explore and understand the Battle of Prokhorovka - the link gives a good overview of the battle and why it was important. Prokhorovka is a village about 50 km north of Belgorod.



Matthew, Michael, T-34 at Kurst Memorial



First stop was the Kursk Salient memorial. As with all the memorials we saw, it was adjacent to the fields where the battles occurred. The country is very gently rolling agricultural land - there are no real hills, only rises and depressions, so that the countryside is largely featureless. The Salient Memorial is actually a series of memorials; a large main memorial comprising of a wide steel sculpture and a number of smaller memorials, including a re-creation of the defensive trenches and a T-34 tank on a plinth. This was not the last T-34 that we would see this day. There is a good museum underneath the memorial itself, though all the captions are in Russian only.

The proximity to the battlefield tells the greater story - with green fields rolling away from the memorial.



At the Prokhorovka Memorial bell-tower


Next we went to the Prokhorovka memorial. This is a large bell tower at one side of the Prokhorovka battlefield, with an adjoining field displaying Russian tanks, tank-killers, armoured vehicles and howitzers.This ia a relatively recent memorial (in the last ten years) and is well done. The battlefield itself spreads away in front of the memorial.

After this we went into Prokhorovka village itself. This is a small village, but it now contains a hotel, a memorial church and a museum. The memorial church seems recent (especially inside) and is quite moving with the names of Russian dead etched in gold in the marble walls inside the church.

The adjacent museum is only one year old, but it is excellent. It tells the story of the people of the village in the war, including its occupation, and of the battle in the surrounding field. Captions in English make the experience vivid. Graphics display the defences of the Soviet army and the penetration of the German tanks.



View from the bunker - just a field - but where it all happened

Outside the museum, a recreation of battlefield defences shows the entrenchments used, but is enhanced by parts of destroyed tanks and vehicles found in the battlefields. In fact, battlefield remnants are still being found, as are remains of combatants.



We had a good lunch in the Prokhorova hotel. Afterwards we went to the battle bunker of the commanding Russian General, which was brilliantly placed to survey the battlefield.

The spring water is good

Then we went to a communal gravesite memorial in a small village. For many of the dead, communal gravesites are all that remain. At this memorial, we forutitously met a woman who was the administrator of the local village area. While she had only Russian, she insisted on taking us on a tour of local sites.



She led us to a lake, with a sandy beach being enjoyed by a number of locals. The lake was fed by a number of springs of clear, cold, delicious water. The local community were developing an tourist attraction around this spring, including a plunge pool and a museum of typical past housing. We had the full tour.

Battlefield memorial to a brave anti-tank crew

She then took us to a small memorial in a field of small sunflower plants. This was in remembrance of one Russian unit and the particular bravery of an anti- tank group that destroyed seven Panzers before being overwhelmed, but who thereby blunted the German advance. This position was actually directly over the rise from the bell-tower memorial and emphasised the tightness of the battle and the effect of the low rises.



She then led us to a crossroads where she passed us over to another man, who seemed to be a representative of the adjoining village area. While we initialy thought that the woman, who was unsmiling or was unhappy with our presence, she proved to be delighted that Australians were there and determined to show us important things and to generously give up her time to help us.

Mass grave & memorial in a local village

Our new local guide led us to a local memorial. This was another mass-gravesite, with a prominent Orthodox cross (erected since the fall of Soviet Russia). Ths gravesite is now closed, but others remain open to accept the remains that continue to be found.

We headed back to Belgorod and our hotel. Given the early start, this had been a full day and much more than we really expected, given that we really didn't know what we might find here.

A beer and a shower refreshed us enough to head for the restaurant that was next to the hotel. It was quite good, with good food and a fine Chilean chardonnay. This was our last dinner in Russia and we enjoyed it.