As the Bird Wings and Sings: Crimea/ Yalta/ TAR TARS

For our last vacation all the ILP teachers traveled south to Крым (Crimea), the beautiful peninsula of Ukraine. There was much to see in the city of Ялта (Yalta) and thanks to Yuri (a passionate native who spoke perfect English whom we ran into on the street) the sights were actually educational! He knew pretty much everything and offered to take us all around just because he loved to talk about the beautiful place.

This is the famous Livadia Palace where the Yalta Conference took place. In case you are like me and realize you know close to nothing when in historically significant places, the Yalta Conference is where the Heads of the three allied powers, Joseph Stalin (USSR), Franklin D. Roosevelt (USA), and Winston Churchill (GB) met to discuss post-war matters after WWII. Roosevelt stayed in the Livadia because of his poor health, and it was pretty cool to be in his room.

Feb. 1945 USSR newspaper article: Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill

It's cool that they kept everything set up just as it was for the meeting. There are name signs telling where each of the delegates sat around the table.

(Yuri on far left)

The Livadia Palace was built for Czar Nicholas II. Though it didn't make the Disney cut, I'm sure Anastasia (Nicholas' daughter) could be found frolicking in the beautiful palace parks with her three older sisters during the summer.

This is the palace piano where none other than the great Rocmoninoff would come to entertain the royal family. Alison and I reached under the protective glass to tickle the delicate ivories with our ever so humble fingers when no one was looking.

The palace grounds

We also toured Alupka/Veronsofskee Palace, where a wing was added in behalf of Churchill for his stay during the conference.

(A hallway in the palace...I really like the idea of a garden hallway adorned with busts (of myself of course) and fairy sculptures)

These are the Crimean botanical gardens . I wanted a day to relax so I didn't go, but I loved my friends' pics.

We took a boat to get a different view of the peninsula. It was SO fun, beautiful, and relaxing...my favorite way to tour.

From the boat we saw the famous "sparrow's nest" castle. If you notice, the porch is hanging off the cliff on both sides. It has been turned into a low-rate restaurant so this is all we took the time to see of it.

From the boat we had a great view of other Ukrainian rarities such as this nude metal creature perching on a rock.

We also visited Ipetre (the top of the mountin below) which is land of the Tar Tars (very different culture from Ukraine's), some of the first inhabitors of Crimea. By far my favorite mode of transportation is gondola. In a matter of about 4 minutes we went from here: