Saturday May 2 we went to the outdoors to have a picnic in the forest. It was really fun. We played volleyball, ate good food, laughed and just had a really good time.

On Sunday, we just relaxed at home and then went to the train station to leave for Yalta. The train would be 16 hours. Our room in the train was for four people, but fortunately it was only me and Yuliia. The ride was very pleasant. I worked on my number theory homework and read a chapter of Paul's book.

We arrived to Simferopol on Monday morning. A driver came to pick us up and instead of driving us straight to Yalta, he drove us first to Baxchisaray. A nice place that has the old house of the Khan (which was the leader of the Crimea). The house was burned many years ago, but was restored in the 1960's by scholars. Also the main door and the main fountain (The Fountain of Tears of which Pushkin wrote a poem in 1820) are left intact. Yuliia loved it. I liked it too. It reminded me a little of some castles in Southwest Spain where the Muslims had also taken land (the Khan was Muslim).
After Baxchisaray, we drove to Yalta and on the way we stopped at Foroski Xram (the Church of Foros) a majestic little church in the top of a hill eyeing the Black Sea. The Church was very beautiful, one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. The view of the Sea is said to be great, but the day was foggy and I couldn't see anything besides the church, which probably added to its majestic feeling. After the church we finally made it to Yalta and were surprised at the amazing apartment we rented. I didn't know what I rented would be a big apartment with two bedrooms, a big living room, a kitchen and a balcony. All for about half the price I would pay in the US for a room in a Holiday Inn. It was great. We immediately went out to see the Sea and walked around. We walked around the beach, saw the paintings that people try to sell and at night went to eat to a nice restaurant. I don't remember what I ate, but it was great. After it we tried to find an internet place to send my homework but couldn't find it, I would have to go the next day. It was a wonderful day.

On Tuesday, we went to an internet place to send my homework and we bought some delicious bread that I hadn't seen before and Yuliia says it can't be found in the northern part of Ukraine. Every day after this we would buy this bread (it was funny how each day we would buy an extra piece, one the first day, two the second and three the third). We took a boat and arrived at Lastochkino Gnezdo (Swallow's Nest) a breathtaking castle lingering at the edge of a cliff. The castle is now a restaurant, which I find fascinating as the owner must have been very lucky to get such a wonderful place. Lastochkino is the symbol of Yalta and rightfully so as it is very beautiful. It was a little scary to walk on the parts of the floor of the castle that wree beyond the edge of the cliff (a few bits are beyond the cliff because after an earthquake part of the cliff fell).
After Lastochkino we went on boat to Alupka. We saw the gardens of the main palace. It was wonderful walking around Alupka and then seeing the sea face of the palace. The flowers in the garden were also very beautiful. Unfortunately we arrived to late to go inside the palace. After that we took a bus back to Yalta (which took almost an hour) and headed home to rest. We were very tired from the walking and the little sleeping we had been doing. As custom for the last couple of days I finished the night reading another comic book. During this trip I've read five comic books and two of them have been excellent (one of them ranking in my top 5 of all time).

On Wednesday, we went to Alupka again, but this time by bus as it is much cheaper than by boat. We saw the palace from inside, it was quite nice. The palace is made of a very expensive rock that I haven't seen in many palaces, it is a rock that comes from that mountain (Ai Petri). This palace housed Churchill during the Crimea Conference on February 1945. After the palace we walked on a nice park in Alupka. Enjoyed the nice mini waterfalls and a tiny pond that had a swan bathing itself. After that we headed back home. It was Yuliia's birthday so we wanted to celebrate in a nice restaurant, so we went to the restaurant from Monday. We arrived and they treated us poorly as no one else was in the restaurant either. At some point they stopped playing music too. I had noticed the service was very bad on Monday, but Yuliia loved the place. This time, being her birthday, the bad service was much more noticeable to her and we didn't have such a great time. However, the food was delicious, I had pork with cheese and some other thing on top too. On the sides they had these fruits I had never tasted before that Yuliia said are similar to apricots but they taste very differently. I loved those fruits.

On Thursday, we went to Ai Petri, the mountain. We went up on a gondola. When we arrived at the top a short guy kept bothering us trying to be a guide. To try to get away we went into this minimuseum. The minimuseum was a room that had the apparatus used for torture in the Spanish Inquisition and in other medieval moments. It made Yullia feel bad, but worse the short guy came in too, trying to explain to us what the gadgets did. It was pretty funny to me, as I don't speak the language and can't get annoyed by him. It was also funny to have this sort of display in the top of a mountain, it has nothing to do with the mountain. From there, we walked to the west trying to get to the part where you hike to a cliff. On the way there, many vendors tried to sell us stuff. I was impressed with the difference between sellers in Yalta, Lastochkino, Alupka compared to the sellers in the mountain. The merchants were very nice under the mountains but in the mountains they were extremely annoying.
We got to the hiking trail (which had a fee) and after an easy 20 minute hike we reached the top. The view was amazing. The Black Sea spread all around and the different cities 1000 meters below. It was a really wonderful view worthy of the many pictures we took. We had caught a glimpse of that view while riding the gondola, but it is so much better out in the open. Yuliia and I spent some time on there enjoying the weather and the view and then we headed back. On our way back, as usual, Yuliia spent some time with the vendors, she bought some cool clothes for her belly dancing classes and some gifts for her family. I am not into souvenirs at all, I want to get things for my family sometimes but I usually end up buying nothing, it is difficult for me to rationalize buying something other than books or movies.
After Ai Petri, we went to Livadia, to another important palace. This is the palace where Nicholas II resided in the Summers. This is also the palace where the Crimean Conference took place in February 1945, where Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met to discuss how to go about with the war. Here was where Roosevelt stayed during the conference. The palace is all in white and it is quite beautiful. It is famous for its Italian gardens (I didn't care too much for them) and mixing Italian art with Arabian influences (this I thought was more interesting). The main appeal to me was the historical significance and I had fun reading the names of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin in Cyrillic and then seeing the newspaper articles and trying to read them. For some reason, I really love Cyrillic.
After the palace, Yuliia and I were very tired. But I wanted to walk to Yalta as I was told it was only 3 km. Yuliia was talking on the phone with her mom, so I lead the way. After a while Yuliia realized we weren't going to the buses and didn't want to join my adventure but followed anyway. At some point we reached a closed gate and we had no idea how to get to Yalta, so we had to go back to the palace after an hour of walking astray. It was a fun misadventure, we laughed a lot about it. Then we kept with the adventure by going to the center of Livadia instead of going west to the normal bus route we take. We bought some Blinchiki (crepes) which were delicious and then rode a different bus back. We walked a little on the sea, went to McDonalds (Yuliia felt like a cheeseburger, as this McDonalds brings to her some memories) and then we went home. It was another wonderful day in a wonderful trip.

I read this article a couple of months ago, and I think it is definitely worth a read. Specially if you're Mexican and were brought up blaming the Spaniards for bringing the epidemics that killed the aztecs in the 1500s.