Scott and I are in Cyprus for a couple of days between our flight from Athens to Cairo. We are staying with some friends from our group in the Peace Corps who will be living here for a few months.
I haven't been able to improve on the links to other pages of my web site so I'll just give you their address and you'll have to type them in to see my latest batch of photos and scripts. Unfortunately, things have been a little slow in getting from the camera to the printer to the scanner to the computer to the web page and I'm definitely the weak link that is slowing down every process, but here are pictures from the Kiev, Crimea, Odessa, Istanbul, and Cappadocia part of our trip. Look at this web address:
www.geocities.com/jbonhiver/Turkeyone
www.geocities.com/jbonhiver/Turkeytwo
www.geocities.com/jbonhiver/Turkeythree
More later,
Judy
Sept
Hi
Made some changes on Sept 11th and now again on the 25th. Checkout the web site for our Rostov Public Library - International Center at: www.ac-rnd.publib.rsu.ru
I tried to put this into a link but can't make it work. Hope you can reach it because they've added a lot of books to their English collection and video tapes from donations from many of you. If you sent us a book - it's there, now.
I'm still trying to figure out the best way to add more information onto this web site without deleting all the existing information, for people who haven't read the previous information. So, this will be our page 2. Also, I hope this will allow me to add more links!
I've been interviewed by our local Rostov paper and here's the link, in case you want to see a current picture of me. And, if you can read Russian, you'll be able to read about the interview!
Sept 11, 2002
Our stay in Kiev was great. We had booked ourselves through Intourist Travel Agency in Donetsk for a room at the St. Petersburg Guesthouse on Vladimirskaya thinking we'd change after the first night, to something cheaper, but we liked it so much we stayed there for five nights. The hotel is just a block from one of the metro stations, so very convenient to the train station (metro right there, too) plus just down the street in any direction were things to see. St. Sophia Cathedral Complex just a block to the east. The main thoroughfare. Khreshchatyk was only three blocks down the hill. There were plenty of places to eat, parks to sit and relax. Just around the corner from a nice little grocery store and about 1 � blocks from a decent internet caf� which charged less than $2 an hour. And I finally got my hair cut about four blocks away at Diana's (the hairdresser was Oksanna and she was great). We walked a lot every day and although the sun wasn't out much we enjoyed it because the temperature was so comfortable. Here's the address and phone and fax number for this hotel, if you don't mind sharing a bathroom down the hall and the showers (which were wonderful) are down between the 2nd and 3rd floors. Vladimirskaya 36, 229-59-43 or fax 229-74-72 (need to fax if you want to make a reservation. They didn't speak English here.
Also, if you want to work with a travel agency I can strongly recommend the Intourist in Donetsk, not far from Rostov-on-Don. They were extremely helpful. Unfortunately, they don't have access to credit card charges yet, so they asked us to wire $10 to them to make the arrangements for us. We did this (in the US it cost us almost $30 to wire the $10) but then the money never got to their account. But they still went ahead and faxed me a copy of the reservation, confirmed the reservation in Kiev (long distance) for us and followed up to make sure we got everything we needed in time to get visas (actually didn't get them in time, but turned out fine anyway). Maybe eventually credit card companies will become more common place and this office will be easier to deal with, but if you want help, they're very efficient and gracious. Phone number (0622)93-40-76, 92-71-92; fax (0623)81-15-71 Address: 340050 Ukraine, Donetsk, Universitetskaya 48. I worked with Tatianna <[email protected]>and Mr. Kaliushko V. [email protected]
The man we met in the park on Friday night evidently ended up having business that weekend because never did connect. Worked out fine, although it would have been interesting to visit a Ukrainian family and their dacha.
We left on Monday via train for Simferopol and had nice people in our coupe although the train was not as nice as most of the Russian trains, or even the previous train between Moscow, Kiev and Chisnau (maybe a Russian train also). The train was fine, just older and not as many of the niceties we've grown accustomed to, like the shelf by the bed to put your book and glasses, hangers to hang your clothes (when you get on the train it's customary to change into lounging clothing and hang up your street clothes until just before you leave the train). But, this train did have toilet paper so that was a plus, and the windows opened, which was an even nicer plus.
I've been having a little trouble with what I think is my sciatic nerve since we arrived in Kiev. I tried to pull both back packs (separately) into the elevator while Scott was registering and evidently twisted my back or something the wrong way. At first, my back froze up for a couple of days although with walking it improved each day. But on the third day, my left buttock and leg were feeling very painful and numb (don't know how that can be, but imagine you've hit your crazy bone in your elbow and it hurts but also tingles and feels sort of numb & that's what my leg felt/feels like). So, I've been exercising gently each day to limber my back up and try to loosen the tightness and each day it's been better, but for the train ride to Simferopol I was pretty miserable. I paced up and down the corridor, couldn't sit for more than a few minutes before I was in pretty bad shape, and even laying down was painful. To add to the misery, I was sleeping on the upper bunk (Scott was, too) and the couple who had the lower bunks were elderly people; the woman was short and fairly heavy and the man was in good shape but also probably in his late 60s early 70s and evidently has a chronic bad back. So, I struggled to get up to the top (without a ladder) and once there, I stayed there most of the trip, except when I was pacing the corridor.
Didn't sleep much and we arrived a little late (around 10:40 a.m.) We found the "ka-ma-ra" which is the luggage storage place, right away and checked our back packs there. They also had a locker area for smaller things, so we put the computer and camera there (seemed safer). Then we went out to look for a place to stay. We wandered for awhile and were fortunate to find a couple of people offering rooms for rent. After talking with each of them we decided to look at one near the train station (for less than $5). The lady seemed nice and so we three hiked over to her place. It was a little further than we'd expected but it was in a decent area, was clean and adequate (our own room and corridor with a shared bathroom with the family, and we had to ring the door bell outside the fence each time we came in and they had to escort us out each time we left because the gate needed a key). We only wanted to stay for one night so it worked out fine. We returned to the train station, picked up our backpacks and brought them to the room. Then, returned to the station to catch a local train to visit a city about 30 kilometers from Simferopol called Bakhchysaray. This is a very small town and from the 15th century to late 18th century was the seat of the Crimean khans, descendants of Jenghiz Khan. I wanted to see the Khans Palace and try to see the caves carved out of limestone. The Palace was great although several parts of it were closed (always closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the last day of the month so not much we could do about it). I really like the way this culture decorated their rooms, their clothing, their cemeteries all using geometric designs instead of portraits of people. Very beautiful. The harem actually looked quite comfortable, although I'm sure it was pretty miserable because of the politics among the women and their children. And, of course, they were not free to come and go. The term "gilded cage" was in my mind as I wandered through the gardens and beautiful rooms with shuttered windows (lots of decorative colored glass).
We never did get to the lime stone caves because the book we are using, Lonely Planet, indicated we'd have to hike quite a distance and my back and leg just were not up to it. So, we walked the three kilometers back to the train station and enjoyed seeing more of the community. Pretty worn out and poor community but you could see the remains of wonderful parks and some buildings that look like they're being reconstructed. Don't know what sort of industry they have here, but it could be a nice tourist destination (for more than just the Palace) if they had some money to fix things up and make visiting a little easier for tourists.
We returned to Simferopol around 5:00 p.m. and our room to clean up a bit and drop off our bag of food stuff before we headed into town to see this city. It's a good central point for visiting lots of the Crimean cities, although we didn't see much we wanted to do in Simferopol itself. They have turned a couple of the central streets into pedestrian walkways and there were lots of new shops and cafes and restaurants. One was even called Al Pachino's caf�. Scott wanted to take a picture of this place but then remembered we'd left the camera back at the train station in the locker, for safe keeping. We found the city "Telegraph" center which is where people can go to make phone calls (they had 54 nice phone booths - half where the attendant makes the call for you and half where you make the call yourself). This place also is the central post office and they even had an internet with a good fast connection, for about 33 cents an hour!!! So, we logged on for mail, although decided we were really hungry and didn't stay long. I tried multiple times to set up two new photo pages on my web site to no avail. Never did get them to work as a link with my August journal page. So frustrating. Scott went to try to call the grandmother of one of his friends from Rostov. The grandmother lives in Yalta and the friend had suggested we try to reach her and he was going to call her because the friends said she would invite us to stay with her. Scott called, but evidently she's not living there now. So, we never did reach her and decided to go to Yalta anyway and see what we could find on our own.
After the internet, we went looking for a place for dinner. It was Scott's birthday so I encouraged him to splurge and we looked for something special. At first we were going to try the Al Pachino place because the menu looked o.k. Then we found a shash-lik place and we both thought that would be great, but by then it was getting cold and we didn't have sweaters or jackets and this place was outside. Just then, Scott saw a sign for Chinese food. Now, we never did eat at the Chinese restaurant in Rostov because the prices were terrible. One order of something like sweet and sour pork was around $28!!! So, we hadn't eaten Chinese for ages. In the USA Scott doesn't usually like to eat in Chinese restaurants because so often they seem to be more like fast food instead of carefully prepared meals. But, this time, we decided to give it a try. After looking at the menu and being pleasantly surprised at the prices, we decided to stay (although Scott said the items didn't sound too ethnic). But, upon closer scrutiny, they were definitely Chinese and really quite good. They didn't have rice wine and the things we ordered were different than what we'd have received if we'd ordered the same thing in San Francisco, but they definitely were good. I ordered a seaweed salad that had slices of cucumber and lots of garlic all covered with a soya sauce that was combined with maybe a tiny bit of sugar and something else. Scott had the same salad but with rice noodles. We both liked what we'd ordered. Then for the main meal I ordered sweet and sour pork and Scott ordered something with eggs and chicken. My sweet and sour pork looked like it was smothered in ketchup but it was a slightly heavy sauce that tasted pretty good.
Scott had two beers and I had two cups of tea plus he had a side order of rice and I had a side order of french fries (I'm supposedly allergic to eggs and rice now so am trying to avoid them until I get home to get tested, but I think I'm definitely sensitive to them, which is a bummer). Our entire meal came to 68 gree-ven (gvn) which is less than $12. So, here is the name and address if this place, if you ever get to Simferopol, Ukraine. We highly recommend it, if it's still here: Fanza O-dyes-skaya, 4 (0652) 27-41-77 is their phone. It's sort of hidden behind a new fancy restaurant which had tables and a bar on the plaza. We actually had to walk right through this other restaurant's "bar" to get to this Odyesskaya. Glad Scott saw the sign on the street advertising the place.
