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Journey to the Borderland

May 4

Posted by Lindsey Whissel on 05/05 at 07:52 AM

So many excursions today…

I feel like we did the most today, but I will probably write the least because I am very tired. The weather today was absolutely perfect for our day trip to Sevastopol. We toured some monuments and historic sites—Count’s Landing Stage, the monument to Admiral Nakhimov, the Monument to the Scuttled Ships. Then we visited the National preserve of Tauric Chersonesos and Vladimirskiy Orthodox Church. This was one of my favorite things we’ve done so far because we don’t have quite as much in the way of ancient ruins stateside.

In the afternoon, we drove to Balaclava for lunch (lots of fish- I think Dmitry ate 13 himself:). Then, we had a real treat- we went on a boat ride around the harbor. I can’t describe how beautiful it was. It was the first time I got to see dolphins (outside the aquarium of course). None of us could believe how blue the water was.  We ended the day at Inkerman, a historic monastery.

We’ve had a running joke during my stay in Simferopol—at one of the TV stations, I was told I was not allowed to take pictures and the director would not answer some of my questions, so Dmitry et al have been teasing me that I must be a CIA agent, but he says he is KGB, so it’s ok. So my visit here marks historic cooperation between our two governments.

Word of the day: пожалуйста (pah-jow- ul-stah) –It means both “please” and “you’re welcome.”