October 18 - Monday - Sevastopol, Ukraine

It was dark when the lights of Sevastapol (Sevas-TOPle) came into view, but it was a long harbor and took us a couple hours to reach port and dock. We were scheduled to leave about 3:30 in the afternoon, so all tours were at 8:00 in the morning or shortly after. The guides were generally excellent. Sevastapol is a huge area, and we were treated to a long drive to our first of two stops (the Palace of the Crimean Khan) and another long drive from our second stop (the Upensky Casve Monastery).
The Palace, built in the 1800s, was beautiful and was very eastern.



Crimean Khan's Palace entrance 



An interior room of the Khan's palace



Beautiful cupula

The colors were absolutely beautiful and blended together in the morning sunlight.



Golden ceiling

From the Palace, we drove a short distance to the Upensky Monastery. In this particular area of the Crimea, there are a number of caves that were used as for many purposes over time. The Monastery is a working monastery, and it's Orthodox, meaning we could take pictures outside but not inside. The iconography represents sacred objects to the Orthodox and should not be debased with photography. Both of us climbed the 140 to 150 stairs up so we could go inside. At the stop of the stairs was a box of wrap-around aprons and scarves for the women. A few women decided not to cover themselves or their heads, but no one said anything. I did hear the guard, however, call that we were not to take photographs. Apparently someone was trying to.



Shrine at the bottom of the Upensky Monastery

I did take a picture of this one icon, however, which is down below the Monastery before I realized that the sign in front of the image says not to take a picture. It was too late, and because I had already taken the picture and because the icon is so beautiful, I decided to post it so others could see.

This happened to me in Jerusalem, too, when I took a picture of the little Armenean chapel in the Church of the Holy Sceptre (is that right?). I did immediately delete that picture, though. The priest there was so very upset with me that I wanted him to see that I deleted it. Emotions run high in that place.

The tour ran nearly four hours - a little longer than advertised - but it was very good to be there and to hear our guide speak. She told us a lot about the current relations with Russia and the other states in this area, about ways they have all found to cooperate, and she told us some about their current economic situation during these times, too. They are bad, just as they are bad at home - but they have been bad here for far longer than they have been in the USA. For example, there is no right to guaranteed medical care here, as one might demand in the USA. If it's broke and you can't afford to have it fixed, you don't. When it gets serious enough, you just die. And that's the end of the story. From my economic vantage point, I can say we're spoiled. But no matter where you are, if you can't get medical care, then there's nothing "spoiled" about it. It's a tragedy, and, yes, it may mean life or death at that time.

Tomorrow, we'll travel through the Bosphorus Strait again early in the morning and pass Istanbul on our way out of the Black Sea. It's been a great trip.

Wedneday, we'll visit Ephesus.

Our flickr Sevastopol pictures: Sevastopol