Bulgaria

Our next stop on our cruise was at Burgas, Bulgaria.

From there we got on a bus that made several stops, some interesting and some not as interesting.  The two I found interesting were St. George the Victorious Monastery (Pomorie):

with St. George depicted several times:

St. George was a fairly local boy (a Greek but coming from the Capadoccia region of Turkey) and was a martyr for Christianity.  The whole dragon thing was symbolic of fighting Satan. Crusaders took the story back to England, and then he became St. George and the dragon.  Throughout our trip in this area of the world we saw numerous depictions on St. George.

The other stop was at Nessebar, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It sits on a rocky peninsula on the black sea.  (I didn't take this picture!)

Originally a Thracian settlement, the town became a Greek colony in the 6th century BC.  It fell under Roman rule in 71 BC and from the 5th century AD was part of the Byzantine Empire.  The Turks captured the town in 1453.  The Liberation of Bulgaria occurred in 1878.  This little city had numerous churches.

This one is the Church of Christ the Pantocrator built in the 13-14th century.

This is the Church of the Holy Saviour (I think!) built in 1609

and is notable for its early 17th century wall paintings.

We were told that under the Turks, Christian churches were not allowed to be built taller than a man on a horse, so they dug down into the ground a few feet so that they could have the tall ceilings of a church they desired, but from the outside it would look like a shorter building.  The dirt around the foundation has been removed now to prevent any further deterioration of the structure.

This basilica, Church of Saint Sofia was constructed in the late 5th and early 6th century.  It was reconstructed at the beginning of the 9th century, but in 1257 it was looted by the Venetians during a campaign against the Bulgarian Empire.

The Church of St. John the Baptist is one of the best preserved churches in Nessebar and was built in the 11th century.  These are some shots of the inside:

On the way home on the bus, I took these two pictures:

I found it interesting that the traffic lights had a countdown displayed to let drivers know how much longer it would be until the light changed. As a cyclist, I would find this very helpful.

I'm pretty sure I won't have a reason to go back to Bulgaria, but it was interesting!

Odessa, Ukraine

Odessa was founded by decree from Empress Catherine the Great in 1794.  Prior to that, it was a small settlement founded by the Khan of Crimea in 1440, passed into the domain of the Ottoman Sultan in 1529, and then became part of Russia after the Russo-Turkish War.  It has a lovely port that allows for cruise ships to pull right up to the dock, so no tender!  Duc de Richelieu served as the city's governor from 1803-1814 and is credited with its growth and success.  He fled the French Revolution and served in Catherine's army against the Turks.

The famous Potemkin Steps lead from the dock to the main part of town.

Looking back at the cruise ship from the top of the steps.

Formerly known as the Richelieu Steps, they were immortalized in the 1925 silent film Battleship Potemkin.  The movie was ground breaking in its use of quick cuts, switching back and forth between broad scenes and close-ups, and other cinematic techniques.  It dramatized the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their officers of the Tsarist regime.  The film depicts the slaughter of Odessa citizens on the steps.  The massacre actually took place in the streets nearby, but that hasn't stopped tourists from coming to see the steps.

Or guys in dog suits.

Why??

The stairs comprise of 192 steps, with 9 larger platforms interspersed.  When one stands at the bottom of the steps, none of the larger platforms are visible.  When one stands at the top of the steps, only the platforms are visible.

At the top of the steps is a statue of Duc de Richelieu.

From there, to the right and left are tree covered walk ways with benches for sitting and enjoying the view.

The city of Odessa looks very European in its architecture.  In the city center is a statue of Catherine the Great, with lovely pastel painted buildings.

The shipped was docked in Odessa overnight, so we had almost 2 full days there.  Our first morning we took a walking tour with a young guide named Anastasia.

She took us to the Vorontsov Palace (same aristocrat family that had a palace in Yalta),

across a bridge with locks signifying a couple's commitment to each other (Jeff tells me that this is popular in Paris as well),

and pointed out Tolstoy's house as well as other beautiful buildings.

We walked by the Opera House and saw where we would be seeing the ballet "Tales of the Vienna Woods" featuring music from Strauss and Mahler later that night.  (It was wonderful, we had third row seats, and I wished I had taken my camera to get pictures of the inside!)

The following day, we met up with Anastasia again with another couple from the ship we had met on the previous day's walk and visited the Odessa Catacombs.  The catacombs are made up of 1800 miles of tunnels extending throughout the greater Odessa area.  Originally, the tunnels were a result of mining for limestone for the houses in Odessa.  Later they were used by smugglers and during WWII  Soviet partisans used them to wreak havoc on the Nazi occupiers. We saw an office, infirmary, school room, and many other rooms.

 Office

 School

The Odessa Cathedral.  It was very beautiful inside, but no pictures allowed!

As we returned to the ship, we stopped into this shopping area for a look.

Odessa is quite a charming city!

Yalta

Yalta is on the tip of the Crimean Peninsula and was a favorite resort spot in the 19th century for the aristocracy and gentry.  Leo Tolstoy spent summers there and Anton Chekov had a home there.  Tsar Nicholas finished building a home there (Livadia Palace) in 1911 (bad timing!)  Lenin and Stalin both went there -- it has many sanitoria, or resorts where taking the waters is considered restorative to one's health. During the USSR days, it was a vacation spot for Russians since travel outside of the country was limited.  And Yalta is known for being the place where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met two months before FDR died in 1945 to make plans for post-war Europe.

The existence of Yalta was first recorded in the 12th century and was described as a Byzantine port settlement.  In the 1300s it was part of the Genoese trading colonies and in the 1400s, it was part of the Ottoman Empire.  Yalta was annexed into the Russian Empire in 1783.

We toured with a group of 16 people that Mark had met through Cruise Critic and had a very knowledgeable guide by the name of Sergey.  Our first stop was St Michael's Church.

View from the church

Everywhere in our travels we saw "street dogs."  These are essentially stray dogs that everyone feeds and no one owns.

We were only able to catch sight of Swallow's Nest, a small castle built on a cliff overlooking the Black Sea.

Our next stop was Vorontsov's Palace or the Alupka Palace.  It was built as a summer residence during 1828-1848 for the Governor-General of Novorossiya, Prince Mikhail Vorontsov.  After the revolution, it was nationalized.  In more recent years, it served as temporary housing for Churchill and the British Delegation during the Yalta Conference.

The flowers on this wall were raised, creating a beautiful texture.

We also visited the Yusupov Palace, a favorite of Stalin.  He stayed here during the Yalta Conference.

Mark was able to sit at Stalin's desk and talk angrily on the phone.  Apparently there is a photo of Stalin he is trying to imitate.

 This room had beautiful texture on the curved ceiling (below) and on the walls.

A lovely veranda

Lastly we toured Livadia Palace.  Roosevelt stayed here and there were displays showing where the talks were held for the Yalta Conference.  All three leaders stayed in different Palaces, but Livadia is where they met to confer because it was easier for FDR who was in a wheelchair.

 The famous table where details were hashed out (above) and a newspaper photo of the delegates (below).

This was used as a dining room for FDR, who was housed here and it was also where the final documents were signed for the Yalta Conference

There were also displays about Tsar Nicholas II and his family who had the palace built.  They were executed during the Russian Revolution six years after it was built.