Sudak

The beginning of November brought very cold temperatures to Crimea. It was below 10 degrees for about a week, even snowing a little. Luckily this cold spell is now over and the weather is back at a more manageable 15 degrees.

Even though last weekend was freezing cold and very windy we decided to do some travelling, a small day trip to Sudak. Our first stop in Sudak was a fortress built by Italians.



All of the towers along the fort's only had three sides. This was done purposefully so that one general could supervise multiple towers and coordinate them more easily.



Emir was kind enough to brave the cold with us and act as our tour guide.



The tower that you see at the top of the hill is called the Girl's Tower. The story goes that there was a princess and a general fell in love with her, but she did not love him in return. He locked her up in the tower until she agreed to love him. Instead, she opted to jump from her tower down the cliff, into the ocean.



The fortress provided beautiful views of the city of Sudak and the Black Sea.



Inside the fortress there were several wishing trees. People tie ribbons onto the tree which represents their wish.



After the fortress we went to the champagne factory in Novyi Svet, something that I was very much looking forward too...



...but it was closed.



Luckily we happened upon an employee of the champagne factory and he was able to see us some champagne. After this chance encounter we went on a stroll along the sea side.




As we rounded a corner we saw a beautiful little cave that had been transformed into a wine cellar.





To wrap up our lovely hike and to help us warm up, we decided to open one of the bottles of champagne and have a little picnic while enjoying the view.

Swine Flu Scare and Quarantine

This weekend swine flu made its way to Ukraine and has sent the country into complete panic. This virus happens to coincide with elections, which is not helping the situation. Ukraine is now under quarantine which means that all schools and universities are closed and public meetings strongly discouraged. There is talk that they will shut the Ukrainian-Hungarian border. In my opinion, swine flu is no worse here than anywhere else, but because of the political situation and elections the government is taking full advantage of this opportunity.

Unfortunately I am not sure yet what this means for me because my job revolves around the universities being open. Hopefully I will find out more soon. In the mean time, don't worry, swine flu so far is only in the north and western parts of Ukraine. I am in the very south and so far there have been no incidences of swine flu here.

Bakchisaray

Just for interest sake I've added this picture. Here are the interns (minus me) standing near our flat. It's a duplex that we share with the landlady. Behind us is her garden.



Last weekend we went to Bachisaray and we went on a hike through the mountains. Bachisaray is a small town that was once the capital. The weather was beautiful last weekend.




Below is a picture of medieval wine presses. They were not marked or anything, we found them just by walking through the forest. Grapes would be piled onto the flat area then a boulder put on top and the juices would drop into the catch.




The mountain behind us once held a civilization. They lived in caves.

After our hike we went to Hansaray. This palace was once home to the Crimea Khans, the muslim elite of the Crimea Tatar. There we saw ancient gold from nomadic civilizations, a Muslim cemetery for princes, and Hansaray's bath house.

After a nice day hiking we went for some tea and snacks at a local Crimean Tatar restaurant.

This week we also had a Halloween party!!! Halloween is still not particularly popular here and nobody dressed up. Instead I bought face paint and some masks to hand out. Unfortunately for Matthias and Ben some of the girls got hold of the face paint and attacked them, very artistically, with the paint.