Musings of an Ukraine Traveler

This pretty little hotel looks out over the sea on the path to the fortress. This crowd was pretty mild.	There are few places in Ukraine that are ready for tourists from abroad and neither is the fortress. Not only is the path strewn with garbage but visitors must cross pools of stagnant sewage water.
This is the northern approach to the fortress built by the Genoese in about 800. It stood and continues to stand almost completely intact except for about 200 yards of wall that were finally breached by the Turks in 1400.	All the tourists sites in the Crimea have places where one may rent authentic costumes of the middle ages. Here a cardinal snaps a photo of his daughter while a very red-faced, sweating Ukrainian wearing full set of armor waits his turn for his family who are all dressed up too. It was about 90 degrees.
Here the knight and his lady set their son up with a real crossbow for a photo op.	From the wall, it's easy to see the beauty of the bay and that there is not a bare spot of beach. Those are all bodies down there.
Our next excursion was to Novi Civet. It was a beautiful bay with treacherous trails up and down the cliffs. This are is famous for its champagne winery founded by a Genoan, and the beauty of its waters. I however could not really enjoy it as the literally thousands of tourists make the trails even more dangerous. Too, historical places and coves were ruined for me by the costume shops and the bungee jumping from the cliffs.	The little ones swam here. You can see that the beach is rocks and dirt. The water was very dirty from the soil. Ukrainians, Russian, Poles don't wear hats, no sunscreen and tan at the hottest part of the day. They will often stand in different positions to tan their sides and under their arms. I used SPF 25 for sitting on the beach!