Yalta

Yalta is the fun and bright face of Crimea. In the 19th century, it was the favorite holiday resort of the Russian aristocracy. During the Soviet Union it kept its special place as the main vacation place of the Soviet citizens as foreign travel was forbidden to all but a handful.

The seaside of the city of Yalta, is the place where you can find all sort of attraction and as well as many highend shops. Always a joy to stroll in the early hours of the evening..

 Yalta is also full of palaces. Here is one that we have visited: Vorontsov Palace, built by the Governor of Novorossiya Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov. Consruction completed between 1830 - 1848. During the famous Yalta conference of 1945, it served as the residence of Winston Churchil and British delegation.

 Famous Swallow's nest

 I also loved the artists' street where you can find very talented as well as untalented artists selling their painting. Check what Dimitri drawed for us on the right side of the photo..

 and last but not the least enjoyed the great wines of the region..

Sevastopol

Its been almost a week that we have left hospital. Hubby is resting at our home in İstanbul and taking his medication. He is doing much better. We are hoping to go back to our beach house next week after getting the approval of his doctor.

As we rushed to İstanbul with the first available plane, I dont have with me the necessary stuff for blogging, ie- a proper internet connection, a proper pc, camera...Thank God ( and my laziness) I have the ever reliable unpublished Crimea photos with me.. Here are some more from Sevastopol..

Sevastopol was the so called 'closed city' during the Soviet period as it was the host of mighty Black Sea Fleet of those days. Today it is still hosting them as well as the Ukranian navy. It was totally rebuilt after the 2.WW and today it is still a beautiful city..

Unfortunately we couldnt spend much time there as we found out very late that the translator and the driver who have been hired for us were also visiting the city for the very fist time. Lost so much time just trying to find our way in the city, but still we have managed to visit the famous Panorama museum and drank some cold wine while listening the sounds of the city..

Evpatoria

Another beautiful place from Crimea with some beautiful Ottoman buildings..The most important one is the Khan Mosque built in 1552 by the famous Architect Sinan of The Ottoman Empire..We had the chance to witness the religious weddings of  some Tatar couples there..

Another one is a dervish lodge and its mosque from the same period.

Evpatoria is an important harbour city in Crimea but it you are looking for sandy beaches you should go outside of the city..

It is full of beautiful old buildings from the imperial days of Russia, but the whole city is waiting a strong hand to renovate them..

Bakhchisaray - Crimea

Our hospital days are continuing..We slowly started to have some results from all the tests that hubby gone thru. Thank God, its not the scary ''C'' word.. It looks like he has secondary reactivated tuberculosis on his lungs. A kind of mutated tuberculosis bacteria which found a place on his lungs when he was young and slept there all these time.

As our hospital days are following one after another, here are some photos from our Crimea trip from June, I neglected to post them for such a long time.

Bakhchisaray is one of the important tourist destinations in Crimea thanks to the palace of the Crimean Khans. Its one of the Muslim palaces located in Europe, along with its famous sisters in İstanbul and Elhamra in Spain. Its a beautiful palace with so much homey feeling. I just loved it.. They started to build it in the 16th century.

Bakhcisaray is a Turkish word (means palace garden) and the name escaped from the Russinization of the names of the places thanks to great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. He visited this palace when he was exiled in Crimea during1822 and wrote his famous and very long poem ''Fountain of Bakhchisaray'' after this visit. The fountain is still in the palace..

This beautiful town has also a special place in my heart. It' s where my paternal grandmother and grandfather spent their adolescence years before they start their big journey to Anatolia.

Time to Heal...

Life is full of ups and downs. One day we are enjoying an excellent summer in Datca and the next day we are in hospital. Last week started with some problems in the hubby's lungs. As they could not put an accurate diagnosis there, we flew to İstanbul at weekend. Now we are in a larger and specialized hospital and still waiting for a diagnosis. Wish us a speedy diagnosis and recovery.....

Fig Season..

Nowadays fierce barks from Hera in the mornings, signals me our sweet delivery. Its been couple years that freshly picked figs delivered to us by a local farmer and his beautiful transportation. I am so happy with my delicious figs and as for Hera, I am sure that she is wondering a lot why the big dog is not responding to her...

Colors of Aegean...

Here are some more colorful photos from our recent Kos trip. Vibrant colors and all sort of blues under the sunshine are all about Aegean and Mediterranean..

 Wish you a much cooler day than mine....