Right now we are on our final approach to Yalta where we have another day of private touring ahead.

In Constanta Brad and I signed up for the excursion to the historic citadel of Histria, billed as the "Pompeii of Romania", which is about an hour's bus ride from the port. First we were ushered into the museum on site housing many of the architectural finds from the Greek, Roman and Byzantium eras during which the site was occupied. Our guide translated the commentary of a museum worker there which was a bit tedious, even though the items on dispay were interesting and had English signs. Since our guide perceived the day to be extremely hot - actually it was warm, but not unpleasant - she only gave us about 10 minutes to walk through the site itself. On the way back to the ship we stopped at the Folk Museum displaying costumes, textiles, photos from the past and more.


Yesterday's stop, Odessa, was quite interesting. I always think that these former Soviet Union cities will be depressing, but while Odessa is a bit "crumbling", it has some European charm and a nice seaside location. Many cultures settled there so there is quite a mix of architecture, especially French & Italian. Quite a few buildings and promenades were under re-construction.

Fred set up our private touring and our guide there was terrific. We had a short, guided visit of the Literature Museum, again with a museum guide speaking and our guide translating. Then we were rushed out of there by the staff without getting to look at all the literature displays. No English translations anywhere so we wouldn't have really known what we were looking at, but I love museums like the British Library and would have liked a bit more time. We did buy a Ukranian deck of cards there, which will be unveiled at our next pooch game - unfortunately they only have 36 card decks so Ukranian pooch will be a modified version....

We visited two Orthodox churches, the Uspensky and Preobrazensky Cathedrals. They were really fascinating because there were small services, in one case a baptism, going on while we were there - one priest singing and swinging incense, no seats, everybody stands. Lots of icons and gold - the older ladies were especially interesting looking! Our guide told us that when she was a baby her mother had her baptised, but since her father was a member of the Communist party her mother had to spirit her out of town and have her secretly baptised and never told her father about it.

We also visited the Privoz market which was a slice of life, very crowded, full of people trying on clothes over their clothes, $5 plastic knock off purses, good looking fresh produce, disgusting looking hanging displays of dried fish etc. Our guide was quite relieved that nobody got lost or robbed! We had a lunch at a cute restaurant of typical Ukrainian food - stuffed cabbage rolls and a selection of perogi type dumplings that we all shared.

Travelcat - Fred & Pat went the other night and confirmed that there is no singing at Portofino's.