Right, a quick potted history of the crimea - the original inhabitants were mainly tartars
but stalin deported most of those in the 30s - after that it became the playground really
of both the rich and and the not so rich from the old soviet union and then in 1954 khrushchev
gave the crimea as a present to ukraine - the russians joked that he was drunk when he did
it but anyway that way the totally russian-speaking crimea ended up as part of ukraine when the
whole soviet union dissolved and so now it's it's got a slightly unhappy relationship with
the rest of ukraine and is a fully autonomous republic and does not speak any ukrainian
at all - it remains as they say here the pearl of the black sea and it's still where all
of the the rich and famous and the ordinary citizens come along for their summer
a seaside holiday with a difference
this is the livadia palace built by tsar nicholas ii but more famous for the Yalta conference
where roosevelt winston churchill and stalin got together and basically divided europe
between them after the end of world war ii -having come all this way it's closed today
because there's some something going on with high security a wedding a conference or something
- like the taj mahal in fact, white marble all made of white marble
it seems everywhere you go in ukraine shashlik is incredibly popular it's nearly always meat
but here we've come somewhere where they actually do fish so here we go - the guidebooks say
this at night the Yalta boardwalk is something like a bizarre mockery of the court of louis
16th - and this is what they had in mind!
in theory, if she understood us correctly, it's going to take us to the most photographed
site in crimea, which is the swallow's nest castle
that's the swallows nest, not actually a castle it was built in about 1912 by a german oil
baron - it is the most photographed site anywhere around here
sunday morning and we're hoping that this ticket and this bus will take us to sebastopol
the russian flag still flies proud
as it proclaims proudly at the station sevastopol is actually a city with a medal - stalin gave
it one of his hero city medals for its services during the second world
there are people in Crimea that do not want to be ukrainian, they want to stay russian
and they want the fleet to stay here, i'm pretty sure that's what this is all about
amazingly before 1996 if i had been sitting here i would have been a british spy, which
would not have been such a good idea - very famously Sebastopol was a closed city for
all those years because it was the home of the black sea fleet, it was besieged in the
crimean war destroyed by the british and the French, and then later besieged by the german
forces and uh and destroyed again, and after that stalin basically closed it to the world
and only now is it just starting to open up - so amazing to be here really!
sebastopol has many war monuments this is the first just outside the station a huge
train gunship and that apparently says death to fascism
so this is balaclava, not really what you'd expect, looks like something like we'd see
on the mediterranean doesn't it.
balaclava is a very very historic place, this cove has always been sought after for this
very protected harbour and the british were stationed here during the crimean war -it
is where they launched their attacks on Sebastopol.
In and around here is where florence nightingale tended the troops talked about the terrible
conditions and just across the hills there is where the charge of the light brigade took
place - so all very very historic - now it's really where the nouveau riche come
somewhere over there on that side is the entrance to what was a top secret soviet nucleur sub
base, which is why balaclava was itself closed for many many years - that's the old fortress
when the genoese occupied the town and it was on the silk route - no doubt that's the
first of many hotels and developments in this bay and i bet in 10 years time it'll be completely
different
this is the rather magnificent upenski monastery which is built into the side of the rock which
was closed, obviously, by the soviets and about 10 years ago reopened - it's now fully
functioning again just outside bakhchyzarai is one of a number of stone cave cities inhabited
from millennia, it was particularly populated for a while by the jewish community that was
here at the time of the muslim khanate
this is the part of the complex that's in the best condition
this is the divan hall where the khanate had its government and the khan proclaimed his
laws and then moving through we come to the inner courtyard and the golden fountain
although it doesn't seem to be operating at the moment this is the rose fountain, the
tradition of putting the rose on it was started by this chap, no less than alexander pushkin
and this was the harem
as harems go it's very beautiful and very evocative very peaceful, still i'd rather
not be locked up
these are the rather desolate surroundings of the bakhchyzarai train station - we've
got an hour to kill unfortunately before um our train to Simferopol and there's not really
an awful lot to do
unfortunately all we're going to see of the crimean capital is 15 minutes or so walk to
the hotel - here lenin still holds court watching over his comrades!