Dave and Brian's Excellent Adventures

Today we're leaving Yalta, tomorrow we'll be in Istanbul. Yalta was a fun town. It's considered the Party Town of the Black Sea. When you get off the dock, and leave through Customs, there are beer stands every 50 feet. The beer is cheaper than a Coke. It's 80 cents a beer. Not a 12 oz. beer, a 20 oz. beer. And it's nothing I've heard of, except for Stella Artois. The beginning of the pier is Lenin Square (Yes, I know it's in the shape of a circle, but that's what they named it), and there is a statue of Lenin next to a McDonald's. I had to take a picture.

After we got out of the sub pen, we walked to the top of a large hill at the mouth of the harbour. This is a Genoese Castle. There isn't much left of it, but once you climb this really LARGE hill, you look out on the view of the cliffs hitting the water, and they call it the Lost Paradise (Second picture). Let me tell you: It's aptly named. The funny part about this is that our guide was wearing these platform-style sandals. She climbed right up those slippery rocks, like they were nothing. She must be a true Ukrainian.

We finished out our jaunt to Balaklava by stopping at a local fish restaurant. When we sat down there were bowls of bread and plates filled with pickled kelp, squidy-thingys, muscles with garlic and pickled carrots. All were good. Then the soup came.

I learned along time ago to stir your soup, and see what comes up. Well, as you'll see from the third picture. There was a fish head in my soup. Well that made Mary scream. She stopped eating after that. The soup was good, but I kept wondering what would happen if I swallowed a fisheye. The main course was a pile (and I mean a BIG pile) of fish (WHOLE fish) that had been boiled. Now I consider myself a pretty adventurous guy. But I could only eat a couple of pieces before I had to put my knife and fork down.