Black Sea Blog # 3

FROM SOCHI TO SINOP

SOCHI DAY TWO:  Saturday’s rain ended and the sun was bright for our second day in Sochi.  Our tour included not only the compulsory cathedral but a promenade through the seaside park, a hard climb to a mountain-top tower, and a cable ride to the top of the botanical gardens followed by a steep hour’s walk back down.  However, the most interesting visit was to Stalin’s Dacha, which is on the outskirts of Sochi, but carefully camouflaged so that it couldn’t be seen from any of the surrounding areas.  We heard lots of anecdotes about Stalin and his life but the one I liked best related to the main highway which passed the street into his Dacha.  After Stalin built his villa here (close to the local medicinal springs) it became illegal to drive one’s car on the “Stalin” highway if the car was dirty.

We had lunch in a local restaurant and as we wanted something light we ordered bread with cheese and some Georgian dry red (Stalin’s favorite).  The bread was a flattened loaf that looked like an elongated pizza but with melted cheese and a soft egg sitting in the middle.

THE POLITICS OF CRUISING:  On most of our past cruises the majority of passengers have been Americans.  This cruise would have been no different except after the Ukraine crisis began the ports of call were changed (stops in Crimea were dropped and Bulgarian and Turkish ports were added).  Hundreds of Americans cancelled the cruise (perhaps to boycott Sochi) and the cruise line sold the empty staterooms by offering deep discounts to the British.  Dinner conversation is quite different in that politics is never raised, whereas with Americans it can’t seem to be avoided.  The British also seem to drink less and on this trip we never see hard liquor at the dinner table.

TRABZON, TURKEY:   We sailed overnight across the eastern end of the Black Sea from Sochi to Trabzon.  I must confess that I never heard of Trabzon, although it is an ancient city which for centuries was part of the silk route from Asia.  In fact in the 13^th century it was the capital of an empire of which I am also woefully ignorant.

Trabzon appears to be a city of Halifax size although others think larger.  After breakfast we walked up the steep hill from the port to the city centre where the shops began.  Three hours of walking may have covered 1/3 of the shopping streets.  I usually hate shopping but the scope was so great and the variety so interesting that the time flew by.  I must have walked by 15 shops that specialized in wedding dresses.  I almost wished that I had a teenage granddaughter so I could have bought her one of the 100’s and 100’s of “prom” dresses on display.  I settled instead by buying Betty a dress for the next formal night.

In Turkey one is supposed to bargain for everything.  However, it is hard to bargain for a beautiful leather belt when the first asking price is $4.  I needed a tube of shaving cream ($7.50 in Shoppers in Antigonish) and I was charged $1.5.  John Hanlon tells me that at the next formal night he will wear his new dress shoes that he had hand-made this morning for $30.  I could easily have spent longer wandering by the shops but we had to get back to the ship for cooking class.

The streets in Trabzon were very busy, although with the exception of people from our ship it appeared to be only locals.  I doubt very much that I shall ever be back here and I suspect most of you will not experience this place either.  However, if you have a lot of shopping to do it would be worth the price of a plane ticket.

SINOP, TURKEY:  We had sunny and warm weather for our visit to Sinop, a small semi-walled city of about 50,000.  The town is very pleasant with a lovely waterfront.  Perhaps not too many tourists visit here as there was no McDonald’s and no money changers.  However, the shopkeepers were happy to quote prices in either Lira or Euros.

Unfortunately our cruise is almost over as tomorrow we return to Istanbul where we will spend a couple of days before squeezing into the back of an Air Canada plane.