Sevastopol Day 1

Sevastopol (seah-va-sto-pal) might be my favorite city so far. It has a population of 370,000 but it is as big as Moscow which has a population of 15 million people (lots of unused land). It is known  as the city of limestone because of the vast amount in the city. The city was destroyed twice by the Crimean War and World War II. Russia leases the land which makes it very popular for vacationing. There are many trains that come into the city. The train from Kiev is 12 hours, from Moscow is 15 hours, and St Petersberg is 36 hours. The city has 2075 monuments! During Soviet times the city was closed to those that did not have a permit.

Patrick was so annoyed with me that I made him take this picture

Coastal town

These mini coffee trucks were everywhere...I thought they were so cute

We went to the Chersonese meaning "peninsula" which is an ancient Greek colony founded 2,500 years ago. We saw the ancient town, theater, and St. Vladimir's temple.

Theater from 4th century B.C.

St. Vladimir's temple

Mosaics from 6th century B.C

Characters from Viking Lomonosov:

Tonight we had dinner with Clyde and Adele, Joan and Ralph. Clyde was a good ol boy from Tennessee. He had lived in Louisville and his son graduated from Vandy in the mid 80's. Adele was from Russia and teaches in Middle Tennessee State which is the only way that these two could have met because they could not be more different....very sweet, just two different worlds. Joan and Ralph were characters. Joan was loud and proud of her son who was a writer in Hollywood (Santa Baby I &II). Ralph works in the pharmisuitical psychology. Her son also works on Jason Bateman's computer which is pretty cool.

After dinner we went for a walk in the city. It was amazing. People everywhere. We had beers next to the water and listened to a local band play Joan Osborne.