Sevastopol' Things to Do

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The first excavation was begun in 1827, in the period when there was the first thought to build the cathedral in the place where the Russian Christianity began. Many exhibits were moved to St Petersburg and Moscow as well as many exhibits could be seen in the local museum. Kersones is nowadays the open-air museum (the entrance fee is UAH 30, EUR 2.5). The place is out of the center. We got it by mini-bus from Lazarev Square (I forgot the bus number but you need Dmitry Ulianov street stop). Besides the place could be got by minibus #2 from 5th km station. Some extra pics are in the travelogue.

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Khersones was founded in 528 BC by Greeks and 200 years later it has own money and influence in the Black Sea Region. In I AD the territory was fell under control of Roman Empire and it was the eastern border of Romans in the region. Since V AD the city is a part of Byzantian Empire. In the end of XIII the city was destroyed by Mongol-Tatar troops. During XIII-XIV century the cty was several times destroyed and then rebuilt. But after great destroy of 1399 by Edigey Khan, the city will never been rebuilt again.

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Khersones city, ancient place in Sevastopol', is very famous in Russian history. Here in 988 Grand Duke Vladimir was baptised and that was the beginning of Orthodox for Russia. The idea to build the cathedral on the place of the baptisation appeared in 1825. The Vladimirsky Cathedral was built in 1861-1876. During the war the cathedral was destroyed and fully restorated only in 2004.

My favorite day of the three we spent near Sevastopol was the day we took the bus to Bakhchysaray and visited the Khan's Palace and Chufut-Kale, one of the many cave cities in this region of the Crimean Peninsula.

The trip by bus took about an hour from Sevastopol's bus station, you can easily visit the Khan's Palace, Chufut-Kale and Uspensky Monastery on a day visit without a guided trip, it sounded like a lot for a day when I was reading up on it but it all easily fit into a day.

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Sevastopol is a city with a long military history, home to the Russian Black Sea fleet. It was a city closed to the general public until 1997, but the city still has military attachments, we saw young men dressed in their smart uniforms marching and walking about town. Understandably military monuments are a big part of the scenery in Sevastopol, here are a few that we found:

Picture 1 Monument to Admiral P. S. Nakhimov, the commander of naval and land forces during the Siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War.

Picture 2 1696 was the year the Russian battleships arrived in Sevastopol so I assume this is a monument commemorating this

Picture 3 Obelisk, built to honor the defense of Sevastopol during WWII , located on Cape Khrustalny

Picture 4 Monument to Scuttled Ships, commemorates the Russian ships intentionally scuttled in the harbor in 1854 during the Siege of Sevastopol that made it impossible for enemy ships to pass

Picture 5 I haven't figured this one out yet but I thought it was pretty cool

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All around us there were women yelling into bullhorns, trying to get visitors to try their boat trip. We didn't understand a word they were saying and thought "we are safe from their clutches" until a woman who did speak *just* enough English came by and asked if we'd like to go on her boat. She said the cost was 50 euro and we both looked at each other and then she laughed and said of course I mean 50 hrvina and promised a 1/2 hour tour of the military ships in the harbor. That got my husband all excited so we agreed and she led us to the boat and said she had to find some more people but would be back soon. After waiting about 20 minutes, we were discussing leaving when she came back, without any other people, and tried to raise the price. We shook our heads and said "thanks but no thanks", of course, they agreed to do it for the original price and off we went.

The captain spoke a bit of English and pointed out the Ukrainian ships in one part of the harbor and the Russian ships in the other part, when Ukraine became independent of Russia, there was agreement that Russia's Black Sea Fleet could still use the port, but the agreement expires in 2017 (according to Lonely Planet) so it may be in years to come that only the Ukrainian Navy will be located here.

While my hubby was busy snapping photos of the various naval ships, I concentrated on trying to stay warm as it was a bit chilly that day and it got even chillier on the water and even chillier still as the wind picked up and the waves picked up and the spray started hitting me and I realized that all the blankets on board were wet!

Our 1st stop in Sevastopol was the Panorama, a 360 degree painting and 3D model recreating the Battle of Sevastopol on June 6, 1855. The Battle was part of the Siege of Sevastopol by British, French and Turkish troops which lasted 349 days from September,13 1854-August,27 1855. You start overlooking the battlefield atop Malakov Mound (it's actually a concrete riser but you can use your imagination) alongside the Russian forces fighting the French and the British, unless you are with your own tour guide, you will have to wait until you descend to the next level where sections of the Panorama are explained in both Ukrainian and English. One of the sections points out Pasha Sevastopolskaya, the Urkainian Florence Nightingale, my Bradt guidebook says that Leo Tolstoy is in there somewhere as well.

My guidebook said tours left at a particular time but we walked right in. Purchase tickets at the Kasse outside, 30 UAH ($4USD) entrance fee without a guide. If you want to take photos or video, it's an additional 15UAH payable when you get to the top, don't even think about trying to sneak a shot, the Soviet era matron will be watching you like a hawk!

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As we entered the boardwalk area where all the restaurants are in Balaklava, we saw a couple of women, yelling in Ukrainian through bullhorns and wondered what the heck they were doing. Was it some kind of political protest? Trying to get people signed up to vote? No, of course not, they were trying to recruit people to go on boat trips. It was still a bit early in the season and not that many tourists, so there were a lot more boats than there were people to go on them.

We opted not to do this but once we had climbed up the side of the mountain for a view of the Black Sea, we saw where a lot of them went, out of the cove and just a short distance into the sea where they all seemed to stop and bob around. I assume that you can negotiate a shorter or longer trip, a trip to one of the nearby beaches or even a trip to other places in the Crimea.