Holy Week at MSC Melody, Part III
There were no increase in the number of attendees for the daily Mass despite my best attempt to attract more people. Those who did come were very happy and some of them came early to pray in our temporary chapel. On Wednesday, April 20, the ship was sailing through the Mediterranean Sea and we passed by the Dardanelles Straits around 8: 00 a.m. By noon, the ship entered the Marmara Sea sailing towards Bosporus. It was an incredible and unforgettable experience to see both sides of Istanbul when the ship crossed the straits. This is the meeting point of Asia and Europe, and I understood why Emperor Constantine wanted to make this city the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. I will talk more about Istanbul later, because we spent five hours in the city on our way back. We entered the Black Sea after crossing the Istanbul strait and spent the whole night at sea.
We reached Yalta, Ukraine, around noon and the port city of Yalta looked amazingly beautiful. This city situated in Crimea, southern Ukraine, on the north cost of the Black Sea. It was an ancient Greek colony and surrounded by wooded mountains. It reminded me of my own state of Kerala because of its greenery with hills and valleys. The beautiful Mediterranean climate makes Yalta a sought after tourist destination in Ukraine. After a long rule of the Ottoman’s, the Russians took over the city in 1783.
In the 19th century, many of the Russian aristocrats began to use this as a vacation place. Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky and Anton Chekhov had lived in Yalta for some time. Chekhov wrote some of his most famous stories including The Lady with the Dog from here. The dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991 caused alot of damage to the economy, and the city is still struggling to recover. The Soviet Union's rule seems to have destroyed this beautiful country religiously, culturally and economically.
In the 19th century, many of the Russian aristocrats began to use this as a vacation place. Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky and Anton Chekhov had lived in Yalta for some time. Chekhov wrote some of his most famous stories including The Lady with the Dog from here. The dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991 caused alot of damage to the economy, and the city is still struggling to recover. The Soviet Union's rule seems to have destroyed this beautiful country religiously, culturally and economically.
I went with the “Royal Yalta” tour group to visit the Livadia Palace (the White Palace) to have a look at the “Swallow’s Nest”. The Livadia Palace became famous because of the Yalta Conference held in 1945. Franklin R. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin met here to discuss Europe’s post-war reorganization. King Nicholas of Russia got the idea of constructing this beautiful palace after he visited and saw the Renaissance places of Italy. Now it is a museum, attracting many tourists who come to see the beauty of Yalta.
Our stop at the “Swallow Nest” offered us a beautiful view of the turreted medieval castle perched on a cliff hanging over the Black Sea. It was built between 1911 and 1912 on the top of a 40-meter cliff and is one of the most popular visitor attractions in Crimea.
There were some beautiful Churches, both Orthodox and Catholic, but because of time constraint we could not visit many of them, but still enjoyed their beauty from the ship. The most famous and beautiful of them is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral constructed by the architect Krasnov, who also constructed the Livadia Palace.
