Weekend in Sochi
At our EF school, it has become an annual event for the teachers to go on a weekend trip somewhere. In the past, the teachers went to St. Petersburg, Kiev (Ukraine), and Kaliningrad last year. This year, 15 teachers (all women—Rex decided not to go) went to Sochi. You may remember hearing the name, because the winter Olympics will be held there in 2014.
Sochi is a resort city on the Black Sea in the very southern part of Russia. It is a mixture of tropics and mountains. There are still snow-covered mountains around Sochi! Our trip began by being picked up at 3:30 am Friday morning to go to the airport for a 6:00 flight. We actually ate breakfast in Sochi! The rest of that day was spent being taken many places in a van. You can see pictures in our photo gallery. Our driver was very good at being a tour guide, even using both hands to demonstrate and emphasize. Those of us in the back were wondering how he was driving! I’m happy to say that we didn’t have any close calls.
On Saturday, 12 of us went on an excursion down the coast to the little country of Abkhazia. We left at 7:00 am and didn’t return until 12:00 pm. Our tour bus (with about 50 people) was very comfortable. Here are some of the things we saw:
- A town on the Black Sea with a chance to walk along the sea, sit and enjoy the sea breeze, go down to the water. The “beach” is not inviting since it is all rocks, and the sea is still very cold.
- Monastery in another town way up on a mountain. It was a long walk up on a cobble-stone path. The monastery is very pretty, and the view of the sea was spectacular.
- In the same town, we visited a cave which served as the first monastery. We walked through 5 rooms and across the longest underground bridge in the world.
- Lake Ritza is in the northern part of the country high up in the mountains. It is a beautiful lake and great sightseeing going there.
- On the way, we saw a small “lake” which is fed by mountain snow melt. The water was so clear that you can see the blue-green minerals on the bottom.
- Honey farm—the highlight of the trip to me since we had beehives in America. There were 47 hives in their front yard, and many more in the back. While one man was telling all about the different honeys they had to sell, I noticed a lot of bee activity around one hive. Then I realized what was happening—the hive was “throwing” a swarm, or their way of dividing a hive in spring. The old queen leaves with worker bees which are laden with honey for food. Swarms look scary, but bees do not sting since their function is to protect the queen until they find a new home. The swarm landed on the arbor over the driveway. Soon several men came from the house and scooped the bees into a hive box. Rex and I have both worked with swarms, so we understand the process. I asked one of the men how many hives he had. They have over 400 hives in 3 different locations. Some of the honeys they sold were citrus, eucalyptus, “Viagra” (which of course all the men wanted to buy!), blackberry, and more. I bought 3 (not the Viagra). They are so delicious!
Since Saturday was so full, there was nothing official planned for Sunday. Around 4:00, we were to go eat shashlik, or shish-ka-bobs. The driver from Friday picked us up, but he had his own idea about shashlik. He took us to several stores that he knew had fresh meat. Our director bought big pork chops and live fish. We had to listen to a big bag full of fish jerk around for a while. Then he went to a place by a river to cook it all. He had never been to this place, but he asked the man if we could use his facilities, which were really nice for our group. The man agreed, our driver started the coals, cooked the chops to perfection, and showed us how to prepare the fish. It was all wonderful, and I’m sure we gave the owner quite a story to tell.
Our plane left Sochi at 12:55 am. I crawled into bed at 4:30 Monday morning—very tired but very happy.