Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Behind the main bus station, on the lower level, you'll find the buses and marshrutky
going to the sights around Yalta, but perhaps more useful are Veshchevoy Rynok and
Spartak Cinema bus stations.
There are several metered taxi firms and they're definitely cheaper for journeys within
the city. Akva-Trans Taxis ( 067 563 0444, 231 085) is good, but you can generally find
some sort of metered cab at the intersection of vul Ruzvelta and nab Lenina.
TOP OF CHAPTER
West of Yalta
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Yalta's most popular attractions are lined up like ducks in a row several kilometres west
of the city. Many marshrutka routes (most notably 32 and 27) pass them all. From piers 7
and 8 in Yalta in summer there are eight boats daily to Alupka via Miskhor (for Ay-Petri
Cable Car) and Swallow's Nest. Additional boats go to Swallow's Nest only.
Sights & Activities
Livadia Palace HISTORIC BUILDING
(adult/child & student 70/25uah; 9am-6pm) It's not the most sumptuously furnished
Crimean interior, but Livadia Palace reverberates with history. It's the site of the 1945
Yalta Conference, where dying US president Franklin Roosevelt and heat-allergic British
prime minister Winston Churchill turned up to be bullied by Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
While here, Churchill declared steamy Crimea 'the Riviera of Hades'. No wonder, given
the high temperatures and the company he was keeping. Stalin's insistent demands to
keep Poland and other swathes of Eastern Europe shaped the face of postwar Europe.
Even as huge tour groups nearly trample you in a race to the overflowing souvenir shops
in the furthest rooms, it's hard not to be awed by these corridors of power.
In the enormous White Hall , the 'Big Three' and their staff met to tacitly agree that the
USSR would wield the biggest influence in Eastern Europe, in exchange for keeping out
of the Mediterranean. The crucial documents, dividing Germany and ceding parts of Po-
land to the USSR, were signed on 11 February 1945 in the English billiard room. The
most famous Yalta photograph of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin is hung on a wall,
along with the awkward out-takes, which bring history to life.
It's upstairs, however, that Livadia's other ghosts genuinely move you (yes, even com-
plete antimonarchists). This Italian Renaissance -style building was designed as a sum-
 
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