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Odessa is a port city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. It’s known for its beaches and 19th-century architecture, including the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater. The monumental Potemkin Stairs, immortalized in "The Battleship Potemkin," lead down to the waterfront with its Vorontsov Lighthouse. Running parallel to the water, the grand Primorsky Boulevard is a popular promenade lined with mansions and monuments. Having weathered recent political storms, Odesa is booming again – it now substitutes for Crimea as the main domestic holiday destination. It's a golden age for local businesses, but it puts a strain on the already crowded sandy beaches.

City

Hall

Out &Â About

Transnistria DAY 10

Transnistria, or Transdniestria, officially the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, is a primarily unrecognised state that split off from Moldova after the dissolution of the USSR and mostly consists of a narrow strip of land between the river Dniester and the territory of Ukraine.

Tiraspol

Bendery TThis impressive Ottoman fortress, outside the centre near the Bendery– Tiraspol bridge, was built in the 16th century and saw keen fighting between Turkish and Russian forces before falling to Tsarist Russia permanently in the early 19th century. You can walk along the ramparts taking in the fine views of the Dniestr River, have a picnic on the grounds, and visit several museums onsite that document the fort's long and rich history.

TThe town was first mentioned as an important customs post in a commerce grant issued by the Moldavian voivode Alexander the Good to the merchants of Lviv on October 8, 1408. The name "Tighina" is found in documents from the second half of the 15th century. The town was the main Moldavian customs point on the commercial road linking the country to Tatar Crimea.[7] During his reign of Moldavia, Stephen III had a small wooden fort built in the town to defend the settlement from Tatar raids..

Kings & Queens

Orheiul Vechi

The Orthodox monastery is still inhabited by a handful of Orthodox monks, who maintain the church at the top of the hill. The caves are still functional as chapels. The caves contain an array of historical artifacts and Old Church Slavonic inscriptions dating from the 1690s, which testify that the Hajduk took shelter in the caves, hiding from the Ottoman Empire.

Moldova, an Eastern European country and former Soviet republic, has varied terrain including forests, rocky hills and vineyards.

Its wine regions include Nistreana, known for reds, and Codru, home to some of the world’s largest cellars. Capital Chișinău has Soviet-style architecture and the National Museum of History, exhibiting art and ethnographic collections that reflect cultural links with neighboring Romania.

Moldova DAY 11

The wine cellars of Cricova is the second largest wine cellar in Moldova, after Milestii Mici (largest in the world). It boasts 120 kilometres (75 mi) of labyrinthine roadways, versus MM's 200 kilometres (120 mi), tunnels have existed under Cricova since the 15th century, when limestone was dug out to help build Chişinău. They were converted into an underground wine emporium in the 1950s.

INEBRIATION

C ELEBRATION

STARTS

T O D A Y

Chisanau DAY 12

Chișinău is the capital of Eastern Europe's Republic of Moldova. Amid blocks of Sovietstyle architecture are landmarks including the neoclassical Nativity Cathedral. The dometopped church anchors Chișinău's Cathedral Park, a plaza with a Triumphal Arch celebrating Russia's 19th-century victory over the Ottoman Empire. Stephen the Great Central Park is named for a Moldovan prince who resisted Ottoman rule.

Curchi MONASTERY

Curchi Monastery is one of the most important architectural monuments of Bessarabia, and it is also considered to be one of the most beautiful and famous monasteries of the region.

Casa

Verde

National History Museum

Friends, like wine, get better with age.

& e v ! o s L sse i K

SIP AND SHINE BLOG