Brainstorming

Arghhh.....we left our holiday planning to the last minute and are now coming up empty-handed. The original plan was to combine a visit to Crimea with a visit to D's hometown/relatives also in Crimea. Then we entertained a long list of other ideas:

• Skiing in the beautiful Carpathian mountains? Nah, too much like the last 10 winters in Alaska.
• Bus tour of western Ukraine? Nah, too much constant traveling. (I took a bus tour once from southern Mexico to Costa Rica. It sounded glamorous but it actually took a month of hard traveling, waking up at 4 AM and cramming into a small van to make border crossing before the heat of the day began and repeating the following day...and the following day...and the following day.)
• Awesome, awesome New Year's program in a health resort WITH DOCTOR CONSULTATIONS and LASER THERAPY and ECG? Hell yeah! Except that the program just ended. (Click on the 3 - 7 - 14 day programs for more info. All this for like $40 a day, including food and room and swimming pool with heated sea water.)
• 5 day / 6 night New Year's trip through forests and mountains and caves? Sold out.
• Travel to Hungry or Bulgaria or Poland would be fun, but if I leave my visa will be invalidated and I will have to pay a fine / won't be allowed back in Ukraine.

I do have a relative in Kiev that I'd really like to meet and a cool co-teacher to see and Lena, another good friend, but unfortunately Kiev is in the opposite direction from Crimea and D's grandmother is 88 years old....so now we're trying to plan a trip independently to Crimea. Any suggestions? We've got Bakhchisaray, Nikitski Botanical Gardens, and Sevastopol on the list. Maybe Evpatoria? Feodosia? Last time we went to Sudok, Simiyz, and stopped briefly in Yalta....but that was in the summertime.