Bet on 黒人／ボイコット: A potter 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the 黒人／ボイコット Sea - and a little potting on Stalin's billiards （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する

By John Carter
Updated: 22:48 BST, 20 February 2011

Vague memories of what Tolstoy, Turgenev and other literary chaps had to say on the 支配する led me to believe that a dacha was a country cottage for upwardly 動きやすい ロシアのs? -? a modest little bolthole. Recently I visited the dacha that was built for Joseph Stalin a few miles outside Sochi.

Though not 正確に／まさに Downton Abbey, it is as far 除去するd from my idea of a country cottage as a country cottage is from my garden shed.

木造の in construction and painted a bilious green, it sits far bigger than anyone 推定する／予想するs it to be and, I 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う, something of an 当惑 for 現在の-day ロシアのs who now know what a 恐ろしい old monster Uncle Joe was.

Uncle Joe's pad: Sochi is home to a いっそう少なく-than-humble dacha, built for Stalin

Dutifully we 軍隊／機動隊d from the 小旅行する bus into Zelenaya Roscha (The Green Grove) and paid proper attention to the きびきびした descriptions 配達するd by a 厳しい-直面するd lady who led us from one room to another. She showed us the cinema room, with Stalin's desk in one corner. She took us upstairs to the 会議／協議会 room and the master bedroom with its en 控訴 bathroom.

She pointed out the shiny 木造の 塀で囲むs and the polished 床に打ち倒すs and led us out on to the wide 木造の balconies.

I was on my best behaviour until we reached the billiard room. Then, as soon as the guide had left, I took some マリファナ 発射s, sending the balls skidding over the sacred baize. There was a time when such presumption would have seen me in Siberia.

Sochi was the last of nine ports visited by Spirit of Advent ure on a two-week 巡航する, おもに in the 黒人／ボイコット Sea.

Stalin's dacha is where the shore excursions take you, though the 訴える手段／行楽地 itself is 価値（がある） 調査するing, as it smartens itself up in 準備 for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

We were given all manner of facts and 人物／姿／数字s about Sochi, but the only two I 保持するd are that it is twinned with Cheltenham, and Maria Sharapova learned to play tennis there.

One of the problems with a 巡航する holiday is that as days pass and ports are visited, the memories tend to blur. Unless you keep careful 公式文書，認めるs you forget what happened where. Batumi is proof of this.

I had forgotten the 指名する of our penultimate port of call. I remember going 岸に and taking a bus into the middle of a town whose traffic was 大混乱／混沌とした and whose 味方する streets were unpaved.

I remember not 存在 able to make 長，率いる or tail of the advertising hoardings, street 調印するs, shop 指名するs and the like. And I 解任する seeing a very tiny police car, one of those Smart cars, I think, parked on the quay. But if I hadn't written it 負かす／撃墜する, I would never have remembered the 指名する.

In の中で the reds: John こそこそ動くd in a few crafty 発射s on Stalin's billiards （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する

Batumi it was. In south-west Georgia. And that's why I couldn't read t he 調印するs and the adverts. Georgia has its own alphabet, which nobody else uses. Unless you are Georgian it's a 続けざまに猛撃する to a penny that the 33 letters of its alphabet will mean nothing to you.

'Stalin was from Georgia,' a lady told me. There's no getting away from him 一連の会議、交渉／完成する here.

His presence was also formidable at Yalta, and the Livadia Palace, the 場所 of the 1945 Big Three 会議／協議会, the one where the Soviet Union, Britain and America carved up 戦後の Europe.

Uncle Joe did very 井戸／弁護士席 out of that 取引，協定. Eastern Europe didn't.

Until joining Spirit of Adventure I hadn't travelled around the 黒人／ボイコット Sea for many years. 支援する then, 広大な／多数の／重要な chunks of the area were off 限界s to 訪問者s (and most Soviet 国民s, come to that), but now it is possible to visit Sevastopol and other historic 場所／位置s associated with the Crimean War. In Sevastopol a 抱擁する panoramic 絵 and diorama 描写するs the 高さ of the 1855 包囲 of the city.

On this 巡航する? -? 古代の Greece And The Crimea? -? the ship carried わずかに いっそう少なく than her 十分な complement of 350 乗客s. Most had sailed on her before and were, in Francis Bacon's words, of . . . 'the older sort', for whom, in his opinion, travel was an experience rather than an education. Bacon was wrong.

Architectural beauty: Yalta 誇るs a 劇の 見通し of a 目印 in the Alexander Nevski church

My fellow 乗客s lapped up the 教育の 面 of this voyage, …に出席するing lectures on board given by a former 外交官, a historian, a geologist and a physicist. As an 予期しない extra, Lord (Geoffrey) Howe, holidaying with his wife, was 説得するd to 株 some memories.

Along with a 傾向 to wear beige and favour elasticated waistbands, travellers 'of the older sort' are very good at amusing themselves.

On this 巡航する they revelled in quizzes and crossword puzzles, collecting the daily challenge sheet before breakfast. And the superbly equipped library (3,250 調書をとる／予約するs, with a large 選択 of DVDs for the players in the cabins, and a bank of computer 審査するs) was also 井戸／弁護士席 used.

There was evening entertainment, but nothing 圧倒的な. A magician, a ピアニスト, a singer, a quartet of musicians playing dance music.

The Filipino 乗組員 were excellent, as I have come to 推定する／予想する on 巡航する ships. They have an uncanny knack of remembering 指名するs and に向かって the end of the voyage the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 stewards were even remembering one's favourite drinks.

Whether or not that is a good thing, I am not sure.

I had a spacious cabin on the 橋（渡しをする） Deck. Other cabins I saw were a little smaller but more than 適する. I also had a couple of chaps to look after me. A steward and a butler. They were Ray and Richard, but I never worked out which was which.

Every 巡航する ship has mysterious parts, lurking behind doors 示すd '乗組員 Only'. One morning I passed an open door behind which that other world lay. On the 支援する of the door was a notice. 'You are now entering a 乗客 area,' it said. 'Please speak English and 確実にする you are dressed 適切な.' Ray, Richard and their 同僚s were models of perfection in that regard.

巡航する ships 供給する too much food. Spirit of Adventure 申し込む／申し出d 質 同様に as 量? -? 非公式に in the Verandah, aft of the Promenade Deck and わずかに more 正式に in the A-Deck Dining Room.

An 'open seating' 協定 means you do not have to dine in the same company at every meal. It is also a good 協定 for people travelling alone.

At the end of the voyage I flew 支援する to London with a lot of good memories, having revisited old haunts, many transformed.

The best example was Odessa. All those years ago, along with a BBC TV 乗組員, I went 岸に from a ロシアの 巡航する ship, to be herded and shepherded by a pair of unsmiling minders.

These ladies were 決定するd to 妨げる us filming anything that 反映するd 不正に on their city, or their system. They 辞退するd to stop the bus 近づく any shops because they had long 列s outside their empty windows.

Odessa, then, was a grim, grey place. But it had not always been so. Pushkin wrote of it: 'You can smell Europe. French is spoken and there are European papers and magazines to read.' Once there were cafe （米）棚上げする／（英）提議するs on pavements, light and colour and laughter too.

Pushkin's Odessa has now returned to life. A 有望な, cosmopolitan city once more. His statue stands at one end of the Primorsky Boulevard, and I thought I （悪事，秘密などを）発見するd a smile of 静かな satisfaction on his 直面する.

Travel Facts

Spirit of Adventure (0800 300 432, www.spiritofadventure.co.uk) 申し込む／申し出s a 14-night 黒人／ボイコット Sea 航海士 巡航する from £2,399pp 出発／死ing September 1. This 含むs return flights, 十分な board on ship, some excursions and airport parking.