italy:verona

the next morning, i took a train from milano to verona...it was a single train ride, and only supposed to be 90 minutes...somehow it was 30 minutes late, argh...bo met me at the train station in verona, he'd driven down from his home up north...

we dropped my bags in his car, since it was still too early to check into our guesthouse...we turned around and started walking...both of us had been to verona before, we used it mostly as a convenient place to meet up...

we started with a morning snack: italians would call it breakfast, but both of us had already eaten breakfast...croissants and a drink...there are little cafes all over every italian city so everyone gets an easy breakfast...

we walked along the river, then across one of the many bridges...soooo many tourists, eeek...even though i'd seen them all in milan the day before, i was still overwhelmed...since i live in ukraine and travel to small towns most of the time, i'm really not used to crowds...i'd totally forgotten how popular italy is as a travel destination, and verona is full of sights...we wandered a bit, figuring out where we might go later in the day, if we felt like paying entry fees...

around 1300 we walked back to the guesthouse and checked in, then had lunch at another nearby cafe...pasta, of course...mine was supposed to be spicy, but wasn't...at all...

walking back into the city centre, we found the roman arena...every summer this arena hosts the 2 month long verona opera festival...it's a fantastic venue, and nothing matches watching an opera under the stars with 30,000 of your best friends...we took a look at the schedule and saw that aida was scheduled for that night, so we bought the cheap tickets...there are super cheap tickets, then they get really expensive really fast...some people pay more than 200 euro for a single ticket! those expensive tickets don't get you anything super special, just a better viewpoint from the folding chair!

Our next stop was a coffee machine, which had a darn good hot chocolate for .50 euro...yay...

from there we walked further down a street, and into the castle...we opted not to buy tickets for any of the museums, we didn't care enough to learn anything...hee hee...

since we had tickets for the opera which started at 2100, we headed back to the guesthouse to rest and clean up...(verona was a lot hotter than kyiv, i wasn't dealing very well with the heat)...we had dinner at a random cafe, which allowed us to arrive at the arena at 1945...

when we bought our tickets we were told that the arena opened at 1930 for people like us who had unreserved seating, we knew we needed to arrive early...we arrived just 15 minutes after the doors opened, but already many of our possible seats were taken...great fun to watch people as they arrived; fun to see what people were wearing, and how they behaved...we chatted with our neighbors, as you tend to do in these situations...mostly, or probably all, tourists (at our level anywho, probably a few locals in more expensive seats)...

the rain started at 2045...ugh...i had an umbrella, we tried to avoid getting too wet...(it didn't work, as water collected on the rows and soaked into our clothes...some people took cover in hallways, some people pulled out ponchos or umbrellas...nearly everyone who had one of the expensive seats went to the hallways, those of us in the nosebleed seats stayed out in the rain...there was one row of people in the expensive seats who didn't move...they all had blue ponchos, bo and i referred to them as the smurfs :)...

the announcement came over the loudspeakers almost immediately, that the performance would be delayed as the rain would injure the instruments...it stopped raining after 30 minutes or so, everyone cheered and the people with squeejies came out to clean off the stage...just as they finished, the rain started again...everyone started cheering again, we joined in, laughing...

the rain finally stopped for good, more cheering of course...the performance ended up starting about 45 minutes late but time moved slowly, so it didn't feel that late...

it was a modern interpretation of aida, with great costumes and scenery...the voices were strong, choreography smooth, etc...neither bo nor i could remember the synopsis, so we were a bit lost...since the interpretation was modern, we kept thinking aliens had come from another planet and decided to sing a few songs...we got home quite late...

the chocolate croissant i had the next morning had waaay too much chocolate inside...(not something i ever thought i would say)...maybe i felt that way because of the giant slice of nutella covered pizza dough i'd had on the way home from the opera the night before...

our first sight of the day was 'juliette's house'...juliette of romeo and juliette...even though the story was made up, this house has been decided to be juliette's house...there is a small courtyard inside, with a small balcony where people come out to have their photo taken...there are a lot of people, it's difficult to get a decent photo...

i decided to go up the tower, bo decided to wait...the entry fee was 8euro!!! crazy...the view over the city was nifty though, i was glad to do it once...in an effort to burn a few calories i took the stairs going up and down, my legs were burning...

we opted not to pay to go in the duomo, we could see most of the ceiling from the door and that was supposed to be the greatest part of it...i was already getting really tired of the idea of having to pay to go in every church we walked past...argh...

we had lunch at yet another random cafe, nearby which was a shop where i bought postcards...before heading back to the guesthouse we stopped by the drink machine again, i wanted more hot chocolate :)...from there we collected bo's car, then made our way out of the city...

italy: milan

My summer holidays started with two weeks in italy...i flew into bergamo airport, near milan, simply because i'd never seen milan before...i found the bus that took me to milano centrale, which was an hour long ride and would've been a lot faster if traffic had been moving...as it was, it was a lot of stop and go, which didnt make me feel very good...

i took the subway to my hostel, and tried to check in...unfortunately, i was too early, and my room wasn't ready...so i dropped my bags, then walked to the nearest supermarket to get lunch...from there i walked into the historical center of the city, ready to explore...

my first side was the duomo of milano...the outside is super impressive, to say the least...really really impressive...apparently i'm not the only one who thinks so, as there were heaps of tourists wandering around the platz in front...i went inside the church, and wasn't nearly as impressed by the interior as i was the exterior...(the inside was still very nice, just not as awesome as the outside)...

the galleria was the same as the one i'd seen in december in napoli, i'm guessing they were each designed by the same person or group...

i shopped that day, a lot more than i usually do...it is something a lot of people do while traveling, but i'm not usually one of those people...i bought three dresses in a single day! I also picked up a lonely planet guide for italy...

from the duomo platz i walked toward the castle...while walking i realized the sun felt really good, but i was sooo tired...so tired that when i walked into the castle i sat on a bench and sortof dozed for about 20 minutes...i could hardly keep my eyes open, eeek...the inside of the castle was made up of several museums...

on the other side of the castle i found a big park...filled with paths to walk, and people...

i enjoyed wandering to the other end of the park where i found an arch modeled after the arc de triomphe in paris...i wanted to sit on another bench, but all of the benches in the shade were taken, and i didn't think i could handle more sun by that point...whoops...

i stopped at a random cafe on the way back to my hostel for dinner...since i was in italy, i figured i should go with a basic italian meal...spaghetti bolognese, bruschetta, and sparkling water...the food revived me a bit, thank goodness...

dessert was from a gelato place near my hotel...YUM...of course i ate too much, but i didn't care, i was starting my holidays :)

ukraine: lutsk

susannah, marina and i got up early saturday morning so we could catch a 5.5 hour marshrutka ride to lutsk...lutsk is in the volhyn region of ukraine, in the northwest area of the country...i ate breakfast, and had some food while on the ride, but i still ended up pretty carsick, and felt awful when we got there...fortunately, susannah had a sandwich for me, and i felt better as soon as i ate...
marina had arranged the flat in which we were staying, so she called up the lady and arranged for us to meet...the lady took us to the flat, showed us around, told us where to find a supermarket...we got ourselves arranged and settled in...

we realized one of the things we wanted to see would be closed the next two days, so we tried to hurry into the historical center of town to see it before it closed...unfortunately, we weren't able to see the tunnels for two reasons...one, they are temporarily closed for renovation of some kind...and two, even if the tunnels had been open, we didn't arrive until just after closing time...oh well...
the tunnels are located right next to a huge cathedral, (called st peter and paul) which was neat to step into...plus, it was hot outside so stepping into the cool church felt good...

there is polish history in this church, so some of the signs were in polish, others were in ukrainian...(this is typical of a lot of towns and sights in the west of ukraine)
just across the street from this cathedral is the city castle...we explored as much as we could, of course...the castle walls are still standing (and have been rebuilt) but the middle area is almost completely open...there used to be a church in the middle of it, but it seems as though the church has sortof been buried, as the ground floor layer was raised...regardless of the reasons, the church entry was closed, we weren't able to peak in at all...booo...

we walked all the way around, even going into the bell museum...some of the bells were small, but there were a few bigger bells as well...not surprisingly, we weren't allowed to ring the bells...(can you imagine how much employees would hate life if visitors were allowed to ring the bells?)...
after the castle, we found a map on the street, showing different sights in the area...we followed the streets to something called st brigits monastery...according to the sign telling the history (in ukrainian and english, yahoo!) of the monastery, it has also been a convent, and a prison, and more...

it was the sight of a massacre by the nazis during WWII...it was tragic to think of how many people lost their lives there...
our next sight had us walking a little more, another church...st dominican, i think...we bumbled into a service, ooops...marina and i didn't feel comfortable staying for long during the service, but susannah was a happy camper...i'm always nervous about intruding in a church service, i don't want to disturb anyone's worship time...i did have my headscarf, so at least i was dressed appropriately...

we had dinner at a place that had rave reviews in both lonely planet and on trip advisor...a place called vitovt, right next to the castle...unfortunately, none of us thought our meals particularly amazing...oh well...maybe i wasn't thrilled because i ordered carp, which is apparently not very tasty...
walking back toward the flat, we realized we were out during sunset...we got to watch a beautiful sunset from the bridge going over the tracks at the train station...the sky was a beautiful range of pinks and reds...
on the way home from dinner, we stopped at tam tam, the huge supermarket our landlady had told us about...it was HUGE...we bought breakfast and snacks for the next day, water too...we bought too much, oh well...
this was when the fun started...we couldn't find the flat!!! eeek...it was dark, but that wouldn't normally be a big problem...we weren't able to find the correct entrance to the correctly numbered building...it is not a good feeling to not know where you are when it's dark outside...we (marina) asked a couple people who seemed to live in the buildings, but none of them knew the answer to her question...
i should point out that these apartment buildings are big, and all look the same...it's really easy to get lost and/or confused...we'd only gone in once and out once so we didn't really know...
we ended up calling the lady, who told us where to go...not surprisingly, we were really close, hee hee...due to the late arrival home, we didn't go to sleep until after midnight!
the next day we went to klevan for most of the day...
after returning from klevan, we walked back into the historical center of the city...

on the way, we saw a man selling honey, i tried three different types...i didn't taste a huge different between the three, but i did buy one of them...i'd like to think it was organic :)
there is a giant church in this area of town, and since it was a holiday weekend, there was a holiday service...(the holiday is trinity, which is religious)...there were flowers laid out on the ground in front of the church, absolutely lovely...lots of people going to church, most were dressed in their sunday best...absolutely amazing people watching time!

we had dinner at a cafe on a pedestrian street near this church...normal ukrainian food, we were all happy...this cafe listed calories on its menu, the first time i've seen that in ukraine!
on the way back to our flat, we explored more of a memorial park we'd seen the day before...there were several graves, several memorials (including the huge WWII memorial, which we expected) and the grave of someone who had died during the craziness of Maidan, in February...that particular grave was covered in flowers, both real and fake...very colourful, and tragic...

the next morning we all woke up late, and were not ready to go when the landlady showed up to take the keys from us...to be fair, she did come early, but we should've been ready...
we dropped our bags at the train station, then walked into the city center again...(by this point, we knew the quickest way to go, since we'd done this several times)...we walked further into the historical area, finding a couple more churches, one of which was evangelical baptist...susannah and i tried to explain to marina what that meant...(the normal options in ukraine are orthodox or catholic)...

we found a place called the sculptor's house...we thought it would be a museum, but it was a private house, inhabited by a sculptor...he had created sculptures all over the house, and it's outer edge...very unique looking, though not my style :)
we also saw the old synagogue, as lutsk used to have one of the largest jewish populations in europe...the synagogue building was a combination synagogue and fortress when it was built, so it still retains aspects of each...there is no longer a congregation in lutsk, so the building is now home of FC Dynamo, a football club...boooo...

from there we walked toward a big park...a BIG park...on the way, we picked up sandwiches at a small shop, with the idea of having a picnic...
the park was full of people, we kept laughing at the fashion, or photos being taken...one one side of the park was a river in which people were swimming...it didn't look great, to say the least, but it wasn't awful either...we ended up eating our sandwiches while sitting on a bench in the shade...we also used our umbrellas to block the sun...i don't think i've ever done anything like that before, but i could feel my shoulders getting tender from the sun i'd had earlier in the weekend...

after the park we walked down a street we hadn't yet seen...not much there, but we did find a plaque on a building which said a massacre had taken place there during WWII...sad...on this street was a strudel cafe, another branch of the chain i've seen in lviv and kyiv...YUM :)...i convinced susannah and marina (it didn't take much)
when we got to the train station that evening there were more mozzies waiting for us, argh...the mozzies were the only thing any of us didn't like about the city of lutsk...(or the entire region, for that matter)...the train to kyiv got us back to the city in the very early morning :)

ukraine: klevan

from kyiv, susannah, marina and i took a marshrutka to a city called lutsk...we spent the first day of the long weekend in lutsk, but this post is about klevan, where we spent our second day...
we bought tickets for an electric train to klevan, it was the only way to go between the two cities...the ride was quite smooth, but there was very little air circulation in the train compartment, so it wasn't super comfortable...the aisle between the seats was quite wide, something i haven't seen previously...for some of these folks, it was clearly a regular train ride, they knew how to entertain themselves...kids, sang, old men played cards, people walked and talked with different groups of friends or family...

when we got off the train in klevan, (the interior of the train station was really nice, especially when considering how small the town is!)we initially started walking in the wrong direction, on the wrong side of the train station, oops...fortunately, we figured that out pretty quickly...
we switched around, and followed a path along the train tracks...soon enough we came along a very small cabin, the guy inside was some sort of guard...i don't know what kind of guard...marina asked him where we could find the so called 'tunnel of love'...

the 'tunnel of love' isn't a real tunnel...there is a set of train tracks going through the forest, and trains used to go very regularly along these tracks...over the years, the trees grew over the space where the trains went, tying themselves together...sortof...i don't know when, but at some point the trains stopped going on those tracks, but the formation of the trees stayed...
it's now called the 'tunnel of love', and is quite picturesque...this tunnel of love is mentioned on a couple 'top natural sights in the world' type of blog posts, so i wanted to see it, so did susannah and marina...what is not mentioned in any guidebook or blog post is the MOSQUITOS...they are EVERYWHERE in this tunnel...if you stop moving for just an instant, they attack you...even when you're walking, they still try to attack...is there anyway to prevent being attacked? i wonder if long clothes would've helped us much...hmmm, something to think about...

our original plan was to walk at least half the length of the tunnel (the full length is 6-7km!!) but all the mosquitos changed our plan...i'm not sure we even made it 1km...ugh...we did manage to take a few photos, but it was tough...standing still was a challenge for both the poser and the photographer...as we got out of the tunnel area we realized it was susannah who had been favoured by the mozzies...
from there we walked into the area of town in which we'd first headed...we followed one street until we got to the center street, and eventually found a couple cafes...

klevan is NOT a tourist town, most people only go to the tunnel and there aren't even many of those visitors...we waited for one of the cafes to open, then had lunch...soooo cheap! while waiting, we took a look at the memorial that was put up 30 years after the end of WWII...a bit strange to see a memorial marking the 30 yr anniversary of the war, but it was as big as we've come to expect in this quirky country...
our server at lunch told us of a church and a fortress we could also visit, but we realized we didn't have enough time...(there was only one train back to lutsk, we knew we had to be on that train)...we walked toward the fortress, just to see how far we could get in 20 minutes...the walk back went faster, for whateva reason...
that was our trip to klevan...we all decided we want to go back, but would prefer to do it when there are no mozzies...which probably means in the dead of winter, when there is heaps of snow on the ground...