ukraine: kirovohrad

kirovohrad is another oblast capital...lonely planet doesn't list the city at all, but then again, lonely planet ukraine doesn't list a lot of places in the country...the most recent volume of lonely planet ukraine was published with a date of may 2011, i wonder when they'll publish a new volume...three or four years is the typical time, but a lot has happened in ukraine in that time, and the country still isn't settled...yet an update is needed...hmmm...
i took a night train from kyiv, which arrived really early saturday morning in kirovohrad...bright and early at 0505...needless to say, i didn't get enough sleep, but that's normal on a night train...

since the sun wasn't yet up, i hung out for a while in the train station...i knew nothing would be open, there is no point in wandering around in the dark in a city i don't know...i think i ended up staying in the train station until 0845 or so...
i walked down the street in front of the station toward the city centre...i think this particular street was called revolution street...lined on either side with apartment buildings, some of them quite big...some of them were more colourful than others...i saw a few banks, random shops, supermarkets, etc...

before crossing a bridge, i went left, following a road along a river for a while...i walked past a small park, at least it was labeled that way on google maps...i found it ugly, and not a place i'd want to spend any time...looked like some yardwaste had been dumped there, yuck...who wants to be in a place that has grass/weeds gone wild and a nothing nice looking?
this took me to a roundabout (in the shape of an oval), and since it was saturday morning, there was a weekly market going on...if i was reading the signs correctly, there is a co-op around the oblast, and all these vendors were part of the co-op...there were meat stalls, dairy stalls, and fresh produce stalls...

i ended up having breakfast in this market...some fried potatoes, with an egg and part of a rib...yum...fried food isn't healthy, but it sure smells and tastes good :)
after eating, i kept walking, taking a right not too long afterward,..this took me over a bridge, painted blue and yellow just like the other bridge i hadnt crossed...im guessing the painting happened in the past year, as it has all over the country...
just over the bridge, on the other side of the river was a giant memorial statue...think soviet realist type, i don't know what it was all about...i've seen so many of these big statues in this country, i love them, but i don't pay as much attention as i should anymore...

further up the road i thought i saw my hotel, so i walked in...it turned out i had the wrong place, but the front desk lady told me where to go...i found my hotel, but they said my room wasn't yet ready, so i needed to kill some time...
i walked through the big supermarket that was in the same building as my hotel...nothing special, but i wanted to check prices...some things were definitely cheaper, there is an advantage to being away from kyiv :)...by this time it was about 1100, i saw an 'asian' restaurant across the street...i'm always happy to have sushi rolls, so i stepped in...

after eating and relaxing, i went back outside and kept walking...i stepped into a nearby church, there was some sort of service going on...this was saturday morning, so i have no idea...its palm sunday in the states, but i don't know in ukraine...since it was a different service from what i am used to seeing, i didnt stay long...i didn't want to interrupt...
i found another church not too far away, another service was going on there...hmmmm...
i went back to my hotel, and was able to check in...i ended up taking a nap, which i hadn't originally intended...i also got to take a shower, yahoo...

after relaxing, i went back out to the streets...my weather app was telling me it was going to start raining in a bit, i wanted to see what i could before the weather got crappy...i found the remains of fortress walls, they were earthen and overgrown, just like in kherson...
in the middle of the area which the walls encircled, i found a large memorial area...i saw two walls with the dates of 1941 and 1945, as well as a whole lot of grave markers with the word hero...red stars everywhere...i'm guessing they referred to people fighting for the soviet union?

i walked further, and walked past the building that used to be the barracks for soldiers manning this fortress...it didn't look like much, especially since the building has been kept up fairly well...
i exited the fortress area on the other side, and followed the street for a while...it took me past more apartment building blocks, these were all drab...i did like the playgrounds i found in the middles of all the buildings...i also found a lot of what looked like chimneys coming out of the ground...i have no idea what they were, does anyone who reads this know?

i found yet another war memorial, listing the dates of WW1 and WW2...i don't know why it was in a different location from what i'd seen in the middle of the fortress area...
further up the road i circled back around to my hotel...instead of going inside, i kept walking, even though it had begun to rain by that point...i followed this main street for a bit, i think it was called karl marx street...i came to a few large governmental looking buildings, one had a large platz in front...in the middle of the platz was a pile of gray bricks with candles and photos on it...this memorial was to those who fought during the craziness of maidan last year...there was a sign saying the platz was now named something like maidan heroes platz...

i found a pedestrian street and walked along it for a bit...i don't know if it was the season (sorta spring, but not great weather) or what, but there wasn't anyone else walking there...hmmm...i ended up circling back around to marx street, and walking back in the direction of my hotel...
i had miso soup for dinner at the same asian restaurant i'd visited earlier...yum...and a nonalcoholic mojito, making really really sure there would be no alcohol in the drink...
since it was now raining very steadily, i had no motivation to continue walking...back in my hotel i edited photos on instagram, updated my daily travel journal, and read for a little while...then slept...
ukraine changed it's clocks in the middle of the night, we are now on DST...

the next morning i woke up early as usual, but it was still raining, argh...normally i would go for a walk, but since i hate rain, that didn't happen...instead i used my phone to get caught up on news around the world...
eventually i did pack up and check out, a little after noon...i bought water at the supermarket, then started walking toward an area of town i hadn't yet seen...the name of the street is now dvortsova, but it used to be called lenin street...some streets signs list one name, some list the other name...
i found the local history museum, and though it didn't look open, i opened the door and found people inside...the lady at the desk looked at me with a sortof "what are you doing here" look...i don't know if that's what she was thinking, but it's certainly the impression i got...i paid my entry fee (only 10 griven, less than 50 cents of an american dollar) and walked into the first room...each room represented a different set of years in local history...

it wasn't a big museum, but i thought it was really well done...there were sets of clothing, weapons, military medals, etc...i also got to see money as it has been in this area through time...rubles, griven, even some german stuff...very cool...i saw household goods, and photos of families...most of the displays had information in two languages, i wasn't expecting to see english but was thrilled to have it available...
i followed the street back in the other direction, passing by former privately owned mansions...very cool architecture...the city centre was full of nifty looking buildings...

eventually i came to a park with yet another memorial...from there i headed north, eventually coming to what felt like the millionth war memorial i'd seen in the city...this was also dedicated to WW2...names were listed on a long wall...a sad spot, but i'm glad to see the names are remembered...
i kept walking, and made my way to another church, and went inside...it ended up being one of the most simply decorated orthodox churches i've seen...there was an iconostasis, but not nearly as much painting on the walls as ive gotten used to seeing...just outside the church grounds was the co called 'guardian angel' of kirovohrad...pretty...
i followed another street, and found a cafe with wifi and a decent menu...relaxing, warming up, and snacking...yum...

i continued walking along, just following streets for no reason in particular...i like doing that...while i was in the cafe i'd found two more places i wanted to see listed online, so i wandered around until i got to the first...it was a church...church of protection of the holy virgin...it was closed, unfortunately...i found it interesting because it was sortof squashed into a courtyard between three apartment buildings...normally churches have a bit more space...
i also found the synagogue, also closed...i don't think it's at all active anymore...i don't know if there is an active jewish community in the city anymore...
not long after dark i got back to my hotel, where i'd been able to leave my backpack during the day...i grabbed it, then went to the asian restaurant for my third visit of the weekend...yum...i was there for a couple hours, then walked back to the train station...a couple hours there, then i hopped on my train back to kyiv...
i think i've seen all of kirovohrad, i don't feel the need to go back...but i very much enjoyed the weekend...