ukraine: kyiv: remembering the Holodomor

Now that I'm aware of the annual memorial, I try to attend the ceremony honoring the Holodomor every year. It takes place in cities across Ukraine on the fourth Saturday of every November.

This year I was in Kyiv, so I took the metro and walked to the Holodomor memorial mid afternoon.

I know I've mentioned this event in previous posts, but since it isn't well known (or even known at all,) outside of Ukraine, I'll repeat some of the information. I don't know how many people, if anyone, read this, but this is a part of history that should be known.

Back in the 1930s, when Stalin was forcing Communism and commual life on everyone in the Soviet Union, one of the ways he did so was to set grain quotas for every region. That amount of grain was put into government silos, and was not available for people to eat. That amount of grain was often exported. These quotas were often set much too high, even though agriculturalists knew such production wasn't possible.

During the winter of 1932-1933, there was a famine. This was almost entirely for man made reasons, though the Soviet government of the time tried to blame it on bad weather. Yes, the weather during the growing season wasn't nearly as good as usual, but if the grain in the silos had been released to the people, there wouldn't have been a problem. Instead, the grain was held in the silos, and even exported, though people were starving to death.

The borders of the country were closed, so people weren't able to travel to get help, or to share the story. It's horrific.

The official numbers of how many people died vary, and are generally considered to be much lower than the actual number of people who died. I think a middle number is around 7 million, though I've seen as high as 12 million.

Each time I come to this event I'm amazed at the level of security. The president usually gives a short speech, which would require a LOT more security if this were something the American president attended.

I was able to arrive, go through a very old school metal detector, and have someone take a quick glance into my purse. Then I was in the crowd!

To remember the Holodomor, Ukrainians bring the usual flowers and candles, but they also bring loaves of bread and shafts of wheat. After the speeches (by the president and a priest,) people process forward to lay their offerings on and around the memorial. It's somber, and heartbreaking.

Almost every year this time of year is when it first starts to get cold, and I always end up shivering. I have a heated apartment to go home to, with plenty of food. I can't imagine how awful it must've been during the years of starvation.

Never forget.   

germany: dresden

I'd visited Dresden before, but it was just a day trip with rainy weather. When Bo suggested we meet up in the city, I said hey, why not. I can always justify a weekend trip somewhere. Always.

I took a taxi from school to the airport, flying Lufthansa. Both of my flights went smoothly, I arrived on time. Thankfully, the public transport in Dresden is a metro train, which comes regularly. I rode the train to the central train station, and went to find Bo, who said we could meet up at a giant Christmas tree.

He tapped me on the shoulder as I was going down a flight of stairs, he'd met my s-bahn from the airport but I'd completely missed him. He showed me to the Christmas tree, it was indeed very big. In another area of the train station was a GIANT stack of (presumably fake) ritter sport chocolate bars. If only they were real! Greatest marketing item ever.

We walked out of the station, I followed him. Bo had arrived in the city earlier in the day by train, so he'd already figured out how to get to the hotel, which I really appreciated. I'm not a huge fan of arriving anywhere after dark, but I don't always have a choice. On the way to the hotel we stopped at a small shack for a snack of curry wurst. Now that I like the stuff, I can't get enough of it!! With spicy sauce and mustard, I'm a happy camper. The bread roll that came with the wurst was the best bread roll I've ever had.

Our hotel was in a quiet neighborhood, which was nice. Some people want a hotel in the middle of nightlife, or at least close to it, but that's pretty much the last thing I want. We used wifi to take a look at what to see in the city over the next couple days, Bo already had a paper city map on which we could mark what we wanted to see.

The next morning I woke up earlier than Bo, because I always do. We got ready to go, and started walking toward the tram stop. On the way we stopped at the bakery on the corner of the same block where our hotel was located. We also stopped into another bakery close to the tram stop. Dresden has great bakeries, yum.

Close to the tram stop was an evangelical lutheran church. Like most churches, it caught my eye. I took photos of the outside, but the doors weren't open for me to go inside. Darnit.

We took the tram back to the hauptbahnhof, where we'd met up the night before. We walked through the station and out the other side. I remembered this walk from the last time I visited Dresden, I knew where to go. Even if I hadn't known where to go, it would've been easy to follow other tourists to the pedestrian zone.

Walking along the zone we looked into a couple more bakeries, somehow I didn't buy anything even though everything looked good. I stepped into a store with watches, hoping to find a Timex Ironman, but the store didn't have what I wanted.

We arrived at the Frauenkirchen, an iconic church in the old area of Dresden. This church is featured on many postcards of the city. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we discovered it was closed in order to prepare for a concert taking place that evening. Argh.

Since the Frauenkirchen is well known, and in the middle of a large platz, there are heaps of people around, including random performers. I liked the guy making huge bubbles while wearing a blue tuxedo. There was also a man playing a grand piano in front of the statue of Martin Luther, it was nice to listen for a few minutes.

We would our way through streets to a particular street which is known because of what is on the wall. It's called the parade of kings. On the wall is a long mural, depicting each king of the Saxon Kingdom. It's another iconic place in the city, I think it's more unique than anything else in the city. I still haven't figured out how to take a photo of the mural that shows the whole thing, and shows it well.

Our next sight was the Dresden Cathedral. Visitors enter through a non-descript door on one side of the church, then go up a short flight of stairs to get into the church itself.

It's a big church, but not super fancy. I like the ceiling, and the organ at the back of the church. Some of the interior of the church is being redone, so it was covered up in plastic. There is no entry fee, yippee!

We walked a bit more, past the opera house. I looked at one of the signs on the front of the opera house, to check out prices and times for tours, but nothing worked out for us. Another time I'd love to see a show, or take a tour. I love classic old school European opera houses, and all the etiquette that goes with them.

We arrived at the entry area of the Residenzschloss. We walked through the arches, into the gardens in the interior courtyard. It's a stunning area, everyone who walks in whips out their camera and starts taking photos. It's not super fancy, but everything is divided into sections. Since we were there in mid November, there wasn't anything special to see, but I was still happy to be there. We took a few timed pictures on one set of stairs, it's amazing how often people walk through photos being taken. I was laughing and frustrated at the same time.

I also like the upper balconies/railings of this area. Along the railings of the balconies are statues, and you can see the stone decor of the buildings as well. One of the 'gates' into the area has a giant crown on top, it's definitely worth a photo. Given the crappy weather, it was nice to see the gold in the crown. Another area of the gardens has a fountain, surrounded by statues and whatnot. After waiting (not so) patiently for other people to get out of my way, I was able to take a panoramic photo of the whole thing. We also took photos of each other in the dry fountain, hee hee.

We exited to the schloss area, and walked across a bridge to the other side of the river. We saw a cafe that seemed welcome in the grey skied weather, and went in. I was happy to have ice cream, despite the cold. It had hot raspberry sauce, which equals out the cold, right?

After eating, we walked through an aisle of trees, straight up the street. The trees are nice, and still had colour from the fall season. Unfortunately, it was too dark to take photos to show the colour. We walked all the way to the end of the street, as we both still felt the need to move. By the time we got to the end of the street we found a circular intersection and went all the way around.

Then we walked all the way back to the old city area. I took a couple night photos on the bridge as we walked. I wanted to take a photo of a display set up by one vendor, but he didn't want me to do so, darnit.

In the hauptbahnhof we grabbed a quick dinner at a branch of the place we'd first found in Berlin, an Asian fast food place. Tofu and veggies make me happy :) Also in the hauptbahnhof was a cheap grocery store, where I found ritter sport chocolate bars on sale. I'm sure plenty of people would say that buying six of them was too many, but I'm not one of those people. That same grocery store also had the glass jars of Landliebe yogurt I love so much. Definitely more than one serving, but I don't get them very often. In addition to the chocolate, we picked up breakfast food for the next morning.

When we got up the next morning the food and drinks were still cold because Bo had put them on the sill outside the window the night before. Yay for a yogurt I love for breakfast. We cleaned up, packed up, and checked out, each of us carrying our backpack with us. This day was better, because the weather was much better. Mostly blue skies with some clouds make every photo better. I took another photo of the Lutheran Church from the day before, just because it looked better with a mostly blue sky.

We took the tram back to the hauptbahnhof, and found the small area where we could rent a locker to store our backpacks. We found one big enough for both our packs, yay! In the hauptbahnhof I found a small shack and bought hot chocolate, just because it sounded good.

We went back to the giant stack of fake ritter sport bars, and took photos. Definitely one of my favourite travel photos of all time, hee hee. If only all that chocolate was real.....

We walked past the Frauenkirche, back to the parade of kings. While walking along that street, I bought postcads and a magnet, getting that 'chore' out of the way.

We went back to the gardens in the schloss, and took more photos since everything looked better. I was happy to get a photo with the crown behind us, and blue skies.

We followed the same route we'd followed the day before, crossing the bridge. Across the street from our ice cream cafe the day before we found a bakery full of yummy stuff. I ended up buying something with cherries, and another pastry too. Yum. I wasn't hungry, but couldn't help myselfhe Sometimes I think it's a good thing I don't live in a place with yummy bakeries everywhere.

We continued to follow the same path as the day before, all the way to the same intersection at the very end. This time, instead of turning around, we kept walking. We walked past a very drunk man, all the way to Louisenstrasse.

This started our time in a 'hippy' neighborhood. Many of the buildings had graffitti on the lower levels, and the shops were of a more vintage sort. Heaps of cafes too. We even saw people painting an archway, which was fun to watch for a few minutes.

We turned up Koenigstrasse, which brought us to another archway. When we passed through the archway we'd entered an area known as the Kunsthof Passage. The apartment buildings in this area are decorated in a way I've never seen. It's not the type of decor you get from mosaics, or painting, or fancy brickwork. It's what you get when other pieces are 'glued on' to the exterior. One of the buildings was yellow, and the decor was a series of large yellow tiles. Another building was blue, with pipes and flower pots and such. We weren't the only ones taking a look at everything, it's definitely a fun area. There are a few cafes, but we didn't really have time to sit and relax.

To get back to the old city area we followed another street, totally non touristy. I took a photo of a woman at a bus stop just because it seemed so normal. When we got close to the old town area we walked along the water for a bit, which was quite pretty and relaxing. Even though it wasn't stunning, it was one of those moments when you think 'hey, I have a pretty good life.'

We wound our way through the old town streets back to the Frauenkirche. I'd seen the inside before, but Bo hadn't. It's iconic for a reason. There are volunteers there who help keep all the visitors quiet, which takes some effort. There are a lot of people in there, and many visitors forget that a church is supposed to be a place of reflection and prayer, not yelling and gossiping. This church was hit during the war, but a lot of it has been redone, and it looks amazing. Most visitors only go to the ground floor, though you can pay 8 euros (!!!) to go up the bell tower. I think that allows you to go to the balconies as well, though I'm not sure. Everyone exits through a different door than they entered.

We started moving a little faster, heading back toward the hauptbahnhof again. I was very aware of the time, and knew I couldn't afford to miss my train back to the airport. When we got to the hauptbahnhof I ordered food for both of us, while Bo went to get our luggage from storage. We met up again in the middle of the train station.

We said our goodbyes, and I boarded the train. Around 20 minutes later I was at the airport, printing out my boarding pass. The airport offers 30 minutes of free wifi, I wish it was a little longer. My flights back to Kyiv were easy and smooth.

I hope to come back to Dresden another time, and get to know the rest of the city better, and maybe even do a day trip in the area.

ukraine: my 8th visit to Lviv (and a return to Zolochiv)

This is the story of yet another trip to Lviv. My original reason for booking this trip was to run a half marathon in Lviv. Howeva, when I didn't register for the race until just a couple weeks ahead of time. As I was going through the registration online, I decided to buy a race shirt. I don't need any of those, but I love them anywho. Unfortunately, they didn't have any more shirts in my size, so I decided not to register or run the race. This ended up being a good thing.

As with other recent trips to Lviv, I went somewhere else on Saturday, then walked Lviv on Sunday.

When I booked train tickets, I found one that arrived at 0405; this was a ridiculous time to arrive anywhere, but it was a third of the cost, less than $4. I stayed in the train station waiting room for an hour, paying the paltry fee of less than $.25 to do so.

I tried to doze off, but it didn't work very well since there were announcements nearly constantly. At one point I was fairly certain I heard an announcement for an electric train going to Zolochiv, but I couldn't find the electric train area of the station, darnit.

I walked to my accomodation, about a 20 minute walk. One of the reasons I'd booked this particular place was because it was supposed to have a 24 hour front desk. I didn't need to check into my room straightaway, but I did need a place to hang out for a few hours. The lady let me in, and I stayed in the kitchen for a few hours. While I was in there a few other guests came in, they were definitely surprised to see me, hee hee.

Around 0900, I decided it was reasonable to go into the city center, so I left my backpack at the front desk and walked out. I walked into the city center, annoyed by the rain and wind.

When I got to the city center I discovered the information office didn't open until 10am. I needed to kill about half an hour, so I found a cafe I liked, and ordered chocolate cake and tea. After eating and drinking I went back to the tourist information office, and asked how to get to the town of Zolochiv. The guy looked up the information, pulled out a city map, and told me where to go.

I followed his directions, hopping on a tram and riding it to the end of the line. Near there I found a marshrutka stop, and found Zolochiv listed on the signs. I waited around a bit, and a marshrutka pulled up. It waited there until it was full, then took off.

The first time I was in Zolochiv, I didn't see any of the town. My visit there was while I was on a castle tour with a friend. That tour took us to three castles in the area, but not the towns where those castles are located. I wanted to see the town.

I'd expected the ride to be a little over an hour. I don't know why, but it was nearly two hours later when we arrived in Zolochiv. I made a note of where the marshrutka stopped on the map, then started walking.

The first sight I went to was a church. It was a lot closer than I expected, less than two blocks away.

It was a Polish Catholic church, somewhat Baroque inside. Not too busy in decor, but definitely not plain or simple. I think the name was something like the Madonna Assumption Cathedral. I took photos of everything, including the ceiling. I also took a few moments to stand still and enjoy the quiet atmosphere.

Further down the street I came to another church. Unfortunately, the gates into the property were closed, so I wasn't able to get very close, let alone inside the church. While I was standing in front I watched a couple have wedding photos taken. Very cute. The lady must've been freezing, she was weraing a strapless dress!

I walked up a different street, winding my way through town. Zolochiv is not big, to say the least. I walked past several apartment buildings, and a couple playgrounds. Eventually I got to yet another church. This one was much smaller, and I wasn't the only visitor. When I first walked in, there were a bunch of kids inside. They all had notebooks of some kind, which were being checked one by one by a nun. I assume it was the end of a catechism (?) class, or whateva is the equivalent in the Orthodox church. This church had been part of the city fortress, and used to be Catholic.

Close to this church was a long park. Walking along this park I saw several large tree trunks that had been carved into faces. The carvings were done really well, and I loved them all.

I followed the street after the end of the park, it eventually brought me to the city cemetery. On one corner of the area was a WW2 momument/memorial. As usual, it was large-ish.

The cemetery was crowded with gravestones. A wide variety of course, some were large and fance, others much smaller. Some had individual fences, most did not. There were a couple that were really big, I'm guessing they were family mausoleums.

After wandering through part of the cemetery, I came to an intersection and changed streets. This street took me past an old hospital, and past a church still under construction. There was a large pile of construction material in front of the church, but no construction vehicles, so who knows if anything was going to be done anytime soon. One of the travel apps I use said this would eventually be the All Saints Church.

I followed this street around a corner, and kept going. Eventually it met up with another street, where I saw a monastery, the Basilian Monastery.

The monastery itself wasn't very exciting, but a couple photos turned out well because of the really dark clouds coming in fast. Unfortunately, the church of the monastery property wasn't open, I wish I'd been able to enter.

Further along the same street I found a Jewish memorial, next to a plain field. I'm not sure what it was memorializing, I didn't see a sign. (I hope there was a sign and I just missed it.) A couple blocks after that I found a Christian memorial.
Not long after that I arrived back at the area where I'd been dropped off earlier in the day. I boarded the next marshrutka to depart, I didn't have to wait long for it to get going.

Thankfully, the ride back to Lviv was a bit faster. I got back to Lviv, and rode the tram back toward the city center. I got off the tram before the city center, then walked my way to where I wanted to have dinner. It was a sushi place I've visited before, and was exactly what I expected.

From there I walked around the long platz in front of the opera building, just because I could. At night the building is lit up, and there are plenty of others strolling around, it's quite nice.

I walked because I still felt like moving for a little while. Then I walked to my hotel, and finally checked in properly. I ended up with what they called a triple room. There were three twin beds, spaced around a large room. I had a skylight too, which was nice.

The next morning I was awake early, as is normal for me. Unfortunately, when I woke up, I could hear rain coming down on the skylight. A lot of rain. Ugh. The one kind of weather I really don't like while traveling.

I started walking, back toward the city center. The comment I made earlier about not running the race being a good thing comes in now. As I was walking, I was passed by runners, the race had just started. This reminded me of the miserable race I'd run in Kyiv recently, I was more than happy to stay out of this one. I hate rain as it is, and had no desire to run another cold and wet race.

I arrived at a brunch place where I've eaten before to find a long line, argh. Not only was the line long, but it didn't move much. I stayed in the line, because I had my mind set on eating breakfast there. It's 100griven for a brunch, including a made to order omelette, drink, breads, salads, deli cut meats, and a few desserts. I ended up at a table with three ladies who were together. If I'd had to wait for a table for myself it might've been a lot longer. The omelette I ordered was not the omelette that was brought to me, but I was hungry and not very patient.

From there I walked to a souvenir store and bought a HUGE coffee mug (I'm pretty sure it holds 800mL) and postcards and a normal size mug. I didn't need to buy any of the stuff, but I couldn't help myself. The next time I go back to Lviv I have to find enough willpower not to spend money on souvenirs from the city.

I took everything back to my hotel where I cleaned up, packed up, and checked out. I left everything behind the front desk, and went back into town. It continued to rain all morning, sometimes more, sometimes less. Ugh.

When I got to the square at the city center I decided to go to a museum, something I've done very little of in Lviv. I found my way to the entry of the historical museum, on one side of the square. There was an entry fee, plus a photo fee, plus a fee to go into the Italian courtyard behind the building. Since none of the fees were very large, I paid for everything.

I started by walking toward the back, taking a look at the courtyard. It turned out to be three levels, with a few statues in various places. While I was on one of the balconies I saw a group of soldiers checking everything out from the ground level. I didn't find the area very interesting, I thought there must be a reason why there is an extra fee to see it, there must be some history I don't know. Oh well.

This building was originally built as a private residence, and when this area was part of Poland it became a royal residence for a Polish King Jan Sibelski (sp?) many years ago. The Royal Halls are what people come to see, they're lovely. Some of the original furniture and decor are still in the rooms, other pieces are just what would've been in use at the time. I really liked the wood floors, they were different in each room. There were several chandeliers to see too, very elegant.

After the history museum I walked to the corner of the square and went into another museum. This was the pharmacy museum. The front room is still a pharmacy, it has been active for a very long time. It turns out you pay your entry fee at the same place you would be buying medicine if that's why you are in the room!

After paying (just a simple entry fee, yay!) I went into the next room, which had displays of old school medicine, in old school containers. I didn't recognize any of the names, of course. I kept going and found a couple more rooms, with more displays of old medicine related stuff. Eventually I went down stairs into a storage room, to keep everything cool. To exit I had to go back up the stairs, and out the back of the building into a courtyard. Then you enter another building, go down stairs, and exit onto the street out of the front of that building. All in all, the pharmacy museum was much bigger and better than I expected.

By that point it was late afternoon, so I went to a cafe I like. It's a cafe specializing in waffles, yum! They have sweet and savoury choices on the menu, I always go for a sweet option. I had one with ice cream and raspberry sauce. I also had a salad, to pretend I was being healthy, hee hee.

After leaving the cafe I went to the Jewish quarter, and tried to take a look at the memorial the city has arranged there. There used to be a synagogue, but all you get to see now are the remains of the Golden Rose Synagogue. There is no ceiling, you just see a bit of the flooring.

There are signs describing the vibrant community that used to exist in Lviv, it's a shame that it has disappeared nearly entirely.

I continued walking, making my way toward a church I've always called the Soli Deo Gloria church, I don't know the actual name of the church. It says those words on the front of the church, and at night it is lit up with changing colours. The church is big, and I love the interior.

I started walking back toward my hotel, hanging out in the kitchen again for a couple more hours.

After that I walked to a nearby cafe, a scandinavian cafe. I couldn't decide what I wanted, so I had a hot chocolate, piece of strudel, and a piece of cheesecake. Sugar, yum!

When the cafe closed I walked to the train station, and found a seat in a waiting room I hadn't seen before. As I was sitting I looked at everything on the walls. There were schedules for electric trains, I knew I'd finally found the area to buy tickets for the electric trains.

When I come back to Lviv, now I know how to get to some of the day trip cities that interest me!!