ukraine: poltava

A number of my weekend trips this year have been returns to places I've already visited, this was another of these trips. I booked these tickets only a few days ahead of time, but there were still plenty of tickets available.

Poltava is known in Ukraine, and probably a few Swedes know of the town, but that's about it. Back in the day, a few hundred years ago, Sweden was a growing empire that wanted more land. Poltava is the sight of a battle that stopped that growth in this area.

My train departed Kyiv at 0622, and to make tthat train I walked to my metro station (no buses running at 0510,) and caught the second metro of the morning to the train station. Since this was Saturday I didn't give myself enough time for breakfast, ooops.

I arrived in Poltava on time, and realized immediately that this was the other train station from the one I'd used the last time I visited. These two stations are on opposite sides of town.

This actually worked in my favor, as my hotel was supposed to be only a 35 minute walk or so. Wheneva google maps tells me a time I take it with a grain of salt, knowing that I'll stop to take photos along the way to whereva I'm going, and this stopping could as much as double or triple the time. I love taking the photos though, I think it's worth it.

I stopped in a supermarket along the way, since I wanted food and drinks; I also stopped in two different bakeries. I probably didn't need the tart, but it was tasty anywho.

I walked on one of the main streets of town, which is separated by Chestnut Alley. The car lanes are on each side of the road, and I'm sure the trees are lovely when in bloom during late spring, summer and fall. Right now, toward the end of winter, they don't look like much.

Eventually the lanes came together, and I continued to follow the road to a park in the middle of the city.

This park is a circle, and traffic runs all the way around. In the middle of the park is a column, dedicated to the glory of Ukraine. There was a banner wrapped near the top of the column, saying 'glory to ukraine, glory to the heroes.' I have to admit it didn't look very good to me. Sitting on top of the column is an eagle covered in gold. There are two flags as well: the blue and yellow of the traditional Ukrainian flag, and the red and black flag of various Independence organizations. At the bottom of the column are reliefs dedicated to specific battles.

I found an abandoned building that wasn't blocked off. I looked into several rooms, and thought about going inside but saw someone climbing in through another window, which made me aware that people were living in the building. I wasn't keep about exploring an abandoned building with people around. Still, it felt spooky, and I took my photos. In a nearby yard I found sevearl art sculptures, which struck me as rather quirky.

I arrived at my hotel, and was able to check in immediately, which was nice. I ended up staying in the room for several hours, just resting, which I didn't really need to do. Once I started walking again, the weather had gotten better; at least, the sky was blue instead of cloudy.

I walked along, following a street near my hotel. It was an easy walk, all I had to do was go straight. About 20 minutes later, I got to my first sight. It was a memorial to those who fought in the Great War, as it is called in Ukraine. As with nearly every Soviet memorial I have ever seen, it was big. I think the architectural style is called Soviet realism, or something along those lines. (I could be totally wrong.) The man in the memorial had a sword, and was labeled Poltava, so it was definitely just for this town.

Not too far from this memorial, in the same small park was a small church, St Panteleimon.

There was nothing exciting about the church, but I took the photo anywho. I went into the church, but there was a service taking place and it was really small; I felt as though I was intruding.

Further along the street I came to another supermarket, where I bought snacks I didn't need. Not too far behind the supermarket was another church I'd been looking for. One can never call Ukrainian churches boring, and this one was no different. It was painted sea green on the outside, with typical domes on top. I loved the interior, and remembered to look up as soon as I went inside. The cupola was painted inside, and it was lovely.

I walked back into the city center, and found the pedestrian street I remembered from my previous visit. It isn't an exciting street, but since this was a Saturday and the weather was decent, there were plenty of people out for a walk. I had already seen the sights on the street, but walked it anywho, just bcause I could.

Along the way I passed restaurants and cafes, shops, a theatre, a church, and more. The end of the street brought me to another church. I entered the bottom of the bell tower, there is a small iconostasis in a small room.

I lit a couple candles and said a couple prayers for loved ones in my life. I was the only one in there, which was nice.

I entered the main part of the church as well, and remembered why I don't love this church so much. The large iconostasis is still being built, and is made of wood. There is no color right now. The interior of the church is still relatively new, the floors are made of slippery stone, and no painting has been done. Since the church is still new (or at least the interior is new,) it didn't feel very welcoming to me. I don't love churches that are super busy in terms of decor, but I want something other than just plain white.

I walked back up the street, as darkness fell. As I got to the end I found a branch of a sushi restaurant, and had dinner there. On the way home I ordered what I thought was a large hot chocolate at a bakery, but it wasn't big and it wasn't nearly as hot as I wanted.

Since it was still mid to late February, the sun goes down early enough that nights can still be quite long. In other words it was dark but I wasn't ready to sleep yet. I wasn't terribly productive though, I played around online for several hours.

My bed wasn't very big, but it was comfortable, and I fell asleep quickly.

The next morning I woke up early as I always do even when I don't want to. I wasted more time, as I always do, but it wasn't as bad as my usual time wasting. Breakfast wasn't included in my room rate, but I'd seen a menu I liked the night before, so I opted to have breakfast at the hotel. Fried eggs on bacon, oatmeal, and tea. All that for less than $4, yum.

I packed up and checked out a little after 10am. That's a good two hours earlier than normal for me. Yay for progress in terms of not wasting travel time! I left my backpack at the front desk, which was handy.

I walked along the street of the hotel, ducking into a few open backyards at times. I have taken a lot of pictures of old postboxes while in Ukraine. Poltava has a lot of storage units in backyards, as well as outhouses. A lot of houses I saw were old, and not in great condition.

I came to an intersection, where I saw another memorial. This one is supposed to be to the resting place of Peter I.

As I arrived, a little boy was climbing all over the monument, being watched by his parents. I stood there for a few minutes, they left eventually. I took my photos of the monument and turned onto a different street. This street took me to a viewpoint, looking over the northern part of the city. I was able to look over to a monastery, a place I wanted to visit during this trip. Along the fence were heaps of padlocks, I supposed this was the local equivalent of a love bridge.

Back on the first street I walked, I went into a church. I lit a few more candles, and said a couple more prayers.

I kept walking, heading toward the church I'd stepped into the night before. I didn't want to go into the church, but I did want to go behind it, where another unique monument is located. I have no idea why, but there is a monument to halushky here. Halushky are the local version of dumplings/mandu/vareniky. It looks like a giant bowl of them, with a giant spoon next to the bowl. I waited for a family to take their photos, then took my own.

I walked back up the street, to my next destination. This was a museum I'd only seen from the outside previously. The Poltava Museum of Local Lore has a really nifty looking building, but I was expecting the interior to be the same as many other regional museums I've seen in Ukraine. I figured I'd be in there for 30 minutes or less.

I was pleasantly proved wrong. The inside of the building was just as unique as the outside. Most of the columns were tiled, with flowers and/or green. The stairs to the second floor were split in the middle. Basically, the whole building was one giant photo op.

Not only was the building itself photogenic, the displays were really good. There were areas dedicated to the geology of the area, to the flora and fauna of the area, older history, more recent history, traditional life, etc... If I could read Ukrainian I would've been in there sevearl hours, learning a lot about the region. I really enjoyed the temporary ceramic displays, and one room that made me think of a banquet hall or theater. Stunning, to say the least.

After the museum I walked back toward my hotel. I walked on the pedestrian street again, and remembered along the way that this weekend was the weekend the whole country celebrated the traditional holiday of Maslenitsa/Maslyana. It's an old holiday, basically saying goodbye winter and hello spring. There are traditional clothes, traditional dances, and the most common food is a blini. (In English we'd say crepe.) The blinis represent the sun, and are eating with toppings like jam or nutella. Yum. I didn't buy food from any of the stalls, but I made a mental note for later in the day. I watched the dance performance in front of the theater for a few minutes too.

I didn't go into my hotel, but walked on the same street as I'd first walked after checking in the night before, only in the opposite direction. I went down the hill, taking a few photos of old houses along the way. The one that stuck in my mind was blue. The paint was peeling off, but still had the same intense colour I'm guessing it had when first painted.

At the bottom of the hill the road starts to switchback, but I didn't have to follow the road, as there were stairs going straight across the area, going up the hill. The stairs took me under a railway stop (for a commuter train, I'm sure,) and to a final set of stairs. These took me to a side entrance of the Holy Cross convent. This was what I'd been able to see from the viewpoint earlier in the day.

The property of the convent is surrounded by this wall, but the gate at the top of the stairs was open, and I went in.

There were two churches to see. I went in one, after putting on a head scarf. As soon as I got inside, someone indicated to me that I needed to put on a wraparound skirt as well.

There was a box of them, so that was easy enough. None of them went all the way around me, so I had a slit of sorts. Since I was wearing pants it's not as if anything was showing that shouldn't have been showing. I stood in there for a few minutes, loving the iconostasis at the front of the church. The church wasn't big, but the iconostasis made it feel grand. The iconostasis was gold, or painted gold. Along the entire roof were pieces of wood in a pattern, which I also really liked.

I went into the other church, which was much bigger. Much much bigger. There were also other visitors, unlike the first church I walked into. I wore another wraparound skirt in this church, this one wrapped all the way around me. The iconostasis at the front had more levels, but was made of wood, and not painted in gold. All the decorations around the church were made of unpainted wood, so it was a different sort of grand.

Of course the icons were colourful, they always are. There were a couple coffins, I'm not sure if there were mummies or just representations of saints inside. When I looked through the glass lids I could see a 'crown' as well as the 'gown' worn by a man of the church, which is why I don't know. There was a steady stream of visitors while I was in there.

I went outside and looked at the bell tower. From what I saw, there was no way for visitors to climb up, darnit. I left the property the same way I'd entered, through the side door. Back down the stairs, then back up the hill toward the city center. When I got back to the pedestriant street I bought grilled chicken. Yum.

From there I walked back to the circle shaped park. I walked through the park and out another street. I walked to a mosque, taking note of it just because you don't see a lot of mosques in the country.

I looked at my phone to check the time, and realized it was going to work out fairly well.

I walked back to my hotel and picked up my backpack. From there I basically walked back to the train station, stopping at one of the bakeries I'd visited the morning before. This time around, the train station was a lot more crowded, apparently heaps of people needed to go back to Kyiv. I only had to wait around 20 minutes before the train arrived, yay. The train arrived, we all piled on, and off we went. I had to kick someone out of my seat, but everything was good.

3 hours later, we arrived in Kyiv, on time. This will probably be my last trip to Poltava, but I've learned never to say never.  

ukraine: poltava

continuing my plans to visit everywhere in Ukraine, Susannah and I booked tickets to a town called Poltava, 3 hrs from Kyiv...our train left Saturday morning at 0559, which meant I was up waaaaay too early for a Saturday...the train was one of the fancy shmancy new trains, I think it was made in korea...a nice, smooth ride, dropping us in Poltava at 0900 or so...
we found a market with old babushkas and random stuff right outside the train station...I wonder if that happens every day?
Susannah does not like dogs, so she wasn't thrilled to see wild dogs barking as we walked toward the city center from the train station...
our walk to the city centre took us across a bridge, up a hill, and showed us parks, a view across the valley to a church, and a couple monuments...Poltava is a pretty town...

we found a big park in the city center, and followed a pedestrian street from there to a random café for breakfast...along the way I found a place that had postcards available, I figured I would go back after we'd actually seen some of the sights...
just after we finished eating, the guy from whom we'd booked a flat called, so we met up with him and he directed us to the flat...it's sooo much better to rent flats while traveling in ukraine than book a hotel...
after getting settled in, we walked back to the main pedestrian area, and walked the entire length...

we stumbled upon a gathering of people, it took us a while to figure out what the gathering was for...after realizing the date, susannah figured out it was to remember the Holodomor...
in the early 1930s there was a famine in Ukraine, several million people died...there is some debate as to the cause of the famine, but most anyone outside of Russia agrees that the famine was man made, (by the policies of Stalin) and generally avoidable...yes, the weather was bad, but sealing the borders of the country so people couldn't escape is uncalled for...i don't see the issue ever being totally settled...

anywho, the Holodomor is remembered toward the end of each November in Ukraine...it's a solemn occasion, to say the least...i haven't seen the events in Kyiv, I was 'happy' to participate in Poltava...after listening for a while (not that either of us understood anything) we continued walking along the pedestrian area...
we saw a small church, it was very cozy...
at the end of the pedestrian area, we crossed into a park/landscaped grounds...there was a big church in the middle of it all, and a separate bell tower...just outside the bell tower and entrance to the church were a few candles, we didn't think too much of it at the time...inside was a memorial to the dead and the living, (one on each side of the room) so susannah and i each lit two candles...

the inside of this church was being renovated, we didn't much like what we could see had been finished so far...oh well...it felt too modern...
we came back out to find more candles on the ground...
walking further into the park, looking for a specific monument...a GIANT bowl of dumplings...we got there just a bit too late in the day, the lighting was terrible for photos :( ...definitely one of the most unique monuments i've seen...i wouldn't mind coming back just to take photos of this monument again...i don't know if it was making a statement?

as we turned around and went back toward the church, thinking of heading back to the flat, we saw a procession approaching the church...quite a large procession, led by priests with flags...a truck playing somber music was there as well...the procession stopped just outside the church, and many of the people added candles to those already on the ground...a beautiful display of memory for what happened...
we ended up leaving because we were cold and hungry...dinner was at a restaurant that had traditional dumplings...they were huge!

the next morning when the apartment guy came to collect the key, he called a taxi for us, which took us just a bit outside of town to old battlefields...what the fields once were is not obvious now, of course...
back in the 1700s (i think? or was it 1600s?) sweden was a power in europe...sorta hard to imagine now...they sent soldiers to several areas, including ukraine...unfortunately for sweden, they lost the battle of poltava...we walked through the small museum, and chatted briefly with one of the docents...not only were we foreigners, we were traveling in the off season to a place not even many ukrainians visit...

across the street was a lovely church with a memorial hill behind it...
then we walked down the street to find a couple more memorials to the battles...one of these memorials wasn't easy to find, as it was very simple, and a bit off the road with no obvious path to get there, even though we knew where it was...these memorials were in modern farm fields!
a taxi back to town took us back to the central park, we both wanted lunch...we ended up going to the same place at which we'd eaten yesterday...

after what we thought was a quick lunch, we walked quickly to the train station...only to realize at the last moment that it wasn't the right train station...ooops...i felt like an idiot for not having checked the tickets more carefully, as i think the clerk who sold me the tickets told me we would come into one station, and go out of the other...fortunately we were able to buy tickets for a train later that evening...
since we had later tickets, we had 5.5 hours to kill, mostly in the dark...booo...since it was dark, we wandered back into town, then spent a couple hours (at least) at a cafe for dinner...
not quite the ending we wanted, but it was a nice weekend :)