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 :)

sweden: karlstad, sunne, family

i was always told that i had swedish relatives...i remember hearing about the swedish relatives as a child, and i've heard about them as an adult too...i was told that i met many of them when i was just 9 months old, but of course i don't remember any of that...that introduction was during a visit to sweden, of course i don't remember that either...
in the middle of winter this year, my dad mentioned to me that he would be traveling to sweden for a conference, and planned to stay an extra few days to see the relatives...he said it would be great if i could join up for the family visit...i looked at a calendar, didn't see any conflicts, and booked the tickets...

i landed late on a thursday afternoon...i made the mistake of not eating earlier in the day, and flew a budget airline, which didn't feed me during the flight...by the time i got off the plane i had a horrible headache...the kind that makes me nauseous, the kind that makes it painful to think...i knew i needed food and water immediately, even though the thought of chewing and swallowing wasn't particularly appetizing...dad got me some food, and about 20 minutes later i felt a lot better...
two of our relatives picked us up at the airport, then we drove drove drove...i think the drive was about 3 hours in total, i'm not sure...we stopped for dinner at some point, at a swedish fast food place...

eventually we rolled into a city called karlstad...one of the relatives lives in an apartment complex here, the others were able to book the guest flat in the complex for dad and i that night...
the next morning we went to the flat of our relative for breakfast and chatting...thank goodness most swedes speak a fair amount of english...plus, dad has visited these relatives several times previously, so there was an easy flow to conversation...
after a couple hours, the ladies we'd driven with last night came and picked us up, and the four of us went to lunch in the city centre...the building in which we had lunch had historical significance...it's where a document was signed which split sweden and norway into two countries...we all had the same meal: fish, mashed potatoes and lingon berries...a very traditional swedish meal...

they took us to a hospital to visit with another relative...as we were hanging out there, we met an american couple originally from minnesota...totally awesome!! they'd met in japan, and since moved to sweden...while we were visiting with the relative, the ladies were meeting with his doctor...
next up was taking dad and i to a hotel...the flat we'd stayed in the night before was booked for this night, so they'd made reservations for us at a hotel...the hotel used to be a prison!!! is this where i get to make the joke about how much the swedish branch of the family thinks of us? hee hee...the hotel price included breakfast and dinner, so they agreed to come back after a couple hours for dinner...

great dinner...a lot of food...good people and good conversation:)
the next morning dad and i were up early and went for a walk...karlstad isn't exactly picturesque, but it was nice...plus, the weather was great...chilly, but sunny...breakfast afterward was lovely...
the family picked us up, and we picked up another relative at the train station...of course, this meant a packed car, but it was still fun...we drove to a town called sunne, i think it's about an hour from karlstad? after stopping for a coffee, we continued to a very small area...not even a village...this is where my great grandfather lived before he emigrated to the states...the cabin in which he lived still stands, and is still owned by the family...

there is no running water, no electricity...somehow, it's still awesome to see...the family let it out, so we weren't able to go inside, but i was content to wander around outdoors...the relative who lived there worked at a mill just down the hill, so we walked to see the remains of that...after all the years of hearing about this guy, and his life before emigration, it was really really nifty to see it...it was really muddy, but i'm glad we saw the area...
on the way from sunne back to karlstad, we stopped at the home of a swedish writer...she won a nobel prize in literature...her home has been turned into a museum at which one of my relatives used to be a tour guide...she still remembers a lot of random information:)

the night we had dinner at the first flat we'd visited in karlstad...homecooked by the ladies...a lovely evening...we took a family photo just before leaving...we went back to the hospital to get a family photo with that relative as well...
the next morning the ladies picked up dad and i to drive back to stockholm, and the airport...it was a quick weekend, but i'm glad i finally got to meet some of my swedish relatives:)