ukraine: lutsk and klevan

The second time I visited Lutsk (three months ago,) my goal had been to visit Klevan (the tunnel of love) but it didn't happen. I decided to come back to Lutsk and try again. 

When I booked my hotel in Lutsk they said it was okay if I left my bag there during the day. My train arrived in Lutsk exactly on time (0511!) and I spent about thirty minutes in the train station figuring out timing, as well as where to go. 

Then I started walking. It was still dark, but most of my walk was well lit. Just under an hour later I arrived at the hotel. Even though the ad online said there was a 24 hour front desk, it didn't appear that way at first. I tried three doors before finding an open one, and found another door to a stairway. One floor up I found another open door leading to a hotel hallway. 

Almost immediately I saw the open door with the label of hotel administrator. It was more like an office than a front desk, but I was able to leave my bag there. 

I took a different way back to the train station, it was fully light by this point. Lutsk had gotten as much snow as Kyiv, so there was a problem about where to put it. Sidewalks hold most of the snow, which is fine and dandy for drivers, but not so great for pedestrians. I spent a lot of time figuring out where to walk without spending the whole time in deep snow or melted slushy water. 

Back at the train station I bought a ticket for the electric train to Klevan. My timing was good, I didn't have to wait long to board the train. 

Electric trains are quite common in Ukraine. You don't ride them across the country, rather they take people around different regions of the country. 

They are not at all luxurious, the bench seats are wood with straight backs. Howeva, the tickets are really cheap and they have heaters under each seat. 

My ride was around 75 minutes, arriving in the small town of Klevan. I kept dozing off during the ride, but it was a smooth, easy ride overall. 

When the conductor came through to check tickets, he assumed the kid sitting across from me was with me, much to the amusement of me and the lady he was with. 

I alighted in Klevan, and went into the train station to ask what time the train would come through in the afternoon. After sorting that out, I started walking. 

Since this was my second visit to Klevan, I knew where to go. I followed the train tracks, and found the path I was looking for easily. 

The tunnel of love is sortof man made. It's part of a set of tracks, which were used regularly for a long time. So long that the trees grew over the tracks. In summer when everything is green, it really looks like a tunnel. I don't know where they came up with the love part of the name. I suppose you can say it's a combination man and nature made place. 

I'm glad I got to see it in winter, though I think I was a week to late. I was there when the temperature was just over freezing, and had been for several days. There was still plenty of snow on the ground, but it had all melted off the branches. What I could see were heaps of ribbons tied onto the branches of many trees, I have no idea why. 

The beauty of this tunnel is that you can walk as much or as little as you want. The annoying part of the tunnel is that the wood planks between the tracks are slightly higher than the ground. They're at a normal distance from each other by train standards, but this distance is a bit short for my walking pace. The planks are not even with the ground underneath, so you have to watch where you put your feet. To do that, either your steps are slightly short, or too long. In the snow I couldn't see where the planks were, sometimes I landed on them, sometimes not. 
Since I wanted to see what was in front of me but had to look where I put each foot I was rather frustrated that my eyes couldn't do both at the same time. 

Judging by the footprints I could see, I walked further than most people had since the last snowfall. I was tempted to walk all the way to the end (is there a marker at the end?) but then I'd have to walk all the way back. I'm pretty sure I walked at least a couple kilometers each way. 

While I was in there an engine of some kind came along the tracks, it was green. Nice to see the color in a land of white and brown. How often does that thing come through? And what is it for? (As I understand it, these tracks are no longer used.) 

As I came out of the tunnel, I moved along a different street from where I had entered. This must have been the 'official' entrance, because I saw a homemade sign with tunnel of love (written in Ukrainian) that could be used for photos. There was also an arch covered in ribbons, over a red painted heart shaped rock. 

I walked along for a while, taking random photos every so often. A few cars passed and probably wondered what I was doing. The road curved, and went straight through the middle of town. 

I was able to follow this street all the way to my next sight, it was not a short walk. Around 75 minutes I think. No part of this street was cleared, so I had a choice of slush, snow, ice, or water in or on which to walk. Good fun.

I finally made it to Klevan castle, only to realize I was on the street that went under the bridge from which you enter the castle. Argh. I had to climb up a fairly steep hill to get to the entrance, I slipped more than once. 

Before getting to the top I expected to pay an entrance fee for the castle. That most definitely did not happen. There wasn't another soul around; the entire thing was abandoned, and falling apart. 

Im actually surprised it wasn't blocked off, for safety reasons. As I wandered around, I could see that every staircase had collapsed, as had most of the ceilings. I normally like going through abandoned buildings, but I was worried enough about this one not to do much. I looked in windows, and could only wander through ground floor rooms. Some of the walls between rooms were collapsing as well. Eeek. 

When I read the description, this was supposed to have been a fortress. As I approached it and saw the bridge going to the entry, I agreed. After walking through, I don't see how that could've been a fortress. 

I left the 'castle' on the bridge, which took me to a church. The front gate of the church was open (the dog stayed outside the gate, I don't know why,) but the door to the church itself was padlocked closed. I liked the look of the exterior, I like blue churches :)

I continued walking, back to the main street that brought me to this area of Klevan.

This was a slushy area with even more water, I wasn't thrilled. I walked back in the direction from which I'd come, on the other side of the street. 

At one point I looked off to the side and saw another church. I followed another wet slushy street, but this time the outer gate was closed. I was only able to stick my camera through the gate to take a photo, then continue walking. 

I got back to the main road and looked at the clock. I realized I had to walk fast to make sure I caught the train when I got back to the train station. I knew I didn't have the option of catching another train later.

The walk back was full of more slush and water. I alternated between the sidewalk and street, depending on which was less liquid at the time. At some points the water on the street was big enough to be a pond, so I watched carefully for cars flying through and splashing me. It was a long walk. 

I made it back to the train station in time to be able to sit for ten minutes. I watched the old ladies also sitting around, talking nonstop. 

The train ride back to Lutsk was a lot more crowded than the morning ride from Lutsk. From the train station in Lutsk I walked to the sushi place I visited last time for dinner. From there I walked back to the hotel. I finally got to check in, more than 12 hours after I first dropped off my bag. 

I checked my Fitbit, and found out this was my biggest day ever in terms of steps! More than 46,000 steps. No wonder my feet were tired; I went to sleep early.

The next morning I was awake early, but didn't get moving for a while. I finally left the hotel a little after noon. The weather wasn't great, argh. It wasn't raining, but the temperature was above freezing, so all the snow and slush continued to melt. Figuring out where to walk was a day long challenge. 

I followed a main street back into the city center, taking random photos along the way. I found the so called 'bridge of love,' which was the local take on the idea of closing locks onto a bridge. The bridge itself was quite small, but rather cute, there was a nice bench to sit on at one end. My favorite part were the little houses on the water for the ducks. 

I saw a giant, boring government building, with a religious monument in front. Totally normal in Ukraine. 

I found a church still under construction, holding a service as I walked around outside. The building itself seemed finished, but it didn't look finished, if that makes sense. It still looked really raw. It was one of the flattest (imagine you've squeezed the front and back of a church together,) churches I've ever seen. Nearby was a giant mural on the side of a building, of the Ukrainian trident. 

I went through a supermarket, picking up a couple snacks and juice. I also went to a bakery for a sandwich and cookie, since it was afternoon and I hadn't eaten anything real. I've never been good about eating regular meals, and traveling doesn't help that bad habit. Some people travel to eat, I'm not one of those. 

After eating I walked toward a huge park, called the park of culture and rest. I don't know what the name is referring to, but that doesn't matter. It was fun to follow the different pathways and see how everything looked in winter.  

There are a few waterways through the park, all of which were frozen. I saw one guy coming out of a hole in one of them, he'd gone for a dip in his birthday suit. If I'd had proper clothing (and a towel,) I'd have done it too. It's a nice park, a great place to wander, or to have a family picnic. There are benches all over as well, if you want to sit and people watch. The park wasn't all that crowded, but there were people out and about. I even saw two people cross country skiing on the paths!

In one area is a small amusement park, more for kids than adults. It was almost tragic to see the rides there, covered in snow and not being used. I wonder when the season officially starts. 

After the park I decided to walk along random streets I hadn't walked before, just to see different parts of the city. I found some nifty graffiti in one area. In another area I found a really old bus parked next to a really old truck. Next to that were large glass eggs, I'm guessing they are put on display somewhere when Easter rolls around? 

On yet another street I found a synagogue. Well, I'm not sure it was a synagogue, but that was my guess based on the Star of David I saw through the front window. It was a gorgeous blue building. 

I wound through various streets, one of which brought me to another giant mural on the side of a building. This was one of the best I've seen in the entire country. Beautiful. 

Eventually I walked on a street that took me on a bridge over a river. The sun was starting to set, so the sky was changing colour, which looked great next to the mostly frozen river. 

As the sun fell, I walked back toward the city center, and went back to the sushi place to eat. I was there for a couple hours, just wasting time. Then I walked to a supermarket, and picked up breakfast food for the morning. From there I walked back to the train station, and waited a few minutes to board my train. Another night train ride brought me back to Kyiv. 

I probably won't return to Lutsk, unless I can use it as a base to visit nearby lakes, and can figure out a free weekend to do so. 

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...