cloe and i had been in ukraine for over two months, and really wanted to get out of kyiv...it's a great city and all, but we wanted to see something else of ukraine...so we were thrilled when our friend marie suggested going on a weekend trip...we'd never heard of the town she suggested, but hey, who cares? she said it was a town known for a university...fortunately, lonely planet had heard of it...there were a few pages dedicated to the town, including a map...woo hoo!!!
chernivtsi is in the southwest of modern day ukraine...over its history, it has been a part of other countries as well..it was once a part of the austro-hungarian empire, and you can still see this influence in the architecture of the town...the architecture is far more like the rest of europe than it is like kyiv/ukraine...
our trip started with a night train from kyiv to chernivtsi...our lonely planet guidebooks say that a long distance train ride is a must do experience in ukraine, so we were happy to check that off our lists with this trip...i think our train left around 7pm? i don't remember exactly...our friend marie met us at school, then we went to eat...she then showed us where to go at the train station, and we also met two other ladies (luda and elena) who were coming along as well...3 of the tickets were together, but the other two were in two other cars, so there was some shifting to be done...neither cloe nor i had a problem with sleeping by ourselves, but marie worried about us, so she and elena slept in the other two cars...
a night train in ukraine definitely is an experience...due to living in germany, and various travels, i've taken my fair share of night trains...people on ukrainian trains eat quite a bit more, and they bring all of it...it's possible to order tea (more on that in a moment,) but there didn't seem to be any other vendors coming through the train...instead, people pack a picnic, usually quite a large one...i got the lovely smell of hard-boiled eggs, and various pickled salads...yippee skippee...while the five of us were hanging out and chatting, marie and her friends took out the food they'd brought...heaps of food!! biscuits, lollies, cheese, etc...they also ordered tea for us from the train lady...it's just lipton tea, but i loved the glass holders, and of course all the sugar:)...we sat up talking for a while, i was the first to lay down and go to sleep...night trains in ukraine give you sheets, a mattress, a blanket and a pillow...plus, the train is a comfortable temperature...awesome!
the next morning we all woke at different times, which didn't bother anyone...more tea from the train lady, and marie pulled out some breakfast food...our train arrived on time, around 0930...we exited the train station (after taking the picture to prove that we were there) turned right and started walking...this turned out to be the incorrect direction, which we found out after the girls asked a local...ooops...the intention was to walk to the university, as we wanted to take a tour...the local ended up walking us part of the way, to make sure we were going in the right direction...ukrainians are so nice!!
the university in chernivtsi is the reason the town is known in ukraine...(i doubt it's much known outside of the country)...the university was originally built as the home of the local rulers, the bukovyna metropolitans...at the time, the town was part of the austro-hungarian empire...you can see how it would've been the home of a family, albeit a very large home...there is a church in one section, and a giant marble hall in another section...not all of the university is open to the public, our guide had to unlock a few doors...out the back of the university is a lovely park, complete with a statue of the architect, a czech guy who also had a hand in designing vienna...(if i remember correctly?)...there used to be a pond of sorts, but when the soviets turned the 'home' into a university, they also messed with the aquatic system of this pond, broke it, and weren't able to fix it...so now you can still see where the pond was, but there is no water...it's a shame...
after the university tour, we took a tram to the center of the city...after that, our day was mostly walking around the city...the girls had a map with 'tourist' locations marked on it, and i'm pretty sure we got to almost all of them...every building of any note, every church ever mentioned...one of the churches is currently painted a pepto bismol sort of pink...(though the postcard of said church shows it in a nice off white)...another church looks what lonely planet calls "drunken"...the spires twist, and from any angle it looks as if they're leaning into the rest of the church...we saw the end of a wedding coming out of yet another church, an armenian church...i wonder if the theme of the wedding was ugly dress, because i strongly disliked the dress of every woman in the wedding party...that church itself looked way better than the pepto church...brick, with silver onions on top...we saw a VERY old church, it was tiny and wooden...we saw a building with lion decorations...we ate at a place called the chicken house...i bought postcards...
chernivtsi is definitely a one day town for visitors, i'm glad that's all the time we'd planned to spend there...though we did get plenty of exercise, walking all over the place...other than being chilly, the weather was good...in other words, it wasn't raining, and for me, that makes all the difference...
our train back to kyiv left at 1900, we got to the train station in plenty of time...a dog decided to follow us most for about a kilometer, we didn't know how to get rid of it...the dog even crossed streets with us!! we were early enough that the train wasn't there yet, so we killed time in the train station coffee shop...(which definitely left something to be desired, but oh well)...the train ride back to kyiv had all of us in the same area, so no one had to move around to sleep...the same tea, the same heaps of snacks, etc...i love long distance trains in ukraine!!
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