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 :)

following the racesteps of my cousin (istanbul, turkey)

at some point while cousin bryn was living in Germany, he mentioned something about running a race in Istanbul...randomly I remembered him having run this race, so I figured out when it was, asked a friend about staying with her, booked my (surprisingly cheap) tickets, and I was ready...I love that there is an evening flight by Turkish air straight from Kyiv to Istanbul!
Amanda met met at the bus stop in the city, then we took a taxi back to her place...it wasn't far, but it was quite late at night and she didn't think it was a great idea to walk...we stayed up quite late chatting about everything, getting caught up on each other's lives...it's funny how the friends i've made as an adult have a wide variety of opinions, and are able and happy to talk about so many different topics...I love having friends all over the world...(a major benefit to living abroad, and keeping in touch with friends from those places who then move to other places:)

the next morning we got up and went to where we thought the expo would be for the races...unfortunately, the expo was in a different place, and Amanda had to go to a weekend conference for work, so I was on my own to figure it out...fortunately, I had a map, and a clue of where to go and how to get there...plus the buses going that way had their own dedicated lanes, so they move more quickly than the rest of traffic...yay...
before splitting up for the day, we had lunch...Turkish pizza, yum...I wish Kyiv had better food!! I added rice pudding for dessert, even though I didn't really have any room...
it was easy to find the right building where the expo was held, and the expo itself, but I got a bit confused as to where to pick up my bib number, timing chip, bag, etc...i'm pretty sure I walked through every square inch of the expo while searching...

afterward I took the metrobus, metro, and dolmus to dolmabahce palace...it was the biggest sight I hadn't yet seen in Istanbul...the entry fee is 40TL, you have to go with a tour group, and no pictures are allowed...for that price, and those restrictions, I was expecting a lot...
unfortunately, reality did not live up to expectations...the tour guide didn't speak very loudly, and didn't usually wait for the entire group (which was big) to catch up before starting his spiel in each area of the palace...he didn't give nearly as much information as I was expecting, Wikipedia probably has a better explanation...argh...that being said, the palace was beautiful...or rather, it was impressive in a fancy shmancy sort of way...huge rooms, giant chandeliers, gold leaf, a crystal staircase, etc...

the information given, and descriptions in the harem were even more disappointing...it was still impressive though...during the tour of each building (the palace and the harem) everyone had to wear blue plastic booties over their shoes to keep dirt from being tracked everywhere...
by the time I left the harem the sun was down...I was a wee bit scared, but I still had to go home...
I stopped for tantuni on the way home...I don't know how to describe it other than to say: YUM...meat, cooked on what looks like a big wok, with spices thrown in, placed into a thin tortilla, and rolled up...SO GOOD...yet another turkish food i'd be willing to eat all day every day...

the next morning both of us were up at 0600...Amanda walked me to taksim square and put me on a shuttle bus to the starting point of the race...thank you sooooo much for getting up that early for me!!
the bus took me across the bosphorous bridge, to the starting point of the races...(I was running a 15K, others ran a full marathon, or a 10K)...there were heaps of these shuttle buses, each dropping off runners from around the world...I must've been on one of the first buses, it was awesome to watch everyone as it got closer and closer to race time...I love the atmosphere right before races...everyone is excited, everyone is happy to say hello and good luck, etc...lots of random photos taken, just because...eventually I dropped my bag at bag check, and went back to watching people doing last minute prep...it's funny how marathon runners train for months for a specific race, but all the stress comes down to those last minutes before the race starts...

the race was well organized and supported...the course is great (how awesome is it to run from one continent to another - asia to Europe - as well as see some great historical sights while running? plus, there were regular aid stations, nicely spread through the course...my time probably wasn't any good, but i'm not very competitive, and 15K isn't a common race distance, so it didn't matter...(my time has never mattered to me in races I've run in the past 15 yrs)...the only downside to the race was the finishing area...it was waaaaay too crowded right after the finish line, and not easy to figure out where to go...I was given a bag with water, a banana, juice, a race finisher medal, and a rain poncho...
I grabbed all my stuff and walked further into the neighborhood of sultanahmet (sp?)...another sight I hadn't seen during previous time in Istanbul was the basilica cistern...basically the area where water was kept in the days of the ottoman empire...

it's a little spooky down there, and would be chilly if the humidity didn't keep it warmer...occasionally water dripped on my head, which of course I didn't love, but oh well...according to the pamphlet, the cistern was only discovered relatively recently when considering how much historical stuff there is in Istanbul...in the 80s or 90s I think?
another downside to the race: public transport was shut down in the race area, (which is great if you're running city streets) but that meant I had to walk 30-40 minutes to get to an open metro station so I could get back to Amanda's flat...if i'd just run a full marathon there is no way I would've been able to walk that fast or that far!

back at Amanda's flat I showered and packed up, then met Amanda at the bus stop for the shuttle back to the airport...(she was in her second day at a weekend conference she wasn't able to get out of)...despite traffic, we got to the airport in plenty of time...we found a café nero, as I wanted a last chance at a great chai latte and chocolate mousse cake...YUM...I was sad to go back to Kyiv...