ukraine: nizhyn and sumy

Another weekend, another time to travel...domestically again this time...
It took me a bit to figure out which trains to take for this weekend, as I wasn't going far from kyiv, but there weren't many trains heading to the towns i wanted...as it turned out, the train i took friday afternoon ended up being the first bit of the train i took saturday evening...people living in some towns of the country have a harder time going home for a weekend just due to crazy train scheduling...
I departed Friday afternoon not long after 1500, and got to Nizhyn an hour and a half later...
Nizhyn was the first place I'd traveled to in Ukraine without any idea where I would sleep that night...despite looking at multiple sites online, I couldn't find a single hotel listed...nothing...but I figured there had to be something there...

I got off the train and walked into town...not long after getting on a main street I saw a monument to pickles...yes, a monument to pickles...apparently the pickles of nizhyn are special in some way...of course I took a photo...it still makes me laugh: a monument to pickles? Surprisingly, it wasn't all that big...I'm used to big monuments in this country...i wish it had been in the city center, that would've made it even more awesome...
I got to the city center, and walked along several well lit streets, looking for a hotel...nothing to be seen...eventually, just as I was about to ask one of the taxi drivers to take me somewhere, I saw the sign: готел...yahoooo! It turned out to be the not so famous hotel nizhyn...a very soviet style hotel, but they had a room, and I didn't see other options in town...

the room I got was a 'standard' and had a bedroom, bathroom, eating area and table, as well as small entry area...wow...wouldn't it be awesome if more hotels had this as a 'standard' room...since this was probably the only hotel in town, i should've taken the chance to look at other rooms, just to see what they had, out of curiosity...alas, i never think of these things when the timing is right...
i slept early and slept well that night...i think part of it was in being relieved that i had a place to stay...it's one thing to show up in a town with a lonely planet list of places to stay, or to know there is a tourist area with plenty of hotels/hostels...it's another thing completely to know there is nothing listed online, and to know you're in a nontouristy town...as easy as it is now to get your establishment listed, i'm surprised hotel nizhyn hasn't done so...

The next morning I was up early (as usual) and went for a walk...I headed toward a monastery in what trip advisor says is a suburb of nizhyn...how can a town that size have suburbs you can walk to? It didn't take me long to get there...the monastery was small, and recently painted...white on the outside of all the buildings...not exciting...the inside of the church was small, and typical...I stayed for a few minutes, then went out...
On the way back, I saw a small shop of the type that sometimes has postcards...success! The lady was probably surprised I bought so many...
I turned and walked further, along a road is walked the night before in the dark...this time I saw the river, which isn't big, or notable in any way...
I found a university, and the big WW2 memorial and park in front...pretty...

I found several churches, two of which looked abandoned...(one was maybe under renovation, the other truly looked empty, but it was the prettier of the two)...
I found the Saturday morning weekly market and wandered through there for a while...it was fun to people watch, though I needed an wanted nothin of what I saw...except cookies, I did buy some of those...is it ever possible to have enough generic type molasses kind of cookies? the ones i bought were supposed to have two different flavours, but they all tasted and looked the same to me...
Back at my hotel I cleaned up and packed up, then checked out...i love noon check out times...(i doubt there were heaps of rooms to be cleaned)...

I walked again...basically just following roads to see where they went...I found more churches...(there were a lot of churches, and relatively close together for a town this size)...I found a park too, but it wasn't big or pretty...by this time the market was all packed up and gone for the week...
I found a restaurant and ordered sushi...free wifi, a plug, and food, what else could I want?
After an hour or so, I headed back to the train station...since I knew where I was going this time, it went faster...but I was still moving quickly, as I had underestimated how long it would take me to get to the station...I arrived only a few minutes before my train...(which was long enough to get myself a hot chocolate for the whopping price of 4griven: 20cents in the states!)

The train ride was 3 hours, my next destination was Sumy, a capital of an oblast...
While on the train I decided I wanted to take a taxi to my hotel, but when I asked a bunch of taxis outside the station they were already booked for specific people so I had to walk...even though it was only 3km, I really don't like walking after dark by myself...especially when I'm not sure of where I'm going, and going through snow and slush...yuck...
Anywho, I got to my hotel, the room was huge, and there was a bathtub in the bathroom!! Yahoo!!
The next morning I was up early (story of my life) so I went for a walk...the area I started in is definitely not a grid system of streets...i'm always a bit afraid of getting lost, which happens a whole lot more easily when streets are twisty turny and you have to take a lot of different streets to get from one area to another...

I found trinity cathedral, the outsides of the domes were being repaired...there are doors on four sides, but only one of them is open...I have no idea if the others are ever open...there are stairs on the outside of all four doors, so maybe...
I made my way to a more central area, starting at one end of a pedestrian street...have I mentioned it was snowing a bit at this point? I'm so tired of snow and wind...there was a pretty church nearby, complete with a separate bell tower...I wish it was easier to go up more of the bell towers I see, the views are probably awesome...it's definitely possible, but those doors aren't usually open for tourists/visitors...
Walking down the pedestrian street I found another church in the middle of a service...it looked pretty big from the outside, but when I went inside there was a larger than normal entry area, so the actual sanctuary area wasn't nearly as big as I expected...

I walked the rest of the length of the pedestrian street, there wasn't much happening...
I went back to the hotel, took a bath (yahooo!) packed up and checked out...there was another american checking out at the same time...I told him I was surprised to hear the accent, I didn't think I'd hear it in sumy 😀
My first stop after leaving the hotel was a supermarket for snacks for the day...I opted for a chain I know well from kyiv...
Back into the city center, I walked along a lot more streets...(it's on much more of a grid, so I was able to weave along the streets without getting too lost)...there are a few cafes and such, but not many...it had stopped snowing, but it was cold and generally wasn't nice so there weren't many people outside...

During all of my walking I looked for postcards, but had a hard time finding them...I was finally able to buy 7...not nearly enough but that's all she had!
I meandered through some residential areas...they looked very soviet, with huge apartment blocks...come to think of it, the whole town felt soviet, as I also saw huge office buildings  in several places...in one smaller platz I saw kids playing on a HUGE pile of snow...super cute...
I found a cafe with strudel...YUM...I took a break and had fruit strudel and tea and warmed up for a while...I ended up spending longer than intended in there, it was almost dark when I left...oops...
At this point I walked just to kill time and burn calories...eventually, I returned to the strudel cafe, because I liked the atmosphere and food...the waiter who served me previously laughed when he saw I was back...I stayed until they closed...

After dinner at the cafe I walked to the train station, along the edge of a park at one point...I could see little statues, even a castle...it was a park for kids! Across the street I saw a giant Easter egg and chicken...I really need to come back so I can see this stuff in daylight...
I arrived at the train station early enough to get a chair...2 hours of waiting while cold, as the wind rushed through everytime someone came in...the way the doors were set up it probably provides great circulation in summer, but it doesn't feel good in winter...
My train back to kyiv was not a sleeper train, we were all in seats...a 5 hour ride, I didn't sleep much...the next day back at work was tough...

I wouldn't mind going back to sumy, but I think I've seen all of nizhyn