ukraine: khmelnytsky and medzhibizh

My train left kyiv at 2312, and arrived in Khmelnytsky at 0434. Surprisingly, that was 10 minutes late. I'm used to Ukrainian trains always being on time,  even when the distance takes 11-12 hours to cover. 

It was still dark, and I had no desire to walk anywhere at that hour, so I walked into the train station and found the waiting room. There was an entry fee, 8 griven, which is about 30 cents. I don't love entry fees, but that's nothing in the grand scheme of things. Plus, the room was warm and quiet, which I really appreciated at that hour. I stayed in the room for around 3 hours, trying to sleep. 

Unfortunately, there were permanent armrests between all the chairs, so I wasn't able to stretch out much. That being said, it was better than my seat on the train. 

Around 0730, I started walking toward the accommodation I'd booked. It took me longer than the 45 minutes Google said it would take because I kept stopping to take photos. None of the photos were stunning or remarkable, but I thought they represented a normal Ukrainian town. One stretch of the road passed a series of military buildings, though I'm not exactly sure what they were. 

In one park I saw a little lending library. At least, that's what it was supposed to be. But when I peeked in the window, I saw just one book. It wasn't a building, or even a shack; just a structure with a small glass door. 

As I walked along a pedestrian zone, I saw people starting to set up tables and stands to sell stuff. I figured it was just a normal weekend market until I saw a banner that said it was the birthday celebration of the city. 

I arrived at my accommodation, and while the front desk staff were very nice, I wasn't able to check in early. Darn it. 

Since checkin time wasn't until 1200, I understood, and just asked if I could use the loo and store my backpack. I was able to do both, thankfully. I was also given a cup of tea, and found a plug to charge my smartphone for a while. When my phone was back to 100%, I went out walking. 

While charging the phone, I read one of my guidebooks, and figured out that there were at least two bus stations in the city. The one I needed was near the train station. It took me an hour to walk back there, as the fest area was more set up, and I wandered around a little to see what was happening. 

When I got back to the train station I heard and watched a military band playing for a while. I assumed they were practicing for the festival. I wonder what the performance was like?

At the bus station I found a marshrutka heading to Medzhibizh. I was the first person on the marshrutka, and since they usually depart only when they're full, I was afraid I'd have to wait for quite a while. Adventures in traveling sometimes requires a lot of waiting. Fortunately, the wait was only about 20 minutes. 

The ride was 35 kilometers or so, taking about that many minutes. We stopped a few times along the way, but it wasn't often. There are a lot of tiny villages all over this country. Unless you're Jewish, you've never heard of Medzhibizh. Back in the day, it's population was 90% Jewish, according to the guidebook. I still don't understand why Jewish is identified as a separate ethnicity from Ukrainian or Russian or Egyptian or someone from any country, but that's not what this post is about. 

The driver told me when to get off, it ended up being about 100 meters from the main sight I wanted to see, an old fortress. 

Since the guidebook didn't have a map, I was happy to have a visible confirmation that I was in the right place. 

Normally I prefer to buy souvenirs after seeing a place, but I didn't know how long the vendors would hang around, so I bought a magnet before entering the fortress. They didn't have any postcards.

Entry fee to the fortress was 20 griven. It would've been easy to avoid paying, as the ticket office was tucked away inside one wall of the fortress, with no way of forcing someone to pay. I don't know how many visitors they get, maybe this isn't a concern. 

After paying for my ticket, I wandered into the open area in the middle. There is a small church standing almost exactly in the middle, so I put on a head scarf, and went in. There was a wooden iconostasis, and a few other 'decorations.' One lady was selling the usual range of candles, icons, and other religious paraphernalia.

I walked across the courtyard to one corner that was close to an area of construction. Scaffolding totally blocked entry to one wall, but stairs and boards that formed a ramp offered entrance to another area.

This area was mostly empty except for planks that had been set up to allow visitors and construction folks to walk through. I loved the views from the windows. Not that the views were stunning, but I loved the way the windows framed the views. (Me trying to be artsy.)

I followed the planks to another area, which was a corner tower of sorts. I was able to go up a level or two, always fun. Ruins were still standing, and I got to look out a few more 'windows.' This area is very quiet, very peaceful, a lot of agricultural areas. The tiny village of Trebukhivtsi is all bunched together just up the road from where I'd been dropped off. 

Eventually I crossed back into the courtyard of the fortress. Almost directly on the other side, in another wall, is a museum, dedicated to the Holodomor, especially in how it affected this area. 

For those who don't know, the Holodomor was a time of deliberately inflicted famine. The 1932-1933 winter was the worst time. Official numbers of people who died vary, and unofficial numbers are higher and vary even more. No matter what, millions of people died, and it was unnecessary, as state grain silos were full. This was a time when the state was trying to force people into communes, so they were taking grain from the people, and not letting them eat. 

While people were starving, the borders of the country were sealed so no one was able to get help, either by leaving or aid coming in. Anywho, I digress.

This museum was small, but interesting. There were photos and depictions of what happened back then. By photos I mostly mean photos of people from back then. There are books of lists of people, separated by region. There was also a modern art piece on display, of hands reaching out. I assume they are hands reaching for food, or help, but I don't know for sure.

In another section of the wall I found another museum, this one seemed to be a local history museum. It started with the geology of the area, and went all the way to religious items. Quirky, but I liked it. As with some many museums in this country, the lights in each room of a museum are only turned on when you're in the room, as a way to save on the power bill. While visiting this museum the lights were turned off a couple times before I left a specific room. 

Before leaving the fortress for good, I climbed up a corner tower, for views over the area. Nice.

I walked up the street, and found an old synagogue. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a service or event going on, so I didn't go in. 

Medzhibizh used to be almost entirely Jewish, and was the home of a guy who essentially began one of the most observed sects of the Hasidic movement of Judaism. 

As such, it is still an important pilgrimage sight; even more importantly it is still an active synagogue. From my travels in Eastern Europe, this is becoming less common. 

Though I didn't enter the building, I could see the separation of men and women. Signs in the yard describe what is there now, and what used to be there. I entered the yard through one gate, and left through another, going up a different street. 

Not too much further up the street I found the burial place of the man who created such an important observance of Judaism. It wasn't open, but I could see the 'tomb' in the middle of the room through the windows. Next to the door was a sign in three languages (Hebrew, English, Ukrainian,) describing what was there. 

Around the corner on another street was a palace of culture. Well, that's what it used to be. You can find these 'palaces' in heaps of towns that used to be part of the East Bloc or Soviet sphere. 

Continuing on I noticed an abandoned building. These always catch my eye, I don't know why. I took a couple photos, then walked past, toward a small field. I was trying to figure out how to frame a photo of a tree in this field when I heard a dog charging at me. It was going FAST. I could see it was on a chain, but I had no idea how long the chain was, so I moved back quickly. Eeek. 

At this point I'd seen the entire village of Medzhibizh, so I walked back toward where I'd been dropped off earlier. I walked across the river, looking back and noticing how the fortress was mirrored in the water. Very pretty. 

I figured how how to get closer to the river, the view was better from a level closer to the water. I walked even further, to the village of Trebukhivtsi. Not much to see there either, it was just a few streets worth of buildings. On the 'main street' I took notice of a bright blue church. I wanted  to go in, but the gates were closed. Argh. 

At that point I was ready to go back to Khmelnytsky. I found the bus stop across the street from where I'd been dropped off, so I sat down and waited. It was surprising how much traffic went through while I was waiting. Not vehicular traffic, but people on bicycles or on foot. At one point I saw a group of young Jewish men, I think they might've been pilgrims. 

Eventually a marshrutka came along, and I hopped in. It didn't take all that long to get back to Khmelnytsky, though this time the dropoff was at another bus station. 

To get back to where I wanted to be in Khmelnytsky I had to walk a good thirty minutes or so. Part of this walk took me by a few houses with beautiful fall flowers all around. Gorgeous. 

Another part of this walk took me by a building that had an airplane on display out front. I couldn't tell if it was a museum, but there didn't seem to be an open gate to get on the property. Earlier in the day I'd noticed a long row of military barracks, and this was on another part of that property, so maybe it was just a random display. 

I stopped into a small shop and bought a few cookies because they looked good. At a supermarket I bought breakfast food for the next day. I stopped into a sushi place and got some to go for dinner back in my room. 

Walking back to my room took me back through the fest area I'd seen in the morning. At this point in the day it was full of people. Families, couples, groups of friends. 

I noticed a display of flowers organized into the number 585. Khmelnytsky was celebrating its 585th birthday. That's old for Americans, but not nearly so old in Europe/Ukraine. People were having photos taken with the display, but none of them were smiling. Why? 

When I got back to my hotel I finally got to check in. It was nice to eat and relax, then go to sleep early. 

Going to sleep early meant I woke up early, at 0549. 

At some point I cleaned up and packed up, then checked out. 

I walked to a nearby church, I'd seen the steeple the day before. I arrived in the middle of a service though I didn't know that at first. From the number of people coming and going when I arrived I never would've guessed there was a service going on. 

As there was a service going on, I only stepped into the back of the church, and watched/listened for a few minutes. 

I walked over to the administrative area of the city, and the big platz in the area. The biggest building was the oblast rada, basically the state parliament (a comparison for Americans.) In the middle of the platz was a memorial, with photos of many of those who died in the violence in Kyiv three years (ish) ago. There were a couple fountains on the edge of the platz, and a couple other memorials too. 

From there I walked down a strip of land between a split street. There were decorated benches all along, very cute. 

My walk next took me over a bridge, into a completely different area of town. I crossed train tracks, and walked through residential areas. I got to see more houses with gorgeous flowers all around. 

Eventually o got to another church. It was eye catching, but not in a good way. At least, not to me. The bricks were really orange, and the blue and gold just didn't make it appealing. At least, not to me. 

There was a wedding happening in this church, a small wedding. I saw a couple of the bridesmaids, and it confirmed my thought that there is a rule that bridesmaid dresses must be ugly in this country. 

I started making my way back to the city center, changing streets after a little while. I passed through a park full of families out for a Sunday afternoon. It's cute to watch little kids try to be tough when driving hot wheels cars. 

After crossing through a couple more blocks of the fest zone, I wound through streets to yet another church. I ended up walking around an entire block to find the entrance gate. 

This church was a whole lot better looking than what I'd just seen. Blue, with silver domes. Very pretty. 

Then I looked at my watch and realized I needed to get moving. I went back to the hotel (moving really fast because I was not at the time I thought I needed) and grabbed my backpack. I sped out the door, and down the streets back to the train station. I arrived about ten minutes before my train left, that's plenty of time to grab a drink and snacks :) 

The train station itself was pretty, at least in terms of all the blooming flowers. 

Thankfully, my train departed on time and arrived back in Kyiv later that evening.