ukraine: lviv never gets old...and a day trip to rava ruska

I will never get tired of spending time in Lviv. I think this was my 9^th or 10^th visit, and I loved it, as I always do. I booked a place to stay and quickly found out that the owner (it was a private flat,) didn't speak any English. Thankfully, the front office manager at school was able to help me out with arranging a check in time. At least, that's what I thought. The man called me back Friday evening before I got on the train, and through a difficult (almost impossible) conversation (with my limited Ukrainian) I was able to change the check in time to one that suited me better. Note: if you know the person with whom you're speaking doesn't speak your language, use simpler words and speak more slowly.

For the first time, I was on one of the newer night trains, and it wasn't immediately obvious how everything worked. The other people in my area didn't know either, much to the amusement of us all.

As usual, I arrived in Lviv before dawn, and wandered around the city as I usually do. I got to the location of my accomodation just as we'd arranged. I got to check in at 0800, which was awesome.

Even more awesome was the flat itself. It was a studio flat, but it was big. There was enough room for a big bed, and a sofa/tv area. I didn't watch the tv at all, but I loved the area in terms of being able to have something separate from the sleeping area.

After settling in, I looked at my watch and realized I needed to get back to the train station really fast if I was going to make my train. I alternated between running and speed walking the entire way, arriving at the front of the train station 3 minutes before my train was supposed to leave. Since Ukrainian trains generally leave on time, I kept going. I ran through the station and out to the track I needed. Thank goodness I was able to buy the ticket on the train, otherwise I would've been out of luck. I'm pretty sure I was the youngest person on the train by a couple decades, at least.

Under three hours later I arrived in Rava Ruska, Ukraine. It's not quite on the border with Poland, but it's only a couple kilometers away. It's not a tourist destination in Ukraine, but most of the places I've visited in the country wouldn't be considered tourist destinations.

The train station in Rava Ruska is totally different from the other train stations I've seen around the country. It is small of course, but seemed much more homey, as opposed to the grand classical look I'm used to seeing.

Another thing I noticed was that it said the name of the town on both sides of the station (track side and outer side,) which isn't normal. I'm used to seeing the town name on the track side and the word Vokzal (train station) on the outer side.

From the train station I could see the gold domes of a church, so I started walking in that direction. Eventually I got there, finding a Greek Catholic church. It was painted dark yellow, and the front door was locked. On the same property was a much smaller church, this one made of wood. It wasn't open either. I got the impression I was looking at the old and new versions of the same church.

As I walked through town I found heaps of old, abandoned looking houses and buildings. I couldn't tell if they were lived in or not. Some of the properties had chickens running around, so I assume those were inhabited. I also saw a number of wells, so not everyone has running water in their home.

The sidewalks in Rava Ruska were lacking in that they weren't complete. I would walk for a little bit on a sidewalk then it would disappear. I'd switch to the other side of the street, then it would disappear after a little while. Weird.

My first sight was something that looked like a war memorial. I'm not sure what specifically it was honouring, but I admired it anywho.

As I was leaving the memorial an older gentleman started to talk to me. As he was speaking Ukrainian and missing a few teeth, I had no idea what he was saying. I kept saying I don't understand, over and over again. I said it in English, Ukrainian, and Russian; he didn't seem to care or didn't understand.

I think at one point he might've been inviting me to his place for coffee, but I turned that down and tried to walk away. He seemed determined to communicate with me, but I wasn't very comfortable with the situation. I'm all for getting to know locals when traveling, but there has to be some sort of language in common, whether spoken or charades; this wasn't the case with this conversation.

At a few points he took a step closer to me, as if that would fix everything. I don't like strangers getting close to me when there is plenty of space available, so I took steps back. He noticed this and laughed about it, which I did not appreciate. Why do men think it is funny when a woman is clearly not comfortable with their behaviour? Argh.

Eventually I just walked away, even though I felt rude.

I followed this street, past another memorial, to a main street in town. On one corner of the intersection was a small chapel, quite pretty.

Further down the main street I found city hall. Its a unique looking building, definitely not what I would've expected in a city hall. City Hall was located next to the fire station, which was really good looking.

Not too far away I found a bakery with a tasty looking eclair. I was right, it was tasty.

I turned around and walked back in the other direction on this main street. At one point I noticed a small local market, so I wandered through there. Nothing special, but still nice to see. All the vendors I could see were older folks.

At another intersection I found another park area with a much bigger war memorial. I'm sure this one was dedicated to WW2, and it had the same Soviet realism I've seen all over the country.

I kept walking down the street and found a church. This one was painted a dark yellowish orange, as was the outer property wall. I found it quite ugly, but I still wanted to see the inside of the church. I walked through the outer gate, and immediately noticed that the bell tower wasn't on the church itself. It was a lot small, and looked more like a mini aqueduct, with three arches and a bell in each arch. It was also painted the horried yellowish orange colour.

I walked into the church, I was the only visitor at the time. A couple ladies inside were cleaning, and only glanced at me. I wasn't a big fan of the interior, though I don't know why. The ceiling was a turquoise kind of colour, and there was a low hanging chandelier. The carpet was patterned red, and the iconostasis was painted wood.

I got back to the street and wound around some smaller streets to a Polish Catholic church. (Since this was western Ukraine, I expected to see Catholic and Orthodox churches.) Unfortunately, not even the front gate of this one was open.

When I started walking on the main street again I could see the top of an abandoned monastery. I love abandoned places, and after not getting to see the abandoned monastery in Sokal I hoped to change that this time around.

I ended up walking almost all the way around the monastery to find the entry. It turned out there was a motel on one side of the property, which seemed a little strange to me. I found an open gate and walked through. From there I circled around the church, which has definitely had better days. There was rubbish all over the property, as well as what seemed to be building materials. From the outside appearance I couldn't tell if renovation work was being done.

The front of the church didn't appear to be open, but there was an open door to the building next door. Of course I went inside.

This building must've been the cloister and living area for the monastery when it was active. I walked down the halls and up the stairs and down more halls. I peeked into small rooms off the halls, but there was nothing except abandonment.

Falling down and peeling paint. Not a speck of furniture anywhere. I found the remains of one fresco painting on a wall, that was it.

In the hall next to the church I was able to peek into the church, but the door that allowed me to do so wouldn't open far enough to let me in the sanctuary. Argh.

In one of the upper hallways I found a window of sorts that I was able to climb through and get to the balcony of the church. Awesome. I loved it.

When I got back out to the yard in front of the church I noticed there was no lock on the church door, it was just one of those sliding doohickeys.

Since it hadn't been moved in a while I had to rock it back and forth, but it did open. Then I was on the ground floor of the sanctuary, yay!

This church clearly hasn't been used or taken care of in quite a while. I could see the remains of frescoes all over the walls and ceilings. There was a bookcase of sorts at the front, behind where the iconostasis would've been I couldn't identify anything else in the room.

Eventually I went outside again, and walked back toward the city center. As I walked, I looked at the city on google maps and noticed a mass grave marked, of course I made my way in that direction. I made my way up the street and first stopped at a cemetery.

It was a typical cemetery with a variety of styles in grave markers. In one corner was a Soviet memorial of some kind, I don't know what it was for specifically. Soldiers, maybe? Next to this memorial is what used to be a stone chapel.

When I got to the mass grave sight I immediately saw the sign describing the sight. The sign was in three languages, Hebrew, English, and Ukrainian. It said that the grave held the remains of 3000 or so people who had been massacred in the area during the war. The sign also said that over 10,000 people had been deported from the area during WW2, not many had returned afterward. (Sadly, this is typical of much of Eastern Europe.) During the war over 1 million Jews were murdered in what is now Ukraine.

From there I started walking back toward the train station. Along the way I went through a park and saw another statue. I think this one was of Shevchenko, the Ukrainian poet. For a reason I don't know, there were also statues of bears in this park. Weird.

The train back to Lviv departed on time, and three hours later it arrived. I was cold and uncomfortable the whole time, there were no heaters on this train. Argh.

After returning to Lviv I walked across the city to dinner. Along the way I picked up goods from a bakery I hadn't visited before, and ate some before getting to dinner. They were good, and I really ought to stop eating dessert before dinner. Ooops.

I slept well in my flat that night.

The next morning I woke up and actually got moving earlier than normal. I'd arranged for checking out at noon, but I wanted to go for a walk before then. When I got outside I realized it was colder than I'd expected, and it was really windy. Really really windy. The clouds above the city were rolling by quickly.

I walked to the square around City Hall, enjoying the lack of people. I saw a couple lions (one of the symbols of the city,) in one area, each had been covered with locks. I suppose this is the local version of locks of love.

Even though I've done it before, I decided to climb up the tower of City Hall again. The entry fee is only 20 griven, so less than $1. You get to climb plenty of stairs to get up there, it's a workout. As soon as I walked out the door my hair felt like it would be ripped off my head it was so windy. From the top there are great views over the entire city. Beautiful.

I came back down all the stairs, and walked toward my next destination. picking up breakfast along the way. Two filled croissants, yum. I ate them as I walked, I'm never very good at holding onto food.

My next sight was another place I've seen before. This was the National Museum and Memorial to the Victims of Occupational Regimes Prison at Lonsky.

It was originally a prison, and was used as a prison by several different governmental organizations of the Polish, Nazis, and Soviets. It was last used by the NKVD as a prison and torture facility. When they left in the early 90s the building was left as is. Nothing has been changed since, except to arrange specific exhibits.

It's an intense place to visit, especially knowing the history of what happened. Out in the yard is where mass executions took place on six days of June in 1941.

Along the main wall is a temporary exhibition of sorts. There are photos of several Ukrainian Orthodox churches in Canada, originally built when Ukrainians fled the country.

Many of those churches have since been abandoned, but they're still photogenic.

I wandered through and took in the information, then left. While I was wandering I avoided the tour group of Ukrainian soldiers.

After the museum I tried my luck at entering a couple churches in the city. Lviv has so many, and it seems like they're all quite beautiful. Not surprisingly, many of them are full of people in services on Sunday morning.

I went back to the flat and checked out. That meant I had to carry my backpack with me for the rest of the day. Not fun, but not too bad. I can't wait till summer when clothes take less space.

My next stop was a museum I'd never seen before. It was a branch of the Lviv Historical Museum, also on the old town square. The specific displays were all about Ukrainian culture and history in this specific area.

This particular branch of the museum was on several levels of the building, with three or four rooms on each level. I went through all the rooms, I really liked the money display. It seems I have a knack for noticing docents while they're at their best, I saw one dozing off.

After leaving the museum I went back to churches, they're such an important part of the city. Even though I'm not a fan of worshipping in churches with complicated decorations, I do appreciate the art and thought put into the decoration.

After several churches I went to another branch of the Lviv Historical Museum. This one was on the other side of the old city square. This one had a photo fee, which I generally hate but paid anywho. Why aren't these extra fees just put in the ticket price? It's not as if anything is that expensive.

I really liked this museum, as it had a few rooms arranged as they might've been during the lives of various people. They were fancy rooms, of course. Beautiful. I also liked seeing the fancy jewelry that used to be owned by rich folks.

When I was back out on the streets and walking along the area in front of the opera house I noticed one street had been blocked off to cars.

It was jam packed with people, all of whom were processing along. I figured out it was a religious procession, but that's all I could figure out. There was no holiday, so I really don't know what it was. There were a LOT of people crammed into the area that was blocked off.

I changed my route and continued walking to a place I'd never seen before. A large park on one edge of the city. I've seen it on maps before, but never remembered to come out and explore it. It's called Stryski (sp?) park and is mostly woods and trails. I loved walking through, even though there wasn't much green to be seen. In one area of the park I saw a couple university buildings, but I didn't know what they were for specifically.

I also saw a couple empty fountains and abandoned buildings.

I finally saw the giant WW2 memorial I'm used to seeing in every Ukrainian city and town. How had I not seen this before? It was as big as I expected.

Back in the city I went to the same restaurant as the night before (remember what I've said before about eating the same food again if I like it) and enjoyed my meal. I killed time there for a while, then went back to the train station and caught my train back to Kyiv.

Another successful weekend in a city I love.

germany: berlin

Every year, on or around my birthday, I like to take a trip. It's always a weekend trip, never very long. This year, a few months before my trip someone had posted a list of festivals of light, and I noticed that one of them would be happening over my birthday weekend. I booked the flights and was a happy camper.

My flights to Berlin did not go well, I did not land on time. My first flight, leaving Kyiv departed late. In order to make the connection in Vienna I had to race through the airport. Thankfully I wasn't the only one trying to make this particular connection. Go figure, I got to the second plane on time, and boarded, only to wait again; the second plane departed late as well.

At least arrival in Berlin was easy, as I didn't have to go through passport control again.

I was super excited and figured I could get to my hotel in less than an hour. I felt that way until I exited the airport and saw just how slowly traffic was moving out there. Berlin Tegel is an older airport in the city, there are no metro lines going to the airport. This means if you want to use public transport to get to and from the airport, you have to use a bus. This is all fine and dandy, until you see how SLOWLY traffic moves at 1730 on a Friday evening. The chaos was mostly confined to the area near the airport. After we got less than a kilometer away, traffic opened up and the rest of the bus ride was at normal speed.

The ride wasn't even that long, only about 30 minutes.

It took me more than two hours to get to my hotel, argh. When I got to the hotel I texted Bo, who had arrived in Berlin that morning on a train. We found each other and checked in. We dropped off our bags, bundled up, and went back out into the city. Normally I'm not a huge fan of being out late in the evening, but this festival is one that happens only in the evenings, and we had just two nights to see everything.

The festival of light in Berlin happens every year over 9 days in October. (Two weekends and the week in between them.)

The festival consists of a number of buildings around the city that are lit up with special lighting in the evenings. For several of the buildings, the lighting is more like a video, with music. I'm not sure I'm describing it clearly, I hope some of my photos show it better than I'm writing.

Our hotel was near Potsdamerplatz, a large platz in Berlin. The former Berlin Wall used to run right through this platz, and some of the wall panels are still there. There is also a small hill running the length of the street along which the wall was built.

Inside Potsdamerplatz there is a mall, and a metro station. We went into the mall to find food, as neither of us had eaten a proper meal in a while. We found an Asian food place, and I was happy to have a box with tofu and veggies.

The first building we saw wasn't far from the platz. I think it was a mall on Leipziger street. This was one of the buildings where the lighting changed along with music. We saw faces, and shapes, and general awesomeness. We stood around for a little while, as the whole video played out on the facade of the building. Since this festival is in mid October, the weather is still decent for people to stand around outside. I also enjoyed watching people for a bit.

We ducked into the Sony building, which is also close to Alexanderplatz, because it is a unique building. At night it is lit up every night of the year. Its basically a mall, which I didn't need to explore, but I loved looking up at the ceiling.
On the platz were neon lights shaped into riders on bicycles. Very simple, but I loved them.

We walked up the street, going by the Holocaust memorial at one point. It's a large memorial, very unique. Definitely a place I wanted to come back to in daylight.

We followed the street all the way up to the Brandenburg Gate. (Brandenburger Tor in German.) This was another building (is a gate a building?) lit up with music and moving light. There was a much larger crowd there, so I had more fun watching people. This festival brought out people of all ages: couples, families, friends, and singles; old and young. There were a number of people with cameras on tripods, videoing the entire series of music and light shows on the gate. It was absolutely fascinating to watch the whole thing. I think there were about 4 songs, each with it's own show of light on the gate.

Not far from the gate we could see the Reichstag, so we strolled over after watching everything at the gate. The building was lit up, but it was not part of the festival.

From there we walked back to the hotel, and called it a night.

Since I live an hour ahead of Berlin, I woke up fairly early the next morning. We got out the door of the hotel around 0900, and found breakfast on a corner at Alexanderplatz. I'm a HUGE fan of German bakeries, and always have a hard time choosing how many items I want to buy. There was a coffee shop there too, with different options for hot chocolate drinks. Yum.

We followed the same street we'd walked the night before, going to the Holocaust Memorial first. It is a series of irregular blocks on irregular ground. It seems like you can see everyone there, but as you start to walk through it, the ground goes down and the blocks get taller, so you're hidden from anyone standing on the edge. It's intense, in a quiet way. There are signs on each side reminding people to behave with respect, it's amazing how often that does not happen. We walked all the way through, and all the way around.

As we came out of the Holocaust Memorial it started to sprinkle. I wasn't thrilled, as rain is the one type of weather I really really don't like, especially while traveling.

Since I never get good weather in Berlin I was sortof expecting this, so I was wearing a raincoat.

We crossed the street, into one of the many entries into Tiergarten Park. It's a big park, with many paths, smaller landscaped areas, trees, statues, etc... I'm sure it's a whole lot more impressive when the weather is good. We wound our way through, finding a couple small bodies of water, one of which was completely covered in green. Adding that to the greenery all around made for an interesting photo, but not what I wanted.

When we got to the street that goes through the park, we followed it all the way to the Victory Column, in the middle of the park. This column commemorates the German victory over France and Napoleon. The column is surrounded by reliefs, which were part of political games for a while. If I remember correctly, they were stolen, and kept by France for a while. Not surprisingly, France didn't want memorials to this battle. When they returned the reliefs, there was some breakage, and this is how they are now displayed. It's possible to go up to the top of the tower, but we didn't feel like paying to do that in such crappy weather.

Continuing our walk through the park we saw the presidential schloss (castle,) which was really rather boring, with a plane lawn in front.

On Dulles Street (named for the American guy,) we passed the How of World Culture, which was definitely unique. I didn't like the way it looked very much, but architecture is always very subjective. We saw one guy running the stairs over and over again as we passed by, it didn't look like fun.

Our next stop was the Soviet soldier war memorial. As is typical of Soviet anything, especially memorials, it was big. In a way I'm surprised such a thing exists in Germany, but hey, who am I to say anything.

Due to the rain all over the ground, I could see the reflection of the memorial on the ground in front of it, which was interesting to me as a photographer.

Continuing to follow this street took us back to the Reichstag area again. Before this trip I'd looked into getting tickets to go up in the dome on top of the building, but they were sold out. Argh. Despite the rain, there were still a lot of people in the ground surrounding the Reichstag.

We went through the Brandenburger Tor again, and walked straight along the road. This street is FULL of tourists, and has restaurants, cafes, and shops mostly there for tourists.

The gate is pretty awesome, but dealing with the mess of the street is not so fun. As we were walking along we noticed a bunch of Georgian soldiers doing the tourist thing, I'm guessing they were also doing some sort of military exercises with the German Army?

This main street is called Unter den Linden, and like I just said, is a main street, full of tourists. We walked to the cross street of Friedrichstrasse, which is what you follow to get to Checkpoint Charlie. On our way to the checkpoint, we stopped at the Ampelman store, which they call a lifestyle store. I don't really get how one makes a lifestyle out of their stuff.

Ampelman was the shape of someone walking on street crossing signs, back when there was an East Germany. Now that character has been printed on everything known to man, including t-shirts, mugs, magnets, pencils, plates, etc...

We also stopped in a bakery to pick up food. Not a real meal, but the only food we'd eaten since breakfast several hours ago. I love German bakeries and will use any excuse possible to visit one. It's both good and bad that I don't have access to these bakeries more often.

This was my second trip in recent memory to Checkpoint Charlie, and I was just as disappointed this time around as I was last time.

It has become so commercialized, and so touristed. It's really hard to understand what the place used to be, and what it meant for so many people. The pictures show it well, but with all the extra stuff there now, it's hard to imagine. There is a KFC on the corner, souvenir shops, and more. It's ridiculous. You can even pay total strangers wearing German Army costumes (allegedly they look like the uniforms from back then,) to take pictures. These strangers didn't even serve in the military! Argh.

One of the iconic photos to take here is that of the side that says which zone you are leaving, and which zone you are entering. It says it in several languages, representing the allies who controlled the area. It's pretty much the only photo that doesn't show the modern world that exists there now.

If you look at the ground long enough, you'll find a line of stones on the pavement, showing where the wall used to stand in this area. Bo and I took a photo with each of us straddling this line.

Ironically, there was a car parked over this line, which the owners didn't realize when they first parked. Even though I've seen and learned a lot, it's still amazing to me that this wall existed during my lifetime, and prevented the movement of so many people.

Our next stop wasn't far away, we went to a museum called the Topography of Terror. It's not a museum in the sense of items on display. It is a museum in that there are exhibits, and you learn a lot. As you might guess from the name, this museum is all about those decades in history, in this area of the world.

To get to the entry of the museum, you walk past a number of pieces of the wall still standing. The exteriors of a few of them have been chipped away, so you can see the steel pieces reinforcing the concrete. These panels have not been painted with graffiti, they're just as they were.

We entered the museum and started walking through the different displays. We'd been out walking all day, in crappy weather, and quickly realized neither one of us wanted to read every single display, and look at every single picture. I would like to go back, but I still don't think I would read or look at every single thing in a single visit because that would be way too intense. You see the different groups of people affected by all the laws and the wall, you see the different countries affected by the rules of Communists, you see the people in charge as well as the 'regular' people. Instead of focusing on WW2, there is a focus on everything else related. Since I grew up in a free country, I have a hard time understanding or imagining being persecuted simply because of being born a certain ethnicity.

After leaving, we walked back toward our hotel, stopping at the food court in the mall again for dinner. When I find food I like, I don't mind having it again and again. Bring on the veggies and tofu!

We went back to our hotel for an hour to warm up and put on more clothes for another evening out walking around the city. We left the hotel and went back to the mall we'd first seen the night before. This time, instead of watching the light show we went into the mall, I was looking for a specific watch. The store I found didn't have the watch, (a Timex Ironman,) so I guess I will get it the next time I go to the States.

We walked up the street to Brandenburger Tor again, and watched the light show again. There were even more people out, it was Saturday evening. We managed to make our way through the crowd to walk Unter den Linden again. With the evening festival taking place there were locals out along with all the tourists. Both Bo and I were annoyed with all the pedestrian traffic.

The next building we saw lit up was that of Humboldt University. The light was unchanging, but a whole lot of colours were used.

Nearby the university was the Hotel de Rome, which was lit up with video and sound. Across the street was another lighted building, though I don't know the name of the building. There was a statue in the center of the courtyard, it wasn't part of the display. The music and lighting on this one made me think of trance or house music. Patterns and sounds repeated over and over.

We walked further on the street, finally coming to the Berlin Cathedral. It's big, and visited by heaps of people. I haven't gone inside, because it costs seven euro to do so. That's a lot of money to see the inside of a chuch. If it were two or three euro, I'm sure I would've gone inside. The cathedral also participates in this festival, with a series of changing projections.

Each projection stayed up for a few minutes, then it was changed. There were more people at the cathedral with tripods and expensive cameras.

At that point we felt like it was time to go to sleep. To get back to the hotel we walking along different streets, since we were both really annoyed with all the pedestrian traffic. Walking just one street over made a HUGE difference in how fast we could go.

The next morning we had breakfast again at the two places from the day before, the bakery and the coffee shop.

I found a donut of sorts with cream and sour cherry sauce in the midle, SO GOOD; I had a large hot chocolate to drink. Not the healthiest breakfast ever, but yummy anywho!

This day we walked in a completely different direction, heading to a canal near our hotel. We walked along the canal for a while, it was as if we were in a different city.

Bo recognized the turn we needed to take onto a street that led us straight to a church. Well, it used to be a church. I guess it still is, but it isn't used as a church now. Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was bombed during WW2, and what remains of the building (part of the bell tower and a small amount of the ground floor,) has been left alone as a reminder of what happened.

A new church was built next door, and is rather ugly from the outside, but I really liked the inside. The walls are made of heaps of small squares of stained glass, which made the interior feel really welcoming to me. On a sunny day it must be incredible inside. This church is Protestant.

Across the street was a metro station, we figured it would be easy to get across the city to our next sight. That was true once we figured out where to go inside the metro station. We'd intended to take an S-bahn, but part of the station was under construction, so we had to find another option. Thank goodness Bo speaks German and was able to translate signage for me.

We got off a train at Alexanderplatz. IT's a well known platz in the city, though from a photographers point of view, I've never really understood why. No part of it has ever stayed in my mind for any reason. It's usually full of people, and the metro station there is a connection station. There is also a TV tower there, but we couldn't see it because of fog.

The top half of the tower was completely covered/invisible to us.

It took us a few moments to figured out in which direction we wanted to walk, but eventually we got it sorted. We walked toward the Rotes Rathaus, otherwise called the Red City Hall. It's the old city hall for the building, I think we accidentally walked by the new city hall. Rotes Rathaus is much better looking.

We wound our way through twisty streets to get to Nikolaikirche, another church that charges entry to visitors. We didn't want to pay five euros to see this church, so just the entry area was good enough for us. What is it with expensive churches?

From the church we walked to the East End Gallery, which is a long section of Berlin Wall panels. In this area most of them have been painted, some really well, some not so much. Those that are painted really nicely are blocked off by fences, to protect the painting. We saw a couple people go behind the fences to pose for photos, which I found disrespectful. Argh.

I'm all for getting a photo, but I hope those people remember why the Wall was there, and what happened to all the people.

At one end of the East End Gallery is the Oberbaumbrucke. This bridge was one of the first open connections after the fall of the Wall, it connects east and west Berlin over the river. It's a unique bridge, part of it is covered. I loved the windows, or at least the frames along one side of the bridge.

After crossing the bridge both of us realized we were hungry, so we split a currywurst. A couple years ago I never would've eaten any of the wursts in Germany, but I mostly love them now.

Especially when you add heaps of mustard.

We took the metro back to Potsdamer Platz, close to our hotel. Since I knew I'd be on planes for a few hours and no real chance to eat a decent meal, I picked up yet another box of veggies and tofu. Why fix something that isn't broken?

Back at the hotel we grabbed our packs from behind the front desk (where we'd left them in the morning,) and I headed to the airport. Bo had a few more hours in the city. My ride to the airport went a whole lot faster, and hours later, I was back in Kyiv.

I will definitely be going back to Berlin.

Slovakia: Presov and Bardejov

We took our time getting going for the day, starting with breakfast in the flat, then more food in a cafe that said it had the best pie in town. (If this was the best pie in town then I do not have high hopes for the rest of the city.)

By the time we got to the train station we realized we wouldn't get any further than Presov for the day. Oh well.

The train ended up stopping at one station and all the guests asked to get off. We didn't know what was going on, but when everyone else got off the train, we figured we should just follow along. Then we all hopped on a bus, which took us a bit further. Then we all hopped onto an old school train that took us the last bit.
The rides were very scenic, I loved the fields with bright yellow flowers. Gorgeous.

We figured out how to get from the train station up to the main street, passing a lovely wall mural along the way. Before leaving the station we made sure to check what time to catch trains back to Kosice.

We followed the main street in the direction of the city center square, with a walk down a side street to an Orthodox church. This church was surrounded by a locked fence, we didn't see a way in.

The main street took us to the city center square, stopping at St John the Baptist church. This one was very tall, on the skinny street. Inside the decor was nice, not overwhelming. I think it was a Greek Catholic church.

In the middle of the old town square was a church, and on one side of the church was a small landscaped park area. In the middle of this park area was a square column dedicated as a WW2 memorial. It was surrounded by colourful flowers, very pretty.

When I talk about an old town square I should point out that this one is like that of Kosice, in that it is a squashed oval rather than a square.

We went into the church in the middle of the platz, it seemed like the one place we shouldn't miss. I expected more than I got. The outside of the church was big, and not as impressive as many churches I've seen in Europe. The inside also felt really big, and not as decorate as it could've been. Most of the decoration was near the front, with a lovely, big, organ up high on the back wall. Since the church was made of stone, it was rather chilly.

Near the church was a small chocolate shop; somehow I managed to exercise some willpower and didn't buy anything. Also near the church was a small souvenir shop, where I found postcards and a magnet. I saw one postcard with a picture of a church that I hadn't seen on a travel app, so I asked the lady where it was in town. She showed me on a city map, yay!

Our next stop was a pizza place for 1 euro slices for lunch. Cheap, adequate. We could've eaten more, but didn't want to sit around for long. Since we'd gotten such a late start to the day we had only about four hours to explore the city.

We managed to find the Orthodox synagogue and realized we'd arrived too late to visit. I don't know if it is an active synagogue anymore, but the museum on the property is only open for limited hours. 1100-1500 a few days a week. Darnit. Even if we'd gotten going earlier in the day, we would not have been able to visit the synagogue museum and make it to another city. The timing of everything didn't work out. Argh.

A bit more wandering took us to a big fountain with another memorial. This one looked like a typical big Soviet memorial, but I don't really know. Behind this memorial was a big, boring, official state looking building. Who knows.

At that point we looked at our watches, and realized how much time we had left before getting back to the train station. I asked Bo if he was interested in walking to Kalvaria, the random place I'd seen in the photo in the souvenir shop. He said yes, so we started walking in that direction.

It took us longer to get there than we expected, but it was worth it. Kalvaria is a monastery/convent, on a small hill. To get to the top of the hill we walked on a path that took us past the stations of the cross, very pretty. At the top there is a small chapel, with a view over the entire city. The view wasn't stunning, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

I have no idea why this isn't listed on a travel app.

We made our way back down, and went in the direction that would take us back to the train station. Along the way we discovered an old, outdoor, concrete velodrome. Awesome!! We saw people riding on the track in the middle, and wondered when the banked part of the track was last used for an official race/competition.

When we entered the velodrome area, we didn't realize that the gate we used wasn't always open. When we tried to exit, the gate was locked.

Ooops. It was an adventure to figure out how to get back to the street! Good times.

The train that took us back to Kosice was the same train the whole way. We didn't have to switch to a bus or another train, phew.

The next morning we check out of the flat by leaving the key in a potted plant. (Since we left at 0745, and didn't want to wake the landlord, we'd arranged this the night before.)

We dropped our bags at a luggage storage room in the train station. So cheap, and convenient. I wish that sort of thing was available around the world.

We caught another train to Presov, again with switching to a bus then back to a train. I was really glad we'd realized this would happen the day before, as taking a later train from Kosice would've caused us to miss our connection in Presov.

We made our connection in Presov, the train took us to Bardejov. Bardejov is a small town, with a Unesco designated city center.

It wasn't difficult to figure out where to go from the train station to get to the city center of Bardejov. We walked a couple blocks down the street, and almost immediately saw the old city walls.

The area we entered had a couple of the old bastions, they were labeled and named. The labeling included information about the history of the walls and the bastions. I took photos of the plaques, and figured I would read and learn later.

We took a couple small streets and wound our way to the old town square. Yet another old city square that isn't actually a square. One end was rather pointy, not squared off. This platz was REALLY photogenic.

I took my photos, then we followed a couple more side streets to churches. The churches weren't open, but the exteriors were photogenic as well. I got the impression that many tourists don't leave the old town square, as the town was really quiet. There weren't many people on the streets.

We went back to the platz, I found a shop with postcards and magnets. With that chore out of the way, we decided to visit the church.

Since Bardejov is Unesco designated, there was an entrance fee for the church. Argh. I opted not to pay the fee for photos when we entered, but ended up paying as we walked out after I decided to take a few photos. There was an additional fee to climb the bell tower, we paid to do that as well. Why not?

The church was similar to that in Presov, but there was more decoration and colour. Plus, the pews had some carving on the ends, which I really liked. This was another church with a large organ on the back wall.

It took us a while to find the stairs to the bell tower, as they were located behind a closed door. There was no sign for these stairs, we ended up asking the ticket ladies where to go. Why isn't there a sign?

At the top of the steep spiral stairs we emerged onto a viewing platform with open views in all directions. The view over the platz was very pretty, and we were able to see mountains/hill surrounding the city in all directions. The weather was great, so the views went for miles and miles. The entry fee we paid wasnt used for cleaning the bell tower, as there was bird poop everywhere. In one corner I almost stepped on a couple of dead birds, their bodies hadn't been removed. Ick. There were flies on the railings on all four sides of the tower.

We opted to grab lunch on the go from a baguette place on the square.

Our next sight was a synagogue. Well, sortof. We used the map on one of my travel apps, it turned out to be marked wrong. The synagogue most definitely was not located correctly. We walked a couple blocks past where the map said, and all around the area. The synagogue was not there.

I decided to turn on roaming data on my phone and google it. Thankfully, google knew what I was talking about and had the correct location. It turned out to be fairly close by, only a 10 minute walk, but nowhere near where the travel app had said it was.

When we got to the synagogue, or at least the correct address, we were really confused. What stood in front of us was definitely NOT a synagogue. We went in the building, and found a hardware store. A HARDWARE STORE!!! We read the plaques on the front of the building, which gave some of the history of the building, and were shocked.

It had indeed been a synagogue. Key word: was. The Jewish community of Bardejov had been completely decimated during WW2, there is no longer an active Jewish community in the city.

There were several thousand before the war, nearly all of them were deported, and very few returned afterward. Because there was no one left to prevent such things from happening, the former synagogue is now a hardware store. AWFUL.

Down the block and around the corner we found the Holocaust Memorial. As this event in history is a very difficult one for many people, such memorials around the world have extra security. When we arrived, it wasn't open. Fortunately, we arrived just a couple minutes before it opened for the afternoon.

The guard arrived and opened the gate, we were able to look around and appreciate what we were seeing. One wall is a list of Jews in the area who were deported. Above the names was the phrase 'everyone has a name' (or something along those lines,) three languages: Hebrew, English, and Slovak.

On another side of the memorial is a set of old train tracks, representing the train cars that took so many people away, many of whom never returned. Above the tracks was the phrase 'never again,' also in three languages: Hebrew, English, and Slovak.
In another section is a set of plaques describing the Jewish history of the area, and some notable names. Really really interesting reading and learning, though very intense and depressing at the same time. The bit of information that haunted me most: there are no Jews left in the city, despite a robust population before the war.

A few minutes after we left the memorial it began to rain. Fortunately, we were on our way back to the train station. We ducked into a supermarket for snacks, and got back to the train station in good time.

The first train took us back to Presov, where we caught another train back to Kosice.