germany: hamburg

since one of my cousins had visited me in kyiv in january i felt it was only fair to visit her...so i booked flights to hamburg over a long weekend...one advantage to an early morning flight is the total lack of traffic on the way to the airport...the taxi ride was fast :)...on the way i could see the remains of roadblocks that had gone up during the madness of Maidan...
my cousin picked me up at the airport in hamburg, then we rode a couple different s-bahn trains, and walked a little to get to where she has been living...she told me the home was once a rowing club, but was purchased and renovated by the family into a private home...it's fantastic!!

after dropping my bag, we went to the supermarket to get lunch: warm pretzel rolls, salami, butter, frischkase, cheese, etc...i love these kinds of lunches
after lunch we started walking...tyra has had a few visitors, and has worked out one and two day tours of hamburg, hee hee...we crossed a canal or two on the way to one end of the big lake...she pointed out some of the huge houses along the canals, wow...these homes stay in families for generations, and often have multiple generations living in them at the same time...

hamburg is the 2nd largest city in the country, and does not have enough housing...
since we were out walking earlier on a friday than tyra normally would've been able to do so, we came across a fleamarket she doesn't normally get to see...stands with yummy food, yahoo...of course i bought too much, i figured we could have snacks a few times through the day :)
walking around the lake we stopped a couple times to eat the snacks, and enjoy the view...something about relaxing in or near water always makes me a happy camper; if only i could do it more often...

we weren't the only people out by the lake, it must be one of the most popular places in the city...plenty of people out running along the path...as we passed one gelato stall i bought some, even though tyra said it was too cold...(i live in ukraine, it's never too cold for ice cream!)
after walking most of the way around the lake, we made our way over to a main shopping street...postcards are crazy expensive in hamburg, argh...lots of people out strolling, window shopping, enjoying each other's company...

we saw the rathaus, a very complicated building...there is no place to get a good photo, it obviously wasn't built with photographers in mind, hee hee...maybe someday i will get to go to the top :) ...the roof is green, and was obviously not always that colour...
it rained a bit as we made our way home, stopping at a supermarket again...i bought cereal and ritter sport bars to take with me back to ukraine...(ukraine is sorely lacking in the cereal department)...even though we'd already been in one supermarket earlier in the day, i was still happy to wander all around this one...

dinner was a family affair...tyra and another girl living with the family made risotto, and did a fine job considering they hadn't made it previously...i added hot sauce...it was nice to chat with the mom and the roommate...
when i took my socks off that evening i noticed splotches of red on the insides of each ankle...i have no idea where it came from, or what it was...it didn't itch, or feel anything at all...i fell asleep as we were watching inglorious basterds...(i fell asleep in the middle of the movie again the next night...is it that bad, or was i that tired?)

the next morning i was the first awake in the house, which didn't suprise me at all...(i'm a morning person, and i normally live an hour ahead of germany)...when tyra got up we had tea and yogurt for breakfast, then got on our way...
i got a haircut! the first time since argentina the previous july...i needed it...i know i could get it done in kyiv, but i'm always worried about translation...
we walked a lot again this day...after the haircut we walked to a justice looking building, with an exhibition in front...i think it was an art exhibition?

the weather was awesome, i was thrilled...this was really close to brahms platz...another side of the platz had a theatre, and yet a third side had the building in which tyra works...one of the entrances has an elephant on the side of the building...
we visited st michaels church next...a big church, with a great open, airy feeling...lots of light pouring in through the windows...not far from the church was an apartment residence building, it looked a bit like a ship...given that hamburg is on a lot of water, it made sense...i love the feel of the variety in architecture in the city...traditional, but modern at the same time...

we visited an alleyway that used to be where wives and children of sailors would live when the men were out at sea...it's a tight alley, and was the sight of a disease outbreak at one point because of the close quarters...now it's a touristy area, with cafes and tourist shops...i bought a coffee mug...
we walked to a waterway which was actually pretty big...along the way we passed 4 scandinavian churches! one of my family members is obsessed with the swedish side of the family, so of course the scandinavian churches were a point of interest...

i bought my first (and so far, only) fisch pushkin...basically a fish sandwich...there are fried and 'raw' options available...apparently it's a very hamburgian food...i didn't love it, i didn't hate it...
walking along the waterway, tyra pointing out that some of the boats are public transport, how awesome is that? just like a trolley or bus, but on the water...we walked down a lot of stairs at one point, and walked through a tunnel all the way under the water, and up the stairs on the other side...(i was breathing hard when we came up)...a nice view over to the side on which we started...after soaking up the view for a bit, we went back down and under...

tyra then walked us over to the speicher stadt...it's her favourite area of the city...the old warehouse district...i can't describe it, but there is definitely a feeling to it...picturesque in a way...it was neat to see how everything used to work in terms of shipping and delivery in the city...some of the old warehouses have been renovated into modern apartment buildings, i didn't like any of those i saw...not really my style...
we briefly walked into another church, neither of us thought much of it...so we walked into one of many branches of balzac coffee shop...several hot chocolate options, yay!!

dinner that night was another family affair, with ellie and tyra cooking again :)...the next morning was sunday, and apparently brunch is extensive in this house...everyone gathered around the table again, including a couple more living in the house...lively conversation, and i got to tell what i thought of the events in ukraine...
then i flew back to kyiv...

maidan madness

anyone who is connected to world news heard about what happened in kyiv, ukraine during a week in mid february..the protest camp that had been set up since the end of november was growing, political demands were becoming more and more clear as days went by...i don't know why everything happened on these dates, but the short way of saying it is that maidan went mad...government forces started to make moves, opposition protestors fought back, fires were set, snipers shot at people, etc...specific details still aren't known, and likely never will be...by the end of everything, the (ex) president had fled the country, 70-100 people were dead, and the middle of the city was burned...tragedy...
one of the churches near maidan became a makeshift hospital, the bells rang a lot during the violence...the entire complex of the church became a staging point...you can see materials for molotov cocktails...there was a press center, there were canteens set up, fire areas to keep warm...
one of the biggest points to make in everything that happened was that the people of ukraine supported each other...they came with supplies...when they didn't have supplies, they donated money...when they didn't have those, they came themselves to do whateva they could...
the main post office on maidan was taken over as a makeshift hospital, so were several other buildings in the area...(i still don't know how to get mail out of the country, as that particular mailbox has not returned to its previous location...but mail is getting to me from europe and the states)since maidan is close to where i work, and the entire city metro was shut down during the three plus days this all happened, i did not work...i was safe in my flat on the outskirts of town, bored out of my mind...yet at the same time, i was super stressed...i barely moved all day, i was glued to my computer and phone...not speaking the language was tough...i watched live streaming of a lot of what was happening, despite the face that i couldn't understand a word being said by the commentators...

rumors were flying, the worst one being the threat of military control being asserted over the country...i was terrified phone and internet would be cut off, thankfully that never happened...the week after, i walked through maidan...it had become a large memorial...flowers EVERYWHERE...pictures of the fallen, EVERYWHERE...the burned out hulks of busses and other vehicles...bricks taken up from the streets still ready to go in case violence erupted again...even two weeks later, you can still smell smoke/fire, and the buildings are still black...who knows when any of them will be fixed or torn down...there is an unreal sense of sadness and disbelief that everything happened...
these photos were taken after the violence of 19-22 feb, in the first couple weeks afterward...

ukraine: zhytomyr and berdychiv

susannah and i took an early morning bus from zhytomyrska station in kyiv to the town of zhytomyr...we were dropped off on one end of town, it was easy to figure out where to go...we grabbed a couple rolls for breakfast, then started walking...
the walk ended up being quite a bit longer than either of us expected, but it isn't as if we had anything else to do...by the time we got to the platz at the center of town, we were hungry, so we looked for a cafeteria type place to eat, but never found one...we ended up in a pub of some sort...i think it was a microbrewery, but who knows how good the beer was, since this is ukraine...

after eating, we walked toward the flat we'd booked, which ended up being on the very edge of another side of town...this walk also ended up being quite a bit longer than we'd expected...again, oh well...along the way we walked past a large platz, which was the home of the maidan protest camp of zhytomyr...not as impressive as that of kyiv, but still incredible...this country really did pull together in their fight for freedom, soooo many towns have these camps, regardless of size...a couple tents, flags, and barricades of a large government building...
we eventually found the flat, and checked in...it was really nice to be able to drop our bags, and figure out where we would be walking next...
after warming up and relaxing for a while, we walked back down the street we'd just followed...we found the cosmonaut museum, (after walking too far, then turning back) the one real sight in the city...
the museum is small, but really well done...most of the signage was in both ukrainian and english, and the displays were put together nicely...we could still feel a bit of the cold war, as almost every display showed the former soviet union in a slightly better position than the US...

the display i remember particularly well was that of some of the first food sent into space...gross...who wants to have coffee with milk in a tube? there were multiple patches and models on display as well...
we had dinner at an 'italian' place, and took advantage of the free wifi...as each of us turned on our machines, we got notifications about russian troops being in crimea, and putin having received permission to use russian troops in ukraine from the duma in moscow...how far is this going to go?

we already knew of large pro-russian demonstrations in crimea and the east, as a result of what had happened only a week earlier in kyiv...
the next day we walked to a bus stop, and caught a local bus to the main bus station, then caught the next bus to the town of berdychiv...not particularly well known, and not particularly big...there wasn't much to see, and the town is very small, but one of my guidebooks mentioned a church and a cemetary, so we thought we'd try...

we found the church, though it was closed, and it seemed as if we weren't even welcome on the grounds...booo...on the way to the church we wandered through a couple neighborhoods, which were particularly picturesque in a ukrainian soviet kind of way...(that probably makes no sense)...
after the church, we headed up the 'main' street of town...susannah spotted a cafe (thank goodness, we didn't see any other places to eat!) which had pretty good salyanka...(meat soup)...we decided to skip looking for the cemetary, and head back to the bus station...

 walking that way we found another church, and a small store from which to buy snacks :)
i bought a ticket back to kyiv, susannah bought a ticket to her next destination...(she had a week off, and wanted to take full advantage of time to explore ukraine)...i got back to kyiv around 8pm...

lviv by myself for the first time

this is my third school year in ukraine, i've visited lviv each year, the first year i went twice!! it's one of my favourite places in the country, and though it's much more touristed than kyiv, i love the city...it feels comfortable and cozy, and i've had a different experience each time i've visited...this was the first time i traveled by myself...
i took a night train from kyiv, in a coupe berth...(2nd class...there are four sleeping berths in the compartment, which has a door...as usual, i was warm enough not to use the sleep sheet or blanket)...i prefer platzcar berths (3rd class, which is heaps cheaper) but this train didn't have any of those...

my train arrived at 0630 or so, saturday morning...no one is out walking at that hour, it's still dark, and plenty chilly...(though not nearly as cold as past visits have been)...i walked from the train station toward the city center, (which is a UNESCO heritage sight,) taking streets i haven't walked before, stopping to take photos when i saw something of interest...by this point, most of my photos of the city are not of landmarks or monuments, as i've seen all of those...just photos of city life, or a different view of something normal...
i passed a park in between the two sides of svobody (freedom) street...

there is a large protest/demonstration camp set up in the middle of kyiv, the matching camp for lviv is set up here...it's much smaller, and less passionate (the western half of ukraine is generally anti russia, anti east, there isn't as much demonstrating) but it was still interesting to walk through the area, take a few photos, notice what looked different from my previous trips...at one point i found a recycling center of sorts, the first i've seen in all of ukraine...hopefully this sort of thing spreads to the rest of the country!! with this kind of decoration, who wouldn't want to recycle? while i took a few photos of the area, i saw at least six people drop stuff in the bins...not too bad considering it was still just a bit past 0700!!
as i got into the centre square of town, i walked past a cafe that has about 6 different types of strudel available...how have i not been there before? i ended up choosing two (one cherry, and one salmon/spinach) and black tea...not only was the strudel tasty, they had sauce available...i added vanilla sauce and berry sauce to the cherry studel...YUM...i'm definitely going back...
while eating strudel, i also checked my email (gotta love free wifi that is becoming more and more common throughout the country) and read the guidebook...even though this was my fourth trip to the city, there are still sights i haven't seen...(i don't think it's possible to see all the churches, there are too many)...i figured out my plan for the day...

the first stop was a museum...the national museum and memorial to victims of occupation...i don't remember the overall organization, but it isn't sponsored by the ukrainian government...i think an NGO helped with all the information and statistics displayed? the museum is small, and does not have an entry fee...i think it's more to remind people of the horrors that happened during nazi/soviet/fascist occupation...the building was once used by the local branch of the kgb as a prison, and has been left just as it was when they up and left in 1991...the paint is peeling, and a few of the cells have been set up to show specific aspects of what used to be there...i don't know if this sort of propaganda was in the prison while it was a prison, or if it was added later...it's still easy to find prints of these posters in tourist souvenir markets...

the prison courtyard is rather sparse, and any visitor leaves with the feeling of how hopeless so many of those people felt...through the main hallway is a set of posters, each poster is dedicated to one country that was affected by the nazis and communists, or sympathetic/puppet governments...each poster tells the number of prisoners taken during a certain period, the number executed, the number of missing, the number of people in that country's secret police, the number of people sent to camps, etc...seeing the numbers written that way is really startling...many countries have two posters: one for the nazi period, and one for the communist period...
after making a donation to the museum, i walked to my hostel, which was nearby...i was able to check in early, which is always a plus...my double room had a queen sized bed, a set of bunk beds, a tv, and a space hearter, as well as a nice window onto the street...

after relaxing for a while, i walked back toward the center of town...after browsing through a couple souvenir shops (why do those always interest me so much?) and watching people for a while, i started walking toward a hill...this was another sight new to me, though  i've always wanted to see it...it's called castle hill, and overlooks the entire city...the bottom of the hill is a park, which is lovely, though a bit muddy at this time...i'm not entirely sure why the name is castle hill, as there is no castle there now...just the top of a hill on which is built a viewing platform...since the weather was awesome, and it was a weekend, there were heaps of people up there, but it was still easy to take a few photos:)

back down the hill, at which point i realized i was hungry...strudel 6 hours previously wasn't enough anymore...while wandering i found a 'mexican' place...yes, i know, mexican in ukraine?  it wasn't bad, it wasn't great, but it was food, which i needed...
i visited the information office to get information on how to get a discount card for a particularly expensive restaurant, and how to get to zhovkva the next day...nice people always seem to work at the information office in lviv, unlike the information offices i've visited in other towns...
i watched people for a while longer...families out for a stroll, other tourists, locals on their way to somewhere more interesting, etc...i love to observe fashion, mannerisms, etc...
eventually, just as the clock hit 1800, i got to one of my favourite restaurants...it's also a microbrewery...since i can't drink that part doesn't interest me so much, but the food is good...this time i chose a baked fish...it took a while, but it was yummy...
at that point i figured i'd wandered around enough for the day...

back to my hostel...i found a tv station broadcasting a couple of the olympic hockey games, and i watched though i already knew the results...(USA beat russia in overtime!!! YAHOO!!!)
the next morning i got up slowly, as always seems to happen on a weekend trip, no matter what i plan...after two cups of tea, i checked out just before noon...i stopped for lunch at one of the cafeteria style places so popular in this country, i felt the need for vegetables...i really really really wish these kinds of places existed in more countries of the world, they are perfect for travelers on a budget...a wide variety of food for cheap:)

then it was off to the bus stop to catch a bus to zhovkva...the lady at the information office told me the bus i wanted came every 20 minutes or so...since it was sunday, i figured it wouldn't be as often...i'm glad i can read the languages here (even if i don't usually understand what i'm reading) because i noticed the name of zhovkva on a bus with a different number from what i was looking for, so i hopped on...
zhovkva is a small town, the trip was about 45 minutes in total...the best time in history for this town was when it was part of the polish empire, though i doubt the people who live there now would want to say such a thing...

for people who follow such things, this town is the birthplace of 'legendary' (lonely planet's description, not mine) cossack bohdan khmelnytsky...have you ever heard of him? me neither...according to the story, he led his men through one of the gates in town when he freed the town from the poles...(i know i've mentioned previously that the western half of ukraine has been part of various empires through the years, including the poles, austro-hungarians, etc)...
as i said, it's a small town, most of the sights are in one area...i saw several churches, though i was only able to enter two...there is an old, abandoned synagogue, which is completely surrounded by corrugated tin on the ground floor, i wasn't able to enter that either...(western ukraine used to have a rather large jewish population, much of which disappeared during WWII, and is now almost nonexistent)...

as i was wandering in front of the 'castle' i was approached by two youngsters, probably 10 or 11 years old? after throwing two snowballs at my back, they attempted to talk to me...they figured out quickly that not only was i a tourist, i was a foreigner...then they asked for bread, or money...i said no to both...i think they were trying to say they were orphans, but they looked well fed and clean to me...plus, they spoke a bit of english, which tells me they at least go to a decent school...zhovkva gets a few tourists, but the majority of them are ukrainian, their level of english would not come from being around a lot of foreign tourists...

i went down the main street to find a grocery store, and two more churches...one of the churches was completely wooden, which was a total contrast to the golden onion domes just down the street...
at that point, i was hungry again, so i found a place to eat, nothing fancy...i don't know if anything fancy exists in zhovkva, it doesn't seem like that kind of small town...they had wifi :) ...after eating i figured it was time to hop a bus back to lviv, as i wanted to get back before sunset...
back in lviv i walked back to the centre of town, and bought a coffee mug...this is probably the last thing i should've bought, seeing as how i have plenty of them...my excuse this time was that i wanted a BIG mug for school...i don't drink coffee, but calling it a tea mug doesn't sound the same...

snack was hot chocolate and chocolate cake :) ...i stayed in that cafe for a few hours, writing a letter and getting started writing postcards, then walked to the train station...the train i took was already there, so i was able to get my bedding sorted without having to maneuver around other folks...
an easy train ride got me back to kyiv, and rain...