Lviv, Ukraine May 22, 2019
The phone rang in my hotel room. How odd. Who could this be?
9;30 in the evening. I had just gone to bed.
It was the hotel reception desk. The Young woman says she wants me to leave the hotel for half an hour. Why? It's hard to explain, she says. For education reasons.
What? This makes no sense. Sorry for the inconvenience she says. It's only for half an hour.
I object. I don't want to get up and go out.
Then i wise up. I figure somethings happening. Maybe I don't want to be in the hotel. I decide to walk down the stairs. I don't want to get caught in the elevator.
In the lobby, people are milling around. Some have gone outside. Some guys in boots and reflecting jackets looking like they might be firemen are standing around. Also a bunch of security people.
I go outside and see a middle aged guy I had said hello to when I checked in a couple of days ago. Maybe he knows what's going on.
We get talking. He's an Englishman. He travels here as part of some kind of NGO. Wondering about the situation in the states. Worried about Trump. Thinks its like the 30's which doesn't augur well for the future. Worried for his kids and grandkids.
Biden is the front runner now. He gave a great speech here in Ukraine a few years ago to the parliament. Urging them to deal with their massive corruption. Just one problem with his talk. Everyone listening knew Biden's son was working for one of the oligarchs so it rang hollow. Such a waste.
The other really interesting candidate we talk about to oppose Trump is Buttigieg the South Bend Indiana mayor who went on Fox News and wowed them on "hate radio" (as Kamela Harris might refer to it}. And Fox News' Brit Hume says "Buttigieg is the most impressive candidate since the emergence of Barack Obama." Golly that must mean more impressive than Trump in the view of Fox News no less.
Standing out in the cool spring air my new acquaintance asks me. Are you confident Trump will be defeated. Well I'm as confident of that as anything these days which isn't saying much at all.
Meanwhile, i'm thinking how odd it is that Ukrainians were able to see through their last President who was elected with over 50% of the vote and defeated by a 3 to 1 vote after failing to perform while so many Americans are taken in by ours.
And as I'm finishing this up I read Teresa May has resigned. And the only tears for her are her own.
We live in interesting times.
After about a half hour we were let back into the hotel. I guess it was just a fire drill. I'm glad it wasn't anything more exciting.
It's been raining a lot here in Ukraine. But the air is clear and occasionaly the light is extraordinary.
It amazes me that people who, were they to greet me on the street, I would not recognize, immediately remember me when I greet them in their habitat.
That happened today with the "bicycle man" (as I think of him}. He has a thriving business renting bicycles to hikers, backpackers etc, who comprise the largest portion of the visiting population in the non winter months here in Vorokhta a Carpathian mountain town that lives on hik`ers and skiers.
For the last three years I've climbed up the mountain here and made friends with people who live in the hills. They don't see many (any?) Americans here and they sure don't speak English so it's kind of fun for us to see if we can communicate. Also i want to see how easy or hard it is for me to make it up the hill as I "mature".
Alas, I don't think I'm going to meet my friends and test my skills this year. It has been raining every day. The forecast is for it to continue And the "sunny breaks" don't last long enough other than to lure you up the mountain to great regret when the storms come.
Last year I made it up on a fine day and was planning to go back the next when torrential storms hit. I thanked the gods for my not being caught in that storm.
But I can reacquaint with bicycle man. He apologizes for his English, Everyone does who speaks some English here. English here is, I guess, a bit like French in Russia in Tolstoy's day. Highly prized and regarded.
He said I'm the first person he's talked to in English this year so he is kind of rusty. Because of this lack of English speakers this is where I would choose to spend a few months to really learn the language.
Here it would be a matter of survival and quality of life to know and be able to use it without the ease of just slipping into English. Ukrainian is a beautiful language both visually and aurally.
One of the things we talked about is the new President who was elected here May 2`1. He's a comedian who played a President in a TV series who ends the corruption. My friend says people didn't vote for the President elect. They voted against the previous President and boy did they. Like 3 to 1. The greatest landslide in Ukrainian history.
He tells me the real power lies with the parliament. Not a good thing since I understand they can't live on their salaries so they get bought by the oligarchs. That and the fact that the new President is close to one of the oligarchs who owns the TV station that hosted his show doesn't augur well for a change here. And there's that story that billions went missing from the big bank the oligarch owned.
My friend says unlike in the U.S. ..... searching for words he raps on the window ... then he raps on the wood frame for what it's like in Ukraine.. I suggest he's speaking of relative "transparency".
Of course with Trump transparency has gone out the door with all he has to hide. Sad.
There was a lot of hope in this country with the 'Revolution of Dignity" in the Winter of 2014. I came to Ukraine for the first time soon after. There were still tents in the main square and barricades next to the Ukraine Hotel where I stayed and returned this Spring.`
The tents and barricades are of course long gone. I was glad to see, however, that "The Heavenly Hundred" those who died in the demonstrations have not been forgotten. Their pictures have been made more permanent and better protected by surrounding small brick walls.
But the hoped for improvements never came. In fact the currency lost 3/4 of its value. So the people especially with savings ended much worse off.
My friend says we'll know in a year if the election means change.
I've taken an "anecdotal" poll of people I've met here and I think this wait and see attitude is common and for good reason given the country's history.
Well it stopped raining. This morning I couldn't believe what I saw out the window. Snow. And its snowing hard. They are forecasting 3-5 inches. Unbelievable.
4 guys from Kyiv, 1 from Poland and an American
I had a couple hours to kill before my afternoon train to Kolomiya so I went to the restaurant for a bowl of borscht and while there met some 40ish guys from Kyiv. They asked where I was from and when I said "Ya Americanitz" one jumped up and eagerly shook my hand. They were having a grand time and insisted I join them in a drink.
I figured they were backpacking or hiking and asked it the rain had dampened their spirits. But no they had just come here to walk around. 4 of them were friends and they had just met the 5th guy who showed me his passport which listed his last name as Vorokhta. Now how improbable is that?
Well i joined them in a quick toast and then headed for the train.
And so it was, on an otherwise cold and dreary day that I fouund myself by the rail with my spirit warmed and optimistic.
Oh now I get it, just as I type the date above. I have the answer to today's mystery.
As I walked into town this morning I noticed the river boiling with brown water flowing from the surrounding mountain streams rushing in a frenzy to get wherever it seems so eager to go.
The heavy rains fill the mountain streams filling the river flowing under the main bridge.
Unlike the river, the town is mysteriously quiet. I see the restaurant is closed. A big disappointment. I anticipated my first coffee in two days,
Yesterday I had tea. That's what they serve on the train. One of nicest rides I've experiened. The 7 hour train ride from Lviv, the cultural capital of Ukraine, to Rakhiv the remote last stop on the line deep in the Carpathian mountains. Other than missing my coffee it was a total delight.
It couldn't have been nicer. From the moment the nice young woman attendant walked me to my compartment - different from the number on my
My two person train compartment
ticket - which her words explaining did not translate through my primitive knowledge of Ukrainian.
I had the whole first class, two person, compartment to myself. Such a luxury compared to being crammed in my seat on my flight from Dulles to Istanbul.
Beautiful views presented themselves through the picture window, undaunted by the gray misty day which only added to the charm.
And all this for 350 hryvnia. A lot of money for train travel in Ukraine but only 14 in dollars. It's great to travel first class especially when it's such a bargain!
So I arrived reasonably well rested but not prepared for the locked gate to the guest house where I had my reservation. I looked for a door bell but saw none.
(Red building in the cener of picture is guest house where I have reservation)
I did see a series of numbers on the front door of the building inside the gate. Not in the phone number pattern with which I'm familiar, but i dialed them anyway.
Someone answered in Ukrainian. I spoke in English. She spoke again and so did I and neither of us had a clue what the other was saying. Then she hung up.
I started imagining various outcomes. None desirable. So I called again. Same result.
Then the shade went up in the window in the adjacent building and a woman gesticulated to me. Then the shade went down. Was this progress?
A few minutes later a woman came up the street and spoke to me in Ukrainian. I can't say there was a meeting of minds or language but she did let me into the guest house where we spoke some more without comprehesion.
Then I showed her my online reservation which fortunately I had printed o .. in English of course. We talked and gesticulated some more. She sure didn't seem to have been expectiing me. But eventually we had a meeting of minds and I had a room at last!
Oh, and the mystery? Have you guessed the answer. Why so quiet. Everything shut down?
It's May Day. A big day in this former part of the Soviet world.
So here I am in Rahkiv an alpine village with cystal clear air. A delight with every breath.
I don't know what to say. I guess I'll just start writing and see what comes out.
This trip has been most unusual. A lot has gone wrong. I wrote a Blog post but wasn't able to post it because my laptop crashed, irreparably, as it turned out.
Then when I retrieved the post using my new "computer setup" you see in this picture I deleted the post because it's really tricky using this new setup and I hit the wrong key.
I'm using my smart phone and a new blue tooth keyboard and mouse. The key board is really cool It folds up so I can hold it and my phone and mouse all in one hand or put it all in one pocket. I like to travel light so this may be what I do from now on. And it has letters in both Roman and Cyrillic.
My laptop crashing was part of a series of "events" the first losing my main credit card temporaily as I was preparing to leave home. And before that finding the debit card I only use for traveling had expired. So I had a new one sent to my hotel in Ukraine, and brought enough cash to survive til it arrived.
Oh, but then I find out, when I get to Ukraine, the new debit card won't arrive til I've left my base hotel in the city of Lviv for the next leg of my trip, a 7 hour train ride deep into the Carpathian mountains for 20 days.
And the the great big "Beginner's Ukrainian" book which i left at the reception desk last year for my return this year is nowhere to be found. But no worries, I had it scanned into my computer, yet it's much nicer to study outdoors on a nice Spring day sitting in the park here in Lviv which you can't do with a laptop cause it's too bright to read out.
Oh, and then, of course, if your computer has crashed irretrievably the scanned book isn't available either.
So I don't think you want to hear more about this. How my best friend in Ukraine who just happens to be a Professor of Computer Science and the nicest guy you could ever meet almost got my laptop working but it turned out to have a bad chip and I had encrypted the hard drive and don't have the encryption key with me and the HP service center I took it to which replaced the chip can't restore it without the key.
So God, or the Gods, have a purpose in all this. To keep us humble? And i've always found that if you look for the good outcome in bad events you can find it. And in this series, it seems to be my new traveling light and not having to worry about my laptop being stolen with all my personal info. I'll leave that home from now on.
And my debit card did show up ahead of when they last told me it would. So I'm good to go.
Easter is a week later here in the Orthodox church. So I got to attend the most important religious service in the year in this part of the world yesterday.
A lot has happened here. I arrived just in time for the first day of a new President elect. Hopefully, it will be the dawn of a new day for Ukraine with a better government than the last. I wrote about that in my last blog post which disappeared in the ether but I'll deal with that topic in my next post.
For now I just want to launch this before I have the chance to hit the wrong key again.
I'm in Kolomyia after a very pleasant 1 1/2 hour train ride back from the Carpathian Mountain village of Vorokhta which I had reached a few days earlier with a 2-hour bone-rattling ride on a bus so crowded that every seat and standing space was filled. Fortunately, the bus didn't fill up until it was well into the journey and I got to sit the whole way.
Last year I visited a family in the mountains in Vorokhta and I hoped to find them again at home and well.
Timing and Luck are everything. For me, in recent days, it's been all luck as the timing was part of the luck.
After checking into my Guest House/Hotel in Vorokhta, I decided to take a nap as I knew I would need all the energy I could muster for the long hike up the mountain to see my friends. I didn't wake until 4 PM, but I knew they would insist on feeding me so I figured arriving around dinner time might not be such a bad idea.
Now a year older I was curious how I would do climbing the hills. As it turned out I was pleasantly surprised to find it no harder than I remembered my last hike up the mountain. But certainly no easier!
The first part of the path and the dirt road it paralleled had lots of turns with no way to know what to expect around the next bend. And, indeed, much to my surprise I stumbled into the middle of a herd of goats who scurried away as I took their picture,
Then further on two dogs came out barking at me from a house perched with one corner right on the edge of the trail hiding what lay beyond. The dogs' owner called to them and shouted something to me, Some kind of warning.
Almost immediately two horses appeared around the corner of the building pulling a wagon and bearing down on me, I jumped to the side of the path and watched them pass by with just inches to spare.
It all happened so fast that it wasn't until they had passed that I registered that this had been an encounter of some potential peril. What brought it home to me was my retrospectively registering the driver's grim expression of strain and concern.
Pleased as I was to be able to make the climb it wasn't easy. And as I got further up I found myself sweating and my heart pounding.
But I said to myself just keep putting one foot ahead of the other as I anticipated the wooded area I remembered farther on, where I would be able to cool off in the shade which eventually I was able to do,
As I proceeded I came to two forks in the road and luckily I remembered or guessed right and stayed to the left at the first and took a right.at the second.
And as I looked up the big hill ahead of me I said: "Dear Lord let this be the right way and the final hill and show me the red roof of my friends' house when I crest this next hill". And he did!
Still, as I approached the house it seemed very quiet. I hoped they weren't away. Then I saw there was clothing on the line, a hopeful sign, and further on I noted a door was open on the smaller building next to the house. As I drew nearer I heard music and as I stood at the open door out came the son whom I had met last year when he was home from college for Spring break.
He greeted me with a big friendly smile of recognition which I really appreciated and took me into the kitchen of the main house next door where his sister was lying on a sofa facing away from me. He said something to her and then told me to sit on the couch across the room from his sister. Where I sat and waited.
And waited.
I wasn't sure what was going on here. His sister hadn't greeted me and continued to lie facing away from me. But I did as I was told thinking all would become clear eventually.
I looked at the clock on the wall and noted it was almost 6 PM.
And then, about 6 or 7 minutes later the mother and grandmother came into the room. The mother clasped my hand with a big smile, They both seemed genuinely delighted to see me.
What ensued was my midterm exam to test my beginner's Ukrainian on which I have been working with some diligence. The result? I'm going to give myself a C mostly to encourage myself to persist rather than be discouraged by a lower grade although I had to use Google Translate more than I would have wished.
We chatted and struggled to understand each other. They had had a long winter here in the mountains with a lot of snow. The daughter had gotten married and now had a 5-day old daughter whom I now understood she had been nursing when I arrived.
I showed them pictures of my two young grandsons 2 and 5 years' old, to well deserved and expected oohs and ahhs.
We had a very nice meal of borsch, meat, and cheese. And we downed shots from the bottle of vodka I had brought accompanied with "Za zdorov'ya!".
The father, who invited me to their home after we met on the trail last year, did not appear nor did their new son in law which I found puzzling. Gradually from our conversation, I was able to decipher that they were away but would return the following day.
And so we agreed I should also return the next day.
As I left the mother walked me to the fence and showed me the new barn they had built and with equal pride pointed out their view of Mt. Hoverla just as her husband had the year before.
Mt. Hoverla is the tallest mountain in Ukraine a sight I had been looking forward to rephotographing with my new camera.
The way down is directly through fields and meadows. It is a much faster and steeper route than the way up along the winding dirt road and paths. And it's much easier, of course, going down. But it took me just as long as the way up as it was a perfect evening in the country and I did not want it to end.
So I found myself continually stopping to savor the view and feel the peace and quiet and listen to the chirping of birds, taste the clear air and perfect beauty of this place so far from the troubled world in which we live.
The next day I napped again in preparation for my return. This time, however, I awoke to a torrential downpour that went on for several hours. There was no way now for me to return.
Fortunately, I had not gone up earlier when it was sunny or I would have been caught in the storm and been thoroughly drenched or worse.
My cold has returned but not with the devastation, I'd have experienced had I gone up the mountain again.
So I'm feeling really lucky in how everything turned out.
I'll just have to come back and complete my visit next year.
It seems otherworldly. A bit gritty. Kind of a ghost town. Everything's closed up. But the few people walking on the streets seem normal. And they don't seem to be paying much attention to me.
Wearing a camera. A little unsure on my feet. And obviously lost walking up the street and then back. I'm glad they are not paying much attention to me. Must mean I'm not as out of place as I feel.
And as everywhere I've been in Ukraine, no fear of attack or crime.
I'm recovering from "train lag" like jet lag but only because of lack of sleep. No time zone change. I'm trying to find my way to the center of this little city/town using Google GPS. It takes me a while to get oriented on the map. There must be a better way than just walking back and forth on the street looking at the GPS marker to find my direction?
Then suddenly, as I round a corner, it's a different world. I see people and activity and realize it's Sunday that's why everything was closed up on the roads into the center. And here in the center, it's fresh and polished
The 16-hour train trip wasn't all that bad. Considering the fact I shared my compartment with a family of two hyperactive boys Maxine 4 1/2 and Alex 10 and their mom and dad (alternately as they had another berth in an adjacent compartment where they took turns avoiding the tumult of their boys who ran up and down the corridors and jumped from one upper berth to the other until Maxine suddenly fell off the bunk and crashed to the floor with a huge bang followed by crying and Mom and Dad administering to a cut he sustained on the back of his head.
This event signaled the end of the 5-hour raucous disruption and as it was just 10 PM, as we settled down to sleep I thought I might get a goodly amount.
The next morning as I spent a couple of hours with them, I became as fond of this little family as I was annoyed with them the day before and was almost sad to leave them, particularly little Maxine in spite (or because?) of his joy in sticking his hand in my face.
I'm guessing I got about 5 hours sleep. Far less than I needed hence the "train lag" as I walked into town after checking into my strange hotel/ guesthouse and taking a brief nap.
Nice people, the owner, and his wife. The room and bathroom really nice but the windows don't seem to open, there is no shower curtain (have to take a kind of bath or low shower) no place to hang towels in the bathroom only one electrical outlet to charge computer and phone and its next to the sink with no place other than the bathtub to rest the computer and phone but at $12/night who's complaining? Not me.
First impressions? Not much to see here except for 2 notable museums. A great place to practice Ukrainian since no one speaks English here. A quiet place to chill and decompress after the Train, and the big cities Odessa and Lviv.
Undecided if I'll stay the 4 days of my reservation but I found a nice restaurant/pizza/coffee (not on Google but just from walking). A place to hang out and where I am writing this and although this isn't Karpaty it's enough of a change to look deeper.
Update. Wednesday, 10/2/18 10 AM.
First impressions can be misleading. Very. I found the hook to hang towels in the hotel bathroom. The hotel owner showed me how to open the windows. And another electrical outlet, And I've been taking baths to relieve the aches of travel. Nice.
And now I find this is the best town ever. Lots to see. Rather than cut short my 4-day visit I've decided to cancel my 3-day visit to Ivano Frankivsk and return here for 3 days after my 2-day visit to Vorokhta where I head tomorrow.
What I like about this town is the beautiful architecture and the many pedestrian streets to wander about. No cars in the center of the city. Makes it peaceful and provides good air quality. Just the place to chill out after the big cities. The pace is slower. A welcome change.
And a great place to learn Ukranian as they don't speak English here.
I've found the cafeteria, finally. Every town seems to have one in Ukraine and its the best place to eat and get healthy food at bargain prices. You don't even have to know Ukrainian you can just point to the food. Well, that's what I use to do, now I know most of the names of the foods.
I had a nice chat with some boys. Between us we were able to translate to English the sign on this building, It's the center for young people providing training in dance and programming. An eclectic grouping. I asked the boy with the best English if he was a programmer. He said no he's into dance.
There seemed to be a lot of group gatherings in some of the restaurant/dining halls that I wandered into. I took a quick picture in one of them and escaped to the street to avoid objections.
Bur, as I was walking away, this really big guy suddenly appeared in front of me and pointed to my camera and with a threatening manner asked me what I was doing, Uh oh!
I wouldn't mind if he asked me to delete the photos but I feared he might seize my camera which is new and I am quite attached to and has priceless pictures and videos from my trip here.
In my flawless English (fortunately) I told him I was a tourist just taking pictures. His face immediately broke into a big smile and he shook my hand and said "Good Luck". "Good Luck" is what people say instead of goodbye here when they know you're a foreigner. Whew!
Today, I walked to the Bus station, 20 minutes from the center and got my bus ticket for the trip to Vorokhta tomorrow where I hope to head up the mountain and visit my friends like I did last year.
I've been working on my Ukrainian and this will be the midterm exam for me as they speak no English. I was able to read the schedule board and order the ticket all in Ukrainian which is very satisfying. I think of it as like the thrill for my grandsons as they learn and improve their English and we empower ourselves, learn and grow even much later in life.
I've lots of beautiful pictures of this small city's architecture, but I plan to focus on them in a Blog post when I return in a couple of days.
The trip tomorrow will be my first by bus this year over terrible roads but for only a little over 2 hours. And I am rested enough to climb up the hills to see my friends if they are there. I think they'll be quite surprised to see me. I'll let you know how it goes.
Today I head out for my longest train ride. A 16-hour overnighter from Odessa - Northwest to Lviv and then Southwest to Kolomyia, a small city in Western Ukraine where I'll start my this year's visit to the beautiful Carpathian mountain countryside.
Last night I saw a great concert. I really like the conductor Hobart Earle and the Symphony here is really good. They perform in what was the former stock exchange building.
At the concert, I chatted with some nice citizens of this town. The conversation was in Russian (them) and English (me) and a little Ukrainian (me). Not exactly sure what we discussed (given the language gap) but I think it was about how we all love Odessa, where we're from and they invited me to come to the next concert with their great conductor. But alas I'm headed off to "Karpaty".
Talking in mixed languages is quite a challenge but fun and nice that people want to do it.
Like the two young (around 12) Asian boys who addressed me on the elevator riding up to the 6th-floor cafeteria, I go here for breakfast. They quickly switched to excellent English when I so responded to their Russian and told me they speak 4 languages Russian, Ukrainian, English, and Chinese. A humbling but uplifting (pun intended) experience given their spirited friendliness. A great way to start the day.
Navigating the language barrier is both challenging and fun. Like yesterday when I did my dry run to the train station to get my boarding pass printed out and was sent to 3 different counters where they supposedly spoke English but in fact only Russian.
Like all the train stations here Odessa's is an architectural gem as are nearby cathedrals.
Well, that's it for now. Wish me well on the long train journey ahead.
Thanks for reading!
I got a bad cold and cough in Lviv, Ukraine which I treated by resting. Not fun except for the great Netflix series "Money Heist" which entertained me as I lay up in my hotel room. The rest of my course of "treatment" was to "will it" to be over by Friday when I was scheduled to take the train to Odessa. I sure didn't want to be annoying the 3 passengers sharing my compartment on the 11-hour overnight train.
As it turned out I was fit to travel right when I needed to be, but not a day sooner.
.
The train left Lviv on Friday night at 10:12 PM. I knew the first part of the trip would be noisy but, I found myself thinking this is ridiculous. Even worse than I remembered.
Today I took the 3-hour bus from Rakhiv to Khust. You "can't get there from here" by Train.
Yesterday I spent some time trying to figure out the bus schedule. There is a nice website russticket.info where I was delighted to find all the information you need and nicely laid out.
Except it's not correct as I found out at the bus station after about an hour of trying to read the timetable board and talking with the ticket clerk. The clerk, of course, did not speak any English.
Yesterday, a little after the noon hour, I arrived in the beautiful village of Vorohkta in the Carpathian Mountains, having caught the morning train from Ivano-Frankivsk.
Now, later in the evening, as I'm writing this a train pulls into town on the track right beside my Guest House Hotel, a fabulous location as it's just 1/2 block to the train station and 1/2 block to the center of this small village and right next to the railroad tracks,
Last night I woke with a train going by and it shook the house a bit, but I don't mind. I love trains and having them near is a comfort, hearing the clickety-clack of their wheels and the low mournful sound of their horn in the night. And thinking they may be headed to the far away cities of Lviv or Kyiv adds to the romance of the time and space they inhabit where I love to be.
The trip by train from Odessa to Ivano-Frankivsk was about 14 1/2 hours. We departed at 4:37 PM and arrived the next morning at 7:20 AM. This time I traveled 2nd class which was about twice as expensive as third class but still only around 10 dollars.
I shared my compartment with a 30 something mother and her 9 year-or-so old daughter. They did not speak English but in Ukrainian, I learned they were Ukrainians headed to the last stop, Chernivtsi, 2 1/2 hours beyond mine.
I met a guy from Finland as both of us were checking out of the little supermarket. when he asked me where I was from. He lives here as an ex-pat with his wife and two little sons under 2 years old and divides his time between here and Helsinki. He's a business coach and involved in the export/import business. Like me, he was quite taken on his first visit with the magnificent architecture.
In describing Odessa he mentions its prominence in Czarist Russia as one of its 4 great cities together with Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Warsaw. It was also Russia's most important sea port. He likes the weather here particularly, I imagine, compared to Finland in winter.
As do people here in general, he speaks Russian, not Ukrainian and he speaks, unsurprisingly, fluent English.
My new friend tells me the place the ex-pats hang out is the Irish Pub. So I plan to check that out to learn more about life here from the ex-pat perspective and with the easier acquisition of knowledge with the ability to use English. He tells me that with two young sons he doesn't get to go there much anymore which I told him I can well understand given the time my son and his wife devote to caring for my two young grandsons.
We exchanged cards and he asked me to contact him so we can talk some more as he had little time this day because of an impending flight to Helsinki. I assured him that I would if, as I hope, I return to Odessa.
And I do hope to come back. When I arrived, I planned to sleep for a few hours to catch up on the lost sleep on the train but as it was a sunny day and the forecast for coming days didn't look that good (actually the weather has been wonderful). I made myself take just a short nap after a shower all of which made me feel like a new man and I hastened out to walk about and get some photos in the bright sun.
As I walked and saw the grandeur of this great city and its magnificent architecture I wondered that I had not come earlier. Well, my reasons are it's a bit of a hike from my Lviv base and the language they speak here is Russian, not the Ukrainian which I have tasked myself with learning.
Here is a picture of Odessa's most famous building, the Opera House.
Today I walked to see and photo the St. Sophia Cathedral. St. Sophia is a big deal in this part of the world with the major cathedral here being named after her as are the main Cathedrals in Ukraine's capital, Kiev and across the Black Sea in Turkey's capital. Istanbul.
Then I walked down to the Philharmonic Symphony Hall. For some reason, they don't publicize their concerts on the Web or at least I couldn't find them so I decided to walk over there just a few blocks (as is everything) from my hotel.
Much to my delight, there was to be a concert this very evening and using my limited Ukrainian I was able to get directed to the ticket office and purchase a ticket.
Following that, I walked down to and along the harbor where I was surprised and very happy to be able to see the famous Potemkin Steps, famous for the iconic scene in the Soviet propaganda movie "Battleship Potemkin" which a friend told me I must watch when I told her I was coming here.
and I'm glad I did and for the suggestion, as it gave an appreciation and understanding that I would have otherwise lacked.
On my walk the day I arrived, I had been greatly disappointed that I had not been able to see the steps from the walkway above as the view is completely boarded up due to construction.
What's so interesting about the steps is their width decreases from the bottom to the top of the staircase so if you are standing at the bottom the top of the stairs looks much farther to climb than it actually is. Also if you are standing at the bottom of the steps the landings are not visible from that perspective as they are in this picture due to the elevation of my position across the road.
It was hot in the sun particularly as I had walked several miles and so I removed 3 layers: jacket, sweater, and down vest.
Then I thought about returning the way I had come as I was quite tired. Pressing onward would take me farther from my hotel and mean a longer way back and I didn't know if there was another way to get up to the city with the Potemkin stairs being closed off for the construction.
But, I wanted to see what I might find so on I went and saw a trail leading upwards. I thought it might be a dead end leading possibly to a private mansion or something and didn't see anyone on the path. But I decided to try it anyway as it was definitely leading up in the direction I wanted to go and it was nice and cool.
And so I found myself walking in a narrow tranquil forest, a very pleasant peaceful respite from the busy port to my right and the busy city to my left. In my travels, I've found the best experiences seem to come from just wandering. I doubt any guide book mentions this fine walking trail.
As I climbed upward I passed a few people. So I thought they must be coming from somewhere and I would get to where I wanted to go. Eventually.
Then I came around a bend and the trail led downward. Uh oh. I certainly didn't want to have to retrace my steps down and then make the climb up again another way.
But then just around the next bend, there were steps that led upwards and I got to where I wanted to be. Back in the city.
No chairs to sit down here but a nice wall to sit on. After a brief respite, I considered whether I should return or move farther on. The farther I went the more of interest I might see but also the longer the return would be. Then I thought of Uber.
I had a difficult time with Uber here my first two times. The first, when I arrived at the Lviv airport I previously described here and what happened the second time when I arrived at the Odessa train station was that again I couldn't locate the car and in fact canceled the ride but then reconsidered when I thought the 25 cancellation charge might be in Euros (which it wasn't) and almost immediately upon withdrawing the cancellation found the Uber car and as it was driverless I called to tell the driver, in Ukrainian that I was at his car and he replied in Russian (I assume) where he was up in the station, neither of us understanding the other, but I knew he would have to return to his car and he did and all was well.
Except that on the way his car stalled out and he had to keep pressing the starter button over and over til the engine would stay running which eventually it did and we located my hotel and he indicated I should get out.
He didn't get out and instead kept pressing the starter button as his car stalled. I thought he was just wanting to get his car running and then would get out but when he did finally get it running he began driving away with my luggage in his trunk!
Fortunately, I was able to flag him down and avert a disaster. Except that thinking about it later it occurred to me that this is an advantage with Uber as I could call the driver and get him to come back. Well possibly if the language problem could be overcome.
I gave him a 125% tip for all the time (45 minutes) and effort he had earlier spent trying to find me while I was trying to find him. And lest you think that was extravagant let me tell you the fare was only around 80 cents. Yes, you read that right. Thus his well-earned tip was just a dollar.
So now, I thought, since it's so cheap going by Uber I can wander as far as my energy will take me and not worry about returning as I can call Uber and if I'm not in a busy place as in my two previous encounters, I should have no problem locating the Uber car which was the major problem in my previous two experiences.
And indeed when I got to the end of my walk I called Uber, the driver arrived in less than 9 minutes and we drove the 15 minutes to the lovely City Garden where they had this wonderful free concert.
I then sat outside at a table with a delicious chocolate drink facing the garden, a perfect place to people-watch on a perfect Sunday in Odessa and I thought of Paris and how it couldn't be better than this and possibly nowhere near as nice, all things considered.
More than enough had occurred on this fine day except I still had a concert to attend and after grabbing a bite to eat walked over to the Philharmonic Hall.
For the price of admission (less than $2) you get to sit anywhere you want in this beautiful symphony hall so I arrived a bit early and found a nice seat in the fifth row on the aisle where I took pictures.
And indeed it was a wonderful concert in a wonderful setting.
I'm in heaven. Drinking my first coffee of the day at my favorite restaurant/cafeteria in the whole world -- Puzata Xata. In Lviv, they have 2 locations where I eat every meal other than breakfast which is included with my hotel stay there but not here.
As you can see from the pictures this cafeteria is quite elegant. It has a million dollar view of the skyline and my full breakfast, which you can also see here, including coffee, cost less than $1.50. I kid you not!
I thought I was really going to miss Puzata Xata during this 6-day visit to Odessa but was delighted to find it also here and just a couple of blocks from my hotel.
My trip to Odessa from Lviv began with more than a modicum of concern as I planned to take the long 12-hour sleeper train connecting the two cities, And I also planned to travel in third class.
Third Class? Why pick a third class sleeper when travel here is so inexpensive? Well, I wanted a lower bunk and they were all taken in 2nd class by the time I made my reservation.
And, if truth be known, I wanted to see how OK or not OK it might be, having found the 3rd class day trip (just seats no sleeping accommodation) from Mukacheve to Lviv last year to be OK, although the uncushioned seats were hard, particularly so after 5 hours.
With a likely repetition of that trip in store later during this time in Ukraine, I have since purchased a plastic seat cushion which blows up to full size so it takes up very little space when packing.
The third class overnight sleeper is a real bargain. For less than $5 you get a bed for the night, a nice cup of tea and you get to be transported the725 km (450 miles) from Lviv to Odessa.
No, it's no 5-star hotel. Far from it.
But none of the 5-star hotels in Lviv offers the opportunity go to sleep in Lviv and wake up in Odessa!
In the picture, you can see my compartment on the right with 4 bunks. Across the aisle, there are two bunks with the lower bunk starting out as two seats facing each other with a table in between which later folds down to form the bunk.
Boarding early I waited to see who would be sharing my compartment. "Compartment" is probably not the right word as it is completely open to the aisle which is the 3rd reason I thought 3rd class might be preferable to 2nd class where the compartment is completely enclosed.
It seemed to me that sleeping in the company of complete strangers might be safer and therefore wiser in an open compartment.
As I waited, two 30 something guys entered the compartment and then a middle aged man. One of the guys said something to me, in Ukrainian which I didn't understand but then figured he was asking where I was from, when, with a questioning look, he used the Ukrainian word for "Polish". So I told him in my limited Ukrainian that I was an American and asked each of them if they were Ukrainian. Both said they were and we informed each other that we were all headed to the final train stop, Odessa.
At 8:40 PM, right on time as always in Ukraine, at least in my experience, the train departed.
The two guys had a lot of stuff with them including a lot of food. I moved to sit on the left side of my bench (bunk) so they could sit across from each other at the table to eat their big meal.
They invited me to join them in a drink of vodka (I think it was vodka). But, given I was still in recovery from sleep deprivation and jet lag and anticipating that with little sleep on this journey I would be in bad enough shape in the morning without a hangover, I thanked them for their invitation and with some reluctance declined
Some of the passengers made their beds right away upon boarding while others proceeded to do so an hour or so into the journey.
The conductor gave each of us a sealed plastic bag containing sheets, pillow case, and a towel. Rolled up mattresses with pillows were stored overhead at the top of the compartment. One of the guys pulled one down for me. At first, I thought it to be a blanket.
.
Surreptitiously I watched as others made their beds, not wanting to appear the greenhorn I was. At first, I made a hash of it as I got the sheet running crosswise but then figured out you simply line up the stripes on the sheets lengthwise with the mattress.
By 11 PM everyone had made their beds and were settling down for the night except for some talking on their smartphones.
Lying in bed I read a couple of pages of a novel on my Kindle but decided it didn't capture my interest and, as I was really more interested in getting some sleep, I began the effort to do so.
I knew sleeping wouldn't be easy given the strange environment and excitement of being on the train but there were bigger challenges with which to contend.
Very loud sounds of crashing and pounding came from the train's undercarriage And the train swung in wide sweeps both up and down and horizontally.
I confess I was a bit concerned about the loud banging noises. I couldn't and still can't imagine what was causing them. If they were caused by a bad track it seemed we should be derailed. The noise was that pronounced.
However, as no one else appeared to be concerned I decided there was no reason for me to worry.
And as time went by, the track seemed to smooth out and the turbulence was replaced by a gentle swaying of the train and the familiar and comforting clickety-clack of its wheels.
And so. I fell asleep.
During the night I woke up from time to time and then fell back to sleep. In all I guess I slept a total of 4 or 5 hours. While not my usual and desired 9 hours or so, I was grateful for what I did get. More than I got on the 8-hour flight from Washington to Frankfurt.
Indeed it is nice to be able to spread out and lie down flat as opposed to being scrunched up in an airline seat although my feet did extend into the aisle about an inch when I lay flat on my back and they got brushed by a couple of passengers walking by. Better placement of the pillow, however, fixed this problem allowing me to move my body so my feet were completely out of the aisle, but just barely.
Around 6 or 7 AM a few people started to get up. The sun had risen and begun pouring through the window across the aisle. As it turned out it was low enough on the horizon and perfectly placed so as to shine directly onto my face. Unable to position my cap to block it out I reluctantly roused myself, got up and retrieved my sleep mask from my backpack and so solved this problem.
By 8 AM most people had arisen. We rolled up our pillows and mattresses and stored them in the overhead rack. And we folded up our sheets and pillow cases and delivered them to the conductor.
Finally, at 8:50 AM we arrived at our destination. The final stop for the train. Odessa with its magnificent train station.
The historic (for me) trip was over.
Tired and somewhat in a daze but quite happily, I carefully descended the steep steps of the train and walked with my crowd of fellow passengers to the station.
And as I did, I said to myself ----
Mission accomplished!
Well not quite. I still had to get to my hotel, which turned out to be a more-than- expected. challenge.
