Drokpa Journal

Dates Traveled: December 2009 / January 2010

Odessa – December, 2009

We actually found ourselves in the Ukraine on a couple of occasions over two months – and two years. Our first foray into Odessa was in December, and was the culmination of an 18-hour bus ride from Varna, Bulgaria. It was another inauspicious, and unwelcoming, entry into a country. Granted, after a bus ride of that duration we probably weren’t in the best of moods, and cold, gray weather didn’t help, but people didn’t seem overly friendly, the money exchange wasn’t open, the ATM didn’t work, and the taxi drivers wanted astronomical prices. We simply shouldered our packs and started walking – hoping we’d be able to find our hostel.

After a short nap and a shower we were feeling human, and sociable, again, and so set out to explore. We wandered streets, admired some of the ornate architecture, and popped into a few churches. A highlight that first day was something known as the Passazh (Passage) – an internal walkway, lined with shops, connecting two perpendicular streets. Every inch of the 3 or 4 stories was adorned with decorative flourishes, faces, entire bodies, and other odds-and-ends molded in plaster. We took a lot of photos.

The Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater was equally impressive, with statues accentuating the roofline, and faces on the façade. We’d read that the interior needed to be seen as well, and what better way to take it all in than to see a performance? We ended up paying less than US$10/each for our own box to see La Boheme. Not bad. The interior was a beautiful combination of crushed red velvet, white plaster, gold trim, and one massive chandelier. We had fun exploring the theater prior to the performance - we’d pop our head out a door and find an area even more lavish than the one we’d left. Our regret was that we had assumed no photos were allowed. How wrong we were. The Ukrainians themselves were busy snapping away – trying to capture every detail. We knew we had to do the same, and so we were back the following night for a ballet, cameras in hand, taking as many photos as possible before the performance and during the breaks.

Within the city we also checked out the Potemkin steps – a long flight of outdoor stairs made ‘famous’ in the 1925 silent film, Battleship Potemkin. Wandering around the market area was another highlight.

To venture outside the city one day we signed up for a tour of the catacombs. The 19th century houses of Odessa were constructed of limestone, which was mined right there in the region – normally in tunnels 10-60 meters underground. Eventually expanded during later years for the purpose of hiding and smuggling goods, it’s now estimated there are 2500 kms of tunnels under and around Odessa. The small section we visited was used during the Second World War by resistance fighters. It was an interesting tour.

We did a fair bit of walking around Odessa during our first visit. We found it cold after the unseasonably warm temperatures of Bulgaria – and the wind certainly didn’t help matters. Little did we know that when we next visited in January we’d be longing for the balmy 3-4C temperatures of December!

Kamyanets Podilsky

Fast-forward to January 6 and we’ve just crossed from Romania back into the Ukraine. Our first stop was Kamyanets Podilsky, and we arrived on Orthodox Christmas Eve. Which explains why the old town was deserted the following day – everyone was at home with their families. The old town sits on a sharp bend in the river – with steep cliffs dropping down to the waters edge. A fort completes the defensive picture. We enjoyed wandering around the fort, and popping our heads into the various old churches around town.

Kamyanets Podilsky had been built up in our minds by people we’d talked to, and guidebooks we’d read, but I don’t think you’ll find either of us gushing over the town. Maybe it’s better in the summer months when there are more people around, or at least on a day that isn’t Christmas, but from what we experienced, I’d say you can give it a miss.

Lviv

An 8-hour bus ride dropped us in Lviv, a city I’d been anxious to see since we decided we were going to visit Ukraine. We ended up spending a week there – relaxing, seeing the sites, visiting museums, and taking in the post-Orthodox Christmas atmosphere.

Most days seemed to follow roughly the same routine – late starts; walking around town to see the various sites – invariably popping our heads into numerous churches to ooh and aah at the lavish interiors; finding an interesting café for a snack and to warm up; a wander through the bustling Christmas Market for some mulled wine; and back to the hostel.

Lviv had more of a European feel to it, which always means fantastic bakeries, wine/drink bars, and cafes. We tried several cafes of the themed variety. We checked out the cafe dedicated to the inventor of the kerosene lamp, and another dedicated to masochism. However, our favorite was the place styled after a Ukrainian Insurgent Army bunker. We approached a non-descript door around the central plaza – there were no signs. We knocked and waited. A small window in the door slid aside, and a gruff voice barked, “Slava Ukraini” (glory to Ukraine), to which we replied, “Geroyam Slava” (glory to its heroes). The door opened, a guard in full uniform – complete with rifle - greeted us with a smile and a shot of vodka, he slid aside a bookshelf to reveal the ‘secret’ entrance, and we descended to eat/drink. Entertaining.

One day, after a heavy snowfall the night before, we caught a tram out to Lychakivskiy Cemetery. It sounds macabre, but it has become a must-see tourist attraction while visiting Lviv. We spent a few hours wandering around thousands of graves. Begun in 1787, Lychakivskiy was the cemetery for Lviv’s middle and upper classes, and the tombstones reflected this status – they were beautiful. There were busts, statues, engravings, and flourishes. I think it was the first time we’d seen images of the deceased carved into black marble/granite, and we instantly liked the idea. It gave you a picture of the deceased – proud men in uniform, warm-hearted grandmothers, and innocent children. After that first introduction we admired the headstones in several subsequent countries, until we found a craftsman in Uzbekistan making them. We were intrigued, and had to have one. It’s not a tombstone, but we are now the proud owners of a carving created from one of our wedding photos. It will be a lasting memory not only of March 21, 2009, but also of Uzbekistan, and other countries where we’ve seen the carvings in cemeteries. I will say this, though. It’s a HEAVY souvenir!

On our last night in Lviv we picked up some cheap tickets to the Nutcracker ballet. We’d been so impressed with the opera/ballet theater in Odessa that we had to check out the one in Lviv. The Nutcracker just after Orthodox Christmas? Perfect. However, we were a bit disappointed. We’d expected a more lavish theater, and a better production, but in our minds Odessa won hands-down.

Kiev

From Lviv we caught an overnight train to Kiev. As we knew we’d be arriving early in the morning, we had booked a hostel. We rocked up, they eventually let us in, and then they proceeded to ignore us. We finally discovered that we couldn’t check in until after noon. No problem – we showered, dumped our bags, and went out for a wander. Popping back to the hostel after lunch we were ignored again, and then finally insisted on being shown our room. We’d booked a double bed in a private room. The room we were shown could only be accessed by walking through the dorm room, and it looked like a converted closet. It was tiny, there was one single bed, and a steep ladder through a hole in the ceiling up to a second single bed. Ok, kind of cool from a novelty standpoint, but considering we were going to be staying for a week, it wasn’t really what we had in mind. We’ve requested double beds numerous times, only to be shown rooms with two singles. No problem – we simply push them together, and ONE of us ends up invariably sleeping in the crack between the beds. However, that’s kind of hard to do when the beds are on different levels. We left to find another place.

In hindsight that was the best thing that could have happened to us. Others we met the following day had also tried to go to that hostel, and had ended up in shouting matches with the owner. We later read several reviews online, and heard from others, that the owner is pretty psycho, and seems to hate people. Probably not the best traits if you’re a hostel owner.

Anyway, Kiev. What will we remember most about Kiev? Probably the cold. There was heavy, wet snow when we first arrived, and then the temperatures plummeted, with each day -10 to -20C, but feeling considerably colder because of the biting wind. It was a slow process to walk around the city while sightseeing – walk for an hour, pop in somewhere to warm up. On the plus side, accompanying those crisp temperatures on several days were cloudless skies, forcing us out to photograph golden-domed churches against azure-blue skies. Nice.

We followed a walking tour around Kiev, which we broke up into several days. The main highlights on the tour, as had been the case in much of the Ukraine, were churches and monasteries. Each had a little something different to offer, and all were lavish and beautiful. My favorite was probably St. Michael’s Monastery, a blue building with white accents, paintings, and golden domes. We returned several times in varying weather conditions to capture its moods.

The Lavra was another highlight. Originally started in 1015 as a series of caves for hermit monks, it’s now a large UNESCO-listed complex of churches, cathedrals, bell towers, and defensive walls. We descended into the cave system at a few points – always following the ‘non-believer’ signs, and thus seeing a more limited portion of the cave system than true pilgrims were allowed to see. Monks would step out of the darkness when it looked as if we were going to head down a section where we weren’t allowed.

Above ground there seemed to be golden domes everywhere. The churches and cathedrals were incredibly ornate, and we enjoyed wandering around the complex for several hours. While there we also took in the micro miniature museum. Wow. Nikolay Siadristy took up micro miniature art as a hobby, but his creations were incredible. We slowly proceeded around the room to peer through microscopes at a hollowed out human hair with a rose inside; a camel caravan heading towards a pyramid – all within the eye of a needle; and a 1mm mosquito, complete with a woman holding an umbrella sitting on its proboscis. There were probably 15-20 different creations – each more mind-boggling than the previous. We actually bought the book of his art.

For a view of the bizarre on the macro level we walked by the house of Chimeras. Built in the early 1900’s, it’s constructed of concrete – a new building material at the time. Figuring that something a bit out of the ordinary would set people’s tongues wagging and get them interested in the new building material, the house was constructed with a façade dripping in frogs, deer heads, rhinos, and mermaids.

While we were in Kiev the country was holding their Presidential elections. We kept an eye on the proceedings, as the elections in 2004 had resulted in accusations of vote tampering and the world becoming familiar with the term Orange Revolution. This time around there was none of that. In fact, none of the candidates could amass 50% of the vote, so a run-off between the top two vote getters was scheduled for early February. Excitement aborted.

‘Excitement’ on another front came in the way of trying to use my ATM card. Luckily, I’d stocked up on cash shortly after arriving in Kiev, as several days later my card was denied at all machines. Sometimes my bank gets a bit heavy-handed on security when they see my card used in strange countries, so I assumed that was the issue – a quick call should have sorted it out. Or not. It turns out that someone had ‘compromised’ US bank account numbers and as a precaution all US banks were denying PIN-based transactions in the Ukraine. Ouch! I guess it was lucky that we were in a capital city where we could use the credit card a bit more and didn’t need to have cash for everything. It was definitely an inconvenience for 5 days, though. The things we take for granted….

Luckily, the company running tours to Chernobyl did take plastic. You didn’t really think we’d be in a city a mere 100 kms from Chernobyl and not go, did you?!? We did our research and determined we’d be safe - safer than had we visited in the summer, as the snow keeps the radiation levels down. We drove through a checkpoint to the town of Chernobyl, where we signed waivers, picked up our guide, and headed into the exclusion zone. We first drove around the nuclear reactor site, where Reactor 4 is now encased in concrete. Stepping out of the car to take photos, our Geiger counter beeped in alarm and registered the highest number we’d seen, though still well within the ‘safe’ levels.

We next drove over to Pripyat, the company town closest to the power plant, and home to roughly 50,000 on that fateful day in April, 1986. Eerie doesn’t really begin to describe it. Our group of 5, plus a guide and a driver, were the only people around. We trudged through the snow to sports halls, schools, and apartment blocks. Paint was peeling off walls, books were scattered about, and anything that could be salvaged had been long ago. Empty hotels and restaurants could be seen across the city, as could a small amusement park. The surreal image of a large ferris wheel, idle for 24 years, will be an image I’ll always remember.

Back in the town of Chernobyl we had to stand on a contraption to ensure our radiation levels were in the safe range. We were then treated to an absolute feast – the food just kept coming out. From there we drove out of the zone, passed another checkpoint, were subjected to another radiation check, and made our way back to Kiev. It was an interesting day, to say the least. There was something about walking around Pripyat that I can’t really explain, but I’m glad that we went.

Odessa

We next caught the overnight train back to Odessa, ending up where we’d begun the Ukrainian adventure. We checked out the Sleeping Beauty ballet at the theater, bought our tickets for Istanbul, and were on a ferry the following day – January 25, 2010.

Because we visited in December and January, we missed out on the ‘typical’ Ukrainian tourist hotspots – mainly around the Crimea. However, we enjoyed what we did get to see in our 3 ½ weeks in the country. It would have been a bit more enjoyable with warmer temperatures. We heard from several locals that the cold and snow we were experiencing wasn’t normal. Lucky us.

The night that we hopped on the ferry for the 36-hour trip to Istanbul, the temperature at the port was -19C, but -30C with the windchill. It was time to move south to warmer climes.

Ukraine Photos

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