On the Road Again

This past weekend, Kate and I set off on another adventure, this time to Kamyanets-Podilsky (affectionately referred to as Kam-Pod from here on out) both to escape the city and the heat wave in Ukraine (especially in Kyiv). Kam-Pod is a small town in the west-southwest of Ukraine, near the Ukrainian border with both Romania and Moldova. We had heard and read that it was a cool place to go to with a super awesome castle and lots to do.

So Friday we set off on the train again. This time taking an “express” train, which only took 8 hours to get to our destination (which is very close to what it took to get to L’viv last week) and an afternoon/evening train instead of a night train…. Oh geez. Did I mention there’s a heat wave? Can you imagine being stuck on a train for that long when it’s crazy hot outside and the only windows on the train are 6 feet off the ground and only a foot tall? I’m not gonna lie, it wasn’t the most pleasant of train rides. Were we happy when we reached our final destination!

When we arrived at Kam-Pod it was about 11:45pm and had the option of taking a taxi to our “hotel” or walking the 10 minutes indicated on the directions we had. After sitting that long we opted for the walk as it appeared most people were heading the direction we needed to be heading.

The directions to the hostel we as follows:

“When you get out from the train station , turn to the left and go straight ahead till you get to the bus station , in the area of bus station turn to the Prospect Grushevskogo and just search the number of building 27 , and enter to the reception.”

Pretty simple, right? So, so wrong. We exited the station and went left. Slowly the crowd dissipated, think the road slightly left of the station going straight was a better option. But now is not the time to stray from the directions. We have no map because it is impossible to find one of Kam-Pod and therefore no real reference as to where we’re going, so we must follow the directions from the hostel. Besides, they aren’t too complicated. We follow the same road for about 10 minutes, into an area of town that seemed rather industrial and I saw what I thought may be a bus station, but who could tell. And if it were the bus station, where did we go from there? Then I remembered we had the phone number from the hostel booking- we could call and figure out where we were, although all we could tell them is that we were by a gas station with an orange sign. Kate called and to our dismay, the number called someone in L’viv… far far away in L’viv. Who had no idea of where we were and very unwilling to provide us with the number to our “hotel,” which wasn’t a big deal because apparently no one spoke English. AHHHHH. Are you serious???

After a quick consolation, Kate and I decided it best to hail a cab and just get to the “hotel.” This was easier said than done. Apparently every taxi in town was full or unwilling to stop for us. I thought a light on meant the taxi was empty- no. But those with a light off could also be full… no rhyme or reason. Finally we were able to get a taxi to stop. It was a rather old, small car driven by an older man. We showed him the name of the street we were trying to get to, as neither of us could pronounce it. He was just as stumped! He proceeded to pull out a book of maps and look it up (with a magnifying glass) and then ushered us into the car. Promising, right? No. Instead, he drove us to another street and indicated we should get out. Free of charge!!! Awesome. He kept telling us something, but we didn’t know what, so we got out and starting looking for our “hotel.” Not there. Apparently he was taking us to where other taxi drivers were so they may be able to find it for us. Not knowing this, we stepped into a small store to ask the woman there where our “hotel” was and it happened the man in the store was a taxi driver and knew, so he drove us to our final destination. Thank goodness!!!

We were staying at the Budget Hotel ‘Texas,’ and the thing is, when we got there, there were no signs about a hotel, but rather a huge neon sign that said “Texas Bar.” Continuing to follow the directions that thus far had terribly failed us, we entered, looking for reception, but reception was nowhere to be found. Down the stairs there was a billiards room and a bar with blaring music. Up the stairs were what appeared to be rooms, but no reception. So the best option was the bar, at least there were people there. We head downstairs and approach the bar and try to indicate that we had reservations. After asking if we spoke English, they brought over a guy and we thought we had someone to translate for us. No. Just a guy from Belgium who also did not speak Ukrainian/Russian. After much ado, some girl who spoke Ukrainian and Italian, but could read English came to help and somehow we got everything figured out and into our room, which was rather nice even though it didn’t have the promised refrigerator. After a snack and a drink everything was ok.

The patio outside of our window at the Hotel 'Texas'

Polish Gate The valley/gorge around the old town From inside the fortress

Fortress passageway Court yard of the fortress

Another day in Ukraine, another cathedral to see

The next day we awoke to realize how terribly hot our room was. Then it hit, no AC, no fan, still crazy hot. Not a happy situation. We slowly prepared for the day, dreading the heat outside (which was the same inside). Setting off with the 1 pitiful map we had, we went in search of the old town and the castle. Unfortunately we had no idea what direction it was in and ended up getting another cab to drive us there. Turns out our driver spoke some English. He had lived in NYC for a while back in the 90’s, but didn’t like it because “of all the foreigners living in the city.”- Wasn’t he one of them? We got to the old city, which was only a 20 minute walk or so from our hotel (if we’d known) and explored. The old town was pretty, but small. The castle/fortress was cool, but within a few hours we were without anything to do. We slowly made our way back to our hot, hot hotel, rested for a bit then went out for dinner. Saturday evening we just hung out with our cold, wet towels and our drinks in the hope of finding some relief.

Sunday we had an even slower start to the day, with nothing planned and few options of what to do. Also, we had to kill time until 2am, when our train left. We actually negotiated a half night at the hotel, somehow, with a little note written based on what my Ukrainian phrasebook said. While getting ready, I took a look at the sorry map we had and started laughing. Our street was on it the whole time, just written in the Ukrainian name, not the Russian, which was given to us (there is a character which is an “h” in Ukrainian” and “g” in Russian). If only we could have figured it out sooner. In the afternoon we set off, with a new found sense of our surroundings, for this cathedral with blue domes (still not sure what it is). The heat didn’t seem as bad and we ended up on some “roads” along the river, which were more like two-tracks. It was a relaxed day of walking and exploring and hanging out until we had to head back to the train station. Turns out, we were rather close to the bus station when we stopped to find a cab, but there was no way we would have ever found our hotel based on the directions given.

Our train back as also an express, but this time we just had reclining chairs. Yay! Needless to say, after all my train experiences in the last couple of weeks, I am looking forward to staying in Kyiv this weekend. Kam-Pod was another adventure to say the least.

Sorry for the super long post, and dad sorry for taking extra years off your life making you worry about me!

Toilets and Night Trains

This past weekend, Kate and I took a trip to L'viv, located in western Ukraine, and definitely had a few interesting experiences. First, we didn't know we definitely had the tickets until 6 or 7 hours before we left. 3rd class there, 2nd class back. Since neither of us have traveled on the trains in Ukraine before, we arrived at the train station with plenty of time to spare... which was completely unnecessary. Once we figured out what track our train was on, we walked right up and onto the train... no security or ID check as we thought may be needed. Getting on a train early that you will be riding for 10 hours is unnecessary, and even more so when you're in 3rd class. 3rd class consist of areas of 4 beds/padded benches (bunked) with a little table in between, the main aisle, and then 2 bunked beds running parallel to the aisle. In each carriage there are about 10 of these areas. There are no doors to separate any of the spaces. This is where Kate and I spent our Friday night... in one of the sets of 2 beds, parallel to the aisle, at the end of the carriage, by the bathrooms. This being July, it has been in the 80s, and you could definitely feel it with 50+ people crammed into one of those cars and producing body heat, and people closing windows at night because of noise or something. Needless to say, very little sleep was to be had that night and I was definitely awake by 5am.

The train arrived in L'viv around 7:30am, and I decided I'd rather wait to change in the station bathroom than use the dirty one on the train. After disembarking from the train, we wandered around until we found the ladies room in the station (given away by the long line!). While waiting we see a sign that it is about $0.20 to use the bathroom, which I hate having to pay to use a restroom, but it is totally worth the few cents to use a semi-clean bathroom. Once I round the corner and actually get into the bathroom I am a little surprised by what I find. There are 4 stalls with doors that you step up into... and then there are SQUAT toilets!!! But they were nice, clean, flushing squat toilets. L'viv is a very touristy town and this made me even more surprised by the presence of squat toilets. I think in the end the biggest thing for me was that it seemed counter-intuitive to pay to use a squat toilet. (I think I just wanted to see how many times I could get the world squat into those sentences!!)

Through the sleep deprivation and after the shock if the squat toilets, Kate and I made our way into town and went to our hostel to leave our stuff there. The hostel was in an awesome location in the older part of town, but had it's pluses and minuses.

Plus- staff was super nice and helpful and cute (at least Igor #1); location; they gave me coffee when we arrived; clean; seemed safe

Minus- no hot water pressure; no lockers in the rooms; didn't take credit card; on the top floor of the building it was in... and there were no lights in the stairwell at night.

After hitting up the hostel, we headed out into the town and explored. In the early afternoon we meet up with an UM student, Jamie, who is doing an Ukrainian language program in L'viv. She showed us a few things we'd probably have missed and then we set off to climb castle hill. There is no longer a castle on the hill because it burned down or something, but there are good views of the city and it was a walk through woods, so a mini-break from the city.

After a long day of exploring we stopped by Kriyivka, a pub/restaurant. Kriyivka means bunker in Ukrainian, and this place definitely had that feeling. The entrance to the bar isn't labeled anywhere on the building, it is just this shady archway of the main town square. Apparently the website doesn't even list an address, but rather "somewhere in market square." Once you find the entrance, you must knock on the door and wait your interrogation. When the doorman comes out, he ask if you know the password, which is "slava Ukrainie" or "glory to Ukraine." Oh, by the way, the whole point of these exercises is to prove you're not Russian. Once we passed this phase we were asked our nationality. As soon as Jamie said American.... we were golden! How could Americans be Russian spies (obviously they weren't following the recent news)? Before completely being allowed in, you're required to take a small shot of honey vodka, which is rather yummy, I must say. Although all an act, it was rather entertaining. We kicked back here for a while and watch the first half of the soccer game and tried some honey, mint, and caraway vodka (separate, not mixed together).

Jamie then took off to get back to her host families house and Kate and I back to the hostel, hoping to find people around we could hang out with and/or to watch the 2nd half of the soccer match. Unfortunately, there were only 4 other people staying there that night and they were all in bed (apparently early mornings ahead) and there was no TV in the hostel. After consulting Igor, we got ready and headed out for a night on the town. Although Igor strongly suggested Picasso (he was totally biased), we thought Metro may be more up our alley because it had a couple different areas for dancing. Once we arrived, we found the majority of the crowd to be teens... like young enough that my parents would never have let me go out that late. We were slightly disappointed, but had paid cover so not willing to leave that quickly. After a little bit of dancing we went in search of the bathroom... which lead us through this extensive maze we had missed before. During this exploration we found 2 other dance floors (one which played some awesome hip-hop and R&B) and the bathrooms, or should I say room. We walked passed it at first because it looked like the men's room without a door (aka just urinals), but a ladies room was no where to be seen. To further confuse the matter this was this funny sign on the door of a guy peeping over a wall at a girl with a X through it (indicating... DON'T do this)... which made no sense, until we figured out that it was a CO-ED public restroom. If you were to walk through the urinal room, you'd find the area with stalls for women. It was kind of odd to come out of the stall and find a man fixing his hair, but whatever. Once that business was taken care of we hit the dance floor again for a while then headed back to the hostel around 2am. I haven't had that long of a day in a while!

Sunday we slept in (well I did the best I could) and then set off for a more relaxing day, although we still ended up walking a good deal. We went through a cemetery, where some famous Ukrainians are buried and that is kind of old, had a relaxing lunch, went to the brewery museum (apparently not a tour, but still had free samples... totally worth the ticket price alone), and just sat in a park and read. We caught the 1st half of the soccer game before having to board our train, so I didn't know until this morning who won. Oh well, adventures in Ukraine beat out soccer!

On our way back to Kyiv we were in a 2nd class compartment, which was like heaven compared to 3rd class. There are 4 people to a compartment, with longer beds, higher ceilings, a door that closes, and AC!!!

I've included some pictures below, but only wish I would have taken pictures to do the toilets and night trains justice!

Lions- common theme in the city

Opera House

Inside one of the many many churches

View from hostel

We climbed to the top of town hall... it was like 408 stairs

Another view of the city

We went creeping around the cemetery for a while...

An old tap they had at the museum.

Endless Summer Sun

Seriously slacking. I'll keep repeating myself... I'm terrible at blogging, but will try to redeem myself and post a couple super awesome entries covering the last couple of weeks (or month).

The last week of June, I packed up my carry on and set off for a week long adventure in Finland. This trip had 2 purposes. First, just because/ to have some fun and secondly to prevent me from exceeding my visa free period in Ukraine. US citizens can be in Ukraine for 90 days without a visa and from the time I entered the country until I leave in August I would have been here 94 days. So who wants to do that visa nonsense when you can travel instead?

My airport experience in Kyiv was so hectic/overwhelming, I was shocked I actually caught my flight. When I got to the terminal and got past the confusion of figuring out where the ticket counters were, I faced a few issues, including a crazy line to get my ticket, unannounced gate changes, and our entire flight crammed onto 1 bus to take us out to the plane on the tarmac. Needless to say, it was a welcome relief to be sitting in my seat and to have the plane taking off.

Upon arrival in Finland, I took a bus from the airport to Turku, a smallish town in the southwestern area of the country. I happen to be visiting during Midsummer's Festival, which celebrates the super long summer days in Finland. During this time, most Finns go "up north" to cabins in the woods and enjoy the weather. Because of this, most cities are deserted, and Turku was no exception, making it rather difficult (actually impossible) for me to find dinner. I was super happy to have a few snacks in my bag that I had packed for the flight.I spent about a day and a half in Turku just exploring the city and a nearby island. It was amazing to me how quiet it was and how fresh the air was, especially after coming from Kyiv.

Turku Castle

The River

After Turku, I trained back to Helsinki. A friend of mine from undergrad is living there currently so we met up and he showed me around a bit and we had drinks at this hotel with an amazing view of the city. Then his girlfriend made us a super yummy dinner. It was fun to hang out and catch up and just relax. That was on Sunday, and they were actually leaving Monday to go to the states and were kind enough to let me stay at their place while I was gone, which saved some $$. I spent the next couple of days taking full advantage of the long days and exploring as much of Helsinki as possible. I definitely didn't see everything, but loved what I did see.

Senate Square

Looking out one of the fort windows

Midnight...

Then on Wednesday, based on the suggestions of several people, I took a 3 hour ferry ride to Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn has a super cool and beautiful old town where there are churches are parts of the fortress that once stood. I still can't get over how old some of the buildings are there (like 500 years older than people landing in America!). So I spent 6 hours getting lost in the maze of street and having beer with some random Swedish women I met (the beer house had a pirate theme, which I didn't get, AND a dwarf pirate, which I really didn't get). The funniest thing about this experience for me was the Finnish people on the ferry ride. So there is a duty free shop on the ship and in general things are cheaper in Estonia than Finland. That being said, the Finns would go on this day trip and almost treat it like a booze cruise... drink on the ship, go wander around Tallinn/go to the mall to do some shopping, get back on the boat and then LOAD UP on booze. And they seriously load up. I saw people with like 7 cases of beer/hard cider and many bottles of hard liquor. I also saw some heavy drinking on the ship. Needless to say, I would happily welcome a Finn to any tailgate I had!

Shortly before I left for the trip, another UM SPH student, Kate, arrived in Kyiv, which was a very welcomed change for me. It was weird to be showing her around and how to figure out the metro, but it was nice to finally have someone to hang out with. The weekend after I returned we explored the city a bit, went to the American Chamber of Commerce 4th of July picnic, and to the opera (we're so classy!).

It was a great way to end June and start July!