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In Ukraine the sidewalks are usually poor, and for this I bought the Lowe-Alpine Wheelie 90 travelbag with wheels about 110mm in diameter. I saw some Ukrainians struggle with their suitcases in Odessa, and I just pulled my Wheelie across everything, loose stones, holes, sidewalks, anything. Nothing I've encountered was bad enough to make me stop. Pulling it off high curbs is no problem, and pulling it up onto high curbs works well too, great! The only problem left, is stairs! :)
Note that small diameter wheels are also a problem on good sidewalks! I found my previous travelbags quite useless on tiled sidewallks in NL. Those dementedly stupid small 'spinner' wheels suck! The wide handle of the Wheelie 90 is also very useful. You can pull it almost as if it's beside you by pulling at the edge of the handle. But that's not adviseable on really bad sections where the bag might topple sideways if you do this...
My view of Odessa is the same as last year. Odessa has nice old buildings, but everything is built too close to the streets, there are many noisy cars (noisy on purpose, people wanting show what they have), many people driving too fast, and the parks are not as nice as for example in Kremenchuk.
I went to Arkadia, an array of shops and a waterpark (currently closed) and more, which is at the end (or beginning depending where you came from) of a lot of eating facilities, shooting ranges on part of the road along the beach. One of the fast-food places called 'Big burger' has interesting tastes of milk shake. I tried caramel, and it's very tasty...
I talked with someone who lives in Odessa who said that people from the USA don't like Ukraine and say that it's 50 years back in time. But not all of them have this view. My niece, who works part time in a department store called 'Bijenkorf' (which sells luxury items but also normal things) told me that an American got talking with her, he had travelled through Ukraine and he saw the same beauty in Ukraine that I see... And in Nikolayev I talked with an Englishman in my hotel, and he also likes it in Ukraine.
In Ukraine I like the atmosphere, culture, nature, buildings, old buses (old buildings, old buses have character...). I know that for most people in Ukraine life is difficult, because wages are too low, which is the biggest problem. This also accounts for a lot of the so-called 'corruption' on lower levels, which in my view isn't corruption but people taking advantage when possible to add to their meagre income. Far worse real corruption is found on higher levels, but it's the same here in NL. Anyone who thinks that NL is a well ordered law abiding society hasn't ever had to deal with police, various businesses, city council and some of the national political parties in NL should be forbidden (esp. anti-social nutters parties VVD & CDA).
This negative talk about Ukraine showed again how many people cannot look deeper, to the essence of life, and not see the problems in their own countries, but instead they look at the surface... Here is my aphorism about it:
Many people look at a pool of water and only see the reflections on the surface of the water. They see not into the depth, and thus they see not what is actually present in the water... Such people's views of life are based on mirages...
But it is not surprising that many people from the USA don't see what I see. Life in the USA is more shallow, family life is also shallow, compared to family life in Ukraine. They are often (of course not all) more 'consumers' than people who have meaningful wishes about life. It is going in this direction in NL (and actually all of western Europe) as well...
Option 1 is the train: cheaper than the bus but slow. 5 hours or so if I'm not mistaken. You can take the bus which departs from the bus station, near the market (Privoz / Привоз), not far from the train station, the cost is 100 UAH. Distance is ca. 135km, and it takes ca. 2 hours. No need to buy a ticket, just go to the bus and you pay the driver.
I was told in Odessa that Nikolayev does not have many small stores with food/drink, and I noticed this. But there is a store right next to the 'Kontinent' hotel where I stayed, called 'сто' (which means: hundred), but it has not got that much choice. there are a few smaller stores closeby too.
In this aspect Nikolayev is similar to Cherkassy, which also doesn't have many such small stores with food/drink ('produkti' / продукты), which I noticed there immediately on my previous trip...
On the first day I walked about 12 km in Nikolayev and it was not very interesting.
The second day I went to a harbour, to some parks and to an almost disused railway station (not the main railway station, but vantag / вантажний). I had a cold lemon drink and shashlyk in a small restaurant not far from here. Very tasty. I liked Nikolaev a bit more after this day :)
Day 7: I walked a lot again and saw a lot of marriages, in a church, a photo session at the river port (I presume used mainly for the background of the images), and other places (I think receptions and 2 others were at a registry office).
On this topic: The Dnepro hotel in Cherkassy is used a lot for photosessions for weddings, because of its cool interior.
Day 8: I walked at the edges of Nikolayev, and it is a bit similar to the outskirts of Uman: gravel roads in various places, lots of houses in very different styles which are not so nice in style, esp. when compared to the classic style buildings in the centre. Actually, many new houses are quite ugly! This is not just in Nikolayev but also in Kremenchuk, Uman, Cherkassy, Sumy and I suppose everywhere. Particularly ugly are houses built with white/whitish bricks...
The parks are not as nice as in Cherkassy nor Kremenchuk.
Nikolaev has a secondary train station (vantag / вантажний) which is hardly used, which is in a very nice classic style. But it needs repairs! The main train station ( passenger / пассажирский) is a quite square grey concrete construction, and inside is not interesting either... I went by bus back to the hotel, cost 4 UAH so negligible.
Day 9: My view of Nikolaev has not changed much. In the evening I went to a restaurant called 'Vareniki' close to the Kontinent hotel. I wanted vareniki with cheese and sour cream, which tasted so well in Cherkassy! But here I was disappointed, the taste was bland, boring. This was despite the cheese which was Bryndza, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryndza . Normally cottage cheese is used, as in the varenniki in Cherkassy (which were fabulous).
I tried vareniki with meat and cheese too, and these were not to my taste either. I need to go back to Cherkassy for the vareniki! ;-)
The vareniki here were very small, so perhaps also an issue is lower ratio of cheese within each of them. The vareniki looked more like the goluby I had in Kremenchuk in the jolki palki hotel, but less tasty...
Nikolayev to Kherson: It is ca. 60 km, I took the bus (the bus station in Nikolayev is about 5 km away from the centre (where a McDonalds is), so best to take the bus if you feel you experienced enough of Nikolayev), which takes an hour or so to get to Kherson. Cost 40 UAH.
Entering Kherson I noticed the many sellers and trucks with water melons... I later was told by a friend in Sumy about this, that she had melons there on trips and that the melons there are supposed to be very good (but I can't tell you if this is the case, because I don't like melons! ;-) )
Arriving in Kherson at the bus station, I had a long walk to my guest house, more than 5 km. I always walk to my hotel/guesthouse, to get an immediate impression of the city I visit... What stood out were a lot of seemingly disused buildings... This impression of decay got stronger in various other places. I like old buildings, and bad state is no detriment for me, but when buildings are not used, it's a pity.
The next day:
I walked a lot on the outskirts of town, which is similar to the outskirts of Nikolayev and Uman: unpaved roads and houses in various styles, mostly not very interesting in style.
The parks are so much better in Ukraine than in NL and also, parks in Ukraine are usable because of better summers! You don't see in NL that people often use the parks as much as in Ukraine. I visited 3 parks. In the 1st a long stretch of walkway was used for students from a local school for running. I suppose Kherson has no athletics track.
Near this park is a beach, but it's private and for sale, closed with a gate. Next to it is a very cool monument of a small boat from world war 2 on an interesting pedestal.
The other parks are a park near the Dnepr, of course with a war monument, and next to this park is a big library. On the way there I encountered a guy selling apples, so I bought a few. The prices are low from street sellers, so I usually pay more than asked, which those people often are confused about, but I'd rather give such people more money, rather than spend it say in Kiev...
Another park begins very close to this park at the Dnepr, and it's the biggest park, but not very interesting. In it is a man-made small lake, but there is no water, it is dried up to the bottom...
The train station in Kherson is nice, inside and outside. I had some food at the cafe / кафе in the same building, which was only reasonable. But perhaps I should have tried different food and this food that I ordered was just not their strength! :)
I concluded this day walking back to the guesthouse just trying to get a feel of the city...
The next day I went to the hydropark, which is a nature area on a small island. It has a beach, it would be nice to go there in summer with friends or family. You can see pheasants (I think), here and there is a small area with various animals behind a fence. An ultra small zoo? It looked like peacocks, a few wolves and more. I'm not sure what the purpose of it is, why it was made here... It seemed out of place.
My impression of Kherson is that at this moment is that it is possibly my least favourite (least interesting) city of those that I visited in Ukraine...
then the last day, I went to a quiet street between komsomolska and ... (xxxx, need to look up the name of the street, from my German travel guide) which is a shopping area and some artists show off their stuff there. From there I went to the river port. I liked this part of Kherson much more, quiet, more interesting, nicer style (old) buildings.
I saw in Kherson a funny writing on some of the busses, saying in Ukrainian "Here go Khersontsi" with the sun as the O in "Khersontsi". (Picture to follow). I thought it was funny, but when I showed it to various people in Ukraine I got rather disinterested responses, hmm, strange...
I took the bus back to Nikolayev
Nikolaev: So I explored more and there is a nice beach with flats close to it, past the railway line (from point of view of the centre), along a long curved road, Lazurna street (Лазурна вулиця), which is very nice in summer...
I bought a train ticket in Nikolayev for the night train to Poltava , coupe, cost 200 UAH. Train left Nikolayev ca. 17:00?, arrived in Poltava ca. 7:00. I love the night trains in Ukraine...
One of the fun things is to go out on the stops and buy some food from sellers there. At night I bought a home made pizza slice and bun with vegetables and saucage for only 27UAH in Apostolovye (Апостолове). These were the best tasting pizza and hot-dog I've ever had...
I need to go back there for that reason alone... ;-)
I shared a couple with a lady who told me when going past Krivih Rih, that it is a stretched out mining town, and polluted, hmm, but still I'd like to go visit it...
Poltava: near the bus station there's an interesting large cupola, near a church. What is it? (pictures to come)
Here in Poltava I found a fantastic Ukrainian tea called 1001 nights, at an Eko market. And I found 2 more flavours of Curtis tea at a small supermarkt: banana flambe, ginger. The ginger wasn't so great, too weak taste, the banana is nice!
I also found a small circular shaped park around which are built low flats. Cute, I like these a lot. (pictures to come)
Poltava: I stayed at the Kontinent hotel, close to the railwaystation. I came too early and the room I reserved was not yet available, and yet I was allowed already into a more expensive room and I didn't need to pay for early arrival (ca. 7.20 in the morning) nor change to the cheaper room during my stay and I could stay in the room without paying extra. Hot water is not always available (related I think to heating being switched on in many parts of Ukraine on fixed dates. The negative, derogatory comments from an American about this hotel on Booking.com are complete nonsense. And if you take the price into account then any criticism is pointless. I like this hotel. People were friendly. Note that they only speak Russian/Ukrainian.
Poltava feels like a very large village with flats scattered around it. It's fairly quiet, has some nice sights, nice style buildings. One of the banks (pictures to follow) and one of the museums (Kotlyarevsky house, pictures to follow) in particular are fantastic.
Poltava -> Sumy: bus 7.50 -> 12.15. This was a different route than the bus that I took in 2014 from Kremenchuk to Sumy. Note that you need to buy a ticket for a big bag (isn't always needed, depends on the bus/route so whenever you take the bus in Ukraine, ask for it to be sure, and it doesn't cost much)
1st stop was 5 minutes, 2nd stop 20 minutes, 3rd stop 2 minutes.
Again we went through a town called Trostianets (Тростянець) close to Sumy with a tank prominently on the square close to the bus station. I was recommended to go visit this town, and I will go there in 2016 if all goes well.
The end of my trip was to Sumy, to meet a friend there whom I had met a few years earlier, and she invited me to a home made meal. Potatoes with onions, and 'lazy vareniki' with cheese. In these vareniki, the cheese is not encased in dough, but mixed with the dough, then cooked in water. I tried them with smetana (of course), honey, raspberry, and mint syrup. All self made and I really liked the combination with mint syrup. These vareniki were a lot tastier than those I ate in Nikolayev.
11.00 I left with marshrutka from Sumy, near the Mc.Donalds (which was closed for renovations or enlargement, pity as I like to buy a milkshake on hot days), at 13:57 there's a ca. 10 minute stop from trip Sumy-> Borispol (220UAH), during which time you can go to the toilet and/or buy some food. And ca. 15.00 in Kiev-Borispol.
Favourites from all trips, after visiting on this trip the cities Nikolayev, Kherson, Poltava are still:
- Kremenchuk - Cherkassy - Uman - Sumy
Next trip I want to go visit a few more cities in western Ukraine and others such as: Zaporizhzha, Lvov, Zhitomir, Rivne, Pochaev, Kaniv, Mirgorod.