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Trip in Ukraine, Sept-Oct 2016:
I planned to take the bus to Kiev, then at 13.35 the intercity to Kharkov (arriving 18.11) but when I saw the Avtolux booth at Borispol airport, I decided to do that, less work (no need to first take the (sky) bus to Kiev from Borispol), less waiting. UAH 275? Departure 11.40 (actually about 12.00) arriving at 18.35 (real time about the same), so not much different.
It was a nice experience. The train is better to read, or to write (such as my travel experiences), but this Avtolux bus has internet, and even tea or coffee (your choice) were offered 4 times..
Staying at a hostel was again interesting, and I asked a lady working there to suggest me some places to go visit. The suggestions were Chuguiv and Sharivka. I also explored Kharkov a bit more, but more on that perhaps later.
I took a bus from metro station 'Industrialna'. This is the station after after 'Traktorna', it looks like metro stations were renamed just as various street names were changed in the de-Sovietisation effort this year, which gives some issues in finding one's way around the cities in Ukraine from maps that are updated while people still use the old names and street signs are also the old ones...
Bus fare from Kharkov-Industrialna to Chuguyiv is about 40 UAH. There is a military base close to the entry point of Chuguiv (with name/pillar), and I was told you could have a look at the aerodrome, but through a fence. Just for fun I asked at the main entrance, whether I, as a tourist, could look around the aerodrome :) The answer was an unsurprising "No".
This is where painter Ilya Repin was from, and thus unsurprisingly there is a statue of him :)
On the way back to Kharkov in the bus, I got talking to a helicopter pilot who showed me some action shots from his time in the conflict with the separatists...
The first bus from the busstation at 'tsentralnyj rynok' (central market, not far from the train station) goes at 11.25, takes a bit more than an hour and arrives about 12.48 (for some reason in the busstation and on the ticket, the arrival is printed as 13:32). It was actually a micro-bus.
I was told the last bus back goes at 15.49, though it might have been only the same direction bus (which continues to Sharivka itself), in reverse. From the main road, where the bus goes left, onto the road to Sharivka and the castle and park, you can also catch a marshrutka back to Kharkov, which comes from the main road to Kharkov. This is what I did... Cost is about 40 UAH. I suppose there will be in fact later options to return to Kharkov from those marshrutki that are not coming from Sharivka. The castle is nice, needs restauration, but it's not used so if the roof is OK, then it should remain fine. The park is not big but a nice oasis of rest and looks beautiful.
I smelled the pollution this time for the first 2 days. After that it was fine, perhaps because of more wind or different wind direction.
I went to a different hostel, the dream hostel, which is very nice, with great cooking facilities.
The first day was nice and warm, even in the evening, and I went to the Dobovy gai park, possibly my favourite park in Zaporizhzhya. Then after some shopping I went sightseeing, sort of, on the roof of a flat, and talked to some students about life in Zaporizhzhya. They were fairly negative about it, people being lazy (the potential of the country not being used), people not open to other religions, pupils in school whining about non standard clothes/shoes, but that's really the same everywhere. And about laziness or incompetence: I have experienced here in NL so often that people do a poor job of just about anything, that such statements just make me smile. It's the same with alcoholism and corruption, here in NL it's undoubtedly less, but not so much less, mostly it is more well hidden... The corruption is often hidden in plain sight, in fact.
They were not negative about alcohol, they would prefer to live in NL, though I gave some examples of problems there. I think this phenomenon of people in Ukraine not trying hard enough to improve their country is real, but caused by economic problems. But not everyone can leave the country, so why not try to improve something? Well, some people can't deal with it if they see no way to improve the situation (1 day at a time works in such cases, concentrate on the essence of life...). I felt the attitude of these students was defeatist which also means that in my view they were not different from the people whom they criticised as being lazy. This was very different from what I experienced in Mirgorod, with students from a university in Poltava.
I took the bus, 25 UAH, to see the castle/museum which was ok but not that interesting. There is a nice nature area Lico gora (= ....mountain?), More interesting was my experience talking to the locals.
Before I went to the castle and museum, I walked around, and someone asked where I wanted to go, he offered to take me there in his truck... I got talking to him and his wife, he offered food, tea, and he showed me that he made wine. I said that I didn't like wine, which he made from the grapes which were also sort of a suncover. Very cool. Grapes yes, wine not :) Then he gave me a ride to the castle, which was another short adventure, but if I tell everything it gets too long :) In general people in Ukraine are very helpful and interesting.
I was told by him that there is a zoopark (with leopards, bears and more) which is very surprising for a small town, but I had walked enough for the day, it would add another 6km of walking and I saw no buses at all in this town to skip part of the walk. Further, zooparks are a bit depressing to me, so I didn't go there.
I went back to Zaporizhzhya by electrichky, which is a bare bones train, with wooden seats. This makes sense for longevity, the price is really low, just 10.5 UAH from Vasilivka to Zaporizhzhya (ca. 55km)
I still don't see any issue with this type of train, that people whom I talked to years ago said were awful. Actually those negative comments were about all the trains in Ukraine, but I liked all the trains I've been on, especially the night trains with carpets on the floor. The electrichky is fine for shorter distances, the slightly more luxurious trains with non-wooden seats are good, so why the negativity? It was delayed quite a bit, departure time should have been 17.08, but it was 17.46
I rented a bicycle from the hostel, went to Khortetsya, to lots of places on the island, also the the Zaporizhzhya Cossack theatre, and noticed a sign with dates on which they perform, and the next day there was going to be a performance of these Zaporizhzhyan Cossacks... So next day I went there. I made a video of it, and some pictures (to be uploaded). It was interesting but also funny, I can recommend it even if you don't understand Ukrainian or Russian then you will understand most of it. A lady from the hostel said that one of her friends is one of the Cossacks and that they travel outside Ukraine a few times too...
I went from Zaporizhzhya to Berdyansk by train, from ca. 8.00 - ca. 12.50, UAH 20,-
At first this seemed quite uninteresting, but as with Kremenchuk on my previous trip, the place where you stay has an influence on how you view the city, from a certain perspective based on trips (walking or by bus) starting from that area. I would choose a different hotel/hostel/guesthouse next time, more in the centre or other side of the city, not on the side towards the area where you go to the long strips of beach and light house.
Walking along the beach I saw a cool monument with boat on pedestal, similar to in Kherson, but the one in Kherson is a bit nicer.
It gave me a feeling of being in Yalta, where you have a similar promenade, the sea washing against the quay, and various stands with shooting ramges, various food (but I didn't see corn being offered, so that's a difference ;-)), shoarma, wool-sugar, ferris wheel, maze with mirrors and much more,
After this I liked Berdyansk a bit more. The parks are not very nice, and small, buy there are many places with a beach and I still needed to go to the southmost point of Berdyansk which looks cool on the map in beeing a very narrow strip of land, ending in a peninsula.
On 17 Sept. there was ('is' when I write this down) the 'day of the city', with performances by military (army and navy) personnel in Pushkina park, then later (18.00) musical performances on Primorska ploshcha (Main square). There were performances of some pop music groups, one of which was from Nikolayev if I'm not mistaken, after which came the main attraction, Ruslana. She either wrote some songs for Berdyansk or altered some of her songs for the occasion (as the name Berdyansk was in a few), I'm not sure as I'm not a connaisseur of her music.
I went to the peninsula with lighthouse, and on the way there I saw lots of beaches, and closed stores/restaurants. I tried for example to buy Cheburyeki, but could not get them anywhere... A resident of a spa, former soldier, told me a bit about life in Berdyansk, and showed me around in that area where he stayed.
The feel in Berdyansk in general is of partial desolation. I presume this is different in summer, but still the appeal of this town is then only as a beach destination. I can't see myself living here... The parks are not that cool, and I saw an Amstor which was not operational, perhaps another sign for things in Berdyansk not going well economically.One one of my walks I talked to 2 ladies from Mariupol, who told me, when I said that I'm not so impressed with the parks in Berdyansk, that Mariupol has cool parks. They were right... I got talking a bit with them and one said I should contact them when I would be in Mariupol.
From Berdyansk to Mariupol, 60 UAH with a bus from close to the train station.
On the way we went through a few checkpoints... With large concrete structures on parts of the road. Yep, feels almost like in a war zone. I wasn't far from the conflict area, and I saw some notices about bullet holes in buildings on some website, but I noticed nothing while I was there. There were some military guys in and near the bus station. Quite helpful this time, instead of asking me to empty my back pack ;-))
I had long ago been told of the pollution in Mariupol (and Zaporizhya) and that it's an ugly industrial city, but I was still curious, so I decided to travel there anyway.
First impression is that Mariupol is not a place full of mainly flats, but it looks in the parts in the centre and the whole route of the bus up to where I got out, more like a large village with mostly detached houses and built on hills that make it bit of a nuisance, with some climbing where there are no roads or just walking up to hill in case of a road, but it definitely gives more interesting sights. Many of the old style (the cool style) houses from around the 1900s are in poor condition and the newer detached houses are invariablty in rather ugly styles (as elsewhere in Ukraine), though people here in Ukraine seem oblivious to this fact and see mainly that "it's new and well maintained".
I visited one of the ladies who organised a birthday party for a friend and I got talking a bit with them about life in Ukraine. She divorced because her husband drunk too much alcohol, and yet they liked champagne. I don't understand it... It must have a bad connotation for her, and yet she likes some types of alcohol. But then I guess there is a difference for them, and I don't like any alcohol. I will come back to this further on. The 2 ladies whom I talked to most, felt that life in Ukraine is 'grustny' (sad).
Walking along the train track I came to the train station, which is a fairly new (I mean Soviet era) style building, nothing special but the view from there back to the city is fantastic, green, feels like a village there. Roads are really bad there and in general it's a bit beyond the stage where the state of maintenance doesn't detract from the coolness of the old style buildings. Some military guys were interrogating a traveller and I went out of the way, didn't want any more annoyances as I had in Kharkov...
Then a long walk to the edges of Mariupol where I saw more flats, these really need maintenance, but in general Mariupol feels like a very large village rather than an industrial city. This was really the most surprising thing.
I found a few places selling Cheburyeky, very different from Berdyansk!
Next day to some of the parks, Pobedy park (or in Ukrainian: Peremohy park, = victory park) has a cool monument with a MIG aircraft, ...
The following day I went further, walking to the busstation, then taking bus 124 (also possible: 24) to Pobeda avenue (Peremohy in Ukrainian) where there are nice parks, in particular park Leporskij, with a nice monument with a ship on a wave (but the monument is not as nice as those in Berdyansk and esp. Kherson), and beautiful views over the hills and sea. The roads in this area are better and buildings are also in better condition.
This day I smelled some pollution, unpleasant smelling air similar to in Zaporizhzhya... I could accept it living there, if it isn't like that often...
On the final day I went by train to Kharkov, from there directly to Poltava.
At the bus station I asked a taxi the cost to go first to the Iris hotel, then to the train station. He wanted 300 UAH which is way overpriced (for a short trip of ca. 2 km at most) and I would only do that if I liked someone (who asked less!)... I offered 200 UAH to the taxi driver, but he declined and by being greedy he got nothing... But perhaps overall it pays as a tactic to ask about 5 times the regular price. So I walked to the hotel, let them call a taxi to the station, which cost 30 UAH (but I paid more because I liked her). I asked this taxi driver whether life in Ukraine is 'grustny' and she said 'no'. Economically difficult, but not sad.
My view of Mariupol: it has sometimes bad smelling air, and very bad roads and in some areas there are a lot of badly maintained buildings, but still, it has a lot of good points and I don't see why the detractors are so negative about it...
Train to Kharkov, then to Poltava: The train ticket for a coupe to Kharkov cost UAH 241,-. The train would leave at 18.27 and it would arrive 10.47 in the morning in Kharkov. Then I planned to take another train at 13.16 to Poltava which should arrive ca. 14.51.
On sites such as http://gd.tickets.ua or the official site http://uz.gov.ua you can order tickets and choose seats, but I just use it to see how many places are still available and buy the tickets in the train station.
When I got to Kharkov, instead of the train I took a marshrutka to Kiev which has a stop in Poltava (you can find these marshrutki close to the train station), cost was about the same but I would get there sooner, and no need to wait so long in the train station.
In Poltava I got off close to the bus station. From there I took a bus to the centre, where I stayed in a hostel.
I wanted to go to Dikanka, even bought a bus ticket, but the next day I was too tired after all my travelling, and so this will be delayed until the next trip. A problem to visit this town is that there is a very limited range of departure times for the bus back to Poltava. This is a bit similar to Sharivka, and in fact in all smaller towns there are not that many busses, usually the last one back to a bigger city is in the afternoon and if you miss that you're stuck or need to get a taxi. I will see what happens next trip...
I went by bus, which took about 2 hours. I was walking for a while when I met a few students working on a project to improve Ukraine. They, perhaps influenced by where they study, were not defeatist in attitude. I walked a lot in this town, which is mostly known for the spas and for being featured in the stories by Gogol. There are statues of various characters from these stories placed around a small lake close to the spas. In a small park I made some pictures of some monument and a guy asked me if I was doing it for some facebook group (IIRC), but I was just doing it for myself, I find the monuments in Ukraine interesting, and it's something you almost don't see in NL. He said people make pictures and document the monuments just in case some change is going to happen to remove them (as with the Lenin statues). I really liked the train station, which has curiously a big statue of Gogol on the main platform. I asked an old woman what life is like for her in Ukraine and she wasn't really telling me as she just said that everything is good with Poroshenko at the helm. Hmm.... I tried to find a restaurant that was described in my travel guide, couldn't find it. Then much later I walked around a lot, had seen enough and decided to go back to Poltava. So I walked to the bus station, but I took a slightly different than direct route just to see a bit more of this town, and I walked right into it! I had some wonderful pancakes with cheese and raisins, and tea with ginger and a few other things, but having dinner at that restaurant made me miss the last bus, in fact, the whole bus station was closed a bit after 19.00 when I got there... I had to take the train back to Poltava later in the evening.
I went to the museum about the battle of 1709... I'm not so interested in history unless it is still relevant and interesting and of influence today, or shows developments in technology or living, and I didn't find it that at all here. The interesting part of wars is really to see how people and technology changed, not anything else. And thus this museum, though this battle determined something of e.g. the layout of Poltava, is not so interesting for me. I like the mosaic on the church next to the burial mound with a scene about the battle most of all...
The next day I went to the open air museum of military aircraft, but it turns out to be inside a military base and I was told it's only open on Saturdays and Sundays... The opening times as indicated on the website of the museum and other sites was wrong. Further, it wasn't made clear anywhere that it was inside a military base, then it would have been less of a surprise that the days it's open are restricted. Perhaps the base got in use again since 2014? (which is the date of other reviews/comments that I read about it)
Close to this base is a monument with a relatively recent style aircraft, (perhaps a MiG 25) but not a real one as the real ones are much bigger. Possibly the real ones are too big to mount on such types of pedestal (The MiG 25 and later aircraft are a lot bigger than the much earlier MiG 17 on the pedestal in Ternopil).
On one of these days I got talking to a driver of a bus, about what I like in Ukraine, such as some of the Ukrainian tea, where I traveled in Ukraine, and I mentioned that I was going to Sumy next to visit a friend. He asked whether I like wodka. No, I don't. He then asked whether my friend in Sumy likes wodka, and when I said "No, just tea", he sighed ;-)
In the hostel I talked about this with a guy who said that men in Ukraine don't understand it, but you can get out of offers for alcohol by saying e.g. that you are a recovering alcoholic! ;-)
Brief visit to a friend. I showed the videos of the Cossack theatre and then I heard that some people in Sumy (and other cities) do a sport called Khorting, based on the disciplines from those performances in the Cossack theatre (on Khortetsya, so from that comes the name of the sport).
I stayed here in a hotel/hostel in an area of Sumy that I'd not really explored much but it was rainy and cold first day, and was a bit tired from all the walking I normally do, so my stay in Sumy (for just 2 days) was mostly resting and thinking on what to do further. On the first evening I got invited by some guys from Azerbadyan, to eat something with them, and drink with them. They were a bit too busy with the women with them (uhm, prostitutes in fact!), and I was a bit annoyed at the insistance of men wanting me to drink wodka with them (again! happened for example on my previous trip in Zaporizhzhya too, in the hostel). So after a short time I said I needed to go to sleep...
Sumy to Kharkov: I took a marshrutka in the centre, near the McDonalds/Eko market: UAH 120,- leaving 11.00 arriving ca. 14.30 (Close to the train station of Kharkov). The train is a lot faster (ca. 1:46 h) and more comfortable, but the only trains went at 5.48h in the morning or late in the afternoon.
I stayed in a different hostel from the previous 2 had been to, in a different part of Kharkov, and so my walks led me to see more places around the part of Kharkov near that hostel.
Then from Kharkov to Kiev by intercity, 8.47 - 13.28. Speeds of around 120-165km/h and luxurious beyond what I know from NL. But I find the spleeper trains with carpets much much interesting and enjoyable...
Addition related to a previous trip: In Zaporizhzhya at an Amstor building, I asked a guard working there about the Silpo, as I knew Amstor only as a supermarket itself, but, here Amstor rents out the building, the supermakrt there is an Amstor. The same situation I saw in Kremenchuk where I went after Zaporizhzhya on that trip. I presume the Amstor name was not appealing or well known enough and they felt that renting the building to Silpo would be better. I saw Amstor buildings with Silpos in more cities, but actually I liked the Amstor supermarkt more, with a more interesting selection of products, including tea, which is important to me ;)
Last modified: CEST 2016-12-26