Exploring Uzhhorod

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014--Uzhhorod

The breakfast menu at my hotel is entirely in Ukrainian, and the staff do not speak English.  I looked at what others were having and decided to have blinis for breakfast.  It was a plate of two crepes filled with a sweet, soft cheese and raisins, and sprinkled with cinnamon and drizzled with strawberry preserves on the outside.  They were good, but not very filling. 

I found a bank and exchanged 50 Euros.  That's probably more than I should have exchanged considering the news today that Russia has sent two convoys of troops into eastern Ukraine, but it is only the equivalent of about $65 US.  I've already spent about 20% of it today.

I had chores to complete and sights to investigate, so I combined the two by seeing places and taking photos as I went from place to place.  On the way to the train station, I passed the massive Orthodox Church.  Then the train station itself proved to be a beautiful (and well restored) building.  I bought my ticket there for the trip to Lviv tomorrow.  After that, I passed the Cathedral as I headed to the local castle which is a museum.  It's not much.  The grounds were nice, and the exhibits inside were worth a quick glance. 

I spent part of the afternoon sitting on the main square of Uzhhorod in the sunshine and reading while also watching the local people.  Around 16:00, I went to the Hospoda Restaurant recommended in many sources.  I had bograch, a local soup with beef, shaved noodles, vegetables, etc., along with both black bread and white bread.

Back in the room, I am still doing lots of travel planning in the evenings.  It just takes a long time to make reservations for each stop.  I need to work on reservations for Odessa tonight still.  I have "saved" a few web pages and need to return to them to see if one appeals to me.  Tied to that, though, I really need to adjust my itinerary.  I have a couple of days that need to be allocated to somewhere else here in Ukraine.  I had thought about using them to go to Kharkiv, but it is an overnight train trip from anywhere else I am going.  That just seems to far to go to spend 2 days somewhere.  Now I am searching for places where I might stop BETWEEN the cities I already had planned to visit.