Friday, Sept. 26, 2014--Yerevan, Armenia to Vienna, Frankfurt, Houston, and San Antonio
It's been a LONG day of travel with rushing through two of the airports. But both my luggage and I have made it so far!!
We were delayed leaving Yerevan. They require a fingerprint as you go through immigration and customs. That wasn't much of a problem. But they required a fingerprint AGAIN as we showed our boarding passes at the gate. That really slowed things down, because it takes the scanner a long time to detect an acceptable print. We probably left Yerevan about 25 minutes later than scheduled strictly due to the fingerprinting.
That got us to Vienna late. We were loaded onto buses and taken to the terminal. From the time we got to the terminal, I had only 20 minutes before my flight to Frankfurt left. I RAN! I had to go through immigration control for the Schengen Group. Then I had to run past about 30 gates to get to mine. I arrived with about 5 minutes to go before departure.
In Frankfurt, I had to go through immigration control again to EXIT the Schengen Group. Then I had to go past about 65 gates to get to mine. When I got there, they were boarding the plane, but it wasn't as rushed as it was in Vienna.
Here in Houston, things went fairly well. Their new electronic machines for going through immigration failed just as I had all my data entered. All of us at those machines had to then line up to go through regular processing at the booths. It was very disorganized and some regular passengers through here were fussing to the authorities about how long they have been having trouble. Anyway, I made it through and was really rather surprised to find my bag on the luggage carousel. I wasn't sure it had made the connections in either Vienna or Frankfurt.
I'm at the gate in Houston now awaiting my flight to San Antonio. It's been about 21 hours since my flight departed Yerevan. This last segment leaves in 1 hour and will be in San Antonio in 2 hours. So I will have been traveling for 23 hours. That's rather fast for such a distance and so many airports. That's why I was having to run to make those connections.
It's good to be back in Texas. I have to deal with getting everything up and running here again--buy food, get a haircut, get my car serviced, get my internet service reconnected, etc. Plus, I will go to northeast Texas for 3 days next week. Therefore, it will be a busy period for the next week.
Spending Update: I averaged spending $48.06 per day during the 67 days of the entire trip. That's a little over a dollar more than Wes and I averaged spending each during the time we were together. That's quite cheap considering how nice the apartments and hotels tended to be and that I was travelling in Europe.
Friday, September 26, 2014
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Heading Home
Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014--Yerevan, Armenia
Although my flight is not until a few hours after midnight, today is my day to begin the departure. There was no reason to try to sleep until midnight and then head to the airport. Therefore, I told the man who owns the apartment that I will leave at 18:00. That way, I can take the bus to the airport rather than a taxi. Supposedly the airport has free wi-fi, and I have a novel I am reading. I will also try to sleep there waiting for my 2:00 a.m. check-in time.
It's mid-afternoon now. I have packed. I bathed this morning, but I will shave around 16:00. I was out walking for a while today and to buy some groceries. I have food here to eat for dinner, so I will prepare that about 4:30 and be finished and have it cleaned up before the owner comes to the apartment.
__________
I'm at the airport, but it wasn't easy! The owner of the apartment was not there at 18:00 as planned. By 18:22, I became worried. The office was already closed, but I sent an e-mail there in hopes someone would get it. Ten minutes later, there was no reply. I had been on the elevator with the next door lady who spoke English. I rang her doorbell thinking maybe I could leave the key with them, but they didn't know George. I asked her to dial his phone number. There was no answer. I asked her to dial his second phone number, and he answered. He thought I was leaving tomorrow at 18:00, he said. He didn't arrive at the apartment until 19:00. I had plenty of time, but that now meant I would be traveling much of the time in the dark and if anything went wrong, I might have trouble getting local money for taking a taxi.
I walked to the nearest metro station and took it 3 stops to the intersection where Bus 107 was supposed to pass every 10 minutes or so. I was told there was no Bus 107. In fact, the first guys I asked said there was no bus to the airport. I found a bus stop where lots of people were waiting and lots of buses were stopping. A young man there confirmed that the airport was out that road, but he didn't know about Bus 107. He disappeared and came back saying that Bus 17 would go to the airport.
Bus after bus passed without there being a 17. The young man left when his bus came. Many of the buses were crammed full with no room for a person with a suitcase and a backpack. I worried about how I could get money for a taxi if Bus 17 didn't come. But then one arrived, and I was lucky enough that I was the only one going for it rather than the crowds rushing for all the others. There was no seat, but there was room for me to set my suitcase inside and then sit on it so I was only taking up the room of 1 person.
I couldn't see out the windows of the bus to tell whether the airport was anywhere near or not. But we seemed to still be in town. Then I remembered I could use the GPS on my phone. I turned it on and found our location. Then I zoomed out to try to find the airport. When I found it, I was able to follow our route and to know when we were getting close. Holding the phone, I tried to ask a young manwhether the bus actually went down the road into the airport or stopped at the highway, but he didn't understand what I wanted to know. I asked a woman in front of me if she spoke English. She didn't really respond. I asked, "Airport?" She said hesitatingly, "I go to airport," implying that I could just follow her. What a relief. When we got there, both she and the young man got off. I asked him if he worked at the airport, and he pointed to an apartment building just to the side and said that he lived there. But he insisted on lifting my bag down from the bus for me, then he walked inside the terminal with me. He was really nice.
It was 20:30 by the time I was here at the terminal. My flight is still now shown on the board, because it is 8 hours away at 4:25. But I am now settled. I have a seat, and the wi-fi is working for the computer, but not for the phone yet. I will close this entry and see if I can get the phone to work. I'll post as I go along tomorrow if I have wi-fi and the time between planes. There will be 4 different flights!!
Although my flight is not until a few hours after midnight, today is my day to begin the departure. There was no reason to try to sleep until midnight and then head to the airport. Therefore, I told the man who owns the apartment that I will leave at 18:00. That way, I can take the bus to the airport rather than a taxi. Supposedly the airport has free wi-fi, and I have a novel I am reading. I will also try to sleep there waiting for my 2:00 a.m. check-in time.
It's mid-afternoon now. I have packed. I bathed this morning, but I will shave around 16:00. I was out walking for a while today and to buy some groceries. I have food here to eat for dinner, so I will prepare that about 4:30 and be finished and have it cleaned up before the owner comes to the apartment.
__________
I'm at the airport, but it wasn't easy! The owner of the apartment was not there at 18:00 as planned. By 18:22, I became worried. The office was already closed, but I sent an e-mail there in hopes someone would get it. Ten minutes later, there was no reply. I had been on the elevator with the next door lady who spoke English. I rang her doorbell thinking maybe I could leave the key with them, but they didn't know George. I asked her to dial his phone number. There was no answer. I asked her to dial his second phone number, and he answered. He thought I was leaving tomorrow at 18:00, he said. He didn't arrive at the apartment until 19:00. I had plenty of time, but that now meant I would be traveling much of the time in the dark and if anything went wrong, I might have trouble getting local money for taking a taxi.
I walked to the nearest metro station and took it 3 stops to the intersection where Bus 107 was supposed to pass every 10 minutes or so. I was told there was no Bus 107. In fact, the first guys I asked said there was no bus to the airport. I found a bus stop where lots of people were waiting and lots of buses were stopping. A young man there confirmed that the airport was out that road, but he didn't know about Bus 107. He disappeared and came back saying that Bus 17 would go to the airport.
Bus after bus passed without there being a 17. The young man left when his bus came. Many of the buses were crammed full with no room for a person with a suitcase and a backpack. I worried about how I could get money for a taxi if Bus 17 didn't come. But then one arrived, and I was lucky enough that I was the only one going for it rather than the crowds rushing for all the others. There was no seat, but there was room for me to set my suitcase inside and then sit on it so I was only taking up the room of 1 person.
I couldn't see out the windows of the bus to tell whether the airport was anywhere near or not. But we seemed to still be in town. Then I remembered I could use the GPS on my phone. I turned it on and found our location. Then I zoomed out to try to find the airport. When I found it, I was able to follow our route and to know when we were getting close. Holding the phone, I tried to ask a young manwhether the bus actually went down the road into the airport or stopped at the highway, but he didn't understand what I wanted to know. I asked a woman in front of me if she spoke English. She didn't really respond. I asked, "Airport?" She said hesitatingly, "I go to airport," implying that I could just follow her. What a relief. When we got there, both she and the young man got off. I asked him if he worked at the airport, and he pointed to an apartment building just to the side and said that he lived there. But he insisted on lifting my bag down from the bus for me, then he walked inside the terminal with me. He was really nice.
It was 20:30 by the time I was here at the terminal. My flight is still now shown on the board, because it is 8 hours away at 4:25. But I am now settled. I have a seat, and the wi-fi is working for the computer, but not for the phone yet. I will close this entry and see if I can get the phone to work. I'll post as I go along tomorrow if I have wi-fi and the time between planes. There will be 4 different flights!!
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Feeling Ready to Return Home
Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014--Yerevan, Armenia
I haven't had a chance to do everything I would have liked to have done here in Armenia, but I find myself ready to return home anyway. If I had not had the flight delays, I would have had about 4 more days here. With those days, I would have taken day-long side trips to other parts of the country. The fact that I have not seen those places will seem strange to anyone who knows I have come this far. Yerevan is not the reason normally for visiting this country. But I have enjoyed the city and I just haven't had the motivation to rush to make a day trip or two within my 4 days here.
Today, I did very little. I was tired and felt a bit grouchy. I did go out in the morning looking for the stop for an airport bus that should have passed by the Opera House. I could not find it, and from what I was told the bus may not exist anymore. There is definitely a bus that leaves from the suburban area where I walked yesterday (the place that used to have a large department store), so I guess I will head to the airport from there--the metro to there, and then the bus from there. I will probably go investigate it tomorrow morning to make sure there will be no hangups when I try to make the trip tomorrow evening.
I also went back to the supermarket this afternoon. I bought a large cabbage roll from the deli to eat for dinner tonight. I also got some potatoes to cook and a chicken croquette to have late tomorrow afternoon before I leave. I've just cooked the potatoes and have steamed the cabbage roll for my dinner tonight. I'll eat them as soon as I finish this entry.
Most of the afternoon, I stayed inside reading. I finished The Conversion by Joseph Olshan. I've read at least one of his other books (Nightswimmer), and it was good. So was this one eventually. I was turned off at first by writing that seemed to be pretentious to me--trying to impress me with the knowledge the author has and his sophistication. But soon that was decreased and the story became interesting. I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 4--maybe a bit high, but 3 seemed too low.
Tomorrow night, I will go to the airport to await my very-early-in-the-morning flight. I've read there will be free wi-fi there, so I should be able to make my entry while at the airport. If not, I'll type it into the word processor and enter it somewhere along the way where I can fine free wi-fi. Right now, the idea of that warm cabbage roll has me drooling!!!!
I haven't had a chance to do everything I would have liked to have done here in Armenia, but I find myself ready to return home anyway. If I had not had the flight delays, I would have had about 4 more days here. With those days, I would have taken day-long side trips to other parts of the country. The fact that I have not seen those places will seem strange to anyone who knows I have come this far. Yerevan is not the reason normally for visiting this country. But I have enjoyed the city and I just haven't had the motivation to rush to make a day trip or two within my 4 days here.
Today, I did very little. I was tired and felt a bit grouchy. I did go out in the morning looking for the stop for an airport bus that should have passed by the Opera House. I could not find it, and from what I was told the bus may not exist anymore. There is definitely a bus that leaves from the suburban area where I walked yesterday (the place that used to have a large department store), so I guess I will head to the airport from there--the metro to there, and then the bus from there. I will probably go investigate it tomorrow morning to make sure there will be no hangups when I try to make the trip tomorrow evening.
I also went back to the supermarket this afternoon. I bought a large cabbage roll from the deli to eat for dinner tonight. I also got some potatoes to cook and a chicken croquette to have late tomorrow afternoon before I leave. I've just cooked the potatoes and have steamed the cabbage roll for my dinner tonight. I'll eat them as soon as I finish this entry.
Most of the afternoon, I stayed inside reading. I finished The Conversion by Joseph Olshan. I've read at least one of his other books (Nightswimmer), and it was good. So was this one eventually. I was turned off at first by writing that seemed to be pretentious to me--trying to impress me with the knowledge the author has and his sophistication. But soon that was decreased and the story became interesting. I gave the book 3 1/2 stars out of 4--maybe a bit high, but 3 seemed too low.
Tomorrow night, I will go to the airport to await my very-early-in-the-morning flight. I've read there will be free wi-fi there, so I should be able to make my entry while at the airport. If not, I'll type it into the word processor and enter it somewhere along the way where I can fine free wi-fi. Right now, the idea of that warm cabbage roll has me drooling!!!!
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Climbing, Climbing, Climbing...
Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014--Yerevan, Armenia
After posting last night, I went to Republic Square to hear and watch the Singing Fountains. It is a music and fountain show similar to the one at Bellagio in Las Vegas. It is a bit smaller, but everyone is closer to the show, so it is quite impressive. I arrived just as the clock on one of the government buildings chimed 9:00 p.m. And immediately, the music and fountain show began. I was surprised at first, because the music for the first 15 minutes was in French, sung by the famous artist Charles Aznavour. It wasn't until I thought about his name that I realized it is probably Armenian. And it is. I had always just thought of him as a famous French singer.
The concert is two hours long. As it continued, they played theme music from some films, pop songs, rock songs, etc., always with the music coordinated with the movement of the fountains. There was a large crowd of people. The weather was perfect. This show happens every evening from spring through fall. It's a delightful way to spend an hour or so with the perfect shirt-sleeve weather here. It does start to seem a bit long after about an hour, though.
Just before leaving, I visited a while with a local man who was there. We discussed the show, what I was seeing in Armenia, what we did for work, etc. Lightning had been flashing in the distance for about 30 minutes. And then the sprinkles began. So we departed and I returned to my apartment. I don't know if the rest of the people in the square left or not, because I was already on the edge of the square leaving when the conversation started with "Karin."
Today, I made a plan to explore further some things I passed yesterday and some other new places. Yerevan is located on a slight slant. I headed northeastward which is upland. I continued on the main street near my apartment until it ended at a tourist spot and in a neighborhood I wanted to explore. The tourist site is the Matenadaran, a building housing very old manuscripts which are mostly religious. I didn't pay to go inside, because there was nothing that I really wanted to see. The neighborhood I went to see next door to the Matenadaran is the university district of the city which houses several (six, I think) different universities and was filled with young students leaving classes for their lunch break. It's a very vibrant area.
From there, I headed to the Sculpture Park and the Cascade Gardens (which is above the Sculpture Park and includes many more sculptures by famous artisits) which I passed yesterday. Today, I looked at each sculpture reading about the artist and the name of the piece, and I climbed the Cascade Gardens. From the bottom of the gardens, one seems lots of steps and lots of hedges. But as a person climbs and looks down, there are flower gardens within areas surrounded by the hedges. So the great view is from on top looking down rather than from the bottom looking up.
There are free escalators that can be taken inside the structure of the Cascade Gardens, but I chose to climb. And at the top, I continued my climb further to the Soviet monument to the victory in WWII over Germany and the Axis Powers. It's a tall monument at the very top of one of the hills here in Yerevan. From it, I had a great view over the city and to Mount Ararat in the distance. Unfortunately, there was a haze today, so only the outline of the mountain could be seen rather than a clear view of it. While up there, I also noted that I was higher than any building in the center of Yerevan. My guess is that I had climbed the equivalent of a 40-story building. And then I walked back down!
From there, I walked westward along Baghramyan Avenue--uphill all the way! It's lined with fancy buildings. At the end of it was a major traffic intersection where there had been a large Soviet department store. It is no longer there. But the area is filled with lots of small merchants offering everything necessary for residents of the neighborhood.
I took the metro back to town from there. I wanted to see what it is like. The stations are nice and clean with lots of white marble walls. But few signs are in English, and there are no English announcements either. That made it hard to know where I was as the train made each stop. I got off at Republic Square thinking I was probably at Freedom Square. Anyway, I figured out where I was and how to get back to my apartment from there.
This evening, I'm staying inside. I've already made dinner of pasta with an Armenian tomato-pepper-garlic sauce and had some Armenian wine. Now I will read more in my novel. A nice discovery today is that I have one more novel in my bags. I thought I was reading the last one and was trying to spread out the experience. Now I can finish this one and start the other!
After posting last night, I went to Republic Square to hear and watch the Singing Fountains. It is a music and fountain show similar to the one at Bellagio in Las Vegas. It is a bit smaller, but everyone is closer to the show, so it is quite impressive. I arrived just as the clock on one of the government buildings chimed 9:00 p.m. And immediately, the music and fountain show began. I was surprised at first, because the music for the first 15 minutes was in French, sung by the famous artist Charles Aznavour. It wasn't until I thought about his name that I realized it is probably Armenian. And it is. I had always just thought of him as a famous French singer.
The concert is two hours long. As it continued, they played theme music from some films, pop songs, rock songs, etc., always with the music coordinated with the movement of the fountains. There was a large crowd of people. The weather was perfect. This show happens every evening from spring through fall. It's a delightful way to spend an hour or so with the perfect shirt-sleeve weather here. It does start to seem a bit long after about an hour, though.
Just before leaving, I visited a while with a local man who was there. We discussed the show, what I was seeing in Armenia, what we did for work, etc. Lightning had been flashing in the distance for about 30 minutes. And then the sprinkles began. So we departed and I returned to my apartment. I don't know if the rest of the people in the square left or not, because I was already on the edge of the square leaving when the conversation started with "Karin."
Today, I made a plan to explore further some things I passed yesterday and some other new places. Yerevan is located on a slight slant. I headed northeastward which is upland. I continued on the main street near my apartment until it ended at a tourist spot and in a neighborhood I wanted to explore. The tourist site is the Matenadaran, a building housing very old manuscripts which are mostly religious. I didn't pay to go inside, because there was nothing that I really wanted to see. The neighborhood I went to see next door to the Matenadaran is the university district of the city which houses several (six, I think) different universities and was filled with young students leaving classes for their lunch break. It's a very vibrant area.
From there, I headed to the Sculpture Park and the Cascade Gardens (which is above the Sculpture Park and includes many more sculptures by famous artisits) which I passed yesterday. Today, I looked at each sculpture reading about the artist and the name of the piece, and I climbed the Cascade Gardens. From the bottom of the gardens, one seems lots of steps and lots of hedges. But as a person climbs and looks down, there are flower gardens within areas surrounded by the hedges. So the great view is from on top looking down rather than from the bottom looking up.
There are free escalators that can be taken inside the structure of the Cascade Gardens, but I chose to climb. And at the top, I continued my climb further to the Soviet monument to the victory in WWII over Germany and the Axis Powers. It's a tall monument at the very top of one of the hills here in Yerevan. From it, I had a great view over the city and to Mount Ararat in the distance. Unfortunately, there was a haze today, so only the outline of the mountain could be seen rather than a clear view of it. While up there, I also noted that I was higher than any building in the center of Yerevan. My guess is that I had climbed the equivalent of a 40-story building. And then I walked back down!
From there, I walked westward along Baghramyan Avenue--uphill all the way! It's lined with fancy buildings. At the end of it was a major traffic intersection where there had been a large Soviet department store. It is no longer there. But the area is filled with lots of small merchants offering everything necessary for residents of the neighborhood.
I took the metro back to town from there. I wanted to see what it is like. The stations are nice and clean with lots of white marble walls. But few signs are in English, and there are no English announcements either. That made it hard to know where I was as the train made each stop. I got off at Republic Square thinking I was probably at Freedom Square. Anyway, I figured out where I was and how to get back to my apartment from there.
This evening, I'm staying inside. I've already made dinner of pasta with an Armenian tomato-pepper-garlic sauce and had some Armenian wine. Now I will read more in my novel. A nice discovery today is that I have one more novel in my bags. I thought I was reading the last one and was trying to spread out the experience. Now I can finish this one and start the other!
Monday, September 22, 2014
Exploring Yerevan
Monday, Sept. 22, 2014--Yerevan, Armenia
Although my apartment is nice, I discovered two problems last night and this morning. First, the bed is horrible!! It is a cheap mattress that creaks with every movement and is worn enough that the wire coils can be felt through it. I tried to find a way to avoid feeling the coils, but it wasn't possible. Finally, I changed my bedding to the long sofa in the living room and slept there all night. Tonight, I may try to make a pallet on the floor, since I have several blankets and comforters in the closet. The sofa is a bit narrow, but it will be fine if the pallet doesn't work well. Second, I noticed this morning that the floor was dirty. I found the broom and dusting pan and swept it. I was amazed at how much I swept up--hair, crumbs, etc. But now that I have done that, it is fine.
I walked for 4 hours exploring the city today, then I spent another 30 minutes exploring a large supermarket. It was fun, especially since this city seems so different from all the other cities that I have visited on this trip.
I needed local currency, so I stopped at an exchange business and changed 10 Euros and 10 Lari (Georgian currency) that I had left from previous travels into Armenian Drams. That gave me money for at least today and maybe tomorrow.
My first stop was the beautiful building that used to be the central market building here. I thought it was still the market it used to be, so I hoped to find a bakery stall and maybe some fresh fruits. But when I got there, I discovered that it has been turned into a small shopping mall with a large supermarket in the center of it all. The building has ornate exterior metal work and wonderful glass fixtures along the tops of the walls inside. I left planning to return later in the day to buy some things for the apartment, since it is only one long block from where I live.
Just at the end of the block where the old market building is located, I found about 4 local bakery establishments. I bought a triangular-shaped pastry that the man said had chicken inside. It was a blend of shredded chicken, parsley, carrots, etc., in a bit of a thick sauce. It served perfectly as my lunch/breakfast and cost only 63 cents US.
From there, I wandered the major streets in the center of town. I went by the Opera Building, a two-faced building with the opera and ballet having one entrance and the philharmonic orchestra having another entrance. Getting there and beyond, I passed many parks; the city has parks located everywhere to make it easy for residents to be among the trees and to have a place to relax outside their apartments. One was the Cascades Park which is topped by a monument to the USSR victory in WWII and, unfortunately, is undergoing restoration. It has sculptures by famous artists and has an art deco version of the hanging gardens of Babylon.
As I wandered down Abovian Steet, I passed Katoghike, the oldest (and very small) survining church of Yerevan. It's a tiny chapel. But old churches in Armenia are OLD. Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity, and it has been the religion here since 301 A.D.
Eventually, I returned to Republic Square where I visited yesterday. Yerevan was a planned city by the architect Tamanian, and it is an amazing example of GOOD Soviet architecture. There are few good examples anywhere. This square (which is really an oval) is beautiful with its pink stone buildings.
I headed southeast from there down a local shopping street. I say "local" because it consisted of less expensive shops than I have seen in the central area of the city. This led me to the former Cinema Russia that today is what we would call a mini-mall or a flea market at home with individual stalls operated to sell whatever merchandise that seller thinks will sell. The building itself is a Soviet monstrosity with a swooped roof. It reminded me of the market building I found in the Podil area in Kiev. What's amazing is that this ugly area is only about 2 blocks away from the beautiful Republic Square!
I stopped at a park to read for a while after that. Then I headed back to the old central market building to shop at the supermarket. I bought a bottle of Armenian red wine and two Armenian half-liter bottles of beer from two different breweries. I bought a jar of tomato sauce to use in cooking some pasta I still have from Ukraine. I got some cookies similar to what I bought in Lithuania--filled with an apple mixture. I got a bar of dark chocolate. And I bought a 2-liter bottle Coca Cola Light, something I have not had for ages. Wes used to buy them when he was travelling with me, and I would occasionally have a swig or two of his after we ate sandwiches I had made for our travelling. This is the first bottle I have bought for myself on the whole trip. The amazing thing is that all of this cost less than $10 US!
I'm going back out tonight. I seldom go out at night when I am traveling, but there are things that are recommended at night here. I'll write tomorrow about what I see and do.
Although my apartment is nice, I discovered two problems last night and this morning. First, the bed is horrible!! It is a cheap mattress that creaks with every movement and is worn enough that the wire coils can be felt through it. I tried to find a way to avoid feeling the coils, but it wasn't possible. Finally, I changed my bedding to the long sofa in the living room and slept there all night. Tonight, I may try to make a pallet on the floor, since I have several blankets and comforters in the closet. The sofa is a bit narrow, but it will be fine if the pallet doesn't work well. Second, I noticed this morning that the floor was dirty. I found the broom and dusting pan and swept it. I was amazed at how much I swept up--hair, crumbs, etc. But now that I have done that, it is fine.
I walked for 4 hours exploring the city today, then I spent another 30 minutes exploring a large supermarket. It was fun, especially since this city seems so different from all the other cities that I have visited on this trip.
I needed local currency, so I stopped at an exchange business and changed 10 Euros and 10 Lari (Georgian currency) that I had left from previous travels into Armenian Drams. That gave me money for at least today and maybe tomorrow.
My first stop was the beautiful building that used to be the central market building here. I thought it was still the market it used to be, so I hoped to find a bakery stall and maybe some fresh fruits. But when I got there, I discovered that it has been turned into a small shopping mall with a large supermarket in the center of it all. The building has ornate exterior metal work and wonderful glass fixtures along the tops of the walls inside. I left planning to return later in the day to buy some things for the apartment, since it is only one long block from where I live.
Just at the end of the block where the old market building is located, I found about 4 local bakery establishments. I bought a triangular-shaped pastry that the man said had chicken inside. It was a blend of shredded chicken, parsley, carrots, etc., in a bit of a thick sauce. It served perfectly as my lunch/breakfast and cost only 63 cents US.
From there, I wandered the major streets in the center of town. I went by the Opera Building, a two-faced building with the opera and ballet having one entrance and the philharmonic orchestra having another entrance. Getting there and beyond, I passed many parks; the city has parks located everywhere to make it easy for residents to be among the trees and to have a place to relax outside their apartments. One was the Cascades Park which is topped by a monument to the USSR victory in WWII and, unfortunately, is undergoing restoration. It has sculptures by famous artists and has an art deco version of the hanging gardens of Babylon.
As I wandered down Abovian Steet, I passed Katoghike, the oldest (and very small) survining church of Yerevan. It's a tiny chapel. But old churches in Armenia are OLD. Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity, and it has been the religion here since 301 A.D.
Eventually, I returned to Republic Square where I visited yesterday. Yerevan was a planned city by the architect Tamanian, and it is an amazing example of GOOD Soviet architecture. There are few good examples anywhere. This square (which is really an oval) is beautiful with its pink stone buildings.
I headed southeast from there down a local shopping street. I say "local" because it consisted of less expensive shops than I have seen in the central area of the city. This led me to the former Cinema Russia that today is what we would call a mini-mall or a flea market at home with individual stalls operated to sell whatever merchandise that seller thinks will sell. The building itself is a Soviet monstrosity with a swooped roof. It reminded me of the market building I found in the Podil area in Kiev. What's amazing is that this ugly area is only about 2 blocks away from the beautiful Republic Square!
I stopped at a park to read for a while after that. Then I headed back to the old central market building to shop at the supermarket. I bought a bottle of Armenian red wine and two Armenian half-liter bottles of beer from two different breweries. I bought a jar of tomato sauce to use in cooking some pasta I still have from Ukraine. I got some cookies similar to what I bought in Lithuania--filled with an apple mixture. I got a bar of dark chocolate. And I bought a 2-liter bottle Coca Cola Light, something I have not had for ages. Wes used to buy them when he was travelling with me, and I would occasionally have a swig or two of his after we ate sandwiches I had made for our travelling. This is the first bottle I have bought for myself on the whole trip. The amazing thing is that all of this cost less than $10 US!
I'm going back out tonight. I seldom go out at night when I am traveling, but there are things that are recommended at night here. I'll write tomorrow about what I see and do.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
One Foot in Europe and the Other in the Middle East/Asia
Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014--Tbilisi, Georgia, to Yerevan, Armenia
I slept so well last night. I went to bed at 9:30 and awoke at 6:25 this morning just before the alarm was about to go off. I had already packed everything except for my toiletries. I went to the bathroom to quickly clean up. By 6:50, I was sitting at the breakfast table. The lady served me a chunk of salmon coated with mayonnaise and vegetables, some hot sausages (hot dogs), goat cheese, a type of tomato salsa, butter, bread and tea. I ate quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I was out the door at 7:05.
I walked to the metro. There was an 8 minute wait for the next train. I got off at the nearest station to the bus station, and I walked another 12 minutes or so to the bus station. I got there at 7:45 and got a seat on the "8:00" marshrutka for Yerevan. That time is in quotations, because we waited 25 minutes after 8:00 for a woman who had reserved a seat and did not arrive on time. (She had to wait later, as you will read below!!)
The next problem occurred at the border. I was the only passenger in our van of 14 passengers who needed a visa. I had tried to get one online before leaving, and the system broke down; they sent an e-mail saying just to get it at the border. Well, when I arrived at the window, their power had just gone down. They said to wait 5 minutes. Not until 25 minutes later did the power come back on. Everyone on my marshrutka had finished and were waiting. The driver came twice to check on me. But he insisted that the delay was okay. By the time I got my visa, the whole van (including the late lady) had waited 30 minutes for me, too. I hope they felt better about me, because they saw me running after I got the visa--to the other window where they had to stamp it, and to the marshrutka to get on it. Plus, I apologized. The late lady didn't rush and didn't say a word!
We still arrived after 6 hours which was within the time range for the trip--5-6 hours. But it was a long trip, and I had not been able to go to the bathroom during any of it. And I still didn't get to until I had walked downtown and found my apartment--8 hours after the last time I had been to one.
The apartment is nice. It is in one of the old communist apartment blocks, but it has been remodelled. I've observed two problems. I can hear some noise from a neighboring apartment. And the elevator is a bit scary--a tiny, thin box with about a 2-inch gap where one can see all the way down the shaft when stepping on or off. It is not on a website. I was sent some photos by e-mail. I will see if it is possible to copy one of them into here.
While I was out walking waiting for the apartment to be cleaned, I was impressed by Yerevan. It is nicer than I had read it would be. My apartment is right in the center of town within just a couple of blocks of major sights. Lots of people were out, and there was a rehearsal for a stage presentation on the main square. It's obvious that I am not in Europe now. People look more Turkish or Iranian (Iran is near). And the music they were performing was more like Middle Eastern music, although one of the groups consisted of 8 male ballet dancers and one female performing a sword dance to European music. I'll write more about it all in the coming days. Today I am tired and want to rest.
I slept so well last night. I went to bed at 9:30 and awoke at 6:25 this morning just before the alarm was about to go off. I had already packed everything except for my toiletries. I went to the bathroom to quickly clean up. By 6:50, I was sitting at the breakfast table. The lady served me a chunk of salmon coated with mayonnaise and vegetables, some hot sausages (hot dogs), goat cheese, a type of tomato salsa, butter, bread and tea. I ate quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I was out the door at 7:05.
I walked to the metro. There was an 8 minute wait for the next train. I got off at the nearest station to the bus station, and I walked another 12 minutes or so to the bus station. I got there at 7:45 and got a seat on the "8:00" marshrutka for Yerevan. That time is in quotations, because we waited 25 minutes after 8:00 for a woman who had reserved a seat and did not arrive on time. (She had to wait later, as you will read below!!)
The next problem occurred at the border. I was the only passenger in our van of 14 passengers who needed a visa. I had tried to get one online before leaving, and the system broke down; they sent an e-mail saying just to get it at the border. Well, when I arrived at the window, their power had just gone down. They said to wait 5 minutes. Not until 25 minutes later did the power come back on. Everyone on my marshrutka had finished and were waiting. The driver came twice to check on me. But he insisted that the delay was okay. By the time I got my visa, the whole van (including the late lady) had waited 30 minutes for me, too. I hope they felt better about me, because they saw me running after I got the visa--to the other window where they had to stamp it, and to the marshrutka to get on it. Plus, I apologized. The late lady didn't rush and didn't say a word!
We still arrived after 6 hours which was within the time range for the trip--5-6 hours. But it was a long trip, and I had not been able to go to the bathroom during any of it. And I still didn't get to until I had walked downtown and found my apartment--8 hours after the last time I had been to one.
The apartment is nice. It is in one of the old communist apartment blocks, but it has been remodelled. I've observed two problems. I can hear some noise from a neighboring apartment. And the elevator is a bit scary--a tiny, thin box with about a 2-inch gap where one can see all the way down the shaft when stepping on or off. It is not on a website. I was sent some photos by e-mail. I will see if it is possible to copy one of them into here.
While I was out walking waiting for the apartment to be cleaned, I was impressed by Yerevan. It is nicer than I had read it would be. My apartment is right in the center of town within just a couple of blocks of major sights. Lots of people were out, and there was a rehearsal for a stage presentation on the main square. It's obvious that I am not in Europe now. People look more Turkish or Iranian (Iran is near). And the music they were performing was more like Middle Eastern music, although one of the groups consisted of 8 male ballet dancers and one female performing a sword dance to European music. I'll write more about it all in the coming days. Today I am tired and want to rest.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Lucky Day
Saturday, Sept. 20,
2014—Batumi to Tbilisi
Today was my lucky
day, I guess. It was supposed to be raining all day, and we had some
heavy rain last night. However, when I left to walk to the bus
station, it was dry all the way. Then, just after we left at 8:00,
it began to rain hard again.
It was scary riding
in the rain, because the mini-bus (marshrutka) drivers speed. Not
only that, but they turn two-lane roads with no shoulders into 3-lane
highways—passing with oncoming traffic. About an hour after
leaving, we saw lots of stopped vehicles. As we slowly went by, we
could see an overturned marshrutka resting on its roof among the
trees to the side of the road. It was a bad accident. It's likely
that people were either killed or very badly injured. Just 5 minutes
after that, the rain stopped again, and the sun came out.
Along the way, I saw
things that brought back memories of my previous trip to
Georgia—people traveling in two-wheeled wagons pulled by a single
horse, people tending sheep in a field, etc. We passed through towns
and by places I had visited before—Kutiasi, Gori (where I saw
bombed out buildings from the war with Russia 6 years ago), Mtskheta Monastery (which I visited by climbing from the edge of the highway 6 years ago--a steep and scary climb), etc.
The trip took 6
hours as expected. They dropped me off at Didube where there is a
metro stop. I caught the metro to Freedom Square, bought some
gladiolas for Elena (whose husband Eduard insisted on paying for the
coffee and dessert last night in Batumi) and made my way to the
apartment. Both Elena and Alla (prounounced “Aya”) were here.
Alla is renting me a room, since Eduard's sister is staying in their
extra room.
Wanting to see the
changes here in Tbilisi, I went out immediately to explore. I walked
up and down Rustaveli Avenue, the fancy main street of the city which
is lined with government buildings, museums, theaters, and nice
shops. I went into the Old Town past the Jewish area with its synagogue, the Islamic
area with its mosque, the old Turkish bath area, and the old hilltop walled fortress.
The city has greatly improved over 6 years. Almost all of the major
old buildings have been restored that had not yet been restored
before. There seem to be lots more tourist facilities and more
tourists than when I was here, too, but maybe the war with Russia
that had just ended kept them away at that time. Anyway, it's a
pretty and a lively city these days.
Having said that, I
feel so sorry for older people and those who cannot find jobs here.
All of the old USSR republics have the same problem. There are very
limited social welfare programs to assist the elderly. If they don't
have children to help them, they beg on the streets, try to sell
anything they can make or buy at a low cost, etc., to have money for
paying bills and buying food. And many of the young people, the
children who would be normally helping their aging parents cannot
find decent jobs, either. Lasha, the 27-year-old son at the place
where I stayed last night is desperate to try to find a way to make
money. He applies every year for the green card lottery for the US,
he was asking who can join the US military (because he had heard
about Mexicans who are not legal residents joining it to try to earn
a way to get permanent residency). There are a lot of desperate
people all over eastern Europe wanting to find a way to live
elsewhere and make money or trying to get by where they are living.
It's only about 20:00, but I am tired and ready to go to bed. Tomorrow is another travel day with another 6-hour marshrutka trip. I'll be off to Armenia.
Friday, September 19, 2014
Updating As I Travel
Friday, Sept. 19, 2014--Kiev, Ukraine, to Batumi, Georgia
The long travel spell has arrived. I've decided to update this entry as I can. I have 15 minutes of free wi-fi at the Kiev Airport, so here goes...
Sergey arrived on time. He insisted on driving me to the train station to catch the bus rather than my taking the metro. He said it was mostly on his way to where he was going. On the way, he talked more about the problems with Russia. In his opinion, based on things Putin has said before, what is happening in Ukraine is partially a test. He said Putin last year mentioned several times that he would like Russia to expand to include all of the former USSR and what was once part of the Russian Empire--meaning Finland and Poland. He said that the people in eastern Ukraine are positive toward Russia because Russia is the only buying partner for all their heavy industries--steel, rocket engines, etc. They would not be able to compete with the already established industries in Europe and America. Furthermore, he said they seem to recall the old USSR days as peaceful ones without worries. Now they worry about the cost of everything, about inflation, about job security, etc. It's an interesting argument for what is happening.
The bus left the train station and took exactly 50 minutes as shown on the schedule to get to the airport. However, there is a problem at the airport. There are two terminals, and they made the bad decision to name them B and D! When we arrived, I asked, "Terminal B?" And the man next to me said, "Yes." Everyone got off, so I figured he was right. When I got inside, there were no signs indicating flights for DnieproAvia. I went to the information counter. I was in Terminal D. She gave me directions to get to Terminal B, the domestic terminal, via a shuttle bus.
The counters were not open yet at Terminal B, so it was no problem being delayed by getting off at the wrong terminal. When I did check in, the lady said that I will only get ONE boarding pass to Dniepropetrovsk. There I will have to pick up my luggage, go to the check-in counters again, and go through customs and immigration. The flight departs in an hour. I will post more from there if they have free wi-fi.
___________
It took less than an hour to fly to Dniepropetrovsk. It's a very small airport--about the same size or smaller than the one in Corpus Christi. It has no jetways. A bus meets the plane. I have a little over two hours before check-in begins for my flight to Batumi. During the time, I will eat my lunch, read the news on the computer (since the internet connection doesn't seem to have any limits), play a game on the computer, and read. My next flight departs at 13:50.
__________
The long travel spell has arrived. I've decided to update this entry as I can. I have 15 minutes of free wi-fi at the Kiev Airport, so here goes...
Sergey arrived on time. He insisted on driving me to the train station to catch the bus rather than my taking the metro. He said it was mostly on his way to where he was going. On the way, he talked more about the problems with Russia. In his opinion, based on things Putin has said before, what is happening in Ukraine is partially a test. He said Putin last year mentioned several times that he would like Russia to expand to include all of the former USSR and what was once part of the Russian Empire--meaning Finland and Poland. He said that the people in eastern Ukraine are positive toward Russia because Russia is the only buying partner for all their heavy industries--steel, rocket engines, etc. They would not be able to compete with the already established industries in Europe and America. Furthermore, he said they seem to recall the old USSR days as peaceful ones without worries. Now they worry about the cost of everything, about inflation, about job security, etc. It's an interesting argument for what is happening.
The bus left the train station and took exactly 50 minutes as shown on the schedule to get to the airport. However, there is a problem at the airport. There are two terminals, and they made the bad decision to name them B and D! When we arrived, I asked, "Terminal B?" And the man next to me said, "Yes." Everyone got off, so I figured he was right. When I got inside, there were no signs indicating flights for DnieproAvia. I went to the information counter. I was in Terminal D. She gave me directions to get to Terminal B, the domestic terminal, via a shuttle bus.
The counters were not open yet at Terminal B, so it was no problem being delayed by getting off at the wrong terminal. When I did check in, the lady said that I will only get ONE boarding pass to Dniepropetrovsk. There I will have to pick up my luggage, go to the check-in counters again, and go through customs and immigration. The flight departs in an hour. I will post more from there if they have free wi-fi.
___________
It took less than an hour to fly to Dniepropetrovsk. It's a very small airport--about the same size or smaller than the one in Corpus Christi. It has no jetways. A bus meets the plane. I have a little over two hours before check-in begins for my flight to Batumi. During the time, I will eat my lunch, read the news on the computer (since the internet connection doesn't seem to have any limits), play a game on the computer, and read. My next flight departs at 13:50.
__________
Batumi is a
surprise. I didn't expect it to have the mountains behind it. It's
very green, also. Wish I had the three days I originally planned to
stay here so I could enjoy it, but actually, the forecast is for rain
for the next three days. Guess it is just as well that I am going to
Tbilisi tomorrow (where it will also be raining).
Lili was not at the
airport when I arrived. I had to wait. The taxi drivers were very
nice, but they kept wanting me to go ahead and ride with them.
Finally, about 25 minutes after we arrived, her son showed up with a
photo of me on his phone.
Well, the
“apartment” I rented here, Pansion Lili, is my first real disappointment on the
trip. It's in a hostel and is actually a 4-bunk-bed apartment that has
been rented only to me. It does have a nice balcony, it's own bathroom, and it's own kitchen, so it is an apartment. And I will
have the place to myself rather than having to share it. But the
cost of $56 is way over-priced for the situation, I think. That being said,
the owner and her son are insisting that I have dinner with them in a
few minutes. I can smell it right now. I like the two of them. He
is especially charming with his English that is limited, but
adequate. He immediately recognized San Antonio as the home of the
Spurs.
Somehow, I need to
eat with them, then get out and find a place to change money. Then I
need to meet Eduard from Tbilisi out front at 20:00. He's probably
going to be ready to eat, too! And they surprised me on the plane
with a large sandwich after I had eaten my homemade sandwiches at
12:30.
_________
Lasha and his mother and two of their friends were in their apartment next door and invited me inside at 6:00. It's just as I remember from Georgia before. People here are so generous and friendly. And the food is so FRESH and tasty. They had a big basket of bread. There was a salad made with eggplant, tomatoes, parsley, etc., that was delicious. There were fresh tomatoes and onions. There was a plate of sliced goat cheese. And she cooked fresh fried potatoes. It was all vegetarian and all delicious. They told me it is a tradition to invite each of their guests for dinner on the first night.
We ate and talked. It was fun. During a brief break, Lasha took me around the corner to change some money so I will have Georgian Lari for paying for my mini-bus tomorrow and for other expenses. Then we returned and ate more. At 19:00, just as the other man returned with a bottle of cha cha, Georgian liquor made from grapes and the drink that is so strong and caused me to get sick on my previous trip to Georgia, Eduard showed up. He's the man I stayed with in Tbilisi on my last trip. He was supposed to come at 20:00, but he and his sister had been walking all over the city and were tired, so they showed up early. That gave me an excuse to leave the party downstairs before I had to drink too much.
We walked to a cafe nearby and had tea and a dessert--a chocolate lava cake with ice cream. We sat and talked and talked. He is such a nice and friendly man. And it amazed me how much he remembered about my previous visit to Georgia. He told me about how I insisted on taking a mini-bus only to a certain place and then climbing the mountain to a monastery rather than going to a town and paying $12 for a taxi ride. He told me about my going to the airport in the evening to await my 3:00 a.m. flight and that I told him how I have a chain and lock so that I can sleep while feeling safe about my luggage being chained to the seating. He told me about the visit with the sheep farmer who killed a lamb for dinner (when I got sick). I was amazed that he remembered all of that. We eventually left the cafe to call it a night. They were tired from walking, and I was tired from being up so early this morning.
It's 21:00, and I will now go to bed. The alarm will be set for 6:30 tomorrow, and I will be up and starting another travel day!
Thursday, September 18, 2014
A Final Day in Kiev Enjoying the Fall Weather
Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014--Kiev
Each day has gotten a bit cooler. The highs were in the upper 70s (low 20s celsius) last week. Now they are in the mid- to upper-60s (upper teens celsius). People have quit wearing shorts. And many wear sweaters or light jackets. Few people sit in the shad. Almost all sit in the sunshine with their faces upturned to the sun.
For my final outing in Kiev, I headed to the University Botanical Gardens. They are behind the university buildings not far from my apartment, and I hadn't visited them yet. They are in a hilly area with sharp drop-offs, so it wouldn't have been a good area for buildings. I found a seat on a bench and read. When the shade hit me and I got cool, I headed to the park in front of the university and sat on a wall in the sunshine and continued to read.
I finished reading Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips. It's a book that is difficult to follow at first, but everything starts becoming clear around page 100 if one pushes that far. It's a story told from different perspectives--two sisters in West Virginia, the husband of one of the sisters who is in the military and involved in the beginnings of the Korean Conflict, and the two children of one of the sisters who are being raised by the other sister--a girl who is 17-years-old and her 9-year-old half-brother who is handicapped from having fluid on his brain when he was born. It's a fascinating story and was a finalist for the National Book Award. I gave the book 3 out of 4 stars.
Now it's time to pack, prepare sandwiches for tomorrow, and organize everything else. Tomorrow I fly to Batumi in Georgia.
During the next 3 days, I am uncertain when I will either have Internet service or will be able to use it if I do. I will be travelling every day. No one should be alarmed if I don't make regular posts. If I have a chance and enough time, I'll try to write at least a paragraph. (See yesterday's post for details of the travel itinerary.)
Each day has gotten a bit cooler. The highs were in the upper 70s (low 20s celsius) last week. Now they are in the mid- to upper-60s (upper teens celsius). People have quit wearing shorts. And many wear sweaters or light jackets. Few people sit in the shad. Almost all sit in the sunshine with their faces upturned to the sun.
For my final outing in Kiev, I headed to the University Botanical Gardens. They are behind the university buildings not far from my apartment, and I hadn't visited them yet. They are in a hilly area with sharp drop-offs, so it wouldn't have been a good area for buildings. I found a seat on a bench and read. When the shade hit me and I got cool, I headed to the park in front of the university and sat on a wall in the sunshine and continued to read.
I finished reading Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips. It's a book that is difficult to follow at first, but everything starts becoming clear around page 100 if one pushes that far. It's a story told from different perspectives--two sisters in West Virginia, the husband of one of the sisters who is in the military and involved in the beginnings of the Korean Conflict, and the two children of one of the sisters who are being raised by the other sister--a girl who is 17-years-old and her 9-year-old half-brother who is handicapped from having fluid on his brain when he was born. It's a fascinating story and was a finalist for the National Book Award. I gave the book 3 out of 4 stars.
Now it's time to pack, prepare sandwiches for tomorrow, and organize everything else. Tomorrow I fly to Batumi in Georgia.
During the next 3 days, I am uncertain when I will either have Internet service or will be able to use it if I do. I will be travelling every day. No one should be alarmed if I don't make regular posts. If I have a chance and enough time, I'll try to write at least a paragraph. (See yesterday's post for details of the travel itinerary.)
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Making Arrangements for a Busy Travel Weekend
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2015--Kiev
I'm a bit nervous about all the travel aspects that must work out this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm trying to have everything planned, but there are so many factors involved:
Friday, the 19th:
1. I must get to the airport and check in with my flight. That should not be a problem except I have to set the alarm for getting up early, and I have to depend on Sergey being here no later than 6:15 for me to get to the Sky Bus and then to the airport in plenty of time.
2. When I get to Batumi at 17:05, I have to change money or get money from the ATM. Even with the latter, I will have to go to the bank to get small change to pay for the bus. Then the big unknown is how often the bus runs. I hope it runs every 15-20 minutes; otherwise, my next Friday event will be affected.
3. I have to get off the bus at an appropriate point to walk to the apartment I have rented. Using GPS on my phone will help there. The owner is supposed to be at the apartment from 18:00-18:15 to wait for me. (That's why the bus timing is important.)
4. Eduard, the man from Tbilisi who I visited 5 years ago will be in Batumi with his sister. He will meet me downstairs at the entrance to my apartment at 20:00, so I will need to clean up and be there to meet him.
Saturday, the 20th:
1. I have to awaken by the alarm again. I will need to have the owner meet me no later than 7:30 to check out.
2. I need to walk to the bus station and be there in time to try to catch a mini-bus to Tbilisi around 9:00. They run about every hour and take about 6 hours. I have to worry about whether the mini-bus driver will balk at my suitcase or if he has a way to put it on the roof of the van or somewhere behind the seats.
3. When I get to Tbilisi, I have to find the metro station near the bus station and take it to the station at Freedom Square. Then walk to the apartment. I know the building from before, but I have to find the right door for the people who are renting to me. (I've already put aside 15 Euros to pay them for the night.)
Sunday, the 21st:
1. I have to get up by the alarm again and leave the apartment around 7:30. I will need to take the metro to a different bus station to catch the mini-bus to Yerevan. Getting there will involve also either a mini-bus or walking from the metro station to finally get to the bus station.
2. I need to find the right mini-bus for Yerevan, and again I have to hope that the driver will not balk at my bag.
3. At the border, I will have to get my visa and change some money to have to use when I arrive in Yerevan. Different websites vary according to whether I can pay for the visa with US dollars or a credit card, or whether I have to get Armenian money first and pay with it. Also, the price quoted for the visa seems to vary between $7 and $10. I have the cash already put aside if they let me pay with U.S. dollars.
4. When I arrive at Yerevan, I must ask someone to make a phone call for me. I really dread this part!) I've rented an apartment there. Since my arrival time is not specific (based on whatever time I can get a mini-bus from Tbilisi, and they leave only when they are full rather than on a set schedule), the company renting the apartment will need a call so they will know to go to the apartment and await my arrival.
5. I have to walk (only about 1 km/half a mile) to the apartment finding it using the GPS on my phone and meet the man from the agency.
6. They only take cash for the rent. I've already put aside the right about of cash to pay for the apartment so that I don't have to stop at an ATM along the way.
There are so many points at which something could go wrong through all of those processes. That's why I'm feeling nervous and trying to plan it all out. This morning, I've made hand-drawn maps of both Batumi and Yerevan to guide me in addition to using the phone GPS. I've made budgets to determine approximately how much money I will need in each currency. I've written to everyone with the details of when to meet and where. It's going to be a tight and tense schedule!!
When I went to shower this morning, there was no hot water. The water was too cold, so I got out and went without showering. I sent an e-mail to the owner. Then I went out in the sunshine for a while. I just wandered and watched people Before returning, I went to the grocery store for some final items I needed. I now have everything necessary for dinner tonight and tomorrow and breakfast tomorrow and Friday. There should also be enough leftovers to make sandwiches to eat sometime Saturday if I can take the meat and cheese into Georgia when I arrive at the airport. I don't anticipate needing anything tomorrow, so I will see if I can exchange my remaining 20 UAH (local currency) into Georgian GEL tomorrow at the end of the afternoon. If it works, that should give me enough small cash (only 2 GEL) to pay for the bus (1 GEL) from the airport in Batumi and save me from having to take the time to deal with the bank at the airport.
After I was back at the apartment, the doorbell rang. It was the female of the husband/wife owners. I've dealt only with her husband for the most part, but she was also here on Sunday when they came together to change sheets, towels, etc. She came today to take care of the hot water problem. Apparently, when they switched on the water heater before my arrival, they forgot to also turn on the water in-take valve. So when the hot water heater finally ran out of water, it threw the circuit breaker. She switched the circuit-breaker on, and then turned on the water valves. She also brought me some cut flowers and 5 apples from her garden and left them on the dining table.
I'm a bit nervous about all the travel aspects that must work out this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I'm trying to have everything planned, but there are so many factors involved:
Friday, the 19th:
1. I must get to the airport and check in with my flight. That should not be a problem except I have to set the alarm for getting up early, and I have to depend on Sergey being here no later than 6:15 for me to get to the Sky Bus and then to the airport in plenty of time.
2. When I get to Batumi at 17:05, I have to change money or get money from the ATM. Even with the latter, I will have to go to the bank to get small change to pay for the bus. Then the big unknown is how often the bus runs. I hope it runs every 15-20 minutes; otherwise, my next Friday event will be affected.
3. I have to get off the bus at an appropriate point to walk to the apartment I have rented. Using GPS on my phone will help there. The owner is supposed to be at the apartment from 18:00-18:15 to wait for me. (That's why the bus timing is important.)
4. Eduard, the man from Tbilisi who I visited 5 years ago will be in Batumi with his sister. He will meet me downstairs at the entrance to my apartment at 20:00, so I will need to clean up and be there to meet him.
Saturday, the 20th:
1. I have to awaken by the alarm again. I will need to have the owner meet me no later than 7:30 to check out.
2. I need to walk to the bus station and be there in time to try to catch a mini-bus to Tbilisi around 9:00. They run about every hour and take about 6 hours. I have to worry about whether the mini-bus driver will balk at my suitcase or if he has a way to put it on the roof of the van or somewhere behind the seats.
3. When I get to Tbilisi, I have to find the metro station near the bus station and take it to the station at Freedom Square. Then walk to the apartment. I know the building from before, but I have to find the right door for the people who are renting to me. (I've already put aside 15 Euros to pay them for the night.)
Sunday, the 21st:
1. I have to get up by the alarm again and leave the apartment around 7:30. I will need to take the metro to a different bus station to catch the mini-bus to Yerevan. Getting there will involve also either a mini-bus or walking from the metro station to finally get to the bus station.
2. I need to find the right mini-bus for Yerevan, and again I have to hope that the driver will not balk at my bag.
3. At the border, I will have to get my visa and change some money to have to use when I arrive in Yerevan. Different websites vary according to whether I can pay for the visa with US dollars or a credit card, or whether I have to get Armenian money first and pay with it. Also, the price quoted for the visa seems to vary between $7 and $10. I have the cash already put aside if they let me pay with U.S. dollars.
4. When I arrive at Yerevan, I must ask someone to make a phone call for me. I really dread this part!) I've rented an apartment there. Since my arrival time is not specific (based on whatever time I can get a mini-bus from Tbilisi, and they leave only when they are full rather than on a set schedule), the company renting the apartment will need a call so they will know to go to the apartment and await my arrival.
5. I have to walk (only about 1 km/half a mile) to the apartment finding it using the GPS on my phone and meet the man from the agency.
6. They only take cash for the rent. I've already put aside the right about of cash to pay for the apartment so that I don't have to stop at an ATM along the way.
There are so many points at which something could go wrong through all of those processes. That's why I'm feeling nervous and trying to plan it all out. This morning, I've made hand-drawn maps of both Batumi and Yerevan to guide me in addition to using the phone GPS. I've made budgets to determine approximately how much money I will need in each currency. I've written to everyone with the details of when to meet and where. It's going to be a tight and tense schedule!!
When I went to shower this morning, there was no hot water. The water was too cold, so I got out and went without showering. I sent an e-mail to the owner. Then I went out in the sunshine for a while. I just wandered and watched people Before returning, I went to the grocery store for some final items I needed. I now have everything necessary for dinner tonight and tomorrow and breakfast tomorrow and Friday. There should also be enough leftovers to make sandwiches to eat sometime Saturday if I can take the meat and cheese into Georgia when I arrive at the airport. I don't anticipate needing anything tomorrow, so I will see if I can exchange my remaining 20 UAH (local currency) into Georgian GEL tomorrow at the end of the afternoon. If it works, that should give me enough small cash (only 2 GEL) to pay for the bus (1 GEL) from the airport in Batumi and save me from having to take the time to deal with the bank at the airport.
After I was back at the apartment, the doorbell rang. It was the female of the husband/wife owners. I've dealt only with her husband for the most part, but she was also here on Sunday when they came together to change sheets, towels, etc. She came today to take care of the hot water problem. Apparently, when they switched on the water heater before my arrival, they forgot to also turn on the water in-take valve. So when the hot water heater finally ran out of water, it threw the circuit breaker. She switched the circuit-breaker on, and then turned on the water valves. She also brought me some cut flowers and 5 apples from her garden and left them on the dining table.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Podil, Part 2
Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014--Kiev
Last Wednesday, I explored part of Podil, an older part of Kiev down by the riverfront which was not bombed during WWII. Today, I returned to explore the rest of the area. Essentially, what I explored today was the central commercial district of the area, since that was all that was left after I walked all the residential and side commercial areas on my previous visit.
What surprises me is the extent that this is like a separate small town on the riverfront. To get anywhere else in Kiev, people have to walk up a steep incline or steps or pay to take a funicular. Therefore, my guess is that they tend to just stay in their own area. The commercial district was large and included all the services and shops that one needs to get by on a day-to-day basis.
In this area, there are a number of large hotels with most of them being near the funicular--Fairmont Grand, Impressa, Raddison Blu, etc. I couldn't help but think how I was glad I was not stuck down there during my visit. To go anywhere, most tourists would have to take the funicular. I wonder if the hotel prices include free rides on it? Anyway, it would be a hassle to go up and down every time anyone wanted to see any other part of Kiev.
On the way back, I stopped at a park and read from my current book. It was a bit cool, however, due to a high percentage of cloud cover. Eventually, I returned to the apartment where I washed a load of laundry. I need the clothes to be dry by Thursday for packing, so that made today wash day.
Last Wednesday, I explored part of Podil, an older part of Kiev down by the riverfront which was not bombed during WWII. Today, I returned to explore the rest of the area. Essentially, what I explored today was the central commercial district of the area, since that was all that was left after I walked all the residential and side commercial areas on my previous visit.
What surprises me is the extent that this is like a separate small town on the riverfront. To get anywhere else in Kiev, people have to walk up a steep incline or steps or pay to take a funicular. Therefore, my guess is that they tend to just stay in their own area. The commercial district was large and included all the services and shops that one needs to get by on a day-to-day basis.
In this area, there are a number of large hotels with most of them being near the funicular--Fairmont Grand, Impressa, Raddison Blu, etc. I couldn't help but think how I was glad I was not stuck down there during my visit. To go anywhere, most tourists would have to take the funicular. I wonder if the hotel prices include free rides on it? Anyway, it would be a hassle to go up and down every time anyone wanted to see any other part of Kiev.
On the way back, I stopped at a park and read from my current book. It was a bit cool, however, due to a high percentage of cloud cover. Eventually, I returned to the apartment where I washed a load of laundry. I need the clothes to be dry by Thursday for packing, so that made today wash day.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Vacation from Vacation Ends; Back to Exploring Kiev!
Monday, Sept. 15, 2014--Kiev
I didn't make a post yesterday, because I didn't leave the apartment all day. I continued my "vacation from my vacation." The owners of the apartment came as 10:00 as they said they would. They changed the sheets and towels, watered the plants, and took the money I owed them for the extra 7 days I am staying here. Then I just relaxed. I read newspapers online, I continued reading my current novel, I watched TV, etc. In the evening, I had meatballs and fried potatoes for my dinner with a bottle of beer.
Today, however, I was out exploring again. I went to the most beautiful and elegant part of the city I have found so far (and probably the nicest that can be found). I went eastward from the main street of the city, turning at the building that houses the National Musical Academy where I paused for a while to hear the sounds of students conducting both voice and instrumental practice inside.
I passed the Ivano-Franco Theater on my way to find the Chimera Building which was located within a closed government compound. I had to walk around to the other side of the block to get a good view of it through the high wrought-iron fencing. It's decorated with lots of gorgoyles. Without them, it would still be an elegant building, but with them it is a real attention-getter! I just stood there looking at all the shapes around the top of the building and on portions of a lower rooftop. Many were sea creatures, but some of the lower ones were animals.
My next stop was Mariyinsky Park which consists of the former gardens of the Mariyinsky Palace nearby. The park has nice, large trees, pretty flowers, and plenty of benches for sitting. Today was a bit of a change from normal in that most people were sitting on benches in the sunshine rather than in the shade. The air has turned a bit cooler. The trees have been turning darker for the past couple of weeks, and today the gentle breeze was causing brown ones to fall all over the park. Fall is in the air!! I found a bench in the sunshine, too, put on my sunglasses, pulled out the novel I am reading, and just relaxed and enjoyed myself.
There was a metro stop near there on the same line that I will take on Friday, so I decided to time everything one more time. I took it to the train station and got on the train coming back toward my apartment. I timed the length of time it took including waiting on the train, riding it, and going up the long escalator at my local station. I timed how long it took to walk to the apartment from there. I told the owner of the apartment that I needed to leave no later than 6:15 on Friday, so now I am certain I should have plenty of time to get to the train station where I will take a bus to the airport.
I didn't make a post yesterday, because I didn't leave the apartment all day. I continued my "vacation from my vacation." The owners of the apartment came as 10:00 as they said they would. They changed the sheets and towels, watered the plants, and took the money I owed them for the extra 7 days I am staying here. Then I just relaxed. I read newspapers online, I continued reading my current novel, I watched TV, etc. In the evening, I had meatballs and fried potatoes for my dinner with a bottle of beer.
Today, however, I was out exploring again. I went to the most beautiful and elegant part of the city I have found so far (and probably the nicest that can be found). I went eastward from the main street of the city, turning at the building that houses the National Musical Academy where I paused for a while to hear the sounds of students conducting both voice and instrumental practice inside.
I passed the Ivano-Franco Theater on my way to find the Chimera Building which was located within a closed government compound. I had to walk around to the other side of the block to get a good view of it through the high wrought-iron fencing. It's decorated with lots of gorgoyles. Without them, it would still be an elegant building, but with them it is a real attention-getter! I just stood there looking at all the shapes around the top of the building and on portions of a lower rooftop. Many were sea creatures, but some of the lower ones were animals.
My next stop was Mariyinsky Park which consists of the former gardens of the Mariyinsky Palace nearby. The park has nice, large trees, pretty flowers, and plenty of benches for sitting. Today was a bit of a change from normal in that most people were sitting on benches in the sunshine rather than in the shade. The air has turned a bit cooler. The trees have been turning darker for the past couple of weeks, and today the gentle breeze was causing brown ones to fall all over the park. Fall is in the air!! I found a bench in the sunshine, too, put on my sunglasses, pulled out the novel I am reading, and just relaxed and enjoyed myself.
There was a metro stop near there on the same line that I will take on Friday, so I decided to time everything one more time. I took it to the train station and got on the train coming back toward my apartment. I timed the length of time it took including waiting on the train, riding it, and going up the long escalator at my local station. I timed how long it took to walk to the apartment from there. I told the owner of the apartment that I needed to leave no later than 6:15 on Friday, so now I am certain I should have plenty of time to get to the train station where I will take a bus to the airport.
Saturday, September 13, 2014
A Vacation from My Vacation
Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014--Kiev
I spent almost all day today relaxing inside the apartment and doing things that I wanted to do for fun. I caught up on reading news from everywhere. I played some games of FreeCell on the computer. I read from my present novel.
Finally, about 2:00, I cleaned up and went out only to go to the supermarket. I bought some things I needed/wanted--bread, potatoes, salami, meatballs, apples, and beer. Then I returned home.
I had a relaxing early evening. I ate some peanuts while I cooked dinner--pasta coated in garlic cooked in butter and served with a chilled white wine. Then I cleaned the kitchen well and returned to the computer to do some more reading and some planning. Therefore, that's all there is to report today!!
There is some news that I didn't know to report yesterday, however. Last night as I was putting a plastic bag I use when I shop back inside the shoulder bag I carry when travelling, I discovered that my camera was missing. I keep it in a zippered compartment under a flap. I guess it was stolen while I was on the metro yesterday; that's the only time anyone could have easily gotten to it. There were times when the train was cram packed as I toured the different stations. It's not a great loss; the camera is at least 6-7 years old and was bigger and less sophisticated than most cameras are today. It won't be worth much to whoever got it, and I had been thinking recently that I might replace it. I will miss having photos, however, from the last half of the trip. I downloaded all the ones that Wes and I took on the first half, so I have those. There is a bit of a relief related to all of this. It is somewhat freeing to be on a trip and not feel the need to take photos of things I see.
Some of you will recall that my suitcase was stolen when I was travelling in Estonia and Latvia, two other countries that used to be a part of the U.S.S.R. There are apparently some desperate people who specialize in stealing from tourists in all of these countries. I will have to be more careful on the rest of my trip, since all of it will be in former parts of the U.S.S.R.
I spent almost all day today relaxing inside the apartment and doing things that I wanted to do for fun. I caught up on reading news from everywhere. I played some games of FreeCell on the computer. I read from my present novel.
Finally, about 2:00, I cleaned up and went out only to go to the supermarket. I bought some things I needed/wanted--bread, potatoes, salami, meatballs, apples, and beer. Then I returned home.
I had a relaxing early evening. I ate some peanuts while I cooked dinner--pasta coated in garlic cooked in butter and served with a chilled white wine. Then I cleaned the kitchen well and returned to the computer to do some more reading and some planning. Therefore, that's all there is to report today!!
There is some news that I didn't know to report yesterday, however. Last night as I was putting a plastic bag I use when I shop back inside the shoulder bag I carry when travelling, I discovered that my camera was missing. I keep it in a zippered compartment under a flap. I guess it was stolen while I was on the metro yesterday; that's the only time anyone could have easily gotten to it. There were times when the train was cram packed as I toured the different stations. It's not a great loss; the camera is at least 6-7 years old and was bigger and less sophisticated than most cameras are today. It won't be worth much to whoever got it, and I had been thinking recently that I might replace it. I will miss having photos, however, from the last half of the trip. I downloaded all the ones that Wes and I took on the first half, so I have those. There is a bit of a relief related to all of this. It is somewhat freeing to be on a trip and not feel the need to take photos of things I see.
Some of you will recall that my suitcase was stolen when I was travelling in Estonia and Latvia, two other countries that used to be a part of the U.S.S.R. There are apparently some desperate people who specialize in stealing from tourists in all of these countries. I will have to be more careful on the rest of my trip, since all of it will be in former parts of the U.S.S.R.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Scouting My Route for Next Week
Friday, Sept. 12, 2014--Kiev
Today has been a planning day to a great extent. First, before leaving the apartment this morning, I started searching for places to stay in Yerevan. I hadn't done that yet, because I was waiting to make sure my flight to Georgia was okay and I was thinking about what I should do on my last night in Yerevan. My first flight back to the U.S. begins at 4:10 in the morning. Many flights from that area between Asia and Europe have flights coming and going at night.) I will need to be at the airport around 2:00 to go through check-in and immigration procedures. This morning I finally made the decision that it would be ridiculous to try to go to bed and then get up at 1:00 to get dressed and catch a taxi to the airport. I'm not going to rent an apartment for that last night. Instead, I will go to the airport in the late afternoon and try to sleep in the airport until time for check-in. That will make getting to the airport easier and cheaper, since I can take a bus instead of a taxi. And it will likely result in my getting more rest than if I rented a place for that night. Therefore, I started searching for apartments for only 4 nights in Yerevan--checking in on Sept. 21 with departure on the 25th. I have narrowed it down to 4 choices and will go back through them tonight to try to start the process of reserving one.
My next planning process involved going to the train station to determine the travel time I will need next Friday morning to get there and to take the bus from there to the airport here for my 9:45 flight to Batumi. I always like to check out the route and connections so that everything will go smoothly--especially in a case with a flight that is non-refundable.
I walked to the airport just because I wanted to see everything along the route. It's a nice area most of the way, and it is downhill. However, it took about and hour which is too long for me to walk it the morning of my departure. Therefore, the first thing I did when I got to the station was to find the Metro exit where I will come out next week. Then I went through the station to the other side to find the Sky Bus stop--the bus that leaves every 15-20 minutes to the airport. Then I discovered an even faster underground route from the metro to the Sky Bus stop.
The train station itself is quite beautiful. I noticed it was nice as I walked through it with Sergey, my host at the apartment who picked me up when I arrived. But we were talking and I didn't have time to look carefully. So before doing my next scouting for my trip next week, I went back into the terminal and took photos. It has tall ceilings, a giant staircase, nice mosaics of scenes from the city, a huge chandelier, and nice marble work.
Next, I took the metro from the train station to my nearest station on that line to judge how much time it would take me to get to the station for that segment. It's interesting that I could find nothing on the Internet before I came here that would indicate how fast it is to get to the center of town from the train station. Every time I used a web source to route it, it would indicate an out-of-the-way bus route with transfers that would take a little over an hour. It really only took about 8 minutes on the metro plus about 4-5 minutes on each end to take the long escalators to go down and up from there.
Once I figured that out, I stayed down in the metro and took it back and forth to several of the stations. Kiev is known for having beautiful stations on its Red Line (the original line) due to having been one of the major cities within the U.S.S.R. The stations are nice, but the comparisons I have read of them to the Moscow metro stations are not accurate if the photos I have seen of Moscow stations are truly representative of the system there.
As I finally came out of my nearby station, I noted how far it is from my apartment for the final segment. So next Friday, I can now estimate it will take me...
10 minutes to get from my apartment to the entrance to the metro
20 minutes to get from the metro entrance to the metro exit at the train station
5 minutes to get from the metro exit at the train station to the Sky Bus stop
...meaning I will need to leave the apartment about 6:15 next Friday to catch the 6:55 bus to the airport which will arrive at 7:40. And that will give me the leeway to also catch the 7:10 bus which will arrive at the airport at 7:55. (The airline told me to be at the check-in counter by 8:00.)
Why did I plan all of that today? The owner of the apartment and his wife are coming on Sunday morning at 10:00. They need to pick up the money for the extra days I am staying here, and she probably wants to water the plants and maybe change the bedding. I will need to communicate to them about the time I have to leave the apartment on my departure date so we can determine what I should do with the key--whether he will be here at 6:15 or if there is an alternative of my leaving the key somewhere for them to pick up.
Today has been a planning day to a great extent. First, before leaving the apartment this morning, I started searching for places to stay in Yerevan. I hadn't done that yet, because I was waiting to make sure my flight to Georgia was okay and I was thinking about what I should do on my last night in Yerevan. My first flight back to the U.S. begins at 4:10 in the morning. Many flights from that area between Asia and Europe have flights coming and going at night.) I will need to be at the airport around 2:00 to go through check-in and immigration procedures. This morning I finally made the decision that it would be ridiculous to try to go to bed and then get up at 1:00 to get dressed and catch a taxi to the airport. I'm not going to rent an apartment for that last night. Instead, I will go to the airport in the late afternoon and try to sleep in the airport until time for check-in. That will make getting to the airport easier and cheaper, since I can take a bus instead of a taxi. And it will likely result in my getting more rest than if I rented a place for that night. Therefore, I started searching for apartments for only 4 nights in Yerevan--checking in on Sept. 21 with departure on the 25th. I have narrowed it down to 4 choices and will go back through them tonight to try to start the process of reserving one.
My next planning process involved going to the train station to determine the travel time I will need next Friday morning to get there and to take the bus from there to the airport here for my 9:45 flight to Batumi. I always like to check out the route and connections so that everything will go smoothly--especially in a case with a flight that is non-refundable.
I walked to the airport just because I wanted to see everything along the route. It's a nice area most of the way, and it is downhill. However, it took about and hour which is too long for me to walk it the morning of my departure. Therefore, the first thing I did when I got to the station was to find the Metro exit where I will come out next week. Then I went through the station to the other side to find the Sky Bus stop--the bus that leaves every 15-20 minutes to the airport. Then I discovered an even faster underground route from the metro to the Sky Bus stop.
The train station itself is quite beautiful. I noticed it was nice as I walked through it with Sergey, my host at the apartment who picked me up when I arrived. But we were talking and I didn't have time to look carefully. So before doing my next scouting for my trip next week, I went back into the terminal and took photos. It has tall ceilings, a giant staircase, nice mosaics of scenes from the city, a huge chandelier, and nice marble work.
Next, I took the metro from the train station to my nearest station on that line to judge how much time it would take me to get to the station for that segment. It's interesting that I could find nothing on the Internet before I came here that would indicate how fast it is to get to the center of town from the train station. Every time I used a web source to route it, it would indicate an out-of-the-way bus route with transfers that would take a little over an hour. It really only took about 8 minutes on the metro plus about 4-5 minutes on each end to take the long escalators to go down and up from there.
Once I figured that out, I stayed down in the metro and took it back and forth to several of the stations. Kiev is known for having beautiful stations on its Red Line (the original line) due to having been one of the major cities within the U.S.S.R. The stations are nice, but the comparisons I have read of them to the Moscow metro stations are not accurate if the photos I have seen of Moscow stations are truly representative of the system there.
As I finally came out of my nearby station, I noted how far it is from my apartment for the final segment. So next Friday, I can now estimate it will take me...
10 minutes to get from my apartment to the entrance to the metro
20 minutes to get from the metro entrance to the metro exit at the train station
5 minutes to get from the metro exit at the train station to the Sky Bus stop
...meaning I will need to leave the apartment about 6:15 next Friday to catch the 6:55 bus to the airport which will arrive at 7:40. And that will give me the leeway to also catch the 7:10 bus which will arrive at the airport at 7:55. (The airline told me to be at the check-in counter by 8:00.)
Why did I plan all of that today? The owner of the apartment and his wife are coming on Sunday morning at 10:00. They need to pick up the money for the extra days I am staying here, and she probably wants to water the plants and maybe change the bedding. I will need to communicate to them about the time I have to leave the apartment on my departure date so we can determine what I should do with the key--whether he will be here at 6:15 or if there is an alternative of my leaving the key somewhere for them to pick up.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Exploring Podil
Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014--Kiev
Podil is an older part of Kiev that was not bombed during WWII. It is downhill near the Dnipro River from where I live and parts of it are popular with tourists because of the old architecture. I spent 4 hours wandering there today covering only about 1/2 of the area--the westernmost part.
Most of the area I explored is NOT on the tourist trail. Therefore, I passed many wonderful old buildings that are NOT restored. It's a beehive of activity, though. Some buildings have been restored and others are undergoing restoration at the present time. It's an area full of apartments, schools, local shops and restaurants, etc. And near the river, there are large buildings housing major companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, etc.
Two of the highlights were the two markets I found in the area. One is in a communist-built building intended to represent modernity with a swooping roof (also here), yet the building looks old and dilapidated. It's a popular shopping area, though. It was full of counters selling meats, fish, cheeses, dried fruits/herbs, vegetables, etc. And the stalls stilled out onto the pavement around two sides of the building. The second market was an outdoor one a few blocks away. It was more like a farmer's market at home, although it did have some stalls with raw meats that aren't found at home. What I looked for there were the bakery stalls where it was obvious that the woman manning the stall had actually baked the items herself. At one of them, I bought a pastry that was much like a kolache; it was a disc about 15 cm (6 inches) in diameter of yeast dough that had two fillings in the indented center--a sweet cheese and a mixture of poppy seeds and ground nuts. It was delicious, especially the seed/nut mixture, but it was too large!
I was surprised at one point while walking up and down the blocks to find an active synagogue. There were people around it and even two men with paintings and photographs of the synagogue they had set up to the side of it and were selling. Within the same compound was a new apartment building of several stories which I assume is for Jewish families. And next door to that was a Jewish restaurant. It's one of the few times on this trip that I have observed an ACTIVE Jewish community. In most places the old synagogues still exist but are museums or commercial buildings or are just closed up now.
Returning home, I climbed the giant hill and paused at a park where I spent another hour reading from my current novel as I occasionally glanced at the tourists going down the hill to explore Podil, too. Finally, I walked back to the apartment where I am relaxing this evening.
I will return to Podil another day to explore the remaining half (the eastern portion) of it. It's an interesting area, and it was nice to feel like I was in a local neighborhood rather than in the center of the city.
Podil is an older part of Kiev that was not bombed during WWII. It is downhill near the Dnipro River from where I live and parts of it are popular with tourists because of the old architecture. I spent 4 hours wandering there today covering only about 1/2 of the area--the westernmost part.
Most of the area I explored is NOT on the tourist trail. Therefore, I passed many wonderful old buildings that are NOT restored. It's a beehive of activity, though. Some buildings have been restored and others are undergoing restoration at the present time. It's an area full of apartments, schools, local shops and restaurants, etc. And near the river, there are large buildings housing major companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, etc.
Two of the highlights were the two markets I found in the area. One is in a communist-built building intended to represent modernity with a swooping roof (also here), yet the building looks old and dilapidated. It's a popular shopping area, though. It was full of counters selling meats, fish, cheeses, dried fruits/herbs, vegetables, etc. And the stalls stilled out onto the pavement around two sides of the building. The second market was an outdoor one a few blocks away. It was more like a farmer's market at home, although it did have some stalls with raw meats that aren't found at home. What I looked for there were the bakery stalls where it was obvious that the woman manning the stall had actually baked the items herself. At one of them, I bought a pastry that was much like a kolache; it was a disc about 15 cm (6 inches) in diameter of yeast dough that had two fillings in the indented center--a sweet cheese and a mixture of poppy seeds and ground nuts. It was delicious, especially the seed/nut mixture, but it was too large!
I was surprised at one point while walking up and down the blocks to find an active synagogue. There were people around it and even two men with paintings and photographs of the synagogue they had set up to the side of it and were selling. Within the same compound was a new apartment building of several stories which I assume is for Jewish families. And next door to that was a Jewish restaurant. It's one of the few times on this trip that I have observed an ACTIVE Jewish community. In most places the old synagogues still exist but are museums or commercial buildings or are just closed up now.
Returning home, I climbed the giant hill and paused at a park where I spent another hour reading from my current novel as I occasionally glanced at the tourists going down the hill to explore Podil, too. Finally, I walked back to the apartment where I am relaxing this evening.
I will return to Podil another day to explore the remaining half (the eastern portion) of it. It's an interesting area, and it was nice to feel like I was in a local neighborhood rather than in the center of the city.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Another Travel Complication/Delay
Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014--Kiev
I was contacted by my airline I am flying to Georgia this morning. My flight that I was supposed to take next Wednesday fom Kharkiv to Batumi no longer exists (probably because it went over the area where the Russians have been fighting and where the Malaysian Airline was shot down). They gave me two choices--to rebook at no extra cost to go through another city on Friday of next week or to give me a refund. Well, I HAVE to get to Georgia, and there are no other alternatives than flying. So I agreed to the delay that will keep me here for 2 more days and will cut my time in Georgia and Armenia by those two days. It's frustrating, because there is so much I would like to see and do in those two countries.
The news sent me back to the computer to do more adjusting of scheduled plans. I contacted the owner of the apartment where I am staying and asked him to add two more days to my plans to be here. I again changed my advance reservation for the apartment in Batumi. (Thank goodness it has a flexible policy for adjusting or cancelling a reservation.) Because of the limited number of days, I have decided I will not stay longer than the one night in Batumi; what I see there Friday evening is all I will see. I will leave immediately the next morning for Tbilisi. I will spend only one night in Tbilisi to see my friends there. Then I will head to Armenia early the next day. That means I will be traveling 3 days in a row: flying to Batumi on Friday, taking a mini-bus to Tbilisi on Saturday, and taking a mini-bus to Yerevan on Sunday. Whew! And it means I will now only have 5 nights in Yerevan (for seeing that city and making side trips to visit the major sights throughout the small country).
Due to all of that, I didn't get out of the apartment until after noon today. And I still had to exchange money. I found a good rate (the lowest so far, so the local currency keeps going up) not far from the apartment, so that was out of the way fast.
Mostly, I just walked streets in new neighborhoods I hadn't explored yet. I passed by the theater that produces operettas/musicals. I walked by the Olympic Stadium, home of the Kiev Dynamo, a popular and very successful soccer team. I went by the old market building, but there aren't many stalls inside anymore; shops have taken up the outer rim with individual entrances, and not much remains inside anymore. Both the old market building and the Olympic Stadium both have interesting designs, though, as you can see from the links.
I saw a Billa Supermarket and went inside to shop. Usually Billa is a large store with great prices. Unfortunately, this one is rather small with limited choices of what can be bought. Anyway, I got some pasta, butter, garlic, cheese, and cookies (a kind I've seen all over Ukraine and wanted to try).
I'm exhausted from the pressure of changing my travel plans. Hope they are settled now. Tonight, I will relax here in the apartment. I will watch 2-3 short films on my computer, maybe make a call or two, and read from my current novel.
I was contacted by my airline I am flying to Georgia this morning. My flight that I was supposed to take next Wednesday fom Kharkiv to Batumi no longer exists (probably because it went over the area where the Russians have been fighting and where the Malaysian Airline was shot down). They gave me two choices--to rebook at no extra cost to go through another city on Friday of next week or to give me a refund. Well, I HAVE to get to Georgia, and there are no other alternatives than flying. So I agreed to the delay that will keep me here for 2 more days and will cut my time in Georgia and Armenia by those two days. It's frustrating, because there is so much I would like to see and do in those two countries.
The news sent me back to the computer to do more adjusting of scheduled plans. I contacted the owner of the apartment where I am staying and asked him to add two more days to my plans to be here. I again changed my advance reservation for the apartment in Batumi. (Thank goodness it has a flexible policy for adjusting or cancelling a reservation.) Because of the limited number of days, I have decided I will not stay longer than the one night in Batumi; what I see there Friday evening is all I will see. I will leave immediately the next morning for Tbilisi. I will spend only one night in Tbilisi to see my friends there. Then I will head to Armenia early the next day. That means I will be traveling 3 days in a row: flying to Batumi on Friday, taking a mini-bus to Tbilisi on Saturday, and taking a mini-bus to Yerevan on Sunday. Whew! And it means I will now only have 5 nights in Yerevan (for seeing that city and making side trips to visit the major sights throughout the small country).
Due to all of that, I didn't get out of the apartment until after noon today. And I still had to exchange money. I found a good rate (the lowest so far, so the local currency keeps going up) not far from the apartment, so that was out of the way fast.
Mostly, I just walked streets in new neighborhoods I hadn't explored yet. I passed by the theater that produces operettas/musicals. I walked by the Olympic Stadium, home of the Kiev Dynamo, a popular and very successful soccer team. I went by the old market building, but there aren't many stalls inside anymore; shops have taken up the outer rim with individual entrances, and not much remains inside anymore. Both the old market building and the Olympic Stadium both have interesting designs, though, as you can see from the links.
I saw a Billa Supermarket and went inside to shop. Usually Billa is a large store with great prices. Unfortunately, this one is rather small with limited choices of what can be bought. Anyway, I got some pasta, butter, garlic, cheese, and cookies (a kind I've seen all over Ukraine and wanted to try).
I'm exhausted from the pressure of changing my travel plans. Hope they are settled now. Tonight, I will relax here in the apartment. I will watch 2-3 short films on my computer, maybe make a call or two, and read from my current novel.
Tuesday, September 09, 2014
Churches of Kiev
Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014--Kiev
Fortunately my stomach had settled down from the prunes I ate by the time I went to bed. I slept well and awoke refreshed this morning.
I'm still amazed at how close my apartment is to everything here. Today, I essentially made the same circular walk as yesterday, but I made it in reverse and concentrating on the churches along the way.
My first stop was St. Michael's Monastery, a beautiful, impressive complex. Some kind of public address was being made outside beside the church. A man sat in a military jeep with a small crowd, including at least 3 crews from TV stations, around him. My guess is that it was something to do with the war and the current cease fire. Anyway, I walked into the church and looked around. It was somewhat of a typical orthodox church with lots of icons and with the paintings looking like Greek youths. I wandered around to the back of the church, and many monks were walking out of the housing units towards another building. It was almost noon, so they may have been heading to lunch, but maybe they had a class session or something. They all wore long black robes. It was amazing how young they were and how many of them there were.
Next, I arrived at St. Andrew's Church Museum. (They call churches museums here when they have an admission fee for tourists.) Its onion domes reminded me of Fabergé eggs, since the gold decorations were raised dollops above the green surfaces of them.
The walk from there to my next site was lined with souvenir stalls selling everything imaginable--stacked dolls, McLenin t-shirts (among others), mugs, and other items. Those led me to the Golden Gate, a recreation of a gate along the ancient walls that surrounded Kiev centuries ago.
The last church on my tour was the St. Sofia Cathedral Museum, the oldest standing church in the city built from 1017 to 1031. There are original 11th-century mosaics and frescoes inside.
After that, I sat at Park Shevchenka for a while to watch the students leaving the university buildings and crossing it on their way to a late lunch or to the main streets nearby.
I needed some groceries, so I walked from the park to a shopping mall called Gullivers which was nbearby. The supermarket was a bit upscale, and it didn't have everything I wanted. But I bought some ham for sandwiches, a piece of roasted chicken breast, some meat patties, some sausages, some potatoes to cook, half a loaf of bread, a liter of drinking yogurt, and two beers. It was a close call. It took all but about $1-worth of my local currency. Therefore, tomorrow is a day to search for a bank with a good exchange rate for changing money.
In the late afternoon, I started planning the adjustments to my trip through Georgia and in Armenia caused by the fact that I will be here 5 days longer than I originally expected. I wrote a long e-mail to the people I stayed with in Georgia with some questions for them about my modes of travel. (Mini-buses will be best because they are faster. But I needed to know whether I can take my luggage on them and, if so, would I be expected to pay for an extra person for the space they would be occupying. I also needed to know if Saturday would be okay for travelling to Armenia or if it would be better for me to go on a Friday. And, finally, I had to ask them if they or the neighbors could put me up that one night--either Thursday or Friday according to when I should head to Armenia.) If their answers make it all work out, I will add a second night to my stay in Batumi, since it is new to me and since I can't really see much in half a day there, and I will stay only 1 night in Tbilisi which I already know well. That will leave me with 6 days to explore Armenia instead of the 9 I originally thought I would have.
Tonight, I had potatoes with the roasted chicken and one of the beers for dinner. Tomorrow, I'll probably have some of the sausages with more of the potatoes and with mustard.
Fortunately my stomach had settled down from the prunes I ate by the time I went to bed. I slept well and awoke refreshed this morning.
I'm still amazed at how close my apartment is to everything here. Today, I essentially made the same circular walk as yesterday, but I made it in reverse and concentrating on the churches along the way.
My first stop was St. Michael's Monastery, a beautiful, impressive complex. Some kind of public address was being made outside beside the church. A man sat in a military jeep with a small crowd, including at least 3 crews from TV stations, around him. My guess is that it was something to do with the war and the current cease fire. Anyway, I walked into the church and looked around. It was somewhat of a typical orthodox church with lots of icons and with the paintings looking like Greek youths. I wandered around to the back of the church, and many monks were walking out of the housing units towards another building. It was almost noon, so they may have been heading to lunch, but maybe they had a class session or something. They all wore long black robes. It was amazing how young they were and how many of them there were.
Next, I arrived at St. Andrew's Church Museum. (They call churches museums here when they have an admission fee for tourists.) Its onion domes reminded me of Fabergé eggs, since the gold decorations were raised dollops above the green surfaces of them.
The walk from there to my next site was lined with souvenir stalls selling everything imaginable--stacked dolls, McLenin t-shirts (among others), mugs, and other items. Those led me to the Golden Gate, a recreation of a gate along the ancient walls that surrounded Kiev centuries ago.
The last church on my tour was the St. Sofia Cathedral Museum, the oldest standing church in the city built from 1017 to 1031. There are original 11th-century mosaics and frescoes inside.
After that, I sat at Park Shevchenka for a while to watch the students leaving the university buildings and crossing it on their way to a late lunch or to the main streets nearby.
I needed some groceries, so I walked from the park to a shopping mall called Gullivers which was nbearby. The supermarket was a bit upscale, and it didn't have everything I wanted. But I bought some ham for sandwiches, a piece of roasted chicken breast, some meat patties, some sausages, some potatoes to cook, half a loaf of bread, a liter of drinking yogurt, and two beers. It was a close call. It took all but about $1-worth of my local currency. Therefore, tomorrow is a day to search for a bank with a good exchange rate for changing money.
In the late afternoon, I started planning the adjustments to my trip through Georgia and in Armenia caused by the fact that I will be here 5 days longer than I originally expected. I wrote a long e-mail to the people I stayed with in Georgia with some questions for them about my modes of travel. (Mini-buses will be best because they are faster. But I needed to know whether I can take my luggage on them and, if so, would I be expected to pay for an extra person for the space they would be occupying. I also needed to know if Saturday would be okay for travelling to Armenia or if it would be better for me to go on a Friday. And, finally, I had to ask them if they or the neighbors could put me up that one night--either Thursday or Friday according to when I should head to Armenia.) If their answers make it all work out, I will add a second night to my stay in Batumi, since it is new to me and since I can't really see much in half a day there, and I will stay only 1 night in Tbilisi which I already know well. That will leave me with 6 days to explore Armenia instead of the 9 I originally thought I would have.
Tonight, I had potatoes with the roasted chicken and one of the beers for dinner. Tomorrow, I'll probably have some of the sausages with more of the potatoes and with mustard.
Monday, September 08, 2014
First Day in Kiev
Monday, Sept. 8, 2014--Kiev
After spending half the morning doing some research, I decided just to stay in Kiev the extra days until my flight to Georgia. It was the simplest thing to do, and I am tired of train travel and making arrangements for places to stay. Plus, today I was just tired in general. I guess it was due to the long trip yesterday and getting to bed so late. I contacted Sergey to let him know so they would not rent the apartment to anyone else.
I didn't realize that Kiev is built on hills. In my tired state and with the heat today, I didn't accomplish much. That's fine, though, since I have 8 more days to explore the city. What I also discovered was how well located I am. It is just one block to Independence Square, the main square of the city and the location where a million people came together as a part of the Orange Revolution when Ukraine won its independence from the USSR. And Kreschatyk St., the central business and shopping area of the city, passes along one side of the square. I can walk to most of the major things to see in the city without going many blocks. Both Independence Square and Kreschatyk St. are lined with large, Russian-style buildings--rather massive, yet somehow a bit bulky looking.
From Kreschatyk St., I turned to the area with the T. Shevchenko National University. Young people were streaming out of the buildings and into a park in front of the campus. The buildings are rather plain, but this is the major university in Ukraine and has 30,000 students.
I was already tiring, so I turned in front of the campus to head back to my apartment. In doing so, my walk took me in front of the National Opera Theater. There were many other things in the area that I was near and will explore further in the days to come.
I had packed a partial bag of prunes in my suitcase, and I thought I would eat a few as a snack. I had about 9 of them, I think around 14:00. It's now 18:00, and my stomach has been gurgling and growling for the past 2 hours or so. Can prunes go bad? Did I just eat too many of them? I definitely have stomach uneasiness over eating them.
I forgot to mention last night that I finished reading The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters on the train. It is a gothic mystery set in the late 1940s in England. The book was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize a few years ago. I enjoyed reading it, and the author was good at raising suspicions of what was happening that would implicate many possible things. I give the book 3 stars out of 4.
After spending half the morning doing some research, I decided just to stay in Kiev the extra days until my flight to Georgia. It was the simplest thing to do, and I am tired of train travel and making arrangements for places to stay. Plus, today I was just tired in general. I guess it was due to the long trip yesterday and getting to bed so late. I contacted Sergey to let him know so they would not rent the apartment to anyone else.
I didn't realize that Kiev is built on hills. In my tired state and with the heat today, I didn't accomplish much. That's fine, though, since I have 8 more days to explore the city. What I also discovered was how well located I am. It is just one block to Independence Square, the main square of the city and the location where a million people came together as a part of the Orange Revolution when Ukraine won its independence from the USSR. And Kreschatyk St., the central business and shopping area of the city, passes along one side of the square. I can walk to most of the major things to see in the city without going many blocks. Both Independence Square and Kreschatyk St. are lined with large, Russian-style buildings--rather massive, yet somehow a bit bulky looking.
From Kreschatyk St., I turned to the area with the T. Shevchenko National University. Young people were streaming out of the buildings and into a park in front of the campus. The buildings are rather plain, but this is the major university in Ukraine and has 30,000 students.
I was already tiring, so I turned in front of the campus to head back to my apartment. In doing so, my walk took me in front of the National Opera Theater. There were many other things in the area that I was near and will explore further in the days to come.
I had packed a partial bag of prunes in my suitcase, and I thought I would eat a few as a snack. I had about 9 of them, I think around 14:00. It's now 18:00, and my stomach has been gurgling and growling for the past 2 hours or so. Can prunes go bad? Did I just eat too many of them? I definitely have stomach uneasiness over eating them.
I forgot to mention last night that I finished reading The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters on the train. It is a gothic mystery set in the late 1940s in England. The book was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize a few years ago. I enjoyed reading it, and the author was good at raising suspicions of what was happening that would implicate many possible things. I give the book 3 stars out of 4.
Sunday, September 07, 2014
An Error in Planning/Must Adjust My Schedule
Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014--Odesa to Kiev
I forgot to mention yesterday that two people came to the tram stop and spoke to me in the local language. I explained I speak only English and am from the USA. Immediately, the woman looked panicked. She quickly said, "Ukrainian!" and pointed to her and her husband. Then she said, "Ukranian, no Ruskii, Ukranian!!" I guess she was afraid I would think they were Russians and wouldn't like them.
I have an unexpected problem. Today, I was writing the airline to check on my flight schedule and to ask when I should be at the airport on Friday. When looking at my reservation, however, I noticed it had a different date--Sept. 17 instead of Sept. 12. Sept. 17 is the day I had scheduled to travel from Georgia to Armenia. As I have thought about the situation, though, I think I know what happened. I know I was in a bit of a panic because Ukrainian Airlines had no flights available on Sept. 12, and I was worried about how I could get across the Black Sea to Georgia. I checked, and Ukrainian Airlines had nother available for days before or after Sept. 12, either. In my rush, I found DniproAvia. At first on Kayak.com, it had no seats available either. But when I went to the airline's own site, it showed I could fly there by going from Kiev to Kharkov and then to Batumi in Georgia. Thinking about it, I believe that I realized at the time that the only date I could book that flight was for Sept. 17. I quickly booked the ticket, and I guess I forgot about it being for a different date and never adjusted the dates on my itinerary. I've been following the itinerary and am just lucky that I looked at my ticket today rather than showing up at the airport on Friday and being told I wouldn't be flying until Wednesday. What this means is that I must stay in Ukraine for 5 extra days and then shorten the length of my visit to Georgia and Armenia.
Based on that information, I quickly asked for my reservation in Batumi to be adjusted to a different date and for only 1 night instead of 3. I will also stay in Tbilisi for only 1 night instead of the 2 I had planned. That way, I hope to only have to cut 2 nights off my planned stay in Armenia--giving me 7 days instead of 9. It's not a disaster, but it would have been so much better if I hadn't made that mistake of forgetting to adjust my itinerary at the time I booked the ticket. Now I must decide what to do with 5 extra days in Ukraine.
I will leave for the train station in about 15 minutes, so I will finish this post after I arrive in Kiev this evening.
__________________
It was a long trip even though I was on a fast train. It took 7 hours rather than the usual 12 hours or so. That's why the ticket was so expensive when I bought it last week--3 times the cost of any of the other tickets I have bought here in Ukraine. Unfortunately, we were delayed by two emergency stops. One related to a drunk who was walking across the tracks. He made it fine. But later, we stopped again for about 10 minutes and a man from the train went along the entire exterior of the train before we started again; I have a feeling that they thought we hit someone or something.
Sergey, the owner of the apartment here, picked me up at the airport. He's a nice man, and he speaks English well, but with a strong accent. On the way to the apartment, we talked about the situation with Russia. It was interesting hearing his stories and ideas. Most interesting was his telling about friends who live in Crimea and business customers who live in the disputed area near Russia who used to talk openly about the good and bad of Russia and who now seem afraid to talk on the phone about Russia at all. Apparently Russia already has its secret service working to monitor who is a "good" citizen and who isn't in these areas.
The apartment here in Kiev is wonderful. It's probably the biggest I have rented so far and is very clean and well located near the center of town. Sergey told me I can have it for 5 more days if I want to stay in Kiev for all 10 of the days until my flight. I said I would do some research to see if I want to do that or if I want to travel elsewhere. I would enjoy going to Kharkiv for 2-3 days. I just checked the train schedule, and it is only a 4 1/2 hour trip there. So I may leave here to go there on Friday and return to here for 2 more nights before leaving for Georgia. Tomorrow morning, I will work on planning it. It's sad, if I do that, that I will have to come back to Kiev to catch my flight which will go through Kharkiv, but that's how airlines are today.
I forgot to mention yesterday that two people came to the tram stop and spoke to me in the local language. I explained I speak only English and am from the USA. Immediately, the woman looked panicked. She quickly said, "Ukrainian!" and pointed to her and her husband. Then she said, "Ukranian, no Ruskii, Ukranian!!" I guess she was afraid I would think they were Russians and wouldn't like them.
I have an unexpected problem. Today, I was writing the airline to check on my flight schedule and to ask when I should be at the airport on Friday. When looking at my reservation, however, I noticed it had a different date--Sept. 17 instead of Sept. 12. Sept. 17 is the day I had scheduled to travel from Georgia to Armenia. As I have thought about the situation, though, I think I know what happened. I know I was in a bit of a panic because Ukrainian Airlines had no flights available on Sept. 12, and I was worried about how I could get across the Black Sea to Georgia. I checked, and Ukrainian Airlines had nother available for days before or after Sept. 12, either. In my rush, I found DniproAvia. At first on Kayak.com, it had no seats available either. But when I went to the airline's own site, it showed I could fly there by going from Kiev to Kharkov and then to Batumi in Georgia. Thinking about it, I believe that I realized at the time that the only date I could book that flight was for Sept. 17. I quickly booked the ticket, and I guess I forgot about it being for a different date and never adjusted the dates on my itinerary. I've been following the itinerary and am just lucky that I looked at my ticket today rather than showing up at the airport on Friday and being told I wouldn't be flying until Wednesday. What this means is that I must stay in Ukraine for 5 extra days and then shorten the length of my visit to Georgia and Armenia.
Based on that information, I quickly asked for my reservation in Batumi to be adjusted to a different date and for only 1 night instead of 3. I will also stay in Tbilisi for only 1 night instead of the 2 I had planned. That way, I hope to only have to cut 2 nights off my planned stay in Armenia--giving me 7 days instead of 9. It's not a disaster, but it would have been so much better if I hadn't made that mistake of forgetting to adjust my itinerary at the time I booked the ticket. Now I must decide what to do with 5 extra days in Ukraine.
I will leave for the train station in about 15 minutes, so I will finish this post after I arrive in Kiev this evening.
__________________
It was a long trip even though I was on a fast train. It took 7 hours rather than the usual 12 hours or so. That's why the ticket was so expensive when I bought it last week--3 times the cost of any of the other tickets I have bought here in Ukraine. Unfortunately, we were delayed by two emergency stops. One related to a drunk who was walking across the tracks. He made it fine. But later, we stopped again for about 10 minutes and a man from the train went along the entire exterior of the train before we started again; I have a feeling that they thought we hit someone or something.
Sergey, the owner of the apartment here, picked me up at the airport. He's a nice man, and he speaks English well, but with a strong accent. On the way to the apartment, we talked about the situation with Russia. It was interesting hearing his stories and ideas. Most interesting was his telling about friends who live in Crimea and business customers who live in the disputed area near Russia who used to talk openly about the good and bad of Russia and who now seem afraid to talk on the phone about Russia at all. Apparently Russia already has its secret service working to monitor who is a "good" citizen and who isn't in these areas.
The apartment here in Kiev is wonderful. It's probably the biggest I have rented so far and is very clean and well located near the center of town. Sergey told me I can have it for 5 more days if I want to stay in Kiev for all 10 of the days until my flight. I said I would do some research to see if I want to do that or if I want to travel elsewhere. I would enjoy going to Kharkiv for 2-3 days. I just checked the train schedule, and it is only a 4 1/2 hour trip there. So I may leave here to go there on Friday and return to here for 2 more nights before leaving for Georgia. Tomorrow morning, I will work on planning it. It's sad, if I do that, that I will have to come back to Kiev to catch my flight which will go through Kharkiv, but that's how airlines are today.
Saturday, September 06, 2014
Living on Jewish Street
Saturday, Sept. 6, 2014--Odesa
I wrote from my last city that I was staying in a Jewish hotel with the synagogue next door. Well, here in Odesa my apartment is on Jewish Street and the synagogue is across the street at the end of the block. As I left this morning, I noticed two young men wearing their yarmulkes. And as I returned this evening, lights were on and people entering for some other activity. I've wondered if the people living in this building and maybe this same apartment were taken away and killed at the camps, since the building is from the 1800s.
Part of my plan for today was to go to the beach at Arcadia about 6 km (3 1/2 miles) away. It is considered to be the better beach for the area. I walked to the street where I was supposed to catch the #5 tram and got on it. Just beyond where I entered the car, it turn a different direction and I could see that the continuing tracks toward Arcadia looked unused. I stayed on it a while, but the tram eventually turned back toward town. I guess it just makes a loop in the inner city now. I got off and gave up on the idea of going to the beach.
Instead, I headed to the City Gardens, a nice small park downtown, planning to read. When I arrived, however, there were people in native costumes. And soon, they went onto the stage of the gazebo and started singing. There were, in fact, several groups that performed there. I enjoyed watching and listening to them. Most sang Ukrainian folk songs, but some of the younger groups sang more modern sounding tunes.
It was another warm day. I just wore a t-shirt and shorts. I can see that my arms have gotten tanned now.
I'm cooking here tonight. I bought some fresh, dirty new potatoes at the store, and they are boiling right now while the two meatballs I bought are warming in the skillet. I'm looking forward to them.
Завтра, я залишу тут Києві, моя остання зупинка в Україні. Мій поїзд не приїде в Київ до 22:00, так що це буде пізно, коли я перебуваю в квартирі. Власник квартири буде зустрітися зі мною на вокзалі і супроводжувати мене в квартиру.
That last paragraph is in the Ukrainian language. I thought readers might find it interesting to see what it looks like. Here is the original text which was translated to Ukrainian from English by Google Translate:
Tomorrow, I will leave here for Kiev, my last stop in Ukraine. My train won't arrive in Kiev until 22:00, so it will be late by the time I am in the apartment. The owner of the apartment will meet me at the train station and accompany me to the apartment.
I wrote from my last city that I was staying in a Jewish hotel with the synagogue next door. Well, here in Odesa my apartment is on Jewish Street and the synagogue is across the street at the end of the block. As I left this morning, I noticed two young men wearing their yarmulkes. And as I returned this evening, lights were on and people entering for some other activity. I've wondered if the people living in this building and maybe this same apartment were taken away and killed at the camps, since the building is from the 1800s.
Part of my plan for today was to go to the beach at Arcadia about 6 km (3 1/2 miles) away. It is considered to be the better beach for the area. I walked to the street where I was supposed to catch the #5 tram and got on it. Just beyond where I entered the car, it turn a different direction and I could see that the continuing tracks toward Arcadia looked unused. I stayed on it a while, but the tram eventually turned back toward town. I guess it just makes a loop in the inner city now. I got off and gave up on the idea of going to the beach.
Instead, I headed to the City Gardens, a nice small park downtown, planning to read. When I arrived, however, there were people in native costumes. And soon, they went onto the stage of the gazebo and started singing. There were, in fact, several groups that performed there. I enjoyed watching and listening to them. Most sang Ukrainian folk songs, but some of the younger groups sang more modern sounding tunes.
It was another warm day. I just wore a t-shirt and shorts. I can see that my arms have gotten tanned now.
I'm cooking here tonight. I bought some fresh, dirty new potatoes at the store, and they are boiling right now while the two meatballs I bought are warming in the skillet. I'm looking forward to them.
Завтра, я залишу тут Києві, моя остання зупинка в Україні. Мій поїзд не приїде в Київ до 22:00, так що це буде пізно, коли я перебуваю в квартирі. Власник квартири буде зустрітися зі мною на вокзалі і супроводжувати мене в квартиру.
That last paragraph is in the Ukrainian language. I thought readers might find it interesting to see what it looks like. Here is the original text which was translated to Ukrainian from English by Google Translate:
Tomorrow, I will leave here for Kiev, my last stop in Ukraine. My train won't arrive in Kiev until 22:00, so it will be late by the time I am in the apartment. The owner of the apartment will meet me at the train station and accompany me to the apartment.
Friday, September 05, 2014
Beaches, Promenades, Etc., in the Sunshine
Friday, Sept. 5, 2014--Odesa
The weather is warm here. The forecast is for sunshine and rather warm days for the foreseeable future, but I will be here only until Sunday.
I was lazy this morning. I stayed inside until 11:30. Then I went out exploring for 5 hours. I headed first to the Pushkin Statue at one end of the bluff-top promenade that runs across the northern part of the city. From there, I passed the Opera and Ballet Theater and wandered down to the port.
Next came probably the most famous spot in Odesa--the Potemkin Steps. I approached them from the port area, since the best way to see them is from below. They are famous mostly because the Russian silent film Battleship Potemkin featured them in a dramatic scene ending with a runaway baby carriage representing how everything was lost and out of control. They were built so that the bottom steps are wider than the top ones which gives the impression that they are much steeper than they really are. What surprised me about seeing them, however was their positioning. In the film, I seemed to recall that it looked as if the steps angled down to the harbor. In actuality, they are perpendicular to it.
At the top of the steps were men trying to convince people to pose with 3 eagles. Somehow, they had them "tamed." They would flap their wings, but would not attack. It was hard to watch, since the guys would fling the eagles around on the ropes tied to them and move them up and down to assure that they would flap their wings for the photos. This would be a good location for a chapter of PETA.
I walked the entire promenade after that, and stopped along it to read some and watch people. Then I headed through the large Shevchenko Park to the Lanzheron Beach. Both the park and the beach were lined with kiosks seeling souvenirs, food, drinks, etc. When I exited the park for the beach, I was at the Nemo Dolphinarium. A short walk further took me to the public beach. This is the smallest of the beaches in the area, but the closest to the city. It was packed with people mostly sunbathing. I just wandered and watched.
It was hot and I was beginning to perspire. Therefore, I headed back toward the apartment from there. I passed a small carnival near the beach and followed streets I had not yet explored. Since I ate an early breakfast, I had my dinner at 17:30. Now I will just relax for the evening.
The weather is warm here. The forecast is for sunshine and rather warm days for the foreseeable future, but I will be here only until Sunday.
I was lazy this morning. I stayed inside until 11:30. Then I went out exploring for 5 hours. I headed first to the Pushkin Statue at one end of the bluff-top promenade that runs across the northern part of the city. From there, I passed the Opera and Ballet Theater and wandered down to the port.
Next came probably the most famous spot in Odesa--the Potemkin Steps. I approached them from the port area, since the best way to see them is from below. They are famous mostly because the Russian silent film Battleship Potemkin featured them in a dramatic scene ending with a runaway baby carriage representing how everything was lost and out of control. They were built so that the bottom steps are wider than the top ones which gives the impression that they are much steeper than they really are. What surprised me about seeing them, however was their positioning. In the film, I seemed to recall that it looked as if the steps angled down to the harbor. In actuality, they are perpendicular to it.
At the top of the steps were men trying to convince people to pose with 3 eagles. Somehow, they had them "tamed." They would flap their wings, but would not attack. It was hard to watch, since the guys would fling the eagles around on the ropes tied to them and move them up and down to assure that they would flap their wings for the photos. This would be a good location for a chapter of PETA.
I walked the entire promenade after that, and stopped along it to read some and watch people. Then I headed through the large Shevchenko Park to the Lanzheron Beach. Both the park and the beach were lined with kiosks seeling souvenirs, food, drinks, etc. When I exited the park for the beach, I was at the Nemo Dolphinarium. A short walk further took me to the public beach. This is the smallest of the beaches in the area, but the closest to the city. It was packed with people mostly sunbathing. I just wandered and watched.
It was hot and I was beginning to perspire. Therefore, I headed back toward the apartment from there. I passed a small carnival near the beach and followed streets I had not yet explored. Since I ate an early breakfast, I had my dinner at 17:30. Now I will just relax for the evening.
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