Day 9: Khotyn and Kamyanets-Podilsky

Points to whoever can pronounce the title! As I said yesterday, I joined up with the hostel group tour to go out to see the fortress of Khotyn and old city of Kamyanets-Podilsky (hereafter to be known as K-P, for obvious reasons). Our group consisted of the hostel owner and his son (English), a Belorussian couple and two Ukrainian girls heading off in a jeep. The first thing I can tell you is that the roads are terrible around here! In the cities, the streets are often paved with cobblestones, which makes for a teeth-rattling ride, but on the highways it's sometimes even worse what with the uneven road surfaces and potholes all over the place. I think the guys sitting in the back over the wheels lost about 20 IQ points going over the bumps.

We stopped off first at Khotyn, which I hadn't been planning to visit on my own, a 15th century castle built by a Moldavian prince, occupied by the Ottoman Empire and then later the scene of a great battle between forces led by the Poles and the Turks in 1621. The Poles won, but it got retaken by the Turks in 1711 and apparently went back and forth before finally being handed over to the Russians in 1812. I suppose I knew in the back of my mind somewhere that the Ottoman Empire had control of this region at times, I certainly knew they were in the Balkans, but it still comes as a surprise to think about I think. The fortress itself was nothing amazing, mostly empty apart from one room dedicated to horrific torture instruments, many of which relied upon being inserted into various orifices for their effectiveness, but the views were great and it was fun walking around.


Unusually, rather than being set on the highest hill, the fortress is in a depression so that it's invisible from the land side until you're almost on top of it. Despite this, it commands some great views over the river


A lookout tower set in rough terrain near the castle


The fortress of Khotyn




Me in front of the fortress


Our little group in front of the castle door


A view over the Dnister


On the castle wall overlooking the Dnister


The awkward result of me trying to 'pose like a Ukrainian'

After Khotyn, it was back in the jeep to head to K-P, a 'museum city' which is almost completely encircled by a canyon and the Smotrych river. Unfortunately, you can't really see this when you're there, but I've seen photos and it's pretty cool. I probably didn't see as much of the sights as I would have on my own, but Marcus the hostel guy gave us a nice little tour, pointing out the garden where there used to be a statue to a nun who miraculously gave birth to a child although she was a virgin (the statue was removed much later when the Soviets discovered a secret tunnel between the monastery and nunnery), the oldest chapel in K-P, dating back to 1398, the Polish town hall with its slightly leaning tower (under the Magdeburg Law each ethnic group could have a degree of legal autonomy and control over their religious practices), and the St Peter and Paul Cathedral, built in the 15th century, which has a minaret topped by a golden statue of the Virgin Mary, another reminder of the Turkish presence in the area. Marcus told us that the story goes that after the Turks conquered K-P, they sent a note to one of their conquered rivals saying 'we pray to Allah from a higher place than you' and when the Poles got it back, they built Mary and sent word back that she was standing on the place they prayed to Allah from. Finally, we took some photos at the castle (but didn't go in) and then Marcus set up the barbeque while the rest of us took a walk along the river to a waterfall with very picturesque views of the castle.


View of the gorge around the town, you can just make out a waterfall coming down and the river appears as a patch on the bottom


A lookout tower facing over the gorge


The cathedral with its minaret


Polish town hall with the (slightly) leaning tower of Kamyanets-Podilsky


The 1398 church of St Nikolai


Gates to a ruined church


The castle at K-P




Me at the castle


View of the castle from across the waterfall





We ended the day picnicking by the river on barbecued chicken drumsticks and kebabs, yum! It was really interesting chatting with everyone - the Belorussians confirmed that no-one really likes their dictator but if you say so, you will get sent to prison, and Marcus gave us a lot of insight into how the whole Ukrainian bride thing works and how many guys he gets through the hostel who are just here cruising for sex.

All in all, I had a great day (all for about 9 euros by the way) and I'm really glad that they were running the excursion just at the right time for me, we had great weather, and that I didn't decide my day would be better spent napping and walking around here in Chernivtsi. I was exhausted when I got back though, straight to bed by about 10 and I slept through until 7.

Day 8: Lviving la vida loca

Groan, first I'll start out by apologising for the title - not only is it a terrible pun on a tired old song, but my day in Lviv could not by any stretch of the imagination be described as 'la vida loca'. I'll also say sorry for the fact that the blog post below is very "and then... and then...", I wrote it fresh off the train this morning when I was a bit braindead. Since I still haven't slept and I was out all day, I'm still a bit braindead, but hey ho.


Another scrappy day of not doing much. I still had no access to cash, which definitely helped from a budget point of view! I ate as much as I could fit in for breakfast at the hotel (free) and then checked out and walked up to St. George's Cathedral, the centre of the 'Greek Catholic Church', a kind of odd arrangement where they are under the Pope, but the service is basically Eastern Orthodox. Anyway, there was a service going on when I got there, so I just took a couple of hopefully discreet snaps from the doorway and in the courtyard and that was that. My guidebook said there were wonderful views from up there, but if there were I couldn't find them, too many trees.


St George Cathedral


A building in the cathedral grounds

Some things I saw on my way to and from the cathedral:

A building I liked the look of


There was no plaque, but according to my guidebook, this was the birthplace of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, for whom 'masochism' is named. It now seems to be a lawyers' office - some would say that's more sadism than masochism, hi-oh! (I kid, literally my best friend is a lawyer, although she's no longer practising, so she might agree!)


Statue of St. George killing the dragon


Some interesting statues


The Lviv Inventors' Club


Statues around the doorway of the Lviv Inventors' Club


Me in front of the university


After that, I walked back into town and went to the Boim Chapel, the exterior of which I already put a photo up of. (Sorry for that terribly-constructed sentence, by the way.) Anyway, my guidebook didn't say anything about the inside, but I decided to check it out anyway. Wow! No idea why it doesn't tell you to go in, it's amazing! All of one wall and the ceiling is totally covered with incredibly detailed stone carvings. The great thing is, because it's so small you can really see everything if you take your time and really look at the thing. Even then, you get the feeling there's always more to discover.

Some of my million and one photos of the Boim Chapel:







I was trying to look like I wasn't taking a photo of myself in case the attendant came to investigate and told me off for sticking my camera on this wooden thing

I think after that I took a quick look at the Bernadine Cathedral, another Greek Catholic affair, and then I went up the tower of the town hall in the middle of Rynok Square. It was a bit of a hike up there, but well worth it. The views were even better when you were right in the middle of the old town and could really pick out all the different churches and cathedrals and other points of interest.

Views from the tower:


View of one side of Rynok Square

Rynok Square and the Dominican Cathedral

The Latin Cathedral from the tower

View of the Dominican church

View of the square with the statue of Shevchenko

Another side of Rynok Square

My next stop was the Museum of Religion, less because I was super eager to learn about the different religions practiced in Ukraine and more because I was hoping to see some cool old icons. Anyway, the museum was pretty hilarious. Most exhibits came from the 19th or 20th century, and many of them were just reproductions or even photocopies! However, sometimes the crappiest museums can be the best, and there were enough amusing things that I actually had a pretty good time looking at bizarre paintings or awkward use of Ukrenglish labels. There was an entire room dedicated to Pope John Paul II, I think based on this museum his visit to Lviv was the most exciting thing that ever happened in the city. I enjoyed that there were dozens of photos of him, and in most of them this young priest was hanging around next to him, with this permanent huge grin on his face, quite sweet. It would have been nice if I could read more of the information which maybe would have given some context on the actual history of the religions, and how the different denominations and faiths interacted and how they fared under communism. The museum used to be a museum of atheism in the Soviet period, so it's already a bit of a statement turning it into a museum of religion instead, and there was one exhibit of a Soviet propaganda poster saying “1 pound of church treasures = 25 pounds of bread = 5 starving people saved” and the label said something like “Communist propaganda lies in order to steal from and suppress the church” - don't be shy about it now...


A prehistoric grave of a man and woman embracing. I don't know how they ended up like that, but I thought it was quite sweet.


A bizarre painting in the Museum of Religion, captioned 'Boleslaw the Brave punishes the wives of noblemen, whose husbands returned from the Rus campaign'. I'm left with so many questions - why were they punished? Why were they punished by having to breastfeed small creatures while their babies were suckled by animals? How does that make Boleslaw brave? Answers on the back of an envelope please.


Painting in the Museum of Religion of the Last Judgement

Anyway, I popped into the Church of the Assumption, an Orthodox church, and then went and had some cake and a glass of wine (Georgian again, a bit rough) for afternoon tea, since I hadn't had anything since breakfast.

It was hard to pass up a favourite dainty from childhood, but I did manage to resist the weightiness scum

Then basically I just chilled out reading on a bench for ages, killing time since I had checked out of the hotel and my train wasn't till 11 pm. I had dinner at a self-service Ukrainian fast-food type, and then it was finally time to get to the train station.


Lviv train station

This leg was in 2nd class, and I was a bit nervous about whether my suitcase would fit and how it would be. The top bunk is really really high up, and really narrow, so I was a bit nervous about staying up there and/or getting up and down.


I don't know if you can really see from this photo, but it's high and scary up there!

When we started off though, the bottom bunk was empty, so I decided to just claim it. Mistake – at 1.30 in the morning, a couple of hours after we got going, I was woken up by someone else coming in and had to strip the bed and remake the top bunk and try to get back to sleep. It was pretty hot and someone was snoring, plus the bed wasn't ultra comfortable and the train had a tendency to make these huge jerks and crashing sounds like it was shunting things out of its way, but all things considered, not too bad.

Got to Chernivtsi at about 8.15 in the morning, managed to find the hostel (no sign!) and get some money out, and now I'm just waiting to take a day trip out to Kamyanets-Podilsky, a medieval fortress town. Pretty stoked that the hostel is doing an organised trip so I don't have to try and deal with it myself, I had my doubts about whether I even wanted to tackle it after a night of not much sleep, but this was the entire reason for me making a detour here, so I'm glad to be doing it.