Goodbye Kiev, hello Moldova!

Oh my, so much has happened since my last post that the blog simply can't contain it!

Here are some highlights (and plugs for two wonderful guides!):

• Appearing live on Ukrainian breakfast TV
• Acting as the "meet & greet" for the exhibitors at Study.UA's big education expo - including a fabulous tour of Kiev with Eugenia Lamkina
• Participating in the VERY successful exhibition - over 8000 visitors.  About 15 of them won a chance to study abroad & were sooooo happy!
• Saying good-bye to all my new friends in Kiev  =(
• A brilliant tour of Odessa with Olga at Odessa Walks, preceded by breakfast at Sophie's Cafe and followed by at late lunch at Kompot, both delicious & recommended by Olga.  Odessa is beautiful, especially in the sunshine!
• Two days in Chisinau, including lunch with Anastasia (friend of a friend of a girlfriend of a cousin of a spouse of a friend!) - more on Chisinau soon, it deserves it's own blog post....

Most recently, I experienced an epic 12-hour bus journey overnight from Chisinau to Brasov, Romania.  Nothing worked on this bus (DVD player broke 10 minutes in, there were no reading lights, no air circulation, etc) so the most exciting part was the border crossing, which went kinda like this:

1. Arrive at some toilets (there are none on the bus).  Pay 2 lei to pee in a hole in the ground. Get back on the bus.
2. Drive 100m and arrive at Moldovan border.  Immigration slowly collects passports, studying each one in detail, and takes them away in a big stack.
3. We are compelled to disembark from the bus, collect our luggage, and have each & every item checked by customs/security.  Return slowly to bus, reload luggage, board bus.
4. Driver slowly identifies each of us to return our passports.
5. Drive 10m, stop at Duty Free.  A few people take a looooonnnng time to make purchases.
6. Drive 100m, arrive at Romanian border.  Again, disembark, unload luggage, and tote it into hall for checking.  While waiting for someone to attend to this task, marvel at thorough check of our bus (including engine).
7. Hilarious mimed conversation with customs regarding the possible presence of "pistoles" in my backpack.  Return to bus, reload luggage, board bus.
8. Drive 20m, stop at toilets.  Well, 2 hours have passed and someone needs to pee again.

Kiev tour

The locks in Odessa, City of Love

Cricova, THE Moldovan wine

Best restaurant in Kiev!

OK, I'll finish with a few photos and then I'm off to Silent Disco, Romanian style!

Awesome mosaic made of painted eggs - Kiev

Odessa Opera House

A selection of beds, & Lviv's underground world

Ah, wonderful Lviv (city of coffee & chocolate) and western Ukraine.  It's worthy of a book, not a blog post - so my goal here is to give you a teaser, an inspiration to visit this amazing city & region.

I impressed my Ukrainian friends by booking my train tickets online (it's new!) and had a good night out in Kiev while I awaited my overnight journey (thanks, Genia! and nice to meet your friends and also Pedro!).
Train journey was comfortable but uneventful - I think the elderly lady in the bunk below me was quite astonished to be sharing a kupe (compartment) with an English lass!

Arrived in Lviv just after the sun came up, but luckily the hostel was having a quiet weekend so they had invited me to check in as soon as I arrived in town.  Anton & his friend Andrew welcomed me warmly (with delicious coffee & cheese toasties) and I moved into a big empty room...where I would remain the only hosteller for the duration of my stay.  Not to say that the room was always empty, but more on that later...

We said good-bye to some departing guests from Poland, and while Andrew (a guide) was filling my head with suggested itineraries & sights to see, two new guests appeared - Sammi & Asami, from China & Japan respectively, who have been working in Dnipropetrovska and had spent 17 hours on a train to visit Lviv for just 1.5 days.  This was perfect for me as the girls had a long list of things to see & do, so I just tagged along as their Cyrillic sign interpretor.  See the photo album for the MANY things we did in just one day!  The highlight was climbing the 65 m tower in the town hall to admire the amazing view of Lviv's UNESCO-protected town square, and zillions of churches!  And also, entering the Armenian church just as the Sunday congregation began singing...too beautiful to describe in words.

private dining room, Ukrainian style
- with Sammi & Asami

We learned the advantage of travelling in the off-season when we had a private dining room in the restaurant we chose for dinner.  Rolled chicken (cannot be described in any other way) and a delicious egg & cheese torpedo plus a bottle of Georgian wine between us - a great way to finish the day.

Of course, the day wasn't remotely finished as we returned to the hostel to find a brace of singer-songwriters jamming in our kitchen - apparently we had landed in the heart of folk/rock music for Lviv and the wider world - fabulous!

The next day I set out to explore the huge & amazing Lychakiv Cemetery.  Again, see the album for photos - frankly I couldn't hope to capture the scale and detail of this place, but I have done my best.  I particularly loved the organic designs on many of the headstones, and the inclusion of photos or reliefs - in one case, a larger-than-life-sized statue of a very fit man, perhaps he was overcome by his own vanity?  The Ukrainian and Polish war memorials were sobering, especially as they are side-by-side, reminding one of how closely connected this region is to Poland.

Lviv = lion.  He's everywhere!

Then it was on to the Beer Museum, which actually contained a lot of interesting information about the history of beer worldwide & in Lviv - as well as some tasty samples, of course!

The next day I thought I'd have an adventure across the Carpathian Mountains.  At Anton's recommendation, I took a 4.5 hour train ride to Mukacheve.  That might not sound too appealing but it was one of the loveliest train routes I've ever been on- passing through isolated mountain villages where people still travel by horse & sled,  with the sun shining brightly on the clean white snow....

Mukacheve itself was a good challenge, as it's near a lot of borders and the language is some kind of Hungarian/Ukrainian hybrid.  No matter, I had a great time toodling around on the marshrutka buses while I tried to find my way to the zamok (castle) - finally made it!

Bogrash - much more delicious
than the name implies

I then found my way back into town, where I visited the rynok (market) - a lovely woman insisted that I try all her pickled vegetables, and kept placing tasty samples on the back of my hand.  I came away with a big bag of pickled carrots for a bargain price.

I enjoyed my stroll around this pedestrianised town where I recognised the influences from Hungary (paprika featured prominently in the rynok & the kafe), Slovakia (a classic wooden church built with no nails!), and Romania (really crazy wedding dress shops  ;-)  ).  It was a beautiful sunny day and a great place to spend it!  Also it was nice to get off the "tourist track" and have to work hard to communicate with local people & find my way.

I returned to the hostel at about 22.30, just in time to catch the end of a small concert from a Belarusian folk singer (which took place next to my bed!!!).  His name is Alexei Nezhevets. You can check out his music here!

On my final day in Lviv, I met up with an old colleague, Oksana (who actually lives in Kiev but was in Lviv for an event).  We went to the Gasova Lampa (Gas Lamp) restaurant, which has a funny entrance & exit system involving a spiral staircase and traffic lights.....here's a little history on the place.

Taras Shevchenko

 I walked around for a while taking photos of the many, many statues that are dotted all over the city.  One of my favourites was a a giant man with a book, with a book market neatly tucked in his shadow!

Tsukernia kafe - the selection!

Then I took myself out for cake & "Wiener coffee" at an absolutely delicious kafe which definitely showed the Austro-Hungarian influences in this city!

Oksana and I went to the Opera House for an operetta - THE thing to do in Lviv, it was packed!  It was much more "cute" and accessible than the (few) operas that I've seen- particularly when they made a special change in honour of International Women's Day, by replacing the usual chorus line with a dance by all the male stars of the show!

Welcome to the Opera House kafe

After the show we went to the kafe/restaurant of the Opera House - a great story in itself.  When the Opera House was built, it was constructed over the old river.  From a building perspective, obviously a bad idea, and before long it began to sink.  Apparently the architect was so devestated that he commited suicide.

Luckily for us, it stopped sinking and now the cafe sits on the underground river.  They've taken advantage of the history by making an underwater theme and deliberately crooked walls.  There is also a sneaky secret passage between the restaurant and the main opera house.


Finally (& a bit sadly), it was time to catch my overnight train to Kiev.  I had a lucky surprise to find that I was all alone in my kupe - I am definitely crediting this to my online ticket purchase, as I had the opportunity to choose my own bed while seeing all that were available - but I didn't imagine that the kupe which was empty 2 weeks ago would still be empty when we actually travelled!

I end this blog post with another massive recommendation for Lviv & western Ukraine.  Finally, a chance to learn some Ukrainian (most of Kiev speaks Russian as their primary language) and to enjoy some truly delicious coffee, cake and company!  And by the time you get there, you might be able to explore Anton's amazing cave.....

Food & history - the last days of Rome

I started Thursday with the Italian breakfast of champions: torta with pistachio, nutella and ricotta. Buzzz!

Torta with pistachio, nutella, ricotta

I then sped to the Colosseum were we were shown around by a wonderfully camp guide named Tiberius. In spite of the damage done when an earthquake destroyed part of the outer ring of arches, it's still impressively large and high.

Colosseum & passageways

Colosseum exterior

Garden of Vestal Virgins

Although we weren't allowed down below, what I could see of the complex underneath the arena floor looked just as well planned. Especially when added to stories of how the arena was originally able to be flooded and was afterwards changed to house hydraulic lifts to allow the animals and gladiators direct access to the arena floor.

We then went straight into the old Roman Forum; the social centre of the ancient city. The ruins included temples (Capitoline Jupiter, Apollo, Venus, Saturn and one in memory of the divine Julius (Caesar)). This was also where the Vestal Virgins' convent was based.

There were also several triumphal arches, with the one pictured being that of Titus and commemorating the sack of Jerusalem (notice the menorah). Under the arch is now a sacred space for Judaism and it's off limits for tours.

The touring for the day was rounded off with the Palatine Hill, where many of the emperors and other bigwigs had their palaces. Then it was back to the hostel, past the 'wedding cake'.

'The Dying Gaul'

Thursday was mostly spent in the Capitoline Museum. This place has a huge array of sculptures including a bronze of Marcus Aurelius that only survived because the early Christians thought it was Emperor Constantine and my fave, the 'Dying Gaul'; loving the spiky hair!


Thursday evening was spent in a bar in Trastevere, with a great group of people involved in couch surfing. Thanks for the travel tips and the free meze!

'Wedding cake'

Romulus & Remus

Couchsurfers in Trastevere

The weekend entailed a trip to the Catacombs of St Calixtus. Spooky stuff! There's kilometres of caverns under the outskirts of the city, all used for early Christian burials. Talk about claustrophobic!

I balanced this out with a visit to Ostia Antica; the extensive remains of what used to be Rome's port town, although now it's several kilometres from the sea. We'll see how it compares with Pompeii.

After that it was the perennial search for Irish pubs that would be showing the rugby. At least it was worth it!

Art & religion - days 2-3

On Tuesday I once again entered the world's smallest state, to take a tour of the Vatican Museums. I figured a tour was in order to get at the history behind the thousands of objects that the Catholic Church had acquired through the centuries.

My dad as a Roman

We went through galleries of Greek & Roman sculptures and halls of tapestries & frescoes (including a series depicting an entire map of Italy at a reasonable scale). We trod rooms designed for the Borgias and by Raphael and Michelangelo. No pictures allowed in the Sistine Chapel but it was amazing, as expected, and apparently he hadn't even wanted the job.

Something for the ladies

Laocoon, priest of Troy

I finished off the day with a dark Italian craft ale. A little pricey but it cured the ankle I sprained in Venice. The pub crawl and dancing also helped.

Magic ale

Plato & Aristotle, by Raphael

Wednesday was study day ;-). As part of this journey is about doing new things, I'd got in touch with a local artist, Alex Mackenzie, who had agreed to give me several hours tuition with watercolours. I tackled the bridge leading to Castel Sant'Angelo and, although I can tell what I painted, I thought it best to take a photo of it too, just for the sake of comparison! Found the Trevi Fountain by accident too; attractive and drinkable.

Serious work

Trevi Fountain, very tasty

Temples and Basilicas - day 1

Finally got to Rome on 4th March, so this post is a little tardy. I've always wanted to come here since sitting in history class in secondary school. A slightly inauspicious start: fact - when wearing a heavy backpack one shouldn't skip blithely down sets of stairs. Anyway, I think using my hiking pole as a cane gave me a distinguished character for my first couple of days. Those eccentric English!

I had a list as long as a baby's arm of things I wanted to do in Rome but time was short.

St Peter's Basilica & Pantheon (day 1)

My first stop was the Pantheon. In an unprepossessing little piazza stands what is still one of the largest unsupported concrete domes in the world, with its cheeky little 'occulus' right at the apex. The dome is amazingly high yet, as I found out a few days later, it is possible to totally fill it with incense. A fragrant mass indeed.

Pantheon interior

The 'occulus', Pantheon

St Peter's Basilica is grand in a different way. At study in imposing giganticism, it is chock full of sculptures, shrines, relics and tombs, including of course that of St Peter. The art and decoration was overwhelming but does religion need such grand trappings? If anything, it shows the creativity of man. Nevertheless, it was impressive to see what faith and devotion can inspire!

It was gratifying to see a small mass being said in the middle of the Basilica (not just a tourist attraction) but a bit weird to see the small congregation being photographed by sightseers - a bit like invasion of privacy.

'Pieta', St Peter's Basilica

See below for a photo of Michengelo's 'Pieta' sculpture. The talent, focus and time it must have taken to create these items is humbling.

And yes, it wasn't sunny all of the time!

St Peter's, cloud and bloke

24 hour milk and excellent desserts

 Whoah, I'm falling behind with countries. As you can see by the header, Slovenia rocks! Actually, it is a really lovely place, judging by Ljubljana, the capital city. The desserts opposite is 'Prekmurska gibanica' and tastes as nice as it looks.

 

Mary, Steve and Ed

Lots of interesting history from the free walking tour, as well as three touring buddies acquired along the way (more pictures to appear when I can get the widget working!).

Ljubljana is compact but a lot has happened on this historic border between the Christian west and the Ottoman east.

On a more modern note, I also got to visit Metelkova, an artists colony that has taken over an ex-military barracks of the Yugoslav army in the middle of Ljubljana! A chaotic assemblage of murals, installations and cats.

Building in Metelkova

And, of course I couldn't end without including the wonderfully practical 24-hour milk machines. Sounds weird but they dispense raw milk sourced from local farmers who wouldn't normally be able to compete with supermarket prices. Like Borough Market without the crowds!

Amazing milk machine!

Eating Austrians and buying tombs ...

... at least that's what it sounds like I've been doing if my French pronunciation is anything to go by! I was actually at an ostrich farm and trying to buy stamps (timbres). Well, it's these little cultural misunderstandings that make travel interesting; well, maybe not for the poor Austrian.

My hosts in France have been fantastic. I've been shown around Perigueux; a town in the Dordogne that's been around since BC, and still has the Roman bits to prove it. Thanks for the tour and the cognac! I was also introduced to llama and sangliers (boars to you and me). And mile upon miles of vines.

Monsiuer le sanglier

Vines in winter

Then on to Carcassonne. Not quite as old but rather impressive and exactly the kind of vision I had in my head when I built a lego castle aged about 8.

 I took a turn around the walls and managed to get into the keep. Very atmospheric indeed. The fortifications date from a time when the city was right on the Spanish (Aragon) border, and you can see the Pyrenees from the windows of the towers.

Quite suitably for an 'old town', there were also lots of cats, I assume they were working cats patrolling small mouscular-sized holes.

Then it was on to stay with Mike & Chantal in Valreas. Consummate hosts who own Les Ecureils, a B&B in Chateauneuf du Pape country. You can see a photo of Chantal's excellent truffle brie below.

I'm off to Ljubljana on Friday, so we'll see what Slovenia has to offer, the to Rome on Sunday!