the next morning we putt-putted around a bit, and watched a movie called "Everything is Illuminated", which i highly recommend if you are curious about what life in ukraine is like. it's wicked funny (omg i've been in boston too long) and somewhat sad. plus, it has elijah wood in it. who can resist those blue eyes? anyway, after showering decided to walk around the town a bit more, including a walk on (not around, near or by - but on) a lake. i was completely convinced we would fall through. but i guess i have to admit i was somewhat reassured when i saw people riding bikes across it. how's that for a visual.. this is ukraine. watched and laughed as the guys etched messages into the lake's snow ("I heart USA" and "I heart boobs" - take your guess at who wrote which), then managed to get a snowball to the face by jonathon. hopefully it wasn't intensional ha. finally it was time for a special treat on the tour - AIDS island. yes, indeed there is such a fabled land. apparently in the summer it is covered by condoms and hypodermic needles. classy.
and so basically ends our time in ivano-frankivsk, or ivano who? as i began to fondly call it. our final day consisted of spending time with some other PCVs in a coffee shop and chilling at jonathon's apartment. said our goodbyes and thank yous and i secretly wished we were staying a bit longer. but here is where the real adventure began.. i got to experience what few westerners ever get to experience - platzkart.
what is platzkart you ask? well, i can tell you it roughly translates to "slow train to the depths of a freezing cold hell". yes, that about sums it up. literally, though, it is a 3rd class train car, with 54 open beds in each wagon. unfortunately for us, the heat broke - or at least that's what i'm assuming, because it was literally snowing inside the car. also, the bathroom that was initially leaking later froze. but, i can say it did allow us to reach our destination. hello kiev.
walked around a bit inside the train station to allow our blood to begin to circulate. i am somewhat surprised we didn't lose any appendages on that ride. made our way to our hostel and defrosted some more, again promising myself i would never complain about being cold again. however, cold we were as we braved the wind and bitter temperatures to see a bit of the capital. walked around the city center, down Andriyivsky st with souvenirs galore, passed several beautiful churches, and finally made our way to a coffee shop - where i waited and defrosted as mike completed some PC business. later that night met up with one of mike's friends olha, who took us around the city some more and up the funicular to get a birds eye view.
olha eventually had to leave, but mike and i made our way to the cafeteria style cuisine i grew to love because (a) it was warm inside, (b) it has working toilets, and (c) has more food than i could ever need. here is also where i learned how to use my elbows, as ukrainians will cut in line like it's going out of style. unfortunately the warm couldn't last forever, and we did eventually make it back to our hostel. the temp that night was -10 degrees C, not including wind chill. at one point my cheeks were so frozen that i couldn't formulate words.
HA. i now laugh in the face of cold. the next day was -16 C (yes, that's with sunshine). too bad i am not joking.
stalled for as long as we could the next day, but eventually made our way to the museum of the great patriotic war. see, here in the former USSR, it is not WWII. no, it is much more than that. everything has to relate to nationalism or patriotism here. which, by this point, i found to be very entertaining. that said, i loved the museum. even though it was entirely in a language i couldn't understand, the displays and pictures said enough. afterwards moved onto the monastery caves, which due to a failing mental capacity at that point, mike and i rushed through. it was a sight, with all these people kissing and blessing the coffins. and us, silly americans without candles, just being swept along with the crowd.
kiev was nice, but i was getting tired of the language barrier and the bitter cold temps. it was time to venture to a place mike called home at one time - chernigov.
