How to see Ukraine in 4 days?

I'm not really good at blogging regularly, don't you think so? I've been feeling quite tired lately, but I have good reasons for that - apart from my usual activities, such as studying and translating, I've also had a really crazy (but wonderful!) weekend thanks to my Czech friend Katka, who spontaneously decided to come to Ukraine for a few days. :) I really loved her idea and I was pleased to learn that there are still people, who aren't afraid of coming to our country. Of course, I can perfectly understand it that most of normal people don't feel like coming to a country, which is in state of war, even if it's generally safe. Still, I'm glad there are some crazy people, who want to come no matter what! ;)

Katka came to Lviv by bus on Thursday morning and we had no certain plans on what should we do. I only knew she'd like to see the mountains, so I thought that apart from showing her around Lviv, I'd also take her somewhere in the Transcarpathia region and to Kyiv. That's usually what foreigners want to see, when they come to Ukraine for the first time. But then it turned out that Katka had taken a swimming suit with her - and that was a serious reason to go to Odessa instead of Kyiv! :D You can't even imagine, how much I love such totally unplanned trips, in which the single fact of doing something crazy matters more than the destination itself... It's a pity that for most of the time I'm not surrounded by people, who enjoy traveling this way, but I'm blessed with friends who inspire me with new insanely fun ideas when we meet! :)

Potemkin Stairs in Odessa

The overnight Training to Odessa was already quite funny, especially because of me losing a contact lens :D Well, I thought I had lost it and spent about an hour looking for it, just to find it in my eye eventually... Okay, I'll spare you the awkward details, but we spent the whole evening laughing because of it! ;) At 8:30 we were already in Odessa and went sightseeing in fog, which had both good and bad sides. On a positive note, the Potemkin Stairs in fog look even bigger than they really are. On a less positive note, we couldn't see anything but very ugly ships in the harbour, so we had to try hard to imagine that there's sea ;) Fortunately, the weather improved gradually and we decided to go to the beach and to do what most of people do when they come to the seaside - to swim! Okay, most of people don't do it in February, but who is that such an important detail? :D After failing to go ice-swimming in Odessa on 1st January (I was already sick and didn't want to jeopardise my trip to Israel), I was really happy to eventually do it before the end of the winter! :) The temperature of water was +3, so colder than in Iceland, but at least there was no strong wind.

This lady wasn't swimming.

Then we saw this elderly lady reading something (maybe Bible? It looked like some religious book) while seating next to the sea. I really liked her idea... And I hope that once I'm old, I'll also have enough motivation to come to read books or to write letters somewhere in the nature instead of staying at home... Maybe I'd even live at the seaside one day? That would be great, because I love looking at the horizon and listening to the waves... Well, okay, my last attempt to move to the seaside ended up with me running away from the war zone, so maybe I should leave those plans for now. But I still have a lot of time until I become an elderly lady :)

But apart from the sea, I also love mountains... And so does Katka :) So from Odessa we went to Volovets in Transcarpathia. That day there was no direct train from Odessa, so we had to change in Lviv, but we didn't even have time to go home. And so at 10 am we were already in the mountaneous part of Ukraine, waiting for an overcrowded village bus, which always comes at unexpected time. When it finally came, we could barely go inside, but it was worth it, as it took us to the beautiful Mizhhirya district.

I guess that's what I call freedom!

We walked some 3 km away from the main road to see the Shypit waterfall. It's one of the most famous waterfalls in Ukrainian Carpathians, probably also because it's quite easily available. But we had very limited time, so we couldn't really go exploring the less popular places. And anyway, in the end of February there aren't a lot of people even in the most touristic spots. :)

The Shypit waterfall

Later we took a longer way back to the main road, so that we were able to see a wooden church in Pylypets village. At that point we had already walked about 10 kms, so after eating some traditional Ukrainian varenyky and drinking tea we decided to try hitchhiking back to Volovets.

The church in Pylypets

 But when we were already in the car, we made another spontaneous decision - we asked the driver to leave us in Huklyvyi village a few kms before Volovets, so that we could see one more wooden church. As a result, we ended up walking over 20 kms in 7 hours, which is quite a lot for a lazy person like me :P But that was a great experience, even if I can still feel some pain in my legs after 4 days! Probably not as much because of the distance, as because of the speed :)

Katka trying to take a picture of the interior of a closed church in Huklyvyi :)

Now I should admit that I'm not the best person to show you around Lviv. So if you ever decide to come to Ukraine with the intention to see Lviv, you should probably look for another guide or at least ask me not to take you Training around the country for a day or two :P Why am I saying this? Because, of course, Katka didn't manage to see all the main sights of Lviv. We were just both too tired for this on the last day of her stay in Ukraine. But at least I'm a great guide to Ukrainian trains, you know? :D

This crazy trip also helped me to realise how much I've missed Training in Ukraine since the beginning of this year. It was great to travel to all the countries, which I've visited since the beginning of 2015, but I love the feeling of going to sleep in one city and waking up in a different one, with completely different landscape, climate, architecture and language... That's something I can always do in Ukraine and that's one of the things that are really precious to me about this country. So I actually feel I'll end up going Training again soon ;)

Last but not least, mail update! :) This time I'll start with outgoing mail... Just to make an impression that my pile of mail is getting smaller ;)

For Nikki in the USA

I've answered Nikki's intro about a week ago, so hopefully my letter will reach her soon.

For Søren in Iceland

This huge envelope with a lot of stamps went to Søren in Iceland last Friday, so it should also arrive soon. :)

For Vita in Ukraine

And today I've answered Vita's intro - I really enjoy writing letters in Ukrainian once in a while and I hope she'll like my letter :)

But no, my pile of mail hasn't really become smaller, because I've also received 3 letters since my last update! ;)

From Francesca in Italy

A lovely letter from Francesca - this time it was surprisingly quick!

From Stav in Israel

Stav has sent me a wonderful and thoughtful letter as usually... And has used another train stamp for this insane railway maniac that I am! ;)

From Søren in Iceland

And today Søren made my day by this big envelope, which contains a great letter... and a lot of salty liquorice ;) Yes, apart from being an insane railway maniac, I'm also a salty liquorice addict now and I need some supply from abroad, because you can't really buy it in Ukraine. Guess what I'm eating this evening? :D

Postcards from Tündi

I've also received 3 lovely postcards from Tündi, which she has sent during her trip to Italy and Switzerland! :) She always remembers about me while she's traveling (which she does approximately as often as I do... very often!) ;), which I'm always very thankful for! :)

That's it for tonight! :) Goal for the next days? To send more letters than I receive! :D Wish me good luck ;)