Hotel National Kharkiv

... me awake. I had been warned that while it was a fast train, there would be maybe 10 stops or so. From 11 p.m. when I fell asleep until around 5:30 a.m. when I woke, I could have been home in my own bed as I was so sound asleep. No, I take that back. At home, my cat would have waked me around 3 a.m. so I slept even better than in my own bed. How unusual for me.<br><br> The ...

... and the museum so he thought he would add some of the sights that weren&#8217;t originally planned. First we went out of town to the huge parks that are on the edge of town. We visited the Great Patriotic War Memorial that is in Wood Park. Another name is the WWII memorial. The Park is huge so the memorial is huge. There are two large bas reliefs at the entrance then you walk down this long sidewalk, past several memorials to ...

... estates. We sit and look at it for a minute while Mikail explains that it was designed and built by the man who designed Lenin's tomb in Moscow&#8217;s Red Square. Personally, he thinks this gate is a much better design.<br><br> At a little after 4 p.m. we are crossing the road to head up this dirt drive into the estates which I cannot see anywhere but only see woods on both sides and in front of me. We bump over a large ...

... or in the native tongue. <br><br> We drive by a few buildings where I get the "this is blah blah blah and before I can look, we are past it and I&#8217;m not sure what I was looking at or for. Finally we are in traffic enough for a slow drive past the prison. Now I start getting stories.<br><br>Cold Hill<br><br> That&#8217;s the name of the prison. A side story is during the 1980 Olympics held in Moscow, some of the pre ...

... s that the owner was able to purchase after WWII for the price of food to the owners of the painting. Try as they could to scare up someone with a key, we never did find anyone and I have lost out on seeing this museum out in the middle of the Ukrainian villages.<br><br> We did find the priest to come and let us into the church though and he was the one to show us around. That&#8217;s the first time I had a priest ...

... a bounce as long as it&#8217;s not too long of a bounce.<br><br> In Kharkov when I disembarked from the train, Vlad is my contact and I am riding in his car which is a much earlier sickly red color Peugeot. There are no seatbelts in the back seat, the front windows are power but he has to pull his side up by hand, there are no shocks, again but then there are so many potholes in the city that they probably went out ...

... Day of forgiveness , Children's Day, as well as children's drawing exhibition, seminar of Ukrainian Charity Forum, Social Poster Competition, Charity Action "Desire to have a child in the desired time".<br><br>In my opinion, despite a small number of exhibits, people who have visited this city, imbued with a sense of something beautiful.<br><br>I think this event - a great idea, our town will be better.<br>

... a crowd gather. "OK to take photographs of you?". "No problem". Everybody has a mobile or a camera. Hold on, it should be me taking shots of local people.Finally I find a very upmarket bank with an ATM. I try every single card but to no avail. Ever onwards I spot a sign to a bank which seems to lead down a broken road to a Soviet style housing estate. I beat a hasty retreat. Back on the main drag I'm looking at the sign again when a friendly Poltavian admires the bike and asks ...

... visa to enter Ukraine, because there is no one. I got diffrent information about the conditions of entry to Ukraine so I hope it will be fine. Otherwise I'll have a serious problem... After I got to know Swedish Goran at a petrolstation near to the border to Ukraine we continue together to the bordercrossing and pass it after only 3 hours. After arriving to Charkov we sleep in the sovjetstyle Hotel Charkov.

... good, but the houses and plains we passed were uninteresting. I gave small amounts of money to my drivers, as is the custom here. Some were very nice - such as Vadim and Eliek - and we tried to speak Czech/Russian together. I probably wouldn't have gone to Kiev, but because I'd lost my backpack the day before in Romania, I could go to the big city without having to carry a lot around with me. In the capital's wide loud center, a statue of a warrior angel stood ...