Kamyanets-Podilskyi, October 31

Thanks for all the emails and reactions to this blog.

I spent a day in Chernivtsi, then took a marshrutka (minivan) to Kamyanets-Podilskyi yesterday, the location of the current blog entry. It was a nice sunny ride through the Ukrainian countryside. Apples and pears for sale everywhere along the road: it`s the harvest season obviously.

In Kamyanets the address of the hostel mentioned in my guide book appeared to be someone`s provate appartment. Fortunately I got help from a young man named Yaroslav, who works here as a climbing instructor. He showed me the way to the city centre, where hotels are abundant. Unfortunately, the concept of a single room has not reached the Ukrainian tourism industry yet, so I always pay for two. Hotels are never cheap in former Soviet countries and I can`t afford to continue this.

Kamyanets has an old city centre inside a cut-off meander of a small river, towering over about 50 m of cliffs, above the river bed. Nature provided a great spot for a fortress, and man took advantage. The current city walls and boulwarks are mostly 15th century and later. The Poles were evicted by the Turks, who took over the town again in 1699. Both strengthened the city. The Polish (Roman-Catholic) cathedral was converted into a mosque and back again. When handing over the city to the Poles the Turks stipulated that the minaret was not to be destroyed, so the Poles put a big golden statue of the virgin Mary on top of it.

I took a stroll through the battlements and visited the local archeological museum. It had explanations in English and a phantastic collection of pre-Christian altars and statues in its garden.

I rediscovered how to upload pictures, so I`ve made a small selection yesterday. I`ll probably have to delete some later, since there is only space for as little as 150. So make sure to read my blog regularly, hehe.

Finally managed to book an overnight train to Kiyiv (Kiev). The Kupeny Vahon class was booked full, so I`m going platshkartny. That`s the Russian railway system`s class comparable with cattle transport in other railway systems. Well, at least I`m in Kiyiv tomorrow.