Остання мандрівка Україною - частина 3: Яремче | A final wander around Ukraine - part 3: Yaremche

There's something particularly romantic about the way the train winds through Yaremche: a certain grandeur as the train approaches the platform, heralded by that classic whistle sounding of industry and faraway places; a quiet grace in the way the tracks curve on the way out of town and disappear into mountains dusted with fresh snow even in May. The tracks are a reminder that Yaremche is a gateway; a place from which one is constantly beckoned to go onward, in search of adventure or quiet or authenticity or whatever it is that one seeks in mountain meadows and pine forests.

I'm glad I made it here before the end of my service. Yaremche is well known among Ukrainians and foreign visitors alike as a destination for outdoor recreation. It is home base for numerous youth summer camps and a starting point for day hikes and backpacking trips. Perhaps most importantly, from Yaremche you can enter the Carpathian National Nature Park, where if the capricious mountain weather is in your favor you can hike Ukraine's tallest peak, Mount Hoverla.

I was fortunate enough to summit Hoverla in 2018

I've been to the Carpathian Mountains three times since coming to Ukraine, and each time it has been a journey of discovery. Yaremche elevates that feeling further with its constant beckoning: the train tracks heading onward to mountain towns like Vorokhta and Rakhiv; the many cottages with their vacancy signs hung outside, inviting tired travelers in for the night; the ubiquitous advertisements for bus tours and guided treks and cozy mountain evenings in hot tubs.

Є вільні місця - "There are free spaces". These signs, in various shapes and sizes and styles, are all over Yaremche. 

It can almost be a bit too much. When I was walking around Yaremche hauling my suitcase, it was like I had a target on my back. Did I need a taxi? A room for the night? Did I want to go four-wheeling for 1500 hryvnia? How about some traditional Hutsul cuisine? Local souvenirs? But while the tourist-targeted advertising can be heavy-handed, the feeling in Yaremche of being on the way to something, of being in motion, is deep and unshakable. It was there long before the advertisements.

Shot from an overnight horseback trek in 2017.

An unshakable sense of motion perhaps sounds like a contradiction, but I think anyone who has gotten to know a mountain or two will understand what I mean. All around Yaremche the Carpathians stand, ancient, silently beckoning, and then they catch you off guard with unanticipated fields of newly bloomed wildflowers or sudden spring snowstorms.

These two photos are from the same hike. 

I cannot say much else except, "Come to Yaremche." In doing so I join the chorus of advertisements and vacationing locals and rushing rivers and creaky old bridges and mountain breezes and train whistles. They have different voices. Depending on where you are, you will hear some louder than others. But they all, in their own way, are saying, "Come to Yaremche."

Остання мандрівка Україною - частина друга: Коломия | A final wander around Ukraine - part two: Kolomyya

I thought Kolomyya would be quaint. The mid-size city (population ~60,000) at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains is known for its Easter egg museum, preservation of Hutsul culture, and proximity to popular backpacking trails. Restful little mountain town, or so I thought.

Once you set foot in Kolomyya, however, the city will quickly disavow you of such a notion. It is a place keenly aware of its history, and the city itself seems to express its own strong opinions. Kolomyya has a rebel heart and a bustling feel of importance. If you have in some way tried to tread on Kolomyya, your misdeeds will be written in stone with no sparing of dramatic flair. 

Inscription: "Here once stood a monument to Taras Shevchenko, opened May 28th, 1914 in honor of the 100th anniversary of the poet's birth. It was ruined during the First World War in September, 1914 by Tsarist Russian soldiers."

The monument to the monument of Taras Shevchenko is one of the first examples that caught my eye and made me think, "Well alright, Kolomyya, you don't mess around." Virtually all Ukrainian towns and cities have monuments to the beloved poet, but Kolomyya is the only one I have seen that acknowledges the ruining of such a monument, and, moreover, explicitly calls out who did it.

via GIPHY
(I really hope somebody understands my Taylor Swift reference...)


Monuments here don't just wait for you to notice them, either. They demand your attention - like this one did as I was meandering my way through a quiet part of town on the way to a coffee shop.

Inscription: "Passer-by, stop! Here, in this building, for a decade (1942-1952) there was a prison where your countrymen were tortured and killed. These fighters for the freedom of Ukraine were innocent victims of Nazi-Bolshevik totalitarian regimes."

In my central Ukrainian city, Cherkasy, we have an entire park dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. Out west in Kolomyya, however, the Bolsheviks are grouped alongside the Nazis as villains who wronged the Ukrainian people. Sure, one can find some Soviet nostalgia in dusty corners of the antique shops in town, but as for the parks - the first one I wandered into is devoted to a leader of the Ukrainian Radical Party who founded a movement to form and train "sich societies": groups of ax-bearing Ukrainian firefighters and riflemen who learned the ways of Cossack tradition, created their own Ukrainian songbooks and publications, and gathered annually in the thousands until their societies (named for a form of military-administrative unit from the Cossack times) were banned after World War I by the Polish government.

I had never heard of Kyrylo Trylovskyi before coming to Kolomyya, and it took three Google searches to find any English-language articles about him, but this through-and-through Ukrainian nationalist leader is quite the big deal in Kolomyya. 

Kolomyya does have its softer sides - the giant pysanka (Ukrainian Easter egg), elegant 19th-century architecture, and shops selling traditional handicrafts. The locals reliably cross themselves whenever they walk by a church, which is quite often given the number of them dotting the city. But with all its small-town charm and devout religiosity, Kolomyya is not to be mistaken for being quaint or humble. This is a proud, cultural powerhouse of a city with deep roots and strong convictions, and it displays them unabashedly at every opportunity.

The Pysanka Museum is partially housed inside a giant pysanka!

They were planting flowers out front during my visit. 

Kolomyya's central square is named Renaissance Square - something I've never seen anywhere else. I've seen Market Squares, Cathedral Squares, and squares named after various important Ukrainian historical figures - but this is the first Renaissance Square I've come across, and I suspect it is named for Kolomyya's central role in several periods of Ukrainian cultural renaissance.

There's a lot to this little city, and folks here will make sure you know it. Thanks for the good times and the stern talkin'-to, Kolomyya! Time to move onward into the mountains.

The contents of this blog reflect my personal views alone. 

Остання мандрівка Україною - Частина перша: Київ | A final wander around Ukraine - Part One: Kyiv

The conductor is displeased.

"What is this? Where is the train number? Where is the coach number?"
"It's the Ukrzaliznytsia mobile app. The app from this company."
"I don't know what this is. Do you not have our website? Why didn't you print a ticket like this girl over here?'
"I don't have access to a printer, so I use your company's mobile app."
"What's your nationality?"
"USA."
.......
She stares, unwavering.
.......
"My nationality, right?"
"Right."
"USA."
"Oy, I don't understand! Anyway, what services do you have?"
"Bed linens and tea. It's written here."
"What? This isn't in Ukrainian! Why isn't it in Ukrainian?"
I translate the words from the app's English interface, and after a few more such minutes I am finally in place on my westbound train from Kyiv and well aware of who is the boss of Coach 10.

Despite the conductor's skepticism, this app is actually very handy! 

On the way to the station, I had stopped by a hip all-vegetarian sandwich shop, Orangutan, for some barbecued seitan. The night before I was up late at Swinglandia, a multi-day blues dance and lindy hop exchange where I chatted with software programmers and international visitors in between dances to live jazz music. But in case I was starting to think Kyiv was entirely modern and metropolitan, the conductor was there to remind me that not all things in Ukraine are changing quite so quickly.

Simultaneously so Ukrainian, and so lindy exchange:
"Ballroom dancers and gopnyks clap on one!"
"Salo-Charleston"

Kyiv is a crazy place. As far as global cities go, it is right up there with other world-class capital cities in terms of history, culture, and grandeur. It has been the seat of empires and has survived the rise and fall of various nations that have possessed it.

Near the Kyiv City Hall

Monument to Bohdan Khmelnytskyi

St. Andrew's church

Yet unlike cities that feel somewhat unmoored from the countries in which they're situated (think London compared to rural England, or Washington D.C. compared to the "wild west" 3,000 miles away), Kyiv is permeated with strong veins of Ukrainian culture that are just as familiar here as they are in a small village. There are old ladies selling vegetables on the sidewalks; art (or advertisements) on every available patch of wall, sidewalk, or telephone pole; Uber coexists with marshrutkas and tough-looking taxi drivers smoking hand-rolled cigarettes in their old Ladas.

A low-cost sign for a local museum, with a fancy hotel in the background

On the metro

Art? Art. 

You can have a sleek, modern experience in Kyiv if you want. You can stay at the Hilton, sip fine scotch at a spot where the bartenders wear bow-ties, and while away your time and your hryvnia in beautiful coffee shops where you can easily spend your month's salary on matcha lattes and avocado toast.

One Love Coffee sits above the Pinchuk Art Center. It's where I go if I wish to temporarily bankrupt myself for the sake of drinking green beverages. 

Alternatively, you can experience hip, hidden Kyiv: hunt down the cash-only ramen joint tucked into the courtyard of an apartment complex, or visit the rooftop bar that you can only find if you pass though the kitchen of the cafe below and climb a sketchy-looking ladder.

It's not easy to find, but most Peace Corps Volunteers know their way to Noodles vs. Marketing

Worth remembering to go to an ATM first

And at least for now, in Kyiv you can also buy veggies from the old ladies on the sidewalks, glimpse Soviet art alongside murals commemorating the Revolution of Dignity, ride the signature yellow marshrutkas, and have your urban life slowed down for a few minutes by a train conductor who doesn't like it when you use the train company's mobile app.

I feel like a good way to sum up Kyiv is the fact that it managed to pull off hosting the Eurovision song contest while at war. The bells of ancient churches frequented by tourists aren't just for show - in 2014 they rang out in warning when special forces attacked protesters. A lot of history happens here, and the city has a way of making you feel small but not anonymous. Like you are at the center something, albeit something you perhaps don't fully understand.

Placards nearby share people's recollections of the church bells ringing during the Revolution of Dignity

A man pauses on his bicycle by Maidan Nezalezhnosti, where just five years ago protesters overcame violent repression in what is now known as the Revolution of Dignity 

The first protester to be killed in the Revolution of Dignity now constantly looks over the peaceful mornings in this Kyiv park. 

There are a lot of articles circulating nowadays, enticing travel-inclined people to visit this "undiscovered" city. Kyiv is not undiscovered; the rest of the world just hasn't been paying attention. Come on over - and be ready for the train conductors. They run a tight ship, but if you learn their rules they'll get you where you're going, with a cup of tea along the way.




The content of this blog is indicative of my personal views alone, and does not reflect the views of Peace Corps Ukraine or the US or Ukrainian governments.