Sunday: Kharkov Day 2

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Day two in Kharkov

Weather: It rained overnight, and quite chilly this morning. Sun is trying to get out.

Got up this morning at 6:45. Overcast and chilly, so I'll go lay back down for a bit.
The down time here is needed, but it also feels like wasted time.
Got back up at 8:30. The sun is now shining, and the streets are drying up.
I finally heard from Inga. She's gone for the weekend with her girls, so we will meet on Monday. I'm looking forward to meeting her.

I got the hot water issue resolved yesterday within 10 minutes of sending the apartment manager an SMS message. I guess it was something they had not turned on from their side. I had hot water quickly.

It looks like it's going to be another gorgeous day out there today. I will be packing the camera with me today when I venture out to the streets. I'm planning take a walk through Freedom Square. I saw the street side of the park yesterday. There were many weddings going on, and pictures being taken everywhere. Many, many people.

10:00 - I'm getting ready to head out for a few hours today.

Weather update: wholly shit, it turned out to be a hot day!! I started the walk with the jacket on, but that ended up in the camera bag!

Wow! What a day. I have to say though, I'm quite proud of my communication skills even without the language skills! I managed to walk through Freedom Square (that's quite the place in itself), then found a taxi, explained to the taxi driver that I wanted to go to South Railway Station to purchase a ticket (pronounced kasha billet). Turns out, you don't buy a ticket at the station, but since he understood what I wanted to do, he brought me to where I needed to be. Along the way, we passed many of the points of interest that I wanted to see in Kharkov. I made note of the route we took, and decided to try to walk back from there.
I had translated my rail ticket information and written it out in Russian before I left. I simply handed the teller the paper I had written, she understood exactly what I wanted, and sold me the ticket. Yes, I also read the ticket to ensure it was the right train #, route, destination and date. Everything checked! 174 hryvnia later, and I have my train ticket back to Kiev for Wed morning.
I decided to cut my Kharkov stay by one day, and extend Kiev.

After purchasing my ticket, I successfully made it back to each of the landmarks that we passed on our way to the station. Got quite a few pictures.
I saw and took pictures of the second Lenin statue of the trip!
After crossing the street from the Lenin statue, the Ukrainian equivalent of a Brinks truck was parked in front of the bank. It was quite interesting to see the armed guards of the bank truck sporting Uzis!!! WTF? LOL

I think I did sell Kharkov a bit short. It's still very different walking around a big city like this without a droog (friend) by my side to help with understanding the language, but I am managing quite nicely.

Stopped by a local bakery for something to eat for dinner. No idea what the hell I got, but it tasted very good, and cost me less than 40 rph ($5) for all, including a 2L carton of juice.

Back to the apartment, it's about 16:30, and I'm probably done for the day! I only walked about 40km today, but the blisters have finally arrived!

I will be meeting Inga tomorrow, so the next two days will be a lot more interesting and fun.

If the evening holds anything in store other than relaxing in front of the TV with my aching feet up, I will update the entry. If not, good night all .. and look for tomorrow's updates!

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