Tuesday: Poltava Day 1

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Day One of Poltava

Weather: another beautiful day. Everyone here is wearing a jacket or sweater?!?! No jacket needed for this Canadian boy! Comfortably warm out today.

Woke up about 10 minutes before alarm again today.
Svetlana is supposed to meet me about 10:00, after breakfast.
At 8:30, I made my way down for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of fish, rice, a pancake sort of biscuit, the absolute best apple juice I have ever tasted, and tea.
After breakfast, went back up to my room to wait for Svetlana. She showed up shortly after 10:30.

We set off for our first excursion around Poltava.
We walked by the KGB Building - beautiful architecture!! We proceeded towards the Glory Monument (golden eagle) in the City Centre. Svetlana pointed out important buildings as we walked, such as the Building of regional administration. She had to file some documents for her work, so she left me walk around the City Centre for about 10 minutes while she ran to register her documents for work.
From there, we walked through various little shops and stores. We stopped along the way for a cappuccino (and I thought coffee was difficult to find around here!).
We carried on to the Assumption Cathedral, the Monument to Dumplings, the Memorable sign in honour of the 800th anniversary of Poltava, and the Rotunda .
From here, we continued to the memorial state of Kotlyarevsky (the "father" of literary Ukrainian language - the first person to publish written in Ukrainian). We toured his estate, and museum.
From here, we continued to Konstition Street where we say the Museum of Local Lore, History and Economy. Across the street is the monument to T. Shevchenko.
Along the way, Svetlana showed me the University she attended, the school that Sergey currently attends, and the University that Karina attended. She is very proud of her children. :o)

We stopped for something to eat around 16:00 at a very traditional Ukrainian restaurant. Very nice place, decor was very traditional Ukrainian, amazing food!

From here, we walked until we were at the Lenin statue. This is one of the main things that I wanted to see during this trip!
After a short walk, we were at the monument to Commandant Kelin.
In the same area is the Temple of Vera, Nadejda, Lyubov and their mother Sofia, (So many beautiful temples, and cathedrals in Poltava!) and the Old Clock - Poltava's "Big Ben" at the intersection of Frunze and Shevchenko streets.

In front of the Medical Institute building is a memorial to Chernobyl. We passed this on our way to the Memorial of Soldier's Glory. This monument was opened in 1969 to mark the location of communal graves of three and a half thousand Soviet soldiers that lost their lives between 1941 - 1945.
From here, we continued to Kotlyarevsky Park and Kotlyarevsky's tomb.

It's now about 18:30, so we start heading back towards the hotel.
We arrived at the hotel around 19:00. Both of us exhausted with sore feet!! We sat down, talked quite a bit and just relaxed for a few hours before Svetlana headed home at 22:30.
I was in bed with my eyes closed within minutes - it's been a very long day. We walked at least 125 km today.

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