Wednesday: Poltava Day 2

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Day Two in Poltava

Weather: It's a touch on the chilly side today. Overcast, but not raining. I will wear the jacket today, just in case.

Svetlana arrived at the hotel at 9:00 for breakfast with me today.
After breakfast, we continued our excursions.
We took a cab to the Museum of the history of the Poltava Battle. In front, stands the Monument to the Great Peter. He was one tall man!!! He stood 2.04 meters in height.
Inside is many, many artifacts from both sides of the battle - Russian and Swedish. Across the street is the Sampsonovskaya Church and the Communal grave to Russian Soldiers. 1345 soldiers were lost during the Battle of Poltava, most of which are buried here.
From here, we walked up the street to the Monument to Swedish Soldiers.
We then took a cab to the Krestovozdvizhensky Monastery. The main bell tower is currently undergoing reconstruction.

After the Monastery, we went to the bus station to purchase my bus ticket to Kharkov for Friday. (35.34 rph)
Weather: it did rain very lightly during the cab ride to the rail station, but didn't amount to anything. After we left the rail station, rain stopped completely, and the sun is shining. Now, too warm for the jacket!

We then went to Konkord to do some shopping. I wanted a couple of CDs of Ukrainian music. Bought two for 16 rph each (about $3US!) I can't listen to them until I get home, since I don't have a CD player in the netbook, unless the apartment in Kiev has a CD player/stereo.
I also bought a Ukraine GSM mobile phone (318 rph .. about $45US for the phone, and a SIM card that will cover the rest of my trip! Mobile costs about $5US a month here), so I can be in touch throughout my trip. We stopped to get some pizza for lunch around 14:30.
As we walked back to the hotel, we stopped at a few more little shops, and an internet cafe so I could email Dad since I haven't had internet connection at all since arriving in Poltava. It's been a few days since I've had contact, so I wanted to make sure everyone knew I was ok and having a great time.
We got back to the hotel around 16:30. Svetlana has dinner plans with her parents and her children at 17:00, so she left to meet them.

I walked around the area for a while, picked up some snacks, and went back to the hotel room to relax for a few hours before bed.

Retired for the night around 21:30

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