My first trip outside of Kyiv
We arrive in Kyiv on September 19. Ukraine is having Parliamentary Elections on September 30. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will be monitoring the elections, and the Embassy is mobilizing to provide monitors to work with the OSCE. Yours truly will be one of those monitors.
Since I'm the new guy, and I wasn't sure I would be chosen, I told post that I would be happy to go anywhere for the election. I've been informed I will be going to Rivne, about 180KM Northeast of Lviv in western Ukraine.
So what wonders, besides the election, can I expect to see on my first trip out of Kyiv?
From Lonelyplanet:
Rivne is pretty dreary, and if you are staying here, the best thing is to make a day trip south to Ostroh, where there is an attractive fortress, and Mezhyrich, where there is a monestary. As the Nazis' administrative capital in Ukraine, the city itself was destroyed in WWII, and has been unattractively rebuilt since.
3 to 4 days in Rivne! Come see our famous teacher training and water engineering institutes!
5 days to departure.
posted by Katherine and Phil @ 2:46 AM
3 Comments:
My first piece of advice: throw that damn book away. The current Ukraine Lonely Planet does the country a huge disservice.
Having briefly been to Rivne (I live about an hour west of it), I found it to be one of the most attractive cities I've seen in Ukraine. It's not too big, but it's clean the homes are nicely maintained. I believe there's a respectable fortress not too far from the city, as well.
If you really want to appreciate Rivne, be sure to stop in Zhytomyr on your way. Absorb that city's ambience, then thank god you aren't spending a week there (though Russian is more widely spoken).
I'll be in Rivne soon as well. Maybe we'll cross paths. Anyway, I don't know that we'll have much time to actually get outside of the city. We'll be too busy protecting freedom and democracy. After Rivne maybe we'll swing by Florida and Ohio.
James:
I have heard the LP is trash. We have the Bradt Guide as well, but I didn't look at that.
I actually found some pics of Rivne on the web that looked quite charming, but that wouldn't have been nearly as entertaining, and I love nothing less than condemning a place merely on the sayso of a lonelyplanet writer.
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