Three bus stations and a wedding (Cherson)

Member Name: fizzywizzy

Product:	Cherson
Date:	03/03/09 (232 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A useful stop off for long distance travel, great market

Disadvantages: Not a lot to do unless you want to buy a bride

Note - in this review I have referred to "Kherson" the spelling I am familiar with. Of course, in Ukraine it is written in Cyrillic script, but the pronunciation is "cur-son"

Ukraine is an immense country but even relatively short journeys can take an inordinately long time. Having spent a couple of weeks on the Crimean peninsular, we wanted to visit the city of Odessa which should really be a short road trip but actually entails a long overland journey instead. We broke up the journey in the town of Kherson which is, more or less, situated where the Crimea joins mainland Ukraine. In spite of the fact that most people have probably never heard of it, it is a vast city which is the industrial centre for a large area. Kherson stands a few miles inland from where the River Dnipro opens into the sea. The river and proximity to the Black Sea is at the heart of the development of Kherson into the vast city of close to 400,000 inhabitants that it is today. It was at Kherson that the first ever ship of the famous Russian Black Sea Fleet was built. Kherson is also an important railway junction and from here goods that come in from all parts of Europe and the east via the Black Sea are sent to other parts of Ukraine. Sadly Kherson is only a shadow of its former self and many of the massive cranes that dominate the skyline are just rusting monstrosities these days.

Kherson did make it into our Lonely Planet but there was very little useful information. One hotel was mentioned but as we had no map we didn't know where to find it. The bus we came on dropped us at the main train station and what we thought was the bus station. By our third day we had found three bus stations in Kherson - as a result of never turning up at the right one. As luck would have it, there was a shiny new hotel beside the station - station hotels in former Soviet cities tend to be very grim on the whole - and our room came with satellite television, en suite bathroom, a fridge and air-conditioning - for us this was pure luxury.

Kherson lacks a distinct centre but has markets, supermarkets and other shops and restaurants on the ground floor of apartment blocks, along the wide tree-lined main road. One of the first things you notice about Kherson is the large amount of trafffic; crossing the road - even at designated crossings takes ages. The terribly pot-holed roads combined with the poor driving skills of Kherson drivers requires that you keep your guard up at all times, even when crossing side streets.

Kherson isn't exactly run down but it might be a shock if you've never travelled to this part of the world before. The market is one place that shouldn't be missed, not least because it gives you an insight into what life is like for many people. Here you will see people selling old wigs, single shoes and, perhaps most sad of all, old military medals - not in well-presented displays like at collectors fairs but in old biscuit tins or just laid out on the pavement.

Just before we had set off on out trip around the Black Sea we had been keeping an eye on the escalating bird flu crisis. At one point it looked like we might have problems visiting some of the areas we had planned and we didn't not want to risk negating our travel insurance if we ignored Foreign Office advice. Here in Kherson - and several other Ukrainian towns we visited - many people were selling live birds at the market and, although we knew we should steer clear, we had a look all the same. I love markets but Ukrainian ones are particularly compelling. Many traders had simply turned up with a bucket of whatever they had to sell and sat tight until they had sold out. We bought juicy strawberries and ate them on the street - they were the sweetest we'd ever tasted. Another souvenir of our trip - a couple of metres of plastic table cover with a vegetable print also came from this market; it's a very Soviet thing and rare is the Ukrainian or Georgian cafe that doesn't have jazzy plastic tablecloths.

One thing you are sure to notice in Kherson is the number of marriage agencies and wedding dress shops. Kherson is known as the Ukrainian bride capital, more foreign men seeking Ukrainian wives come to Kherson than any other Ukrainian city. The only reason I can think of for this fact is that they want to get out of the place. Kherson has fairly high unemployment due to the decline of its traditional industries such as ship-building and modernisation and investment is slow to come. Even if you have never been to Ukraine, I can still show you how big the marriage business is in Kherson. Simply Google the words "Kherson" and "tourism" and you will find that the only websites in English are ones sponsored by marriage bureaux masquerading as travel websites. Try to click on links to museums or sights of historical interest and you will get a message telling you that the page is not yet ready.

What is remarkable is that all these marriage agencies can operate internationally when, for mere backpackers, it's nigh on impossible to get an internet connection to keep in touch with home. We spent nearly a whole afternoon traipsing from one place to the next only to be told the internet wasn't working. One place was meant to be an internet and games centre but it was entirely occupied with kids playing shoot 'em up games. We pointed to the clock to ask when a computer might become free but the owner was clearly not going to oust a teenager from a computer to let two English people use it for five minutes.

The following morning we tried the internet centre at the phone company but the computer crashed every time I clicked send. We went downstairs instead to try to work out how we could call England as we had been uncontactable for almost a week and feared those at home might be worrying. After what seemed like an eternity of queuing we got to the front of the queue. When the assistant learned we were English the shutters came down and we had to work hard to get anything out of her. Finally she pointed to a telephone booth and we went into it. We picked up the receiver and dialed the number but there was no tone. We tried again but still nothing. Then we saw the assistant frantically waving so we went back to the counter; she wanted to know how many minutes we wanted. We went back to the booth and tried again but still nothing. Finally we stuck our heads outside the door and called out "Does anyone speak English?" Fortunately a young woman did and she explained that we must wait for the assistant to give us a code to dial which would give us a ring tone and then we could make our call. It's always easy once you know how!

After we had finished we were making our way back to the hotel when we heard someone calling after us. It was the young woman who had helped us. She asked where we were from and told us a bit about herself but she only spoke a little English and understood little of what we said. She did however ask for our address in England so she could practice her English and lo and behold two months later when we arrived home there was a letter from her.

When we asked her what there was to do in Kherson she became somewhat less animated. I've never decided whether this was because she didn't understand the question or because she genuinely couldn't recommend anything. With no tourist information office and no internet access we could only wander around the town on the lookout for likely things to do. The Lonely Planet mentioned a "Swedish village" not far from Kherson; the village had been founded in the late 18th century when some Swedish people begged Catherine the Great to move them here to escape serfdom in Russian-governed Sweden. Apparently the village is still an amazing enclave of Swedishness within Ukraine.

The guidebook suggested taking a bus there but enquiries at the two bus stations we knew of resulted only in much shaking of the head on the part of the staff. I can only presume that one gets a bus from the third bus station in Kherson - the one we only learned of on our final day there as we tried to leave the city.

In some parts of town you can see that money is being spent - mostly on cheap and trashy looking restaurants and shops. To be honest you are much better off eating at the more run down looking cafes where you will get better service, better food and better value for money. Don't make the mistake of eating pizza in a shiny new pizza joint - you will regret it! The best pizza in town is at a bar housed in a wooden hut beside the train station. Unfortunately the clientele are a little off the wall but the Slavutych is cold and the pizzas are huge! Another good, cheap place to eat is an outdoor "greasy spoon" at the market. Here we ate wonderful scrambled eggs with tomatoes and a good sprinkling of fresh herbs.

While we were eating at the market we were approached by an old lady who came towards us with her hand outstretched. I gave her a few coins and she clutched my hand and gave me a toothless smile. The man at the next table said something to her in Ukrainian and she sat at his table and he gave her his food when it came, ordering again for himself. He didn't look especially well off himself but I was moved by his kind gesture. Old people in Ukraine are often very poor; they have no pensions and the safety net that used to provide for them in the old days is no more. I know begging can be a problem in some places but these old people don't target tourists, they ask anybody for money and most Ukrainians will give something; I would urge you not to dismiss these people if you are in Ukraine, the very fact that you are there proves you have more than they do.

It would be wrong of me to paint an entirely grim picture of Kherson. It does have a good number of parks and generally the city is quite leafy. I was pleased to find the parks still have their very Soviet sounding names and many contain symbolic monuments and special trees dedicated to this, that and the other. After several weeks absorbing history and culture in the Crimea we were not too disappointed in Kherson to find it lacking in things to do. It is the sort of city where one can potter easily for a couple of days, simply strolling the streets, popping into the little golden-domed churches and eating picnics in the parks. A walk by the river is a pleasant way to spend a warm summers evening and, if you time it right, you can take a boat trip for an hour or so.

Fortunately we did do one very worthwhile thing before we left Kherson. By chance we met someone who spoke very good English who offered to drive us to Askaniya Nova which is a huge nature reserve just slightly north of where the Crimea joins Ukraine proper. On this vast plain there run wild deer, antelopes and buffalo and the most beautiful wild horses. But that's not all!It was the idea of a German in the nineteenth century to populate the Steppe with wild animals from all over the world which is why you may be lucky enough to spot a camel, zebra or even a pink flamingo among the more usual creatures of Ukraine. Alas, I did not see any flamingoes (this was very disappointing to me) but a zebra was a fairly acceptable second best. Alas, I did not see this zebra roaming the Steppe but caged in a small zoo where there are a few examples of each species that was brought here. However, I would still recommend a trip to the reserve as the landscape is stunning and it is quite remarkable to see this country as the Cossacks would have seen it.

Unless I meet someone in the market for a Ukrainian bride I doubt very much that I could persuade anyone to go to Kherson. However, distances in Ukraine are vast and there is no escaping the fact that Kherson is well-connected for onward travel to other parts of the country, especially if you have just come from the Crimea. As a stopping off point I'd certainly recommend it, as a travel destination I wouldn't.

Summary: A useful but dreary Ukrainian city