Chernihiv is north of Kyiv and east of Chernobl. We again took the bus north, through Kyiv to Chernihiv stopping at theKyiv Central Bus Station to buy onward tickets. A word here about Kyiv's Central Bus Station. It isn't central and it has squat toilets. Arriving at Chernihiv we asked a woman at the station about hotels using the phrase book. She led us outside to the taxi stand and told the driver to take us to the hotel we had pointed at in the guide book. Good choice! Chernihiv oblast used to extend into what is now part of Russia and one of my wife's grandfathers was from there. The city is also famed for its churches which we visited many of. My wife's baptismal name is Paraskeva and there is an Orthodox woman saint by that name. There is also a little church in Chernihiv by that name and when we told all this to the lady inside she dug around and found a prayer card with an iconic picture of St Paraskeva. Remarkable. One day as we were walking along we heard American English and I said, "I hear English". The voices had come from four American Peace Corps people whom we visited with. This is a very, very old city that at one time competed with Kyiv for regional power. The churches are all over and plenty of people use them, something we dound all over Ukraine. We spent an afternoon at the outdoor market and visited with a few of the peddlars. Four nights at the Hotel Ukraina was 2073uah. We seem to be unlucky and have missed programs at all the opera houses in all the cities we visited. We were there on Sunday so we attended one of the Orthodox church services. It was really old fashioned and reminded my wife of her childhood. We also did this at several other cities we visited. After four nights we packed up for the next and final leg of the trip.
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