Loieva. The Landmarks of a Carpathian Village

Loieva is a village in the Nadvirna district of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, 5 kilometres from the district centre and 45 from the regional one. The village stretches out at the foot of Mounts Tatarka, Lysiania and Strahora. According to the tales, the god Perun rode his chariots across these Carpathian peaks, and on the twin-peaked Strahora there was a cult centre and a sanctuary of the ancient Slavs. An observation tower lets you take in the surroundings and the neighbouring mountain ranges. In Loieva you can enjoy not only the living nature of the Carpathians but also the village's other notable landmarks.

Loieva. A Railway Station Condemned to Oblivion

Loieva is a passenger halt in the village of the same name in the Nadvirna district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region. It lies between the stations of Nadvirna and Deliatyn on the Ivano-Frankivsk-Deliatyn line and belongs to the Lviv Railway.

 

Loieva. The abandoned railway station

Mezhova. The Railway Station and the Station Settlement

Mezhova station of the Lyman division of the Donetsk Railway is located in the settlement of the same name in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

 

Mezhova railway station

Barvinkove. A weekend trip, or the secret landmarks

For a hike along unknown tourist trails, a single day off or a few hours is enough. In small towns and villages there are hidden, unusual finds that can stir up all sorts of emotions - from delight to regret. Unpopular places are always close at hand; it is worth looking at a map and plotting a route. Barvinkove - a small town in the south of Kharkiv region - will mark the 370th anniversary of its founding in 2023. A town with a rich history and a Ukrainian name deserves tourist recognition. The tour begins at the railway station, opened in 1869 on the initiative of the novelist H. P. Danylevsky, a native of the Barvinkove area.

 

Barvinkove, Kharkiv region. The railway station

Yurivka, Varvarivka. People live in the backwaters too

It is traditionally held that travel means visiting popular tourist locations with famous landmarks. In connection with the latest events on a global scale, travelling pioneers devote themselves and their time to active recreation not in toxic zones, but in corners far from the crush of crowds. Journeys through the rural backcountry are an acquaintance with an unknown tourist space and with people who have changed the life of their region for the better. Arriving in the countryside, you see for yourself that everything depends on the activity of the local residents, and that it is not the place that graces a person, but the person the place. Hikes through the peripheries are special routes bound up with the natural surroundings, springs and ponds, single-storey buildings and places of worship, ethnographic museums and village clubs and, of course, sincere, hospitable people, always ready to give a traveller directions or to talk with him about everyday things.

Yurivka, Dnipropetrovsk region. The floodplain of the Mala Ternivka River

Bakhmut I. A Station of Industrial Architecture

Bakhmut I station is a freight station of the Lyman division of the Donetsk Railway.

 

The Bakhmut I railway station. Donetsk Railway

Avdiivka. The Terminal Station and Trackside Settlement

The freight-and-passenger railway station of Avdiivka is located in the town of the same name in the Donetsk region and belongs to the Krasnyi Lyman division of the Donetsk Railway.

 

Avdiivka railway station. Donetsk region.

The Avdiivka-Chaplyne Suburban Train

The suburban train is not a luxury but a means of transport. The electric train does not always keep to the schedule; one has to wait for it. Sometimes the train is uncomfortable, cold, or crowded, but for many of us the suburban train is vitally necessary, and there is no doing without it.

The Pokrovsk-Pavlohrad-Lozova Suburban Train

Suburban trains are not only a transport link between towns, but also a fascinating chance to travel to interesting places on a day off, to feel the union of nature and the steel highway. Trips by electric train have their own features: no crowds, no traffic jams, and the fare is cheaper. The Pokrovsk-Pavlohrad-Lozova suburban train links three regions - Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv.

 

Pokrovsk railway station. The Pokrovsk-Lozova suburban train

Prosiana. The V. V. Pryklonskyi Railway Station

A railway station is a line subdivision through which the railway's link with its users is carried out.  The V. V. Pryklonskyi Prosiana station is located in the settlement of Prosiana in the Synelnykove district of the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Ocheretyne. A Junction Station and Its Settlement

The Ocheretyne junction freight-and-passenger station lies at the intersection of the Pokrovsk-Yasynuvata and Ocheretyne-Horlivka lines, in the settlement of the same name in the Yasynuvata district of the Donetsk region.

 

Ocheretyne railway station. Donetsk Railway

Synelnykove. A junction station and a town of railwaymen

The town of Synelnykove came into being thanks to the appearance of the railway station, which bears the same name, taken from the name of the landowner General Synelnykov. The junction station of Synelnykove, ceremonially opened on 15 November 1873 during the construction of the Lozova-Sevastopol line, played an important role in the circulatory system of the southern region of tsarist Russia.

 

Synelnykove-I railway station

Zhelanna Station. A Tour for Railway Workers' Day

A station that goes by the name Zhelannaya

The steppe, the heat, and dust above your head

And that is all the lyrical data

Of a certain Donetsk station.

The railway stations on the Avdiivka-Chaplyne route have names that are alluring to a traveller — Mezhova, Udachna, Zhelanna. Zhelanna station is located in the settlement of Zhelanne in the Yasynuvata district of the Donetsk region, between the stations of Hrodivka and Ocheretyne.

 

Zhelanna railway station. The settlement of Zhelanne, Donetsk region

Chunyshyne Station. Neglected, Closed, Forgotten

A small photo-report about the closed Chunyshyne station was planned, but one wants to show every corner of the abandoned railway station. Small stations, welcoming, tidy, become unprofitable and are closed, deciding the fates of the people who worked here and the fates of the stations, those abandoned toilers. Perhaps here someone waited for a suburban train in the waiting hall, someone met and saw off their relatives and friends.

Udachne. A Settlement and Its Railway Station

Sociologists have calculated that one village disappears in Ukraine every week. There is no work, the young leave, the birth rate falls, and investors are in no hurry to put money into developing dying settlements. The urban-type settlement of Udachne lies in the west of the Donetsk region, in the Pokrovsk district, on the border with the Mezhova district of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Like thousands of other small Ukrainian settlements, Udachne has come to a halt in its development, is degrading rapidly and is losing its people.

The settlement of Udachne. Pokrovsk district, Donetsk region

Cherkasy. The tourist potential and what to see in the city

Cherkasy is a regional city in the very centre of Ukraine, situated on the right bank of the Kremenchuk reservoir in the channel of the Dnipro. The settlement arose in the times of Kyivan Rus, when fortified settlements and defensive forts had to be built for protection against nomads. Neither the fortress nor other historical buildings have survived to our day, but in the youngest regional centre of Ukraine one can see many other landmarks, for which one or two days off are quite enough.

Cherkasy. Branch of Ukrsotsbank. The former "Slovianskyi" hotel. The city's architectural calling card

Pysmenna Railway Station and the Village of Pysmenne

The Pysmenna railway station is located in the village of Pysmenne, Vasylkivka district, Dnipropetrovsk region, which was founded with the opening of the station in 1884.

The Pysmenna railway station. Vasylkivka district, Dnipropetrovsk region

Sviatohirsk. A November Album. Routes and Landmarks

My excursion to the northernmost city of Donetsk region began at the railway station. Sviatohirsk station was opened in 1911; you can get here by train from Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Bakhmut. Suburban trains run through the station from Izium, Kramatorsk, Fenolna, Lyman, Kharkiv.

Sviatohirsk. Donetsk region. Railway station

Bila Tserkva. Historic, Touristic, Enchanting

Bila Tserkva is the economic, cultural and educational centre of Kyiv region. Travellers include this district centre in their route to see the largest and oldest arboretum in Ukraine, 'Oleksandriia', which has amassed the country's biggest collection of plants. But it is not only this man-made green expanse that draws tourists to one of Ukraine's most ancient cities. Bila Tserkva has about a hundred architectural monuments, fifteen of them with the status of national significance.

Bila Tserkva. Church of St. John the Baptist. 1816. Hall of organ and chamber music. Architectural monument of national significance

Melitopol. The Cherry Capital at the Crossroads of Roads

Where do you find the biggest sweet cherries with their glossy cheeks, the earliest strawberries, plums and apricots with an inimitable taste and aroma? Melitopol delights all of Ukraine with an abundance of tasty and wholesome fruit. In June the "ChereshnEve" festival is traditionally held, where Melitopol's calling card is presented in the most unexpected guise — as a liqueur, a painting, an unusual dish.