Central square, with cinema
PS21 - Rivne
Rivne, the capital of the oblast of the same name (which also contained Ostroh, but not Netishyn) was a popular destination of necessity for our team. If you needed to get something, or get something done, this is where you went. It was about at 40-minute marshutkyy drive from Ostroh.
Central square, with cinema
From the beginning of my trip to Poland, December 27th:
Near the bus terminal
Supermarket "Sirpo," near the bus station
"I took advantage of the time between ticket purchase and departure to go to the Syrpo. I wanted to leave my handcase in the lockers at the station, but they used some kind of unintelligible set-your-own combination locks with cyrillic symbols – the unit looked like it was installed in the Krushchev administration. So I carried my things over to the Syrpo. The lockers there were large enough for my backpack but not for my handcase. Huh, problem.
I stood there for a few minutes wondering what to do. Maybe they'd make an exception for me and let me take my case in. Hmm... that'd look awfully weird, though. I asked a man standing next to the door if he worked there. Judging from his response, that wasn't what I actually asked, linguistically speaking.
I found a woman selling flowers at a small kiosk, and we had the following interaction, approximated into English:
"You things do here?"
"Uh... I don't understand you."
"I'm sorry... I have a small problem. Do you understand my words?"
She nodded.
"I want to buy in here now, but my..." I lifted my case and pointed
at the lockers. "No close."
She understood immeadiately and got the attention of a store monitor, who told me he'd watch my case while I shopped. Nice! Within seconds I was hoisting bananas and clementines into my cart and waiting in the line to weigh and label them. (They do produce like we do meat and fish – the weighing is done before the point of sale. It took a few visits for me to get used to that.)
Shopping was so much fun. I got shampoo and deodorant, a chocolate bar, two packs of gum, and 1.5L of my favourite juice (carrot, apple & peach), some tissue and toilet paper, and the produce I mentioned. I went nuts and spent nearly $11. I'm going to miss Ukrainian prices.
Rivne, all in all, was very friendly and welcoming. Sure, I was hearing "Kanadyy" here and there in the store (you can imagine how much attention I draw as soon as I open my mouth), but I didn't sense any derision – just curiosity."
Left: My bus.