Ukraine is a large country
In 2016 I visited Lviv in the west.
In 2017 I went to Kyiv in the centre and then south to Odesa.
This year it’s the turn of the east; Kharkiv and Poltava.
It was a hard decision.
I wanted to return to lovely Lviv and then take the bus to Zalishchyky and gaze down at the town from the top of the Dniester canyon.
![Zalishchyky](https://martinblack.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/zal.jpg)
I wanted to traverse the Carpathian mountains, from the Polish border to far Bessarabia.
![The Ukrainian Carpathians](https://martinblack.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/carpathians-ukraine.jpg)
I wanted to tour the south, from Odesa to Mauripol via Huliaipole, where I’d drink a toast, and pay my respects, to the memory of Nestor Makhno.
![Makhno monument in Huliaipole](https://martinblack.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Nestor-Makhno-in-Huliaipole.jpg)
The road to the east (Дорога на схід)
But it were the partisans of the east who lobbied the hardest. Having a friend in Kharkiv was the clincher.
Kharkiv, a big city, the second city, not really on the tourist trail. Home of my favourite young Ukrainian writer, Serhiy Zhadan. I can imagine Kharkiv as a punk rock city (note: I have no evidence for this as such). They like a drink and a good book out there in the cold, cold east, my kinda place.
![Writer Serhiy Zhadan and his band Собаки (Dogs) in Kharkiv](https://martinblack.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/unnamed-file.jpg)
But I also wanted a few days elsewhere and that’s when Poltava presented herself.
Almost equidistant from Kyiv and Kharkiv, Poltava is a city of which I knew nothing. A few hours research delivered some enticing findings. A restaurant called ‘Crazy Bacon’, a major battle that changed the face of Europe for ever, the many connections to Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, a river (the Vorskla), a football club (also Vorskla) and a balcony from which Adolf Hitler once made a speech.
What else do you want?
![The balcony in Poltava from which Adolf Hitler made a speech (1942)](https://martinblack.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/balcony.jpg)
Yes, the east, the road to the east, it’s time for the east!