A few days ago me and my cousin had to cross Russia-Ukraine border in Crimea to go to Kherson. Our journey began in the city of Kerch. As many of you guys know, there is no real transportation system left between the peninsula and Ukraine, there used to be trains, buses and planes that would travel both ways. However people move all the time and new ways of getting around took place. One of them is taking a bus, or rather a mini van towards the Russian border checkpoint, walk through the neutral area by foot and then go through Ukrainian border control. On the other side another bus picks you up and takes you to the destination. Time wise, it doesn't take too long, I think it's around 7 hours of riding total. Anyways, the longest and the most boring part of it is crossing the border, we had to wait around 2 hours in line each way, too many people on both sides and so little workers on the clock. Oh well. I heard it isn't always like that, some people get lucky and get through within an hour.
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Disclaimer: All of the photos below were taken by me randomly as I was walking the streets of the city for one day. I have no idea about any sweet spots that may be there as it was my first time visiting. I would hate to see anyone get offended by the pictures, but it is the reality I faced.
However I would love it if some people showed their town from a different perspective as they please. Peace.
Now back to the city of Kherson. I have never been there before, but the circumstances made me have to visit. And just so you have a better idea what sort of city that is, take a look at what Wikipedia says about it:
Kherson (Ukrainian: Херсо́н, Ukrainian pronunciation: [xɛrˈsɔn]) is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Kherson Oblast (province), and is designated as a city of oblast significance. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry.
Taking that into consideration, you would expect to see at least a relatively nice looking place. Since I was born in Crimea, the city of Kerch to be exact and then lived in Sevastopol, I do have an idea of how declined most post soviet cities may look like, so I was not expecting a lot, but I didn't expect to have a fallout sort of experience. Mind you, I reside in Detroit, I've seen the decay. Anyways, what you are about to witness is not some suburbs or abandoned neighborhoods, this is just regular streets inside the city limits.
This is a Kherson Cotton Factory. It was built in 1954, but after USSR collapsed it couldn't really operate and hardly made it through the 90-s. It stopped manufacturing in 2011 and was ultimately liquidated in 2013.
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On the other hand, next to the abandoned ghosts of the past, that nobody cares about you can see modern malls and sometimes renovated buildings or rather certain parts of buildings that are occupied by businesses. Sometimes you can even read a sign that says "Post Office" behind super tall wall of grass that grows in front of it and never gets cut.
To be completely honest with you, I don't think I've ever seen roads that bad before either . . .
Just being there made me feel really sad about the people, I understand it isn't easy to fight the man and make the city officials do something, but I truly hope that changes for Kherson.
