Donyensk and the Story of my Rendez-vous with the Police

The original reason for our travel to Donyensk was to watch a soccer game at their world class stadium. Unfortunately the game was canceled because of some squabble between the clubs and the city (or maybe the country...?). We had already purchased our train tickets so we decided to go see Donyensk anyways. In hindsight this wasn't the wisest idea because Donyensk is more or less a larger Simferopol and not particularly interesting. Additionally, it's outside of Crimea and far away from the Black Sea, which provides a mild climate, so it was freezing cold!

We traveled by train by night. The train ride there was actually quite pleasant. The compartments were clean and we managed to get some sleep. The train ride back was a very different story. It was dirty, had no ventilation and there were flies everywhere! I was contemplating taking the train to Kiev in December, but after the return train ride from Donyensk one of the first things I did back at home was book a flight to Kiev.

We arrived at the train station at 6a.m. We were met by Kazim, who is from Turkey, and Mina, from Egypt. They are doing the same program as I am and have been living in Donyensk for the past month and a half. They were our tour guides.

Donyensk was once known as the city of roses. It was said to have one rose per person and apparently the rose gardens are splendid in the spring. But they were all dead for me.

My companions bought little Russian wooden dolls.

This.........is the hospital. (I should also mention now that from now on in this post you will see me wearing my scarf on my head. This is because it was freezing cold, something that I had no anticipated, and I was not prepared.)

It was shortly after the previous photo was taken that we encountered the police officers - two women. We think that they heard us speaking English because they doubled back just to come and ask us for our passports and visas. May forgot to bring her passport to Donyensk but luckily she was able to quietly slip away while the police officers were preoccupied with me. I carry my passport under my shirt so it won't get stolen. They asked me for it and I pulled it out. Then they took my passport and started yelling at me in Russian. Then we went to their little police officer hut where they continued yelling at me in Russian. We finally got one of our local friends on the phone who told me that my visa had expired and that this woman wanted to send me to jail and then have me deported. While this was going on, this is what was going on in my mind: 1) Seriously? Do you really think I'm trying to illegally migrate HERE?!?!, 2) How much should I bribe her? and 3) I wonder how fast she can run. In the end one of her co-workers came in, looked at my passport, looked at her and then told her she made a mistake. She misread my date of entry for my visa's expiry date. She told me I could go and that everything was fine and I left quickly.

After our run in with the law we went to a museum. The women there were lovely and explained everything to us in Russian and occasionally very broken English. Below is a painting of Pushkin, a famous Russian poet.

Donyensk's cathedral.

I mentioned that the city was once known for roses, but it is still known for metal. It is one of Europe's major metal producers. There were metal statues throughout the city.

This is the stadium that I was SUPPOSED to see a soccer game!!! I'm not bitter.

Near the stadium was a war monument.

And no Russian speaking city would be complete without a Lenin Square.

All in all, I did not enjoy my day trip to Donyensk. I caught a cold, I didn't get to watch the soccer game and I was freezing the entire time. Not to mention, the city itself was pretty standard. But not to worry, I'm going to Turkey to make up this lame blog post.