Castle in Kamyanets

October 4 — Kamyanets-Podilsky, Ukraine.

The name of the city is also spelled several other ways:  Кам’янець-Подільський, Kam’ianets’-Podil’s’kyi, Kamieniec Podolski, Kamenets-Podolsk (קאָמענעץ,)  Cameniţa Podoliei,  Kamaniçe,  Camenecium,  Kamenyeck-Podolszk.

Here's the money we use here:

Breakfast this morning at the 7 Days Hotel ( 7 Днів ) was sumptuous!  Shredded lettuce, shredded carrots, tomato slices, hot cheese-filled crepes, cold french fried potatoes, fried eggs, eggy something, bread, a cheesy layered something, muesli, hot milk, cold milk, baked milk, and yogurt. Oh, and sausage.  It was great.  (We did not eat the sausage.)

We set out to see the city.

It's humbling to be so disoriented. What are they selling here?  We have no clue.

The golden dome must look stunning when the sun is shining!  Alas...

We liked the patterns of cobble stones in the street.

To get into the old city, we crossed the bridge over the Smotrych River.

Half-way across the bridge — the cold wind here is bitter. Can you see the padlocks?

Looking down from the bridge, we see a lower part of the city surrounding the river at the base of a gorge.  It seems quite removed from the life above.

Once on the other side of the bridge, we're in the Old City.

Finally!  A sign that gives the foreigner a clue!

Ha!  No trouble reading this one....but....what's "Street Pizza?"

KABA is probably pronounced "kava."  Pronounced the same way but spelled "kawa" in Polish, it means coffee. I'm fascinated by the B-V conversion. In Spanish the two letters have the same pronunciation.  What's the reason?  Is there a linguistic connection?

We seem to have reached the end of the city...

...and then we round the bend!

The castle was originally built in the 14th Century.
Unlike Wawel in Krakow, this castle is mostly in ruins, but is open to visitors.

On either side of the castle, far below, village life forms another world.

We went inside the castle but did not take pictures. It's essentially a ruin, with lots of dark spaces and stairways and little crumbling passageways. Very cool. 

A guy working the tourist trade had a raptor on a leash.  He let it stand on Zach's shoulder for a minute and was disappointed that we did not take a photo.

Afterwards, we had lunch in a restaurant built right into the castle wall.  Here's the view:

On our way back to the city, we looked for the Jewish synagogue.  According to the map, this is it:

Does this metal construction have meaning?
In so many ways here, we don't know what we're looking at.

Several blocks later, we came across this abandoned shell of a building.

You can imagine Zach's pleasure!

And then, right around the corner, right outside on the street, exquisite mosaics. 

Kamyanets-Podilsky is a city rich in history. We took a tiny peek, learned a tiny fraction. Tomorrow morning we catch the 9:35 bus to Chisinau, Moldova.