Ukraine’s Magical Castle — Culled from the book, ‘AFROLEON’.
My Adventurous Journey to Kamyanets Podilsky.
This is part two of my experience living as a black foreigner in Ukraine.
The last city in Ukraine that I visited was Kamianets-Podilskyi; I traveled alone and it was a memorable trip. My main attraction was the Castle; I had seen numerous pictures of people posing beside it on VK (the Russian Facebook, if I may) and I just had to see for myself before I left the country, what all the fuss was about. I visited Kamianets-Podilskyi a month or so before I did and even though I wouldn’t say it was a ‘best saved for the last kind of scenario, I can confidently tell you that it is the sort of thing worth crossing off your bucket list.
A summary of my impression would be that it is a kind of city that you could associate with a Robin hood story or an Assassin’s Creed game. It’s like a small moderately-populated town where almost everybody is familiar with each other. In addition to the curious children littering the streets, on your way home from your manual labor job in the afternoon, you would expect to encounter one or two petty robbers in the form of tomato thieves. Many live moderately or below middle class but practically everybody is street-smart.
I arrived in the city sometime close to midnight so I couldn’t go anywhere that evening, but on the way to my reservation, the taxi drove past the adored and magnificent Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle. The Castle was the major reason why I traveled there. The beautiful red and blue artificial lights made it appear so alive and yet put you into fairytale mode. I remember searching with my eyes for armored guards of any sort. You would be forgiven to think that the last dining feast of the day had just been concluded and the King was about to make love to his wife or do some hanky-panky with his seven concubines.
Ignorant as it may seem, a little part of me was disappointed to find out that nobody lived there anymore when I arrived the following day. The courtyard was full of many different activities, as well as a lot of tourists. The interior of the Castle is very impressive, it took me close to three hours to fully walk around and obtain sufficient satisfaction. It is quite large with many rooms, and full exploration requires plenty of climbing.
The exterior has a couple of towers and was just as spectacular, even more so when you viewed it from a distance. Lest I forget, the street, or should I say, the ‘pathway’ along which the Castle resides is just as beautiful and engaging for the eyes as, beside it, there is a little forest filled with thorns and brightly-colored flowers; it’s called ‘Smotrytsky Canyon’, and it goes all the way down.
Kamianets-Podilskyi is divided into two halves; an old city where the Castle, as well as some other historical landmarks, exist, and a new town that has a Cathedral, many restaurants, and one or two notable parks. I was put through an unconventional taxi tour of the new town during my second full day there. While we drove through, the driver tried his best to simultaneously give me a voice-over history. In truth, however, apart from the Cathedral and a few moving scenes, not much about the new city remains in my memory till today.
This was taken shortly before another semi-fascinating scene unfolded.
The climbing aspect turned out to be the most exciting part for me. This was by one of the highest hills beside the Castle. It was while climbing to this point that I encountered a large black optical device that I could swear, not for the first time, was pointing in my direction. I’ll be frank, by the time I got there, I was already starting to feel some fatigue. Before I left this zone, I approached the figure behind the lens and decided to strike up a conversation. She turned out to be a professional wedding photographer and she generously agreed to take a few shots of me with her device. She later sent me the pictures along with a couple that I did not remember posing for; mystery solved.
This is one of the photos she took of me without my consent. Behind me is the gorgeous Castle.
After all the climbing and exploring, I returned to my rented apartment (luckily for me, it was in the old city and a few minutes from the Castle). I was back in the evening, however, to meet with an online acquaintance of mine. We climbed again to the summit and sat on the hill while gazing at the wonderfully illuminated fortress. With the cool gentle breeze blowing against our skins along with the company of some overly-friendly castle insects, she told me more about her city’s history while I fashioned crazy stories about what I thought might be going on in and around the Castle.
On the whole, it was a great trip and one I wouldn’t hesitate to make again.
These are some other shots I took of the beautiful fortress.
The Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle is one of the seven wonders of Ukraine, three more of which I have unknowingly visited. In my candid opinion, the only other structure which accurately fits the criteria is Chersonesos Taurica, about which I should mention in the next chapter.
The first two I encountered were Saint Sophia’s Cathedral in Kyiv and Kiev Pechersk Lavra also called ‘Monastery Of The Caves’ which is beside the aforementioned wonder. Oh, that reminds me, there is one more city in Ukraine I have visited that I am yet to talk about.
