Silhouettes and Illusions
Every trip is valuable
Most certainly, in the past life, it would be a pretty ordinary one-day trip to Zhytomyr. Previously, I visited it twice and wrote three big stories about it (but only in Ukrainian). This city is multifaceted, but not everybody will like it. I’d visit it more and more, but I’m not able to show it to somebody in such a way as to share all my delight. At least because not many people could be interested in alphabetic murals collections, ancient cemeteries, or even the highest pedestrian bridge in Ukraine. But today, I’d want to talk not about the one-day trip per se but about related impressions.
Less than a year and a half have passed since my previous visit, but how much has changed during this time: some good but especially bad. And that visit appeared to be special. It was my last travel through Ukraine before the big war. And until this moment, it was my last solo travel at all.
I noticed that all my trips in 2021 acquired considerable meaning for me. The closer they happened to the moment our world fell away, the more valuable they were. Going where I wanted and taking photos of all I wanted (without having to look at the people around me) was a priceless privilege. There’s no hope to expect it will be possible again in the nearest time on our long-suffering land. Now I love even places I didn’t like at once. Others became sacred, like Mariupol, which I’ll never see in its as before, and nobody will see. But the most memorable trip is still the last one.
Another feature is that I was in my own company only. Looking back, I can confidently say it was a worthless and empty life. It’s almost nothing to grieve about it. But I have to admit that phantom pains torture me with memories of such days like that one when I could despise the fatigue of my feet to please me to see as much as possible in the shortest time and find things interesting only for me.
In my illusions, I return to all my places of 2021, although I longed only for the new ones all my life. In my illusions, I return to all my places of 2021, where Starobilsk or Molochansk aren’t occupied, hot summer Mariupol arises from horrific black ruins, and there’s zero possibility of dying because of artillery fire in border towns of the Sumy region. This one-day Zhytomyr sortie became the first illusion embodied in life: returning to the familiar city but changed beyond recognition.
Of course, I’d not be who I am if I wouldn’t take a few dozen photos, even in such conditions. Moreover, I got into a hydro park where I had never been. This is a big green area at the southwestern city’s edge. The garden is mainly planted with coniferous trees, so it’s bright even in wintertime. The southern part of the park is a big beach at the Teteriv river cost. In the frozen state, it was the most beautiful place there.
Mainly thankful to people who were walking over the shore or on ice. Someone went pretty far, but it looked hazardous with the unstable temperature of the last few days.
We arrived here not spontaneously — I’ve been looking forward for a long time, to a day both sunny and snowy. This winter, it turned out to be hard.
It’s pleasant to walk through this park for a few hours, either over the coast or central alley or on silent remote footpaths.
Birds also liked sunny weather and were twittering happily as if in spring. But for photos, they posed for me only in ways like this:
I almost didn’t get my camera in the city center. Mainly because I took photos of all that I wanted in 2021. The second reason was the record number of militaries I’ve ever seen since the big war started. They had no case to me, but I didn’t dare to take a photo of painted anti-tank hedgehogs near a regional council. After our victory, I hope they’ll be left in the same place as art objects.
Also, I saw at least two buildings destroyed by the russian missiles (I didn’t specifically look for them, of course). One of them was a civil building exactly.
Behind a magistrate on Castle hill, I found a small observation deck I had overlooked previously. A valley of the Kamyanka river is visible from it. But honestly, there’s nothing to look at except one church far away.
Transport links with my city allow visit Zhytomyr for 7 hours without staying overnight. The bus station was full of soldiers as well. Near our marshrutka, I saw a touching farewell between a soldier, his wife, and their small son. How not to send one more portion of hate rays to the terrorist country (at least mentally)? Because of it, these people must wear a uniform and can’t control their lives.
Now I can only thank them for at least such one-day trips are possible. The weekend ended, and the marshrutka carried us toward the bloody evening sky.
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