Scientific analysis has proven that the best adventures happen in summer. As winter in Kazakhstan fast approaches, I can't help but remind myself of the events of the summer holidays after my (now rather abortive) departure from Karaganda. So naturally the first events I want to describe after my almost-5-month-break from my blog (sorry about that!) are my summer adventures.
Where I hear you cry? Well, I don't, because those of you who are smart enough to look in the labels section (don't look yet!) will know where I went. I was in Ukraine, most notably in Kiev! The ancient slavic city on the Dnieper that spawned both the Ukrainian and Russian nations. What did you do there, apart from drinking yourself to death, I hear you cry? Why relaxing just a little bit of course, and sampling all that this beautiful city has to offer.
Oh, and learning Russian of course. Over the course of my first three weeks in Kiev I studied Russian with a school that I found more or less with the same level of effort that I do with most things: put it into google and see what comes back. I really regret this decision now; though this school was fairly cheap (I say fairly cheap because it was only cheap compared to the other schools) it's level of teaching quality is very, very bad. I was made to feel stupid for three weeks by studying grammar that I don't understand mechanically and with no communicative methodology. I mean, I thought I was a bad teacher!
Kiev itself, while retaining much historical and architectural charm, was a fairly dull affair. I don't know, maybe the lack of social life and rather dry Russian lessons turned me sour, or maybe the fact that I saw basically everything Kiev has in the first week there and sat around twiddling my thumbs ever since then. And of course the biggest problem is there didn't seem to be much adventure there. Getting drunk on cheap beer and looking at architecture just doesn't seem to cut it anymore.
So lets take you through a picture gallery of Kiev, and later Odessa.
My bed in Kiev. Of course the best place in the world. The host family I was staying with was wonderful; there was Galina, the strong Ukrainian matriarch who loved feeding me at any given time, Dima, the shy son who fixed computers in his room most of the day. And Miroslava, the lodger who never seemed to be there. Ever.
Ahhh, the beautiful Podil district. The following photographs are all taken in the gorgeous location of Podil, which is considered to be the most cosmopolitan and relaxed of Kiev's many districts. A great place to relax in the park, sit and drink some delicious and very cheap beer.
This is actually a cafe for the local militsia (police), so naturally I tried to stay as far away as possible.
Goodbye savings!
This is considered to be a small church in Kiev. Be warned.
Kontrakova Square in Podil. A great place to spend the evening, just strolling and watching the people or looking at the magnificent architecture.
I ate a few times at the cafe on the left with my classmate. Puzata Hata, a local fast food chain which serves traditional Ukrainian recipes, is much better.
My first McDonalds after more than a year.
On the East Side of Podil, looking towards the hills in the centre of Kiev and the Dnieper river, on the left.
The Dnieper, in all its beauty.
The headquarters of the Ukrainian Communist Party. And even the building is red.....
My welcome dinner, courgettes cooked in a distinctly Soviet style.
Notice the Kazakhstanskii cognac!
Khreschatyk, Ukraine's main "high-street" and one of Europe's most expensive shopping locations. You can feel a lot of history pouring out of this place, and like all of Kiev, the architecture is simply magnificent.
A statue of Lenin. Nice to know they didn't destroy them all.
Bulgakov!
Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square. Below this wonderful monument is a vodka bar where dark-skinned men like to meet blonde Ukrainian girls. Tasteful.
Not sure who this guy is, but some kind of cossack at any rate.
The other side of Maidan Nezalezhnosti. During the Second World War the Kiev City Duma was located here until it was destroyed during the Battle of Kiev.
Three guys who look a bit like vikings. They apparently were the originally founders of Kiev in legend.
The Friendship of Nations Arch, to celebrate the friendship and "re-unification" of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples. Remarkably, it looks a lot like the Karaganda statue of miners....
One is supposed to be Russian and the other Ukrainian. Can you tell which?
The Dnieper, as seen from the top of the Friendship park
A very small bird
Not sure what this says exactly. Any help with translations would be great!
Arsenalna metro station. It is actually one of the deepest metro stations in the world, 346 feet underground.
There was a piece of artillery outside.
The beautiful views from the top of the hill overlooking the Dnieper.
Another horrible obelisk.
A monument to the Great Famine
As I was strolling through the park I walked off the beaten path and into the back of an Orthodox Church dome repair shop! What an odd place Kiev is!
Church of the Resurrection of Christ. It's in Russian and not Ukrainian!
The Holy Kvass!
Three long-haired men.
Memorial Complex of National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War. It's a big place
Artillery
There are a lot of tanks in the next few pictures. You have been warned.....
Mi-24. One day I will own one, I am sure
Расцветали яблони и груши.....
All of the buildings and monuments here are dedicated to the soldiers lost in the Second World War and the War in Afghanistan. Even after all this time the wounds run deep....
Hero cities of the Soviet Union
Русский!
Multi-coloured tanks
So this is "Mother Motherland" or now "Mother Ukraine". Housed underneath her is the Second World War museum, which has a pretty extensive collection.
I love Byzantine/Orthodox style art
Kiev is a very religious place. In Kazakhstan there are many churches and mosques but not a lot of people consider themselves to be actively religious. Ukraine is a very different place. Everywhere you can see the signs of the Orthodox faith.
All of the major memorials in Kiev form one big park next to the Lavra and the WW2 musems. This is the entrance
Back in the wonderfully beautiful Podil! I love it so much down the narrow and winding backstreets.
These strange insects are all over the former USSR
Grigorii Skovoroda, the Ukrainian poet and philosopher. I have no idea what he did
The statue of the biblical figure of Samson in Podil. There was a local legend about this statue, but i forget the details :P
This is the oldest church in Kiev that still stands in its original form. For the Christ of me I can't remember its name, though
More of Podil's beautiful backstreets
Locals say that if you put a coin on this fountain and it sticks, your wish would come true. My tour guide's coin stuck, but my Kazakh 10 tenge didn't. Thanks Kazakhstan!
Churches, lots of churches
St. Michael's Monastery. Beautiful, but still I don't remember much about it.
Statues of three guys. Who? I don't know.
The British Embassy is housed here, in a building close to....
....Gogol's nose!
"Quality time" with Gogol's nose
A traditional "pagan Ukrainian" cafe. It doesn't really explain why there is a flag of the Ukrainian National Liberation Army flying above, though.
I loled
Beautiful scenery next to the park of sculptures
St. Andrews Church, at the top of Andrevskii's Descent
From the top of the hill it winds all the way down to Podil at the bottom
We came here in the evening, but during the day time there are lots of people selling all kinds of fake Soviet crap to the tourists
Statues of various people who I have forgotten about
And right in the middle you can find Bulgakov's house!
On the next day we found this strange looking frog thing. Apparently some businessmen made it, for some reason
Near the water museum, that I didn't go to. I still feel bad about that
A statue based on a story from Ukrainian TV, about two people re-united after the fall of the Soviet Union who had met during the Second World War.
Fucking rickety bridge
Naive declarations of love
My tour guide kept jumping up and down on this thing, much to my annoyance
A park-symphony playing Big Bond themes. I shit you not
Shit 3D graffiti that didn't work because of the light
Helicopter landing pad for Ukrainian parliamentarians. I shit you not
If you are lucky enough to be elected to the Ukrainian parliament, you can live here!
Some kind of plantpot?
Guy died of syphilis during the war. 'nuff said.
More statues
The Ukrainian Parliament building
Down this street was a man waving a Russian Imperial flag shouting about the evil of NATO and homosexuals. I didn't take a picture because, naturally, I didn't want to have my face kicked in
Government buildings
The House of Chimeras! Built by some rich merchant guy, this house is actually completely made from concrete.
Lots of ugly characters
One of the main Soviet guys after the Second World War had this monstrosity built
Itty-bitty crocodile
This guy was apparently some kind of literary character from a Ukrainian book
Some kind of impromptu-concert on Khreschatyk
Back to Freedom Square!
The Ukrainian National Museum of Architecture! A very interesting open-air museum about all the different architectural styles that can be found in the Ukraine.
And the shashlyk was pretty good, too
Gigantic Slavic eggs!
Хата!
Хата хата хата
An out-of-place yellow bin
Some kind of traditional pottery
Even in the Ukraine, horses are (wo)man's best friend
Down here there were lots of small stalls with souvenirs and shashlyk. I bought my mum a fridge magnet with traditional Ukrainian embroidering here
Viking club!
Food!
Singing traditional Ukrainian music
This picture makes them look slightly more popular
GIGANTIC SLAVIC EGGS
And they walked away...
I want a Lada too
In general it's a good place to come and relax at the weekend. In the Ukraine they sell shashlyk by the gram rather than by the skewer, so it was strange for me
In Kiev's hyrdo park old people like to dance
The funny thing is, it all looks so much like Karaganda's central park here. Soviet planners didn't have much originality
Cat mural!
The river next to the Hydropark
Rezhii the cat! A real Ukrainian cat who loved to eat salo and borscht
Sorry babushka
In a Tatar cafe. Tatar and Kazakh cuisine is similar in some ways, so it was nice to taste some things that I missed from Karaganda
Everything is spelt differently in the Ukrainian language
Golden Gate
Russian bank
I small docker's cafe where we used to get beer at 10 o'clock in the morning during the break. When in Rome...
"Beer without vodka is like a passport without a photo". It sounds more poetic in Russian
The shit hotelroom in Odessa where I spent most of my time. The bed was broken when I got there, so I had to fix it myself. Customer service in post-Soviet countries is worse than you can imagine....
So I had come to Odessa to find the beach holiday I had been craving after all of those rubbish Russian lessons. Unfortunately fate had something different in store for me
But the train station is beautiful, isn't it?
The wonderful Odessa Opera House
Is it real? I doubt it
Heroes of Odessa
The Vietnamese were protesting about something....
All the women in post-Soviet countries wear heels. Even just to go to the shops
Some kind of traditional instrument
The Potemkin Steps. The only thing remarkable about this place is that local traders were fleecing American tourists like made. Yes, I'm sure your German WW2 medals are real, really sure....
Fucking bananas
My photos of the Potemkin Steps are really bad, I know
A monument of Catherine the Great, the Empress under who Odessa was founded by the four figures on the monument beneath her. Also of note is the woman in the green dress. Niiiiiiiice
A tree. And I wasn't even drunk....
One of many monuments to sailors. Odessa is after all a port on the Black Sea, and has a big maritime history
A remainder of the original city walls
And so I found the beach. I sat in this cafe (next to the beach) saying to myself that tomorrow I would bring my swimming shorts and go and relax there. And what happened? I got food poisoning from the shashlyk I ate the day before. Unbelievable!
I spent the rest of the trip in bed...
As someone was getting changed in here, it fell on them. I loled
The interior of the Odessa train station as went back to Kiev to catch the flight back
I was almost happy after the food poisoning to get back to Kiev and fly home. It was great to see my family again after a year and to eat barbecues and burgers and Indian food and all of those great things I have missed. After a few weeks I was reunited with my wonderful Bayan and we celebrated my birthday together. I spent a week in Manchester catching up with my good friend Mike, and of course I spent a few great times with the guys in Northampton. Maybe it wasn't quite as amazing as the summer I spent for the first time in Kazakhstan, but I'd much prefer it to the cold Kazakhstan winds of winter.
And as they approach, I find myself shivering a little just thinking of them....
Where I hear you cry? Well, I don't, because those of you who are smart enough to look in the labels section (don't look yet!) will know where I went. I was in Ukraine, most notably in Kiev! The ancient slavic city on the Dnieper that spawned both the Ukrainian and Russian nations. What did you do there, apart from drinking yourself to death, I hear you cry? Why relaxing just a little bit of course, and sampling all that this beautiful city has to offer.
Oh, and learning Russian of course. Over the course of my first three weeks in Kiev I studied Russian with a school that I found more or less with the same level of effort that I do with most things: put it into google and see what comes back. I really regret this decision now; though this school was fairly cheap (I say fairly cheap because it was only cheap compared to the other schools) it's level of teaching quality is very, very bad. I was made to feel stupid for three weeks by studying grammar that I don't understand mechanically and with no communicative methodology. I mean, I thought I was a bad teacher!
Kiev itself, while retaining much historical and architectural charm, was a fairly dull affair. I don't know, maybe the lack of social life and rather dry Russian lessons turned me sour, or maybe the fact that I saw basically everything Kiev has in the first week there and sat around twiddling my thumbs ever since then. And of course the biggest problem is there didn't seem to be much adventure there. Getting drunk on cheap beer and looking at architecture just doesn't seem to cut it anymore.
So lets take you through a picture gallery of Kiev, and later Odessa.
A statue of Petro Sagaidachny, leader of the Ukrainian Cossacks who did some very naughty things. Ukraine's history revolves around the cossacks and Ukrainans are very proud of their free-booting fore-fathers.
I loled
A strange child. I am sure he was following me....
The entrance to the Lavra (cave monastery). I never actually went in, so I guess it will be one for a future visit.
All of the major memorials in Kiev form one big park next to the Lavra and the WW2 musems. This is the entrance
Shit 3D graffiti that didn't work because of the light
Helicopter landing pad for Ukrainian parliamentarians. I shit you not
The interior of the Odessa train station as went back to Kiev to catch the flight back
I was almost happy after the food poisoning to get back to Kiev and fly home. It was great to see my family again after a year and to eat barbecues and burgers and Indian food and all of those great things I have missed. After a few weeks I was reunited with my wonderful Bayan and we celebrated my birthday together. I spent a week in Manchester catching up with my good friend Mike, and of course I spent a few great times with the guys in Northampton. Maybe it wasn't quite as amazing as the summer I spent for the first time in Kazakhstan, but I'd much prefer it to the cold Kazakhstan winds of winter.
And as they approach, I find myself shivering a little just thinking of them....
