It's Ukraine baby!

I just got back from one of the craziest and busiest trips I’ve ever been on! There are way too many things to tell: the good, the bad, the interesting, the crazy! Talk about culture shock. After about the third day however, nothing seemed to faze us and in response to whatever came our way we just said “It’s Ukraine baby!” People drinking vodka in the streets at 8am: “It’s Ukraine baby!” Bathrooms that were actually just holes in the ground: “It’s Ukraine baby!” Scary border control women in stilettos: “It’s Ukraine baby!” Finding ourselves in the midst of Eastern Europe… “It’s Ukraine baby!”

5am Saturday, March 17th. I wake up, throw on my backpack and head out on foot to the train station (a painful but cheap decision). I arrive at the station at 7am to meet up with the others going on the study trip: 6 American undergrads, 4 American grads, 1 Norwegian, 1 Australian, 2 French guys and our fearless leader Kasia! A 4-hour train ride later we arrive in Przemysl (p-shem-ish), which is a border town between Poland and Ukraine on the Polish side. We met up with Dr. Stanislaw Stepien (Director of South-Eastern Research Institute at Przemysl) to hear a lecture on Ukrainian-Polish relations particularly at this border point. Even though we were all tired it was a great first lecture as it prepared us for our adventure to Ukraine. Przemysl had been fought over by Ukraine and Poland for years. Over the years politicians tried to use propaganda and wars to turn the Polish and Ukrainian people living there against each other. These plans ultimately backfired when the citizens became curious about these “evil people” they were living with and went to go see them. The result was many mixed marriages – haha. Today the town is mostly Polish as most of the Ukrainian population left post WWII. However, Przemysl in its day was a center of cultural life and relations between Poles, Ukrainians, Germans, Czechs, and Armenians. Moving on, after the long lecture we had a two-hour walking tour. I’m sure it’s a beautiful town, but on this particular day it was FREEZING cold and rainy. Oh, and did I mention the “old city” was built on the side of a hill? Despite all that we did see some fun cathedrals and churches and a beautiful view from the castle. After the tour we stocked up on food and caught our night train to Kyiv (formerly “Kiev” but apparently they want to change the spelling to “Kyiv” in our alphabet).

So for those of you who have never taken a night train, count yourself lucky. I took a night train once from Munich to Paris. However nothing could have prepared me for this train. It was like something out of a bad, old Soviet movie. The train was outdated, falling-apart, the bathrooms were beyond disgusting, everything was dirty, the lights (that still worked) were so dim you could barely see anything, the whole train was hazy with smoke and, of course, the windows didn’t open. Each room had four beds and was not too cramped however we were told we must stay awake until we got past border control. We were all sitting around and laughing until we reached the border. The train stopped abruptly and a bunch of Ukrainian border officers flooded onto the train. They all had scary Soviet-looking uniforms and huge hats. They slammed open our door and yelled at us to sit on the bottom bunks, be quiet, and not to move and then they locked all the bathrooms so no one could hide. After sitting in silence for forever a huge border control woman came by and examined our passports. She looked at each thoroughly, asking us to turn our heads – she never once smiled. She stamped our passports (a lot harder than necessary) and then scanned each into her computer. After about an hour the whole train was complete and the train moved on. Exhausted from a long day and the adrenaline rush of border control we collapsed into our bunks.

I slept amazingly well and woke up early. I peeked out the window to catch my first glimpse of Ukraine and was shocked to see trash everywhere. Welcome to Eastern Europe! We arrived in Kyiv, filed off the train and hustled off to our hostel. After a short break we went on a walking tour of Kyiv. Now, it was only supposed to be a 2-hour tour but it ended up being over four hours long! Our over-zealous tour guide was very demanding (walk faster! Now!), opinionated, but full of fun and unique information. Within these four hours we saw a whole lot of Kyiv but I will just tell you a few of the things we saw. My favorite place actually was St. Michaels Church. In Orthodox churches women must cover their heads, so we all had to bring scarves with us on all our tours in Ukraine. Orthodox churches are so beautiful – green, blue or white with colorful accents and large golden cupolas. When we walked into St. Michaels there was an actual service taking place and the sound of the people’s voices singing in response to the priest echoed throughout the whole church and gave me chills. Everywhere you looked there was gold, icons, and ornate frescos. Even the priest was wearing a huge gold and purple robe. The exterior of the church was painted a light blue and white with large golden cupolas surrounded by a courtyard and an ornate bell tower – stunning. Another fun part of the tour was the giant crows! Our tour guide took us down a random alleyway behind someone’s building to see a cage that housed 3 giant crow-like birds. It was completely and absolutely random. When we asked why they were there, our tour guide just shrugged and continued on. Many times throughout the tour we would ask “why” something was so… but no one ever seemed to know the answer. But hey, It’s Ukraine baby! After the tour we had dinner at “Puzata Khata” which is a Ukrainian buffet chain. It was cheap and oh so yummy however there are many picky people in the group who were repulsed and fondly renamed the restaurant “Puzata Krapa.” After some good hearty Ukrainian food, some cheap drinks, and some fun conversation we caught the last bus back to our hostel. Day two complete.

Side Story: THE SAGA CONTINUES!!! My credit card, although it had a picture of a strange man on it, still worked at ATMs so I was able to bring it to Ukraine. That is until my second day there when an ATM ate it! No joke. During the tour we stopped at an ATM to let people get out some Ukrainian Hryvnia for dinner. However, when it was my turn my card got stuck and ATMs will retain your card if you don’t take it after 30 seconds. Long story short, the system isn’t as efficient as America and my card is now gone forever. It was of course, my last straw, and Bank of America received a very… well… different sort of phone call this time from me. My new card is on its way. And as always, life goes on.

Day Three begins! Rise and shine and off to Lavra! Lavra is an old monastery on a hill overlooking Kyiv, parts of it are original but most has been restored as a museum. It was quite large and extremely beautiful but the best part were the caves! Early monks built the tunnels and lived the remainder of their lives underground without ever seeing the sun! We were actually able to go down into the caves with little candles. People used to be a lot shorter and the tunnels were very cramped but incredibly fascinating. I felt like Indiana Jones examining coffins with my little candle in a dark, old cave! After Lavra we had free time so a group of us went to see the WWII museum/memorial down the street. This was definitely a huge highlight of my trip. As you are walking you see this HUGE statue (62m) of a woman that is directly on top of the museum. The woman represents the “motherland” Russia and holds in one hand a shield with the hammer and sickle symbol and in the other a sword with the top cut off because originally it was higher than the highest church in Kyiv. The WWII museum turned out to be closed but there were so many fun things around it. We climbed on tanks and took lots of pictures, checked out the creepy statues of people holding scary weapons, and some of the guys paid money to sit in a helicopter. The guy who let them into the helicopter even turned on some creepy soviet music over a loud speaker as they took turns in the helicopter. On the way back to the bus stop we decided to stop and use the restroom – grossest experience ever. Not only did it smell of old urine but the toilets were just dirty holes in the ground (most restaurants and hotels had toilets, but everywhere else you find just holes). When we walked in there was this guy yelling at this homeless lady who’d actually been LIVING in one of the stalls. The man made her empty her pockets and show her empty hands. Needless to say we got out of there, but I couldn’t help feeling frustrated at the poverty I kept seeing. Is there nothing one can do? Is it okay to just keep enjoying myself and never give that lady another thought?

Next we had a meeting with Mr. Borys Tarasyuk the Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine! Currently he is the head of the People’s Movement of Ukraine and Director of the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation. Needless to say this guy is a big deal… and we had a meeting with him. We were surprised that after a short introduction he opened it up for questions and discussion rather than a lecture. Mr. Tarasyuk has served under five different governments and is still making his voice heard. He is definitely pro-European and is a strong advocate of NATO and the EU. After the meeting (and many pictures!) he invited us to take a tour of the mini-museum they had in the building of Vyacheslav Chornovil. Chornovil was a political activist who disagreed with Soviet policies and pushed for Ukrainian independence. In 1999 he ran for President however died in a fatal, yet very suspicious, car crash. Today he is recognized as a hero and, as we saw, there is even a small museum for him. The most fascinating part of museum was the guide they gave us… his sister! When she got to the part about his death and funeral she started crying and told us she was touched that Americans had come to honor him. After having dinner at a neat restaurant with live mandolin music in the middle of a park we stocked up on beer from the cheap beer stands and went to Khreschatyk Street! This is the “main street” where the city centre is. It’s HUGE: the street is so wide and the buildings are monstrous and magnificent and just a tad bit intimidating. We sat in the middle of the city centre, surrounded by huge buildings and monuments and just laughed and drank and told stories for hours. Unbelievable.

Tuesday was our last day in Kyiv. We had a meeting with the Christian Democratic Youth of Ukraine, informative but in all honesty, not that interesting. Our afternoon was pretty free so I explored the “underground world” of Kyiv. Under the main street (Khreschatyk) there is a miniature city! It’s actually like a mall, but it’s pretty neat to explore! Tons of shops (clothing, food, electronics), barbershops, arcade, restaurants, a food court, etc. etc. Afterwards I decided to sit in a café, enjoy an espresso and write a little about my adventures thus far. It turns out that this café is famous and for some strange reason they thought I was a writer and asked me to sign something for them! I was tempted to do it but in the end I laughed and explained I was only a “studentka”. The most exciting part of the whole day was going to the Kiev ballet! We were able to get pretty cheap student tickets and even though the seats were bad, the ballet was INCREDIBLE. It was at the Opera house, which is a gorgeous, well-known building in Kyiv (ironically directly across from it is a disgusting, broken-down, communist style building). The ballet they were showing was Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty. Absolutely breath-taking. The music, the costumes, the dancing, everything. I almost cried. After the ballet though we didn’t have time to let the beauty of it linger. We literally had to RUN to the metro, then to our hostel to get our bags, all the way back to the metro, and then to the main train station. We made it, but just barely. This night train was pretty much a replica of the last… just with no border control!

Wednesday we arrived in Lviv! Kyiv, being the capital of Ukraine as well as the former center of Slavic culture, was magnificent and large and people spoke a lot of Russian. Lviv on the other hand was smaller, softer, poorer, but thankfully people understood Polish here! We took a walking tour that took us to many monuments and churches. By the end of the tour I had decided that even though Lviv looked “softer” than Kiev, this was a strong town. They are constantly in opposition with the government and are very particular about their city. Interesting. After the tour a group of us decided to do a pub-crawl! We went all over the city finding fun bars and eventually ended up back at the hostel with some cheap (but smooth) Ukrainian vodka. One of the guys in our group had been to Russia once and had someone teach him the “right way” to take a shot of vodka. You need pickles and good vodka. Apparently the two worst things about vodka are the smell and the after taste. (Which makes one wonder what the “good” part is…) So what you do is you sniff the pickle, down the shot, and then eat the pickle. It sounds so strange, but let me tell you, it’s pretty hilarious. A few bottles of vodka later we head out to the one club we heard about “Lalka”. It ended up being extremely dead compared to a club in Poland but there was a pool table and a big dance floor. I ended up meeting a bunch of Bulgarians who taught me to dance. That is, everyone links arms and dances in a circle while kicking. Crazy Bulgarians.

I awoke Thursday morning with a cough… traveling, lack of sleep, and multiple tours in the freezing rain will do that to you! Our first activity of the day was a meeting with an NGO called “Dialogue”. Basically, they want to improve the education system of Ukraine. They hold “dialogues” to get students thinking as well as they have many programs to encourage education and help students continue on to a higher education. The lady was really neat and well informed (plus she actually spoke English instead of using a translator!). Immediately after the discussion we took a bus tour of the surrounding area of Lviv. I had no idea what to expect but was blown away by the beauty of the countryside. Our personal tour guide was this beautiful blond Ukrainian girl with gold-colored eyes. Needless to say, the guys in our group were extremely attentive on this tour. She was extremely interesting and knew SO MUCH INFORMATION. We visited three castles on the tour. The first castle OAECbKO was on top of a hill with the most beautiful view of endless fields. A fire and then occupation has destroyed most of the original things in the castle but now they have turned it into a museum. My favorite item was a painting called something like “dooms day”. It was a very old icon-like triptych depicting judgment day. On either side there were people divided by race getting judged, you could see Arabs with their turbans and different white nationalities… but then there was a group of naked men with long beards… nudists perhaps? The funniest part of the painting, as our tour guide pointed out, was the hell scene at the bottom. There was a bar and a bar maid serving beer in hell. Only in Ukraine baby! The next place was actually a palace called ?I?AIPYI which had been turned into a hospital and is now completely ruined. You can’t go in it today but you can walk around it and go in the moat. It was HUGE with a tree-lined entrance, moat, fortified wall, and an extremely massive “backyard”. It was also in the middle of nowhere, empty and broken down – like a haunted palace! Directly across from the palace was an old Orthodox church that was equally eerie. The whole thing was magnificent and my imagination couldn’t help but piece it back together as what it once might have been. I hope someone invests in it and restores it. The last castle ?OAO?IB was the least interesting, but it did have a “Chinese palace” attached to it. Upon our return we treated ourselves to an amazing last dinner and then I put myself to bed. Can’t afford to catch a cold with all the things I need to do this week!

Friday was bittersweet. Everyone got to sleep in and enjoy a group breakfast. Then it was off to the train station for the journey home. Our first train would take us back to Przemysl. Thus the only ones on the train were us… and a bunch of smugglers!!! Yup, tons of Ukrainians cross the border each day to sell items in Poland. And yes, it is illegal. And no, no one really cares. (It’s Ukraine baby!) Although, it was a bit disturbing to see these old ladies taping packs of cigarettes under their clothes before we got to the border. Once again we experienced border control. Again the Ukrainian side was extremely scary and regimental. However on the Polish side they were friendly and welcoming! After a short stop over in Przemysl we boarded our train to Krakow. I must admit, as much as I loved traveling… coming back to Krakow was like coming home.

UKRAINIAN lesson of the week!
??????! (pryvit): Hello
?????? ????? (dobryj vechir): Good evening
?????? (tualet): Toilet
???? ????? (budlaska): Please
????? (dyakuju): Thank you
?MA?HO?O (smachnoho): Bon appetite!
K??B: Kyiv
?bBIB: Lviv

Gotta love the Cyrillic alphabet.
(note: trying to fix it so you can see the Cyrillic characters)

Hope you all enjoyed. Sorry it was so long, I even cut out like half the stories! Needless to say it was quite the adventure. This next weekend I will be going to Istanbul… so more stories to come!