Freitag, 11. Dezember 2009

Lviv/Lvov/Lemberg

See Markus, I'm catching up :P

The second city I visited in Ukraine was Lviv, which is in the western region of Ukraine. The inhabitants are really proud of their ukrainian values, traditions and the ukrainian language. That’s why many people in Lviv think that they are the actual capital of Ukraine, because the further you go east and south in Ukraine, the more people speak Russian and feel more attached to Russia.

This time I didn’t travel with Olga but with my two room mates, the russian teacher of my american room mate, and her friend with her fiancee. We decided to take the overnighttrain again, but this time we already left Thursday evening and came home Sunday morning. Therefore, I had to take Friday off.

This time I wasn’t too worried about the night in the train, which turned out to be a mistake, because I had the worst night ever. I was able to sleep for 2 hours, because the light was turned on during night, it was far too hot in the cabin, people were snoring and I was thursty. The next morning I felt totally miserable and I had to take a nap once we arrived in our rather nice appartment.

Lviv is comparable to Prague and Vienna many beautifully restored buildings, a nice opera, a very historic inner city (UNESCO world heritage) but a booooooooring night life. We were actually planning on going out the first night in Lviv, but all bars closed at 11 o’clock already and there seemed to be no parties going on. Such a pitty. It felt a little bit like back in Maastricht :P

On the way back to Kiev I slept quite well, although a very disgusting man slept only two meters next to me. His sweater was far too short, which is why his big hairy belly was highly visible at all times. His feet stank absolutely disgusting, and one had to pass his feet everytime one wanted to go to the toilet. Additionally, he drank too much alcohol before the train ride and I had to smell this dirty alcoholic stink the whole night. Especially when he turned his face in my direction I could feel his breath on my face. At 4 o’clock and at 6 o’clock in the morning he woke me up to ask me whether he could drink out of my bottle of water. Of course I’m too nice of a person to say now. I never touched this bottle again. Uargh!!!

Odessa

Just today, Markus told me that my blog is a big disappointment. I had a bad conscious for the next hours, so I decided that I really have to start informing you guys again. Soooooooo here it is: the sequel of my great great great blog. Tatatataaaaa

I guess I will start writing about the first of my two trips I made in Ukraine in the last months. My next entries will not by chronologically, but I believe that no one really minds. :P

I always wanted to visit some other ukrainian cities during my stay in Ukraine, other than Kiev. I planned on going to Odessa, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donezk, Charkiw, on the Krim and maybe even do Molodva. This, however, were my plans before I came to Kiev, because I thought I will be bored like hell, have no friends, nothing to do and nothing to see in Kiev after 1 month. However, it all turned out a little bit different and I was kind of busy all the time sightseeing, meeting friends, working, sleeping and eating. And as being a creature of habit, I do not like too many changes in my everyday life so I wanted to stay in Kiev, because this meant the smallest amount of stress for me. But I wanted to visit at least one city in Ukraine, and Olga (a firend of mine) was continously pushing me to go to Odessa.

Thus, we planned on going to Odessa during one weekend - Friday night until Monday morning. The distance between Kiev and the other ukrianian cities is quite large, therefore the only possibility to go to other cities is by plane, train or by bus. I don’t trust ukrainian planes and drunk ukrainian pilots and buses are really shitty. Therefore we decided to take an overnight train from Kiev to Odessa. Olga is fluent in Russian, which was really helpful, because with my pathetic Russian skills, I couldn’t even have bought a train ticket on my own.

By the way the ukrainian service at the station is the worst I’ve ever seen. After waiting for 20 minutes in the queue, this “service-woman” just closed the line, because it was her lunch break. And of course there was no substitute. NO! So we had to switch the line and wait again. However, my room mates told me that when they were buying train tickets once, the service woman was pissed, because my ukrainian room mate wanted to know the different prices in the first, second and third class. Supposedly, you are only allowed to ask the price for one class, because the woman told my room mates that they shouldn’t ask so many questions and closed the cashpoint and told my room mates to come back tomorrow. Hahaha.

Anyways, at one point we got the tickets and took the train on Friday night. We had tickets for the third class, which is why we only paid 14 Euros there and back. It was the first time for me in an overnighttrain, but it turned out better than I thought. Third class basically means that you don’t have cabins, where you can close a door behind you, it rather is a floor with niches, where 6 people can sleep. three pallets at the bottom and three pallets at the top. Olga and I were in a niche with a young family with a small girl, which cried all the time. Then the conducter gave everyone bedclothes so we could start making our beds. I could sleep fairly well despite my fear that someone will steal al my money and my passport and despite the fact that people were continously passing by my bed to go to the toilet.

The next morning at 9 o’clock we arrived in Odessa and Olga got us an apartment for only 20 Euros per night. I think that the land lord thought, that I’m some kind of rich Western guy, who came to Ukraine to find a wife or to find cheap sex and that Olga was my victim. Ächem.

Odessa is a very very beautiful city at the black sea, although it is supposed to be even better in the summer. Olga and I planned on going to the opera on our first night, however, thanks to Yulia Timoshenko all schools, universities, cinemas and operas were closed for three weeks. So we couldn’t see La Boheme in one of the most beuatiful opera houses in the world, but had to watch the Ukrainian and Russian football match. Odessa has a very mediterranean touch. All the buildings and streets reminded me of Italy, and it looked very in comparison to Kiev for example. We also went to the beach smelled and touched the black sea and were visiting all the sights. We also went to a wax figure cabinet, which was sooooo bad. There were about 20 figures, however one could not even have guessed who each figure was supposed to represent, because the artists obviously didn’t have any talent.

If you have the chance to go to Odessa, you should definitely do it. Preferably in the summer, it is worth it. On the way back I slept really bad, because every two hours new people came into the train and were talking very loudly although it was 2 o’clock at night. Hence, I looked totally miserable on Monday morning when I went to work. Work is really fun when you haven’t slept more than 3 hours. I really hope that I will get Olga’s pictures from Odessa soon, so I can upload them on facebook.

Freitag, 30. Oktober 2009

Swine Flu

Great! Todays news have been all about the swine flu which now also reached Ukraine. People really start to panic. I think up to 35 people died so far. Especially in the west of Ukraine. And what is Mrs Timoschenko doing? She is closing all schools for 3 weeks, she forbids(!) all events where a crowd of people could be possible including concerts and cinemas.

This practically means I can't go to the DDT concert on sunday. But I'm not sure yet. I guess I have to ask at the ticket shop tomorrow. This evening I was in the city center and a quarter of the people were running around with these medicine masks. It looked quite scary. Now I don't have any idea what to do the next couple of days.

Anyways..

Yesterday, I've been to the swimming pool. It is quite difficult to get in there, because you need a medical certificate from a doctor that you are healthy, or you won't be allowed to swim. Luckily I have some connections to a doctor here in Kiev, who wrote me one of these certificates. I was told that it is also possible to give the saleslady a little bit more money under the table and she will let you in without a certificate. That's how Ukraine works :D

Mittwoch, 28. Oktober 2009

Party, Propaganda and Vodka

I just noticed that I haven't written anything into my blog for ages. Therefore, it is really time to tell you what happened to me in the last couple of weeks...

Let's start with my saturdays:

3 weeks ago one of my room mates and I went to an Irish Pub to meet up with some friends of his brother in law. We watched the football match Ukraine against England. Ukraine won of course :) One of the friends invited my room mates, 2 girls and me to a club in Kyiv. It is called Zar/Царь and I totally enjoyed it. I heard that it is the most expensive club in Kiev, but we got in for free, because this friend had some connections (It would have been 15 Euros). All the women were so beautiful, it was unbeliavable. But women/girls in Ukraine are generally quite beuatiful and they like to show what they have got. So the shortest skirt possible and the most flashy dresses. The men in this club however, were pretty old and ugly (+ rich I guess). But of course they wanted to hook up with the girls, which failed most of the times. Luckily! Some girls, however, even made out with some of these old guys. Anyways, it was a great party. Fantastic interior, very good music and the drinks weren't too expensive. The club was located in an old water tower (does this word exist?) in a park on a little hill. It looked really nice. And do you know how we got there? It is usual in Ukraine to use private cars as taxis. So you wave with your hand at the street until some car stops, you ask for the price and tell them where you want to go and then they will drive you there. Normally it is very cheap. I think we payed 30 Hryvna for 4 persons. Which is 2,30 Euros approximately. I love it....

2 weeks ago I went to another club called Prime. It was techno night. Sounds more terrible than it turned out to be. We all loved the music at the end and were dancing all night through. The DJs have been so great it's unbelievable. Up to now I only have good experience with music in clubs in Kiev. And this time there were no old men dancing, only very young people. The guys all wore fancy extraordinary clothes and they had great haircuts, which would look totally ridicolous on me though.

Last Saturday we didn't have precise plans so my room mates and I went to Maidan (Liberation Place) to have a beer. We already heard music 500 meters away from Maidan, because there was a huuuuuuge musical festival. Hm actually it was rather a political rally. Julia Timoschenko was hosting the start of her political campaign for the presidential elections in January 2010. She is very rich, she uses the same campaign coordiantors as Obama and she was just voted the most beautiful political leader in the world. I think you all know here. It is the blond one with this chaplet on her head. The Liberation square was totally crowded with supporters and a lot of Ukrainian stars were coming on stage to sing and to tell the audience how great Timoschenko is. I even saw RUSLANA - She is the winner of Eurovision Song Contest 2004. She was great. I was really happy to see her :DDDDDDDDDDD They also composed a song for Timoschenko. The refrain was something like: Julia, Julia, Ukrainia. Very catchy. That's how propaganda works. After the festival was finished we went to a pub with live music..

During my time in Kiev, the friends of my room mate were vistiting us several times to drink Vodka and to eat Pizza. Of course I also had to drink, because they shouldn't think all Germans are pussies. Once they brought this very strong vodka, which at the same time was really spicy. It nearly killed me. And one has to drink tomato juice afterwards, which is totally disgusting. By the way, all of the friends are married. And I think the oldest is 28 years old. But that's totally normal here. If you don't get married as a girl until the age of 22 you are regarded as strange. And men should also start marrying at the age of 26 the latest. And of course the family is always asking you when you get married. And if you are married, they are already waiting for the first child. What I also found out, which is rather sad: Many ukrainian men think that is sometimes better to slap a woman when she is not doing what she is supposed to do. I was totally shocked. I hope Ukrainians will change in the near future in that respect.

I still love my internship, and I keep on getting send to these business meetings, where they always have this wonderful food. So instead of doing networking, like everyone else, I'm eating, eating, eating. People always start looking at me when I go to the buffet for the third time. I think I'm the worst person to do networking ever!!!

By the way I stopped going to McDonalds and eating BigMac Menues. Hmm.. Only kind of. Now I'm always eating this McDonalds salat, which is not really the best or I'm going to Pusata Chata, that's the best restaurant ever. Very cheap, delicious ukrainian food.

I'm really scared that I'll be even more greedy once I'm back in Germany, because then I'll think how expensive everything is in Germany. I think I won't buy any food in the first 2 weeks.

Last Friday I've been to the Babushka of my room mate on the countryside. We ate so much and drank so much Vodka, you cannot imagine. But I think Babushka still drank more than I did. I can never be a real ukrainian :( I could't sleep this night, because my stomach hurt so badly.

On Sunday I'll go to a concert of an old Russian Rock Bank. They're called ДДТ. Supposed to be really famous in Ukraine and Russia. We'll see :)

Sonntag, 4. Oktober 2009

Theatre, Internship and McDonalds

I forgot to tell you in my last blog entry, that I've been to the Ukrainian National Museum, which was actually quite nice and interesting. Did you know that already the ancient Greeks were settling down in the south of Ukraine? At least I didn't. And did you know that while Kiev was already quite a big city, Moscow was a little town with only 50 inhabitans?

On Wednesday I've been to the young theater in Kiev to see a Russian play with a German friend of mine. That's a really small, but beautiful theatre close to where I live. One has to buy the tickets from a man, who was standing on the stairs up to the theatre. At the beginning he told us that he didn't have any tickets left. Then, after some people passed though, he said that he still has two tickets left for 200 hrivnas (16 Euros) per person, but we had to wait some time. 2 minutes before the beginning told us that he will sell us the tickets for 40 Hrivnas (3,20 Euros) each. So this was very cheap. :) However, it did not start right away with the performance, but with 20 minutes of piano playing and afterwards a short lecture about the history of the theatre. I didn't understand most of what this guy said. First of all because he spoke Ukrainian and second of all, because I would not even have understood it in case of him speaking Russian. Then the show started. I only knew the meaning of every fourth word, but the acting was so amazing that you could understand the storyline. I've rarely seen actors acting in such a good way.

On Thursday my internship started, and it turned out to be much better than I had expected. I basically always have something to do. Write reports, find out stuff about certain companies and so on. I love it so far. I hope it stays that way. Another good thing about my internship: A McDonalds is situated very close by, so I can go there during the lunch break to have a Big Mac Menu (Big Mac, big fries, big coke) for only 25 Hrivna, which is only 2,40 Euros. It's so unbelievably cheap and it tastes the same as in Western Europe. I'm scared that I will end up going there every day and at the end look like an American.

Mittwoch, 30. September 2009

Buildings, food and football

I still haven't figured out how to upload my pictures. Therefore, I'm sorry not to be able to show you some beautiful sights, yet. However, I have taken some new ones on an old, inoperative building, which was built some years ago, but has never been used. It's situated quite close to my flat and on monday my flat mates and I went there to scale it. I think it was a little bit risky, but I had to do it - peer pressure, you know. We had to find a hole in the fence surrounding the building to enter building. It was so scary, because there were no windows and no ballustrate and I don't know whether I trust the Ukrainian construction skills that much. We had to go up approximately 7 floors until we reached the top. We had an amazing view over Kiev from the roof. So it was definately worth it.

In the evening I met a nice German girl, which is currently doing an internship at a law firm in Kiev. We had dinner and I showed her around for a bit.

Yesterday the grandmother (Babuschka) of my Ukrainian flat mate visited us and made absolutely amazing Ukrainian food. A soup, which I think was called Borscht, and Palmini (something similar to Tortellini) with sour cream and meat. Then we drank tea and ate some Ukrainian sweets. She also invited us to her house on the countryside.

Later this evening my flat mates and I went to an Irish pub in the city centre to meet some friends of my flat mate and to watch the football game Barcelona against Dynamo Kiev. Although Kiev lost it was a nice game. I had to explain the rules to my American flat mate. In return he will teach me the American Football rules on Sunday.

Tonight I'll meet the German girl again to go to the theatre. I'm hoping to understand at least a little but of what they are saying.

Tomorrow my internship will start, which makes me very nervous. I'll let you know as soon as I can give you my opinion on this internship.

Sonntag, 27. September 2009

Beauty, marrying and cheapness

In the last couple of days I noticed how beautiful Kiev is. There are so many lovely and pretty buildings, that I had never expected here. Kiev is, furthermore, known for the wide range of parks in the city. And in every street you can find trees, whose leaves are starting to turn yellow. So Kiev is a very green city indeed. Every sunday, one can walk on Kiev's main street without being hit by a car, because traffic is forbidden at this part of the city. You can see all kind of different people walging around there - punks, rich people, homeless people, a lot of young people and so on. But they are ALL soooooo skinny. It's unbelievable. I feel totally fat in comparison to them. Their thighs are half the size of mine. And the girls walk around very revealing, but I guess this is just normal here.

In the last days I met to guys, which showed me around the city and explained me the history of some of the buildings. I think I'm now even able to find the way back home, without getting lost in some kind of ghetto. Today I've visited the Sophie Cathedral, which is UNESCO world heritage, although I much more loved another church, with turquoise walls and green spires. Very cheesy but very lovely. By the way, everyone is marrying in Kiev: I saw 4 bridal couples on Friday in a park, 5 yesterday at the church and 2 today in another park. I guess this has to do with the pressure from the families and the women to marry as quickly as possible.

What really strikes me are the totally cheap prices here in Kiev. I pay only 25 cents for a 2 litre Bonaqua bottle and only 20 cents for a ride with the bus. Today I had lunch in a Ukranian restaurant and I only paid 4 Euros for 2 meals. And the food turned out to be very delicious. The rents in Kiev, on the other hand are extremely high - 300 Euros for a room is normal, despite the low quality.

I really have luck with my apartment. First of all, it only takes me 20 minutes to my internship place by foot. Second, I only need 25 minutes to the liberation square in the inner city. And third, my flat mates are very nice. I think I wouldn't have survived the first days without them. The American guy is very nice and we were talking a lot and the Ukrainian guy, who was away for the weekend also helped me a lot organising my life here in Kiev.

I already took some nice pictures. So I should find out how to upload them here. Maybe you can see some pictures in my next blog entry.

Donnerstag, 24. September 2009

Till has arrived!

Approximately six hours ago I landed in Kiev. I was also allowed to enter the country, although the security people and passport-checkers looked pretty angry and made me feel like a criminal. I had to ask a Russian woman for a pen in Russian (У вас есть корондаш?) to fill out the immigration card. And my luggage arrived - Juhey. However, while leaving the airport, at least 10 Ukrainian men were badgering me and asked me to go with them by taxi. At least that's what I think they said (of course I didn't understand a word except Taxi). Outside, a crowd was waiting for a way to come to the city centre. So I had to ask around (in Russian!!!!!) how I arrive safely at the central station without paying too much money. Some guy directed me to a bus (Автобус), which drove to the station. It turned out that the airport was 40 kilometres(!) away from the inner city. So it took me 50 minutes to arrive there. I was so intelligent not to change my money already at the airport. Therefore, I couldn't pay the busdriver, who was collecting the money on the way to Kiev, because I only had Euros. He got pretty angry and wanted to money immediately. Thanks to one other passenger who changed my Euros into Hrivnas I could pay the price.

Once I left the bus I had to ask again many people how to find the way to the street where I was supposed to live in. By the way, the temperature was freakingly high and I wore a thick coat and I had to carry my backpack and my luggage (which I couldn't roll!). I was running around for 40 minutes asking in my limited Russian language skills for the direction. I was sweating like hell and I just wanted to take a shower.

But it hadn't ended here. I was standing in front of the door, with no name tags and no bells. I tried to call Sasha (my flat mate) on the mobile, but it said that this number doesn't exist. I tried several times and I started panicing. Then a girl wanted to enter the door and I tried to explain her my situation in Russian, but she didn't know Sasha and she also couldn't reach him on the phone.

So I was waiting until another person came. The next person who came was --------> Sascha.

Yes!

He told me that there are two entrances to the apartments and that I was using the wrong one. So I accopanied him to the flat. One has to open 5 key holes and 3 doors to enter the flat. I think the Ukrainians are very attached to security. I could choose a room, because the other flat mate will arrive at 11 o'clock today. He's from America.

What happened to me after my "exciting" arrival in Kiev - you'll find out soon on this site.

Donnerstag, 17. September 2009

1. week to go!

Здравствуйте

Now it's official. In one week I'll go to Kiev, Ukraine.

Till in the Ukraine. Sounds funny when you think about it..

Actually I only had the idea of going to Kiev after reading a magazine article about the city. And the pictures looked so lovely - so I had to apply for this internship. We'll see whether my shallowness will penalise me.

Thanks to Markus, who forced me to write this blog, because he doesn't believe in regular e-mail exchange, you will be updated about my surviving skills in Kiev.

Have fun!