Some People Should Not Be Allowed to Influence Young Minds

Today, while walking down the street, I was explaining the police extortion scam to my new Kiwi friend, when we were approached by an English-speaker. I am usually very careful about what I say, but so few people in Ukraine seem to speak English that sometimes you forget that someone might understand you. I was a little embarrassed until we discovered that she hadn't really overheard our conversation, just that we were speaking English. She was an English professor at L'viv University who hadn't decided what to do with her English majors on the first day of classes, so she asked us to speak to the class about our respective countries. Whew!

The university is in a very pretty old building and has been in continuous operation since 1661 (longer than any other in Ukraine.)
We talked with the fifteen or so girls about our countries and had a lot of laughs. The students were a little shy, but one girl was brave enough to ask a few questions.

Of course, it happened to be laundry day and I was looking a little messy when someone wanted me to stand in front of a group and represent my country. Oh well. At least I got to show them the matryoshka doll that I bought for my niece, Katie.

It was actually pretty cool to get to meet some local students. I wish we could have spent more time with them.

A Tribute

Hands-down, our favorite place to eat in Ukraine was Pyzata Hata, which is a cafeteria-style eatery with good, hearty food at cheap prices. Some people ate here two and three times a day. I tried to keep it to one.
There are sinks just inside the door so you can wash your hands. We never did catch on as to whether the custom was to wash them before or after, so I'm sure we offended someone.

The seating is at heavy wooden tables on hard wooden chairs.

And the ladies behind the counter serve up delicious dishes like borscht, perogies with sour cream, chicken kiev, potato salad with capers, fish, and tomato salad. On any given day, there are probably two dozen foods to choose from and I never spent more than five dollars.

It's a backpacker's dream.

This Can't Be Right

Back in L'viv, a group I met at the hostel was in search of a recommended coffee shop.

From the street, we were told to enter this dark doorway, go through the tunnel...
... and along the alley to find it.

And then it was only a small room with four tables, but this is just what we were looking for.

In fact, most of the best places here are hard to find, which is what keeps them interesting and low key.

Baltimore???

Can anyone explain to me how Baltimore, of all US east coast cities, made the cut?

Odessa Nice

OK, so Odessa does have a dirty port...

... but remember what I was saying about the central district? It's actually quite nice. I don't have a lot to say that the pictures won't tell you.

Potemkin Stairs. They were made famous in the movie The Battleship Potemkin.

This is the central square.

And some of the statues in the park.

I stopped for coffee at one of the cafes in the park...

... where out the window I spied a man re-painting the gold spots on this bean/seed.

The Nut Lady of Odessa

I arrived in Odessa today to meet up with Nick and Kes. This is another city that people had warned me was seedy and dirty, and again, that was not my experience. It is full of tree-shaded streets, cafe-lined parks, and beautiful, European-style buildings. It also has a great vibe.

We had some coffee in the park and then headed for lunch at a cute cafe by the river.
Then hit one of their favorite Irish bars for drinks. (Nick on the left, Kes on the right.)

We finished the night at 3 or 4 AM at another bar they had discovered.

(The title is in honor of Nick, who told us one of the funniest stories I have heard in a long time. I can't do it justice, but suffice it to say that only Nick could find the one nut seller in Odessa who refuses to actually sell nuts.)

How Many Ukrainians Does It Take to Change a Lightbulb?

In 1986, as many of you remember, reactor number four at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, raining large amounts of radioactive material over portions of the Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus (who got the worst of it) and to a lesser extent across the globe. It is considered to be the worst nuclear disaster in history, with the radioactive material released equaling 400 times that of Hiroshima and an estimated 10,000 times that of TMI. Chernobyl is not far from Kiev, so you can visit the site itself as well as a museum in Kiev. Despite my willingness to take risks with things like camels, I am not so keen on dangers I can't see. And touring a nuclear fallout zone 22 years after the incident, when I understand the term "half life", doesn't strike me as a good idea. So, I just stuck with the museum.

Here is an aerial image of the reactor after the incident.

The museum was laid out very creatively, with a focus on the impact to the people.

One part that I thought was really powerful was this collection of street signs when you exit. For those not familiar with the designation, the red line through a city name is used to indicate you are leaving the city.

Unfortunately, while I liked the presentation, I found the museum light on the hard information I was seeking. I left with more questions than when I entered. What caused the disaster? What happens when a reactor explodes? What does the "hot rain" look like? How many people died? I didn't know much of this information because, while I remember it happening, I was only 11 at the time. I wish I had known more before I entered so I would get more out of the exhibits.

My friends, Helen and Jeroen, did the tour of the reactor site and nearby town. I guess eating river fish and mushrooms wasn't risky enough for them, but they did come away with more information. One piece of information that I found astounding was the process for containment. They had no contingency plan for this sort of thing, so men dressed in radiation suits were sent in two minute increments to build a wall over the exposed portions of the reactor. All of them died soon after from exposure. My friends were told that cracks are now beginning to show in this same wall that still covers the reactor.

After the museum, I walked through the city along the river and saw some great statues.

And some cool buildings. Many fellow travelers told me that Kiev is such an ugly, grey city, but this is not the case. It has wide boulevards, beautiful old buildings...

... and modern homes. Granted it is not ALL like that, but it is actually quite a pretty city.

And probably the most interesting of the buildings is called the Chimera Building due to the menagerie of animals along its roofline.

More fun with Cyrillic. This says Coffee House.