Big City vs. Mid-Size Town vs. Small Town vs. Village. Part 2

Hello the world and everyone! Today I'm going to finish what I've started and tell you about life in a small town and a village. When I look back on my childhood I tend to think that it was a happy one. As I've mentioned before I was born in Volodymyr-Volynskyi, however, I grew up in a different town. My father is an architect and during soviet union times you could be transferred to work to any town, city, republic (there were 15 of them). He was pretty lucky with the places he was assigned to and when I was about three years old he was sent to be a regional architect (it meant he was assigned to work in city hall and be responsible for the whole region) to a small town of Zalishchyky, in western Ukraine. Zalishchyky is actually a very beautiful small town due to its location on the bank of the river Dnister, the second biggest river in Ukraine. The population is around 10 000 people. Isn't it wonderful? Only 10 thousand people!!!! The only problem I always had with growing in a small town like that is that everyone knows everything about everyone!!!!! Literally!!!! On the one hand, it's good because people tend to behave more consciously since the fear of "What the people will say?" is pretty intimidating. Though there are always those unique ones that behave like jerks and worry about nothing. On the other hand, if you are a kid and you misbehave get ready that your parents will learn about it pretty quickly. I had tiny chances to behave badly since my mom is a teacher and it automatically put me under microscope-like surveillance of all teachers that taught me. If she wanted she could know about my school day before I even got home from school, but I have to confess that she never used it against me. At the same time living in a small town like that puts you into a network of 10 thousand people and in case you need to solve some issue within a couple days you will find somebody who can help you out. Though once we had a weird and somewhat funny situation when we came back from summer holidays and our neighbors (we lived in a block of apartments) looked at us with very big eyes. As it turned out somebody spread a rumor that we moved out of our apartment and sold it. The rumor was extremely detailed: it said where we moved to, what jobs my parents got, according to it I entered a university even (though I had to study in school one more year). My mom and I literally ran up the third floor to check if we still can use our key to open the apartment door ))) That's what happens if you live in a small town and happen to leave for two months. However, the quantity of cool things about the small town life is endless: it is clean and green, it is safe, you can easily get fresh and clean food from local people that come to the farmer's market, you can go hiking or biking, mushroom picking, star gazing, leaves collecting and lots of other fun outdoor activities. Zalishchyky is located in an extremely beautiful area where the Dnister river forms a horseshoe and the town is sitting on a half-island. The view that opens from the opposite bank on the town is breathtaking. In case you get tired of calmness of a small town you can always take a trip to bigger towns of Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk or Ternopil. My personal favorite is Chernivtsi: it's just one hour away, it has gorgeous architecture, a big number of cafes, coffee shops and restaurants, and it's the place where my university is located. If you are looking for some more extreme getaway experience, well, the Ukrainian Carpathians are just 2.5 hours away.
Some other features of a small town that have to be taken into consideration are mostly culture related. Ukraine is a pretty traditional country, but you won't feel it profoundly until you come to a small community. People in Zalishchyky are mostly very religious: you will see crowds of people on Sunday mornings heading to a church. You will also notice the agility with which people prepare to big religious holidays like Easter and Christmas, not to mention a whole number of other celebrations that are of great importance. You will also notice that people work a lot in their gardens and kitchen gardens as well as on small fields outside the town. As I've mentioned before, people in Ukraine are quite self-reliant, we had to go through many bad times and therefore we prefer to grow what we eat and to eat what we grow )) You would wonder how people get around? Out of all public transport that you can find in a big city, small towns have not a big variety: there is a bus that mostly cruises along the main road a couple of times a day, mostly in the morning when kids go to school and in the afternoon when the school day is over. The majority of people walk or use own cars. Yes, in small towns and villages you will do a lot of walking and it will happen in any weather. For instance, across the road from the building where live my parents there is a great park. It was part of my route to school for 11 years: we walked through the park alley that would merge into one of the side streets with old houses. My dad and I had our special side street route that would go along the hill that mounts over the canyon with the river at the bottom. The distance to my school is about 1.8 miles. I covered that distance two times a day. That's where I spent over 11 years of my life: a lot of nature, quiet, fresh air, no worries, and almost no problems.
I have never spent a lot of time in a village. My father's mother moved to a village after she retired. My grandfather inherited a house after his parents in a village Skomorokhy, not far from a town Sokal in Lviv region. I used to spend there a couple of weeks each year. The population equals 893 people, and I can confidently state that half the village are my relatives! I dream to come there one day with a drone and take a couple of shots from the bird's eye view to catch the colorful blanket of patched fields all over the village. People mostly are involved in farming. My grandmother used to have goats, pigs, rabbits, turkeys, chickens, ducks, and geese. She also cultivated a quite sizable field and had a great garden with dense bushes of raspberry. I really enjoyed taking goats to grease to the bank of the river. They are very funny and sociable animals. Every morning my breakfast consisted of a quart of goat milk that was still warm. Since farm animals are really well taken care of, we don't pasteurize milk produced by them, unless we buy it from other homesteads. In such a case, we boil it before consuming it. The village has a very simple infrastructure: a shop, a library, a church, a school (there also used to be a kindergarten, but I don't know if it still exists), a doctor's office, a cemetery, and a village administration. The main road is paved, most of the side roads are dirt ones. The church is the center of village life and the priest is the most respected person. Children still go to sing carols on Christmas and when you are asked your family name get ready to hear at least half of your family tree and the description where stands your house (mind, not the address, but where your house stands, who your neighbors are and what color your gate is). Such villages are peace and harmony: no loud music, no noises, only cackling of geese and mooing of cows. You won't find a lot of entertainment, but this calmness is entertaining enough. In order to get to a town nearby, you will have to learn a schedule of buses that cruise between villages. It's a bit complicated but doable.

As you can see life in Ukraine can be very versatile and enjoyable. Of course, there are positive and negative moments, but it's just like everywhere else. I can definitely tell you from my own experience that the grass is always greener on the other side and we tend to value things when we lose them or have no access to them for a long time. With age, simplicity turns into an asset, and silence turns into a real gem. I value where I am now, but I can definitely tell you that I know where I will be really happy because I've been there before and I've been happy there.

Look around you and try to appreciate what you have here and now! Have a great time of the day and behave!

Truly Yours.

As always a couple of photos. Today's blog photos were all taken by my father. All rights reserved.

Christmas service in the village Skomorokhy

View on Zalishchyky on a foggy morning

View on the Dnister river.

Skomorokhy church in the distance

Rafting on the river Dnister. 

Big City vs. Mid-Size Town vs. Small Town vs. Village. Part 1.

Morning-Evening-Afternoon guys! I know you haven't missed me much but here I am again )) This time I'm planning to write a very very very long story as you can already tell from a very very very long title (both my teachers of English and Ukrainian languages would break into tears seeing so many "very" following each other). Over my lifetime I had an experience of living in very different environments. Even right now when I'm writing these words I live on a big property in a very rural area that has never happened to me before. I can tell you right away that in Ukraine there is a really big difference between living in a town and a village. The reason for that is not purely environmental conditions or degree of pollution. The thing is that Ukraine is not a "car" country. Unlike the States the quantity of cars is way way less, the statistics says that there are around 7 million personal cars in Ukraine with a population of around 44 million people. Whereas in the States we are talking about 250 million vehicles with a population of 326 million people. So you can see what I mean by using that weird "way way less". This "transportation" fact effects lifestyle in my country quite a bit. That is why I decided to compare all the above-mentioned population clusters since such a small number of vehicles makes life in each of them very different.
So I will start my story backward going from my recent experience to my oldest one. For around 6 years I lived in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine (dear friends, I know that Ukraine is a pretty exotic country for you and that you know about it mostly in connection with the soviet union era in our history, but now we are an independent state and we try to retrieve our genuine history that is why it is correct to call our capital Kyiv (ki-eev), not Kiev (kee-yev) which is russian cliche that is completely incorrect). I was lucky to live in very different locations and very different districts but my last apartment was the best. It was on the 15th floor and I had a pretty incredible view opening from it. Another great thing about my apartment was that I had 3 different supermarket chains located literally across the road from it. Each of those stores had own bakery so buying freshly baked bread, rolls or croissants was something I took for granted. One of the supermarkets had also a confectionary but I will not tell you anything about it because I don't want to choke myself with own saliva. I will just write here one word about it "cheesecake"... I miss you... If I wanted fresh vegetables I could also buy them there along with fish, different meats, milk products and all kind of good booze from all over the world. The only thing you would not find in our supermarkets is processed food. Of course, I exaggerate a bit because you can find some kind of it, for example, we have frozen pizzas, but I cannot say that they are very popular. People prefer to order a freshly made pizza or make one at home. Another thing you will find in the frozen department is dumplings of all kinds, but I can't call them processed food since freezing is the only way of preserving them. There are a couple of other food varieties that can be found in the frozen section but mostly you will see there vegetables, mushrooms, berries, ice-cream and some kinds of fish. Why my list of processed food is so short? What am I trying to conceive from you? Well, you got me! The terrible truth is that Ukrainians in their majority cook from a scratch. In the worst case, they use preserves from the vegetables they harvest in summer: pickled tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, sour kraut, and so on, along with the whole variety of different jams and confitures from fruits and berries.
Back to my apartment on the 15th floor )) I really loved it. It was small but I didn't need more. I had a kitchen and a bedroom/living room. The best thing was my closet, not all soviet era built houses have such a luxury as a walk-in closet. For a woman with a lot of shoes it was a great option )) I had a wonderful enclosed balcony that was just like another small room where I could sit and stare at the clouds or sunsets. The great feature of that apartment was its proximity to the underground station. Here I will make a transit to how a freelancer (meaning me) traveled around a sizable city without a car. Kyiv has a great variety of public transport that is used by a majority of its population (here I am talking about a number of around 2 million people, not New York, of course, but big enough for me). So, in Kyiv we have trams, trolley buses (it's a hybrid between a bus and a tram, a bus with horns as I call it, a funny representative of electric transport), regular buses, shuttles (small buses, usually operated by private enterprises), taxis (Uber, Uber-like and more traditional ones) and the best of the best Kyiv underground. The last is my favorite one. It has three lines and usually, it was enough for me to get to most of my students. Its remarkable feature is that some stations are real masterpieces and in some spots, you travel not underground but above and you can see our beautiful river Dnipro. Another cool feature is the deepest underground station in the world Arsenalna (105.5 meters or 346 feet, for comparison the Niagara Falls is only 167 feet deep). In summer it's very nice and cool, in winter it's nice and warm ))) If you are unlucky to live in the district without underground, your trip to work may consist of several kinds of transport. That is why rentals for apartments near underground is usually higher than for the same apartment away from it. At the same time Kyiv is a walkable city. Especially during warm seasons (I mean the end of spring, all summer, and the beginning of fall), I used to walk between my lessons if my clients' offices were located not far from each other. To say the truth "walking" is one of the things I miss the most. I used to make around 20 thousand steps each day without putting much effort into it. If my work day was over before 6 pm I would go one underground stop further, go to McDonald's, grab a McFlurry and walk back home. It would take me approximately 20 minutes, just enough to finish my dessert )) If I was in a bad mood or wanted some extra exercise I would go to the riverfront that was 20 minutes walk from my apartment. My other hobby was to walk in the old part of the city. Unfortunately, during World War II, Kyiv old center was completely ruined after a couple of devastating bombardings, so unlike such cities like Lviv and Chernivtsi, it does not have very old houses. However, the center was rebuilt in more or less same style and definitely has its charm. It is also a very green city with lots of parks and small garden squares. In case you get tired of walking, you can always land in some of the numerous restaurants, cafes, coffee shops, pubs, confectionaries, bakeries and ice-cream places. There is no chance to suffer from thirst or hunger in Kyiv. I will not pretend that living in Kyiv is completely cloudless and happy. The city has its issues and it's not cheap to live here, but living in the capital city is always costly. Though it also opens more perspectives as well as different kinds of entertainment. Kyiv is no exception. Theatres, cinemas, nightclubs, museums, exhibitions, different cultural and professional spaces, creative hubs, co-working offices, gyms, swimming pools, and many other things can be found in Kyiv. It's just the matter of finding something to your liking. As a big transportation hub, Kyiv is a good starting point for many trips: 2 airports and a  big train station can take you to all corners of Ukraine and other countries, not just neighboring ones. So that's shortly about living in a big city. Almost forgot one important thing. There are no unsafe places in Kyiv, I don't want to offend anyone, but we don't have anything that resembles "ghettos". Of course, there are districts less attractive for tourists, but generally, the city is safe. But I always say to my foreign friends: Use common sense! If you want to do something that would be considered silly in your country, be sure it would be considered silly in my country too and can get you into trouble. This is shortly about living in the big city. I am sorry I didn't go deeply into many things but then my blog would turn into an encyclopedia, which will make happy neither of us.

Next couple of paragraphs I will dedicate to living in a mid-size city. By mid-size I mean approximately 40 thousand people. You might wonder why I skipped something a bit bigger like 150-200 thousand, well, from my experience (I used to live in Chernivtsi, population 295 thousand people) life in big district cities (Ukraine consists of 24 administrative districts and the Republic of Crimea) does not differ much from the capital: the lifestyle is a bit different and the speed of life is slower, but generally there are same problems and more or less same range of entertainment. As an example of mid-size town, I will take Volodymyr Volynskyi, the town where I was born and spent most of my summer holidays. So its population is about 40 thousand people and it is located 9 km (5.5 miles) from the Ukrainian-Polish border. I LOVE THIS TOWN!!! I've traveled a bit, I've seen Cracow, Berlin and London, I've been to the Cocoa Beach at the sunrise, I lived on the Black Sea, but I love this town with all my heart. I will mention many times in my future blogs that I love Lviv too, but the truth is that Lviv is my soul, Volodymyr is my heart. Even while living in the capital of my country I still enjoyed coming back to this town. And it's not just because my grandparents and great-grandparents lived there, it's a small town, with somewhat underdeveloped infrastructure, but with a big soul. You would go to the local market (I don't mean a supermarket or any other kind of regular store, it's more like a farmer's market located in a very old building from the 18th century that operates every day of the week) and after a couple of trips there the lady that sold you cheese will remember your and next time she sees you she will give you a slice of new kind of cheese to taste in case you want to buy something different, or you will go to this funny lady selling candies and cookies and she will tell you everything about the novelties she brought and next time she will confidently say: No, no, no! You will not like these cookies, try those ones. And the chances that you will run into your acquaintance or family friend on the town square are pretty high even if you come to the town two times a year. Volodymyr is even more walkable than Kyiv and, of course, mainly because of its size. It takes me 20 minutes to get from my grandfather's house to the town center where most of the shops and other facilities are located. There are more remote parts of the town, in that case, you would use a shuttle bus or a taxi if you don't have a car. You will not find some fancy entertainment in the town: a cinema, community center, some restaurants, cafes, confectionary, a couple of parks, but you still can be pretty busy since Volodymyr is a very old town, older than Kyiv according to some researches: it has very unique churches and a very interesting monastery that looks more like a fortress in a village just next to the town. There is s small serpent-like river crossing the town that can be explored on a kayak and is good for fishing and meditation. There is no doubt that this town is really good if you want to slow down and get some rest from the big city life. The cost of living is low, the air is clean and if you get bored you can always hop on a bus and go to Poland, for example )) My biggest pride is the house where lives my grandfather, to be more precise not the house itself but the history behind it. The property on which stands his house is in our family for over 100 years and was given to m great-grandmother by her father as her dowry when she got married. You would say: So what? Many families own their land for generations. Well, in the case of Ukraine and its stormy history for the last 300-400 years that's something to be proud of. Even if only to take into account our latest history of being part of the soviet union where people were ripped off any possessions that could make them different from others (there you have an example how socialism actually works). Unfortunately, our plot got smaller with time, but it's still in the family and the part of the house was built by my great-grandfather. Not far from it, on the other side of the river stands the house where lived my great-great-grandfather (my great-grandmother's father). That property is in possession of my grandfather's cousin. So my family history is somewhat collected in one place, which always seemed cool to me.

So here I will finish my first part of this lengthy story. Bet you are a bit tired of reading!
Wish you all a great day and behave!
Truly yours )))

And for dessert, not cheesecake but photos of Kyiv!

I apologize for the quality, all of them were taken on the phone, back then I didn't have a professional camera.

Views from my apartment

One of Kyiv streets in the center

St. Michael's Cathedral, Kyiv

Castle of Richard Lionheart, a house with a very cool story, Kyiv

Metro Bridge over the Dnipro river, the view on the Hydropark

 Both photos are views from my apartment

An art object on the Dnipro riverfront, Kyiv

A contemporary mural on one of old Kyiv houses depicting a hawk dressed in traditional Ukrainian outfit chopping off a snake's head. I really like this art and the concept. 

Sunset over the Independence Square, the main square of the country.

Night view from my apartment (now you definitely know why I liked it )))

A view from one Kyiv hill, Volodymyrska Hirka, on another hill with a park and the National Philharmonic of Ukraine

Independence Square in winter

The Arc of Friendship, an old soviet monument that hopefully soon will get new life and purpose 

Prejudice can be fun!

Hi guys! Wednesday is here! For those whose weekend starts Friday afternoon - yay, it's coming! For those who work even during the weekend (that's me) - yay, it's Wednesday )) So prejudice. I bet you hear this word pretty often on those crazy days of our lives. And I'm more than sure when you hear the word "prejudice" nothing nice comes to your head. And that's a bit strange to me because when I hear word "prejudice" I usually start smiling. And I'm not crazy, but prejudices are funny. They are extremely funny! I mean it! Well, if you don't believe me, you can come to Ukraine and reassure yourself! What? You don't have time for that? Not now at least? Ok! Ok! I will help you out! Get cozy and prepare to do some reading.
So, Ukraine is a country full of prejudices. But not the ones that right away jump to your head! As I've told you before Ukraine is a very very old country and a lot of things in our culture is centuries old. Most of them derived from very old traditions and abiding different spirits that lived in nature and the ones that my ancestors had to deal with on everyday basis. Many of them are very entertaining as of modern life, but some of them make sense even in so technologically advanced world.
Let me start with a weird one: you should not walk under a rigid ladder set against a wall or anything else or any other kind of ladder. And the reason for that is not that it's dangerous and something or somebody might fall on you. Nope. According to our Ukrainian prejudice, you will run into a stripe of bad luck if you walk under it. Well, maybe that was a gentle way of our ancestors to warn us that walking under ladders is dangerous then it was a pretty vague way to do it, don't you think?
Next one: when you hand in something to somebody make sure that you don't do it over a doorstep unless you really want to get into a bad argument with that person later on. In case you want to skip that quarrel when handing something in, put one foot on the doorstep, you will be safe that way. I've been to a couple of awkward situations myself with this prejudice: once I was pulled into the house when I came to return a book to my literature teacher. I couldn't understand why she was pulling me in with that book in my hands. Of course, she explained herself and as a kid, I couldn't understand how a doorstep can have such a great influence on human life but some people are pretty dedicated to cultural traditions. In the village where my grandmother lived once in a while I had to fulfill some errands that presupposed going to the home of my relatives. I was always learning some prejudice wisdom during those folklore expeditions )) One of my aunts would always shout to me: Don't stand in the doorway! Come in! She wouldn't even consider giving or taking anything from me if I was on the doorstep.
If you forgot something at home and you decided to come back get it (unless it's a mobile phone, believe me, it's a great experience of leaving it at home - in the evening you will discover to yourself how many people really love you and how many really hate you!), so if you forgot something and run back into the house or apartment make sure that you cast a short glance into any kind of mirror. If you don't do it all your day will go wrong! That's one of the things that I follow unquestionably no matter what! I don't even try to persuade me to act otherwise. No way!
If you spilled some salt you are in big trouble! Get ready for a big quarrel with your significant other! If you want to avoid it you have to do a certain ritual and you'll be saved: take a pinch of that spilled salt with your right hand and throw it over your left shoulder. Don't mix it up! It really matters with those lefts and rights! Unless you feel like you need to give a good shake to those relationships ))
Don't you dare take that garbage out of your place in the evening! I'm not sure that this prejudice is entirely Ukrainian. I assume it could have come from Chinese Feng Shui. Anyways, garbage stays in till the dawn. If you did dare to take it out, prepare for a long-lasting financial stagnation period. But you can always break it if you step into cr*p accidentally while taking a stroll in the park or anywhere else. So for every prejudice there is a counter-prejudice )))
Empty buckets are pretty threatening too! If you happen to travel to some Ukrainian villages don't be surprised if you walk the street and then see somebody with buckets waiting while you walk past and only then pass your track. Crossing somebody's way with empty buckets may bring bad luck to the life of the person whose way you crossed. Many people are very conscious of this prejudice and will try to keep you out of trouble. Of course, if you know about magic dulia (doo-lia) you don't have to worry about empty buckets. Where to get it or where it grows? Or even more radical question: WHAT IS IT?????? Dulia is a finger combination (way more complicated than a primitive middle finger gesture) which is known in the Western Word as fig sign. It is as old as Roman Empire where it was used as a sign to deny a request. In order to make right dulia you have to put your thumb in between your pointer finger and your middle finger and make a fist out of your hand. There you are! Now you learned some real magic! The usage of dulia spreads way further than just a situation with empty buckets. You can use it in a plethora of cases. For example, when you feel that somebody is not very sincere with you when paying you a compliment and tries to put their evil eye on you (haven't you felt like that when you know a person is not very nice genuinely and then out of sudden he or she is extremely friendly with you? that's when I would definitely have a dulia in my pocket).
Don't laugh on Friday, or you will cry on Sunday! This prejudice always puzzled me a lot, and even scared me once in a while, because it would work. I guess ancient Ukrainians were not big into partying on Fridays that's why they were kind of despising those who did. So they decided to scare away them with a punishment like that. But I have to confess that it did happen to me a couple of times and it made me think about it from different angles. Maybe it happens because human mood has its "cycles" and if you had a great time on Friday it still kind of lingers through Saturday and then on Sunday you realize that it's over. On the other hand, if you work a 5 day work week and Monday is your first work day maybe you get so sad about it that you start crying. I don't know where it comes from but sometimes it is true.
Spiders! Yes, they are also in our system of prejudice! We are lucky not to have those huge hairy monsters like in some more exotic places, and maybe that's why attitude to spiders is very respectful in Ukraine. Well, you are not supposed to kill a spider, especially those ones that live in your home. You can carefully spool spider's web on a broom together with Mr. Spider and take him out, but be careful and make sure that you don't damage the spider itself. Spider in Ukrainian mythology is connected to the creator of the world, it is weaving the strings of life and symbolizes destiny and fertility.
There is also a bunch of prejudices connected to exchanging things. For example, we believe that if you want to know the other person's thoughts you should drink from that person's cup or glass. Or if you want to learn what your spouse it dreaming about at night you can try to sleep on their pillow. Such prejudices are related to some kind of magic practices that our ancestors were aware of. I don't have any scientific or historical explanations to such things but one thing I know for sure: when accidentally I put my sleeping gown inside out, I dream really weird things. I could write a whole book of stories about those dreams. And of course, there are prejudices about putting clothes inside out on yourself. If it happened you might get into a bad luck stripe in life. And again, there is a counter-prejudice to reprogram the situation: take off that piece of clothing (make sure you do it at home)))), spit three times over your left shoulder, throw it on the floor and step on it slightly. That's it! Your good luck is back!
As you have noticed the left shoulder is of great significance: you either throw something or spit over it. My grandmother explained to me that behind the left shoulder stands the devil and behind the right one is our guardian angel. That's is why we spit on the devil or throw salt at him.

I bet a lot of our prejudices are common for other countries just like that fig sign. At the same time, there are things that are traditional only for Ukraine. Now that you have the knowledge of some Ukrainian ones you can successfully implement them in your life and have more luck and success!

At least, that's definitely something I wish you: be healthy, lucky and behave!

Truly yours!

I will leave a photo of the Glass Angel here for good luck!

The photo is taken by me.

All rights reserved!

Do Ukrainians celebrate St. Valentine's Day?

Hey, guys! Hope you are having a wonderful day! So it's not so many days till St. Valentine's Day! Wow, you would think, she really waits for this holiday! Well, I just opened a calendar and checked how many days left till my vacations and realized that St. Valentine's day is in the same batch )) But how about you? Are you getting ready? Do you have any ideas on how to celebrate it? Are you planning to celebrate it? Even if you don't, the moment you enter local supermarket all the teddy bears and boxes of chocolate in the shape of the heart start calling to you: Buy me! You need to buy me! It's coming! You better buy me! Unfortunately, we went very commercial when it gets to certain celebrations. We started to have an assigned day for almost everything. It's sad but at the same time, it's our choice to follow mainstream or to do things our own unique way. So we have already figured out that Ukrainians celebrate Christmas, the next logical question would be: do they celebrate St. Valentine's Day? And the answer will be .................... drum roll, please ................ yes! and no! Ha-ha )) No straight answer from me )) Of course if you go to big cities and smaller ones too you might see people in the streets with flowers or small purple hearts on their clothes or some young people with heart-shaped balloons during the daytime. And, of course, if you try to go out in the evening of the 14th it can get a bit crowded in the restaurants and a lot crowded in the cinemas. The places where you will experience well organized and full of excitement celebration of the 14th is in Ukrainian schools. The reason for it is that most of the English language teachers use St. Valentine's Day as a purely English-speaking world holiday and it's a great motivation for their pupils to be part of small performances and demo lessons organized by teachers at schools. Oh, I forgot to tell you, it was compulsory )) That killed all the fun somewhat but was OK. I remember taking part in two of such "celebration", though I am sure there were more of them. During one of them I was reading Robert Burnes poem Red red rose and during the other one, we were singing Yesterday by the Beatles to a real piano accompaniment. But if course the most exciting part was getting the Valentine's! That was the indicator of popularity and what else is a teenager more obsessed about? I have to confess that I still keep a Valentine cut out from a notebook with a luminescent marker on the edge and some greeting words. And the reason why I still keep it is not that I had some romantic feelings to the guy that gave it to me, but because it was the most unexpected sign of appreciation. The thing is that I used to help him out with tasks in physics and chemistry during the tests. I knew that he wasn't going to continue his education after school, so technically I was just helping him to finish school with decent grades in science which eventually happened and, as far as I know, he became a car mechanic. He literally made that Valentine during the break but it was sweet of him. 
Memories, memories )) You can believe it or not, but I never missed my school or university years. I just keep in memory a couple of stories and that's it. I clearly remember my teacher of English saying straight in my face that I won't ever be able to learn English and be decent in it. Ha-ha! She's funny )) 
So, back to St. Valentine's Day celebration! As I've mentioned before in big cities you will definitely see a lot of things going on like concerts, club parties, romantic movies in the cinemas and, of course, jewelry stores with a lot of hears in their window displays. Those guys also start using the western strategy of hinting that it's the perfect day to pop up THE QUESTION. It's all great and wonderful, and there is nothing wrong for cultures to intermingle. But... I believe that we also have to preserve what we originally have in our traditions and not let all this commercial knick-knackery make us forget certain things. 
As I've told you before Ukrainian traditions and customs have a lot of features that were preserved from the times before Christianity. On the night from the 6th to the 7th of July, we celebrate Ivana Kupala (eevana-coo-pala - I again try to transcribe a bit) or Kupala Night. The name derives from the Christian John the Baptist (Iōánnēs ho baptistḗs in Ancient Greek) and Kupala stands for "the one that gives bath" and is believed to be John Baptist's nickname that people came up with. 
Date-wise it all gets a bit complicated again because our ancestors connected this night celebration with the summer sun solstice that takes place on the 21st of June, but because all that mess with Gregorian and Julian calendars (here you can read my explanation as for all this confusion https://kwetlorienua.blogspot.com/2019/01/how-ukrainians-celebrate-christmas.html) it all got messed up again and now we celebrate it on the 7th of July. 
This celebration has a lot of very cool traditions that get more and more popular among young people. One of them is jumping over a bonfire. Sounds exciting, right? Of course, nobody makes a bonfire too big because nobody wants to create any experience close to Joan of Arc's one but the main thing with fire is to check if the couple that jumps over it will be together in the future. The way to check is pretty simple: when a guy and a girl are preparing to jump over it they hold each other's hand and if they keep doing it during the jump - they will be a couple now and on. The Kupala Night fire also is believed to have purifying qualities: the moment you jump over it whether alone or with the beloved one, the fire will clean your body and soul. 
Since the celebrations are usually held next to the rivers, all the day long girls collect different flowers and make wreaths that they will put afloat later on so that they can fortune tell their future fiancee. I'm more than sure that you wonder: HOW??? Well, when the girls set their wreaths on the water the guys are usually spying somewhere not far and then they go into the water and fish out the wreath of the girl he really likes and gives it back to her. This way you skip that awkward part with saying "I kind of like you" and all that sweating of nervousness because you are wet already after the river anyways. 
There is a lot of traditional singing and dancing in a ring. A lot of people wear traditional Ukrainian vyshyvanka (an embroidered type of clothes both for men and women). But the coolest tradition is about going to search a flower of a fern. You will say: fern does not bloom, you silly girl! Well, it doesn't, but according to the legend if you find one you will have supernatural powers: be able to understand any creature on the planet, know qualities of all the herbs and... AND!!!!! be able to see where any kind of treasure is hidden!!! That's almost like winning Powerball, isn't it??? 
There are more traditions connected to this day and, of course, they will slightly differ depending on the region. Ukrainians are not the only ones to abide this holiday. If you travel to Poland, Serbia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and some of their neighbors you will find celebrations similar to ours. As for me, I always liked the fact that this celebration interweaves with the natural cycles and even worships them to a certain extent. 
So, guys, I wish you all to be in harmony with yourself and the natural world around you and what's the most important: remember that LOVE is one of the most important emotions in our life. It does not matter whether it's love to yourself (if it does not turn into egocentrism of course, then it's too much), to the people next to you, your pets, to nature or even the whole world. As long as you are able to feel it, you are alive! 

So love and be loved, and behave!  

Truly yours!

Even a heart of stone can be warmed up by the sun rays ))

The photo from my personal collection dedicated to Michelle, a person with a big heart!

All rights reserved. 

As we say in Ukraine

I want to dedicate this post to my professor of phraseology at my University. You would wonder why? Well, the post I'm going to write today will be about Ukrainian sayings and according to my professor you can't translate them word by word but rather find in the target language a proverb that would reflect its meaning the best. Sounds not very complicated, right? It's really not hard but unfortunately, the meaning gets lost and it sounds not so "tasty" I would say in the result. So very often despite the rule that my professor taught me I do translate word by word Ukrainian sayings. You can see a smile on my boyfriend's face every time when in the course of some conversation I say: As we say in Ukraine... Once he even asked me: Do Ukrainians have a saying for every single situation in life? And I said: Of course! We are a very old and wise nation! We always have what to say! So I will go through a couple of most used Ukrainian sayings and I will try to do my best to translate them and to explain to you what we mean when we use them.
Let's get started! The first one and one of the most favorite proverbs of mine is "Together it's easier to beat up the father". Well, don't jump into conclusions and consider Ukrainians to be violent as for family members! We respect our fathers a lot, that's why I don't quite understand where this proverb comes from, but what it literally means is far away from beating anyone, including father. So when somebody says something like this to you he or she means that no matter how complicated the task is if people get together and solve it together anything is doable. Ukrainians like to help each other and total strangers too.
Next one is "The old woman off the cart, the easier it gets for the horse". In English, this proverb sounds like this: A good riddance to bad rubbish. But tell me true: whose variant do you like better? Isn't it more vivid and rich the way we say it in Ukrainian? Don't you start imagining this elderly woman that was mounting the cart and telling everyone what to do and how to do things including the horse finally gets off the cart and a horse with a sigh of relief starts to move much faster? No? Well, at least now you know what's going on in my head when I listen to people talking ))
"Don't say "Hop" until you have jumped over!" (never cackle till your egg is laid), that's one of the sayings that is very popular among elderly people in Ukraine. They don't like all the fuss of the modern times and impatience of their children and grandchildren makes them dizzy. So in order to slow down all this craziness around them and make everyone listen to them, they often repeat this saying.
There is a great number of sayings connected to one of the predominant features of Ukrainians - obsession with work. Of course, there are lazy people among us just as anywhere else. However, there is a lot of work-related proverbs that makes me believe that my ancestors were not afraid of any work and that this trait is part of our genetic code. One of my favorite ones from this area is "The water does not flow under a lying stone", meaning that if you do nothing don't expect any changes or improvements in your life. You might have heard the English equivalent "Heaven helps those who help themselves". Another my favorite one is "A drop can wear the stone thin". That's somewhat my life motto: I've experienced many times that persistence can bring me to the desired goals. The only problem is that after achieving one goal get ready to find the next one )) And make sure that between them you don't spend too much time on a sofa.
We have some other funny sayings that don't convey any century-old wisdom but are mainly used for the sake of a good laugh. One of them is connected to prejudice very popular in Ukraine. It is a really bad idea to whistle in any Ukrainian home. It is believed that whistling inside any building will deprive that place of good luck and money flow. So if somebody does dare to start whistling in the house they might hear a piece of advice: Stop whistling or your wife will have a bold husband (I have also heard a version "or your wife will have a stupid husband"). Usually, it takes a while for the whistler to figure out all the hidden meaning of the words, but eventually, it works )) "Because of the stupid head, the feet have no rest" you would hear from people if you do too much of unnecessary walking around while doing something without any particular goal. "The unskilled dancer will stumble over own feet" is about people that will find a million ways to shift responsibility for their failure on some circumstances that have nothing to do with the situation. "An apple doesn't fall too far from the apple tree" can be used both in a flattering way and as a reproach when you talk about somebody's children when you want either to say that they inherited some good features of their parents or on the contrary.
Either way, you can tell that Ukrainians have a great sense of humor and are ready to share their wisdom in a gentle and funny way.
So try to stay positive and remember that good sense of humor can prolong your life, because as Ukrainians say... the darker the night, the brighter the stars ))))

Enjoy every moment and behave!
Truly yours ))

P.S. As a bonus I will add a photo of today's amazing clouds.

                                         All rights reserved.

What to expect from a trip to Ukraine

Hi guys! I hope all of you are doing great after all the celebrations and gradually get back into work schedules. I know that many people prefer to plan their summer trips in advance, especially if you plan flying to another continent or visit some islands. So today I would like to tell you something about traveling to Ukraine, in case you have chosen this country for your vacations or if you wonder what it might be like to visit a country like Ukraine. For making my blog more credible I will use my boyfriend's experience in Ukraine. He spent a month in my country and we did a little bit of traveling during this time too.
First of all, I often hear this question from people: Is it safe to go to Ukraine? The answer is YES. Though you might have heard about the problems we have in the east of our country, our soldiers are doing a really great job and the rest of the country is stable and safe. Although we have such a nasty neighbor that likes to stir its nasty fingers into other countries' business as we do to the east of us we try to support our army, keep our spirits high and love our country. And also we are a very hospitable nation that is always ready to welcome its friends.
So having that big question out our way let's get into another one )) The language. Most Ukrainians are bilingual, but, unfortunately, English is not their second language. Of course, you will run into people that are pretty fluent, but a lot of Ukrainians even if they can speak some English are very shy when it comes to languages. I have been in this weird situation myself when my boyfriend and I went to meet my best friend whom I taught English for 3 years prior to that (since I am an English teacher) and of course I boasted to him about the fact that she had made quite a progress while I had been tutoring her. Well, it all ended up with me translating back and forth all evening long. When I talked to my friend some days later and asked her why she didn't try to practice her English she said that she was afraid of making mistakes. This explanation I hear quite often from my students. Though when they travel abroad and have no other language options they miraculously start speaking English. So you would wonder how to communicate while you're in Ukraine? I would suggest being persistent in using English supported by what I call "show and tell" game. The most popular cities among foreign tourists are Kyiv (our capital city), Lviv in the west and Odesa in the south on the Black Sea coast. They are tourist oriented and you can expect most of their hotels to have English speaking staff, as for restaurants, they might have a menu in English but it does not always mean they will have English-speaking personnel. We had an experience in one of the steakhouses in Kyiv when we were given a menu in English on my request but the waiter didn't speak English so I had to translate our order, that's when "show and tell" can help you out - just point in the menu what you want to order. In Lviv waiters tried to use their English when they heard that we talk English to each other. That was very nice and my boyfriend mentioned it as an advantage of the city.
Next big thing is eating out. In order to understand a new culture better, try their food. Ukrainian food is extremely tasty and nourishing. I know that many people google before coming to a country what food is a must for tasting. I can tell you as a Ukrainian that in case of my country this list can be endless. I would definitely recommend you to try borshch (red beetroot soup with lots of other veggies), varenyky (dumplings with different kinds of stuffing, my personal preferences are the ones with potato, sour kraut, cherries, or blueberries), Chicken Kyiv (that's a meat dish similar to chicken cordon bleu), crepe with all possible kinds of stuffing and all kinds of pastries, cakes, and bread. Our desserts are amazing and I can guarantee that once you've tried them you will miss them. If you visit Ukraine during summer I would also suggest getting seasonal vegetables, fruits, and berries. We grow strawberries, blueberries, apples, pears, grapes, watermelons, melons, plums, peaches, raspberries and a lot more. Most restaurants have seasonal menus and you can enjoy all this variety as part of your dessert. I know it will sound strange but I would also recommend you to go to McDonald's. Yup, your eyes don't betray you, I really meant McDonald's and here is why. Ukrainian McDonald's uses produce grown in Ukraine, so the taste is much better than in the US. Secondly, we have international days menu, for example, Italian menu, where you can get real ciabatta bread instead of a regular bun and really tasty salads, or Georgian menu (I mean Georgia in the Caucasus), that has extremely tasty flatbreads and meat patties cooked with traditional Georgian spices (believe me when it gets to meat and spices Georgians know what they are doing). In addition, coffee in our McDonald's is of pretty acceptable quality (usually they brew Jacob's Monarch). I would also insist on going to McDonald's if you travel to Odesa, for example, and you have to wait somewhere for a couple of hours before checking in into your hotel and grab bite to eat. Instead of roaming around and wondering about the food quality, you can get something familiar right outside the train station in case you don't fly in. There are restaurants in Ukraine that try to imitate traditional eateries from other countries. We went to a restaurant that positioned itself as an American diner, but when they brought my boyfriend's order and he saw a miniature burger on a big plate and three french fries in a shot glass (for some unknown reason) he smiled. Well, after eating out in a real American diner a couple of times as of today, I smile too when I remember that place in Kyiv. To my greatest pride and joy, the Ukrainian cuisine diner Puzata Khata (Chubby House if to translate) scored pretty high according to my boyfriend and believe me, he is a visual eater and has a really good palate. It might be not very easy to make your way through it since it is organized as a food service counter, but the variety of dishes is great as well as their quality. You can find restaurants of this chain in most of the big Ukrainian cities. Kyiv has a bunch of them located in very convenient touristic spots. I could tell you here a lot more but it's high time to move to the next big question.
The people. If you are an American or you have traveled to the States you know that people are pretty friendly and even if they don't know you they will still say "Morning!" or "How are you doing?" to you in a supermarket, bank, gas station, bookshop or even in the street passing you by. That's why you might think that Ukrainians are unfriendly and gloomy people when you first see them. Don't worry! You will get used to it ))) We are not unfriendly or gloomy, but we don't greet people we don't know, we don't smile to strangers in the street or have small talks. I don't know whether it's bad or good, but that's how we are. Don't take it personally. I guess it's part of our post soviet heritage when people didn't trust even their own family members not mentioning strangers. I hope that the more Ukrainians travel the more open they will become with time.
Transportation. Ukrainians rely on public transport. We have a pretty developed system of railroads, bus connection, and airports. If you plan to come to Ukraine and rent a car I would suggest doing it in case you have been to Ukraine before and know peculiarities of driving in the country as well as feel comfortable communicating with police. I'm not trying to say that you will run into a lot of troubles, I'm just trying to say that after visiting a couple of countries I've come to a conclusion that driving habits are very different and I, personally, would need time to get comfortable driving in another country especially if I don't speak the language. Over recent years, train connection between many big cities has improved dramatically, Ukrainian trains are always on schedule and train stations are usually located close to city centers. I am not the biggest fan of buses but in order to get to more remote locations like Ukrainian Carpathians (a chain of mountains in western Ukraine), you will need to figure out how our bus system works.
At this point, you already think that there is a lot of "bla-bla-bla" going on in today's blog. Well, I decided to keep the kicker for the end )) What for to bother and travel to Ukraine? To have some food? To experience the Ukrainian train system? To go to Ukrainian McDonald's? Well, I can tell you that Ukraine is bigger than that and I want to add here a couple of photos that might interest you or even inspire to come to Ukraine!

Enjoy the photos and behave!

 Kamyanets-Podilskyi Fortress, 14th century (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamianets-Podilskyi_Castle)

 Pyatnytska (St. Paraskeva) church, Chernihiv, 12th century 
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyatnytska_Church_(Chernihiv))

 Lubart's castle, Lutsk, 14th century
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubart's_Castle)

 Palanok, Mukacheve, 14th century
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palanok_Castle)

 Gunpowder Tower, Lviv, 16th century

 Lviv, the view from the City Hall tower. Since 1998 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) lists Lviv's historic center as part of "World Heritage

 St. Sophia Bell Tower, Kyiv.

 St. Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv, 11th century.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sophia%27s_Cathedral,_Kiev)

St. Andrew's Church, Kyiv, 18th century
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Andrew%27s_Church,_Kiev)
















Khotyn Fortress, Khotyn, 14th century
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khotyn_Fortress)

Ukrainian Carpathians (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Beskids_and_the_Ukrainian_Carpathians)















All rights reserved. 

How Ukrainians celebrate Christmas

You might wonder after reading the name of this post: Why is she writing about Christmas? It's over. Done. Wait till next year! Well... it's not over yet if you live in Ukraine. Surprise! In Ukraine Christmas is celebrated after New Year, on the 6th of January we have Christmas Eve and a very special Christmas dinner. On the 7th of January, we say to each other instead of regular "hello" or "good morning/afternoon"  "Jesus was born", and a traditional answer is "Glory to him!". But let me start from the very beginning. I bet you would like to know why Ukrainians celebrate Christmas after New Year and I am sure that some of you will wonder whether it's "real Christmas". So the roots of celebration on the 6th of January go back to the times of Roman Empire and Julian calendar. Sounds cool, right? But the question is "what is this Julian calendar about?" That was a calendar proposed by Julius Caesar and obviously called after him, and was used in the Roman world, most of Europe and by European settlers in the Americas. In the 16th century, it was replaced by the Gregorian calendar (here you can read more about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar) that was more accurate and reflected more precisely the Earth's rotation around the Sun. However, in some parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in the parts of Oriental Orthodoxy the Julian calendar is still used which creates this 13-day difference in celebration of Christmas on the 24th of December by the most part of the world and the 6th of January in Ukraine. So that's the first big difference - the calendar, though I have to mention that due to our current President, Mr. Poroshenko we got closer to the rest of the world since last year he signed a document that acknowledges the 25th of December as a Christmas day. Of course, a lot of families will continue celebrating Christmas on the 6th of January including mine since changes like that don't happen quickly.
The big difference number 2. We do not exchange presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. "Poor Ukrainian children", you might think. No worries! Ukrainian children get plenty of presents (if they behaved) on St. Nicholas Day which we have on the 19th of December (unfortunately again according to that outdated Julian calendar). During the times of soviet union, we used to exchange presents on the New Year's Eve. Well, it was not an exchange, actually, if you were a kid. You were supposed to prepare a small performance: dance, sing or recite a poem in order to get our present from Ded Moroz, a guy dressed somewhat similar to Santa Clause thought his coat was not red but blue. While we were one of the 15 republics Christmas was actually banned along with any other manifestation of your religious beliefs. Any religion was proclaimed "opium of the people" and any kind of religious buildings were turned into warehouses or even trash disposals except those in big cities that could be used as museums or art galleries.
So back to the celebration of Christmas in Ukraine. The big difference number 3 is our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. We take this dinner pretty seriously, at least in my family. It can differ depending on where in Ukraine you are, but the general idea is that you are supposed to prepare 12 Lenten dishes that symbolize 12 apostles of Jesus Christ. Why the dishes are Lenten? Because according to Orthodox church rules you are supposed to keep 40-day Lent before Christmas so that your body and soul get ready for the great event of Jesus Christ birth. So all day of the 6th of January Ukrainian women are busy cooking 12 dishes that in the evening they will put in front of their families. Some of the dishes are pretty unique. I will try to go through their list and explain you a little bit about each of them.
The first and the most important dish is kutya (koo-tia - I will try to provide some kind of transcript here). This is basically well-cooked barley mixed with raisins, crushed poppy seeds and honey. Doesn't sound too complicated but the trick is in cooking barley so that it's soft but not mushy. The importance of kutia is huge: it's the dish that you will start your dinner with after the eldest in the family says a short prayer. The origin of kutia is not very christian, actually, you will find nothing about it in the Bible or in some other religious book. But Ukraine has a very long history and before Christianity that came to our lands in the 10th century, we had a religion that worshiped many gods, most of which were associated with this or another natural phenomenon. We used to have a god of the sun, a god of thunder, a god of harvest and so on. A lot of our Christian celebrations still have features of old times that interwove with younger traditions that resulted in a real fusion. Just like Santa Clause has more in common with old Scandinavian legends and myths rather than with St. Nicholas so does have our Christmas a lot in common with ancient rites.
Other dishes on the table include varenyky (that's a kind of dumplings, Ukrainian ones are bigger than Chinese though) with fried sour kraut or potato, Lenten borshch (red beetroot soup with lots of other vegetables served with sour cream), beans or green peas puree, cabbage rolls (cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and meat if it's not Lent time) stewed in tomato sauce, some kind of fried fish, marinated herring, mushroom sauce, baked or boiled potatoes, uzvar (ooz-var - a drink made out of dried fruit), yeast rolls, stewed sour kraut with onions. Of course, in every family the set of dishes can slightly differ, for example, my mom makes amazingly tasty pancakes stuffed with poppy seeds. Kutia can also slightly differ depending on where in Ukraine you are, but it will definitely be on the table.
There are many more traditions related to Christmas on a bigger scale. I will name just few here not to bore you too much. So before the family gathers around the table on the Christmas Eve, children are usually given a task to look for the first star in the night sky which we call the Star of Bethlehem, the one that heralded the birth of Jesus Christ, because the dinner should start after the start sparkles in the sky. Then the master of the house should go to the barn and feed all the animals there (if a family runs a homestead). Father of the family then brings a didukh (dee-dooh - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didukh) a special Christmas decoration made out of wheat straw that symbolizes prosperity and abundance. After the dinner is over not all the meals are taken away from the table. In my family, we always leave some kutia on the table for our deceased family members will come for Christmas dinner at night.
The next day we usually have a festive family breakfast during which a lot of meat dishes are served. During all the 7th of January we eat, talk, host family and friends and in the evening we expect carol singers. Carol singing is a very good business for children during the Christmas holidays because people give them money and sweets for singing carols. Usually, kids go to their neighbors and relatives but since Ukraine is a pretty safe country in small towns and villages children go to as many houses as they can. Of course, the most profitable audience is your own grandparents )) I was lucky to visit my father's mother who lived in a village where half the village were our relatives. So we were rehearsing with my cousins all day long and in the evening was our "hour of triumph". In many families, it is traditional to visit godparents on the 7th of January. You are not supposed to come empty-handed and the most traditional thing to bring is kalach (a round shaped shortbread sometimes with raisins or poppy seeds). Bread is of great significance in Ukraine whether you give it to somebody or somebody gives it to you. It always means prosperity and abundance. That's why we are very careful with bread and try not to have any leftovers or throw it away.
Of course, there are a lot more things I would like to tell you about Christmas traditions in Ukraine. But they say that eloquence is the sister of talent. I will pretend that it somehow refers to my writing )))

Have a great time of the day and behave! ))

A Didukh at my parents home last Christmas. The photo was taken by my father. All copyrights reserved.

Welcome to 2019

Well, here it is - welcome to 2019. The first day of the new year and I start my blog. I called it Ukraine and Ukrainians. There are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, because I am a Ukrainian, secondly, but still extremely important, I would like to tell people all over the world about my country. You would think: what possibly can she tell us about Ukraine? One can easily go to Wikipedia, Youtube or Google and find out enough about this country. However, as a Ukrainian that lives for past 3 years on the other side of the world, I understand that “dry” statistics or somewhat twisted news for the sake of scoop do not reflect what Ukraine is really about. So I decided to start this blog hoping that I will be an interesting storyteller and will be able to answer all your questions and inquiries. I hope that after reading my blog you will get interested in Ukraine and maybe when next time you will plan a trip to Europe you will put Ukraine on your list.

So let me start with telling a little bit about myself. I was born in Volodymyr-Volynskyi

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr-Volynskyi). As I mentioned earlier, unfortunately, an article in

Wikipedia will not tell you everything about this town: it will not show you the sun disappearing behind the Luha river and coloring its waters into purple just for a couple of moments, or describe you the taste of all the pastries you can buy in a small confectionary not far from the central city square. I was always very proud of the fact that I was born in this particular town. It is one of the oldest towns in my country. It was mentioned in records from the 10th century, however, the settlements existed there way earlier. And the river was used for navigation which boosted its trade and relationship with many other cities in Kyiv Rus, the kingdom existing on the territory of modern Ukraine. My parents and I lived in Volodymyr not very long. My dad is an architect and in soviet union times, young specialists were sent to work to different parts of the country after graduating the university. So after 3 years of working in Volodymyr he was sent to work in another town. We moved, but I still spent a lot of time in Volodymyr, where lived my grandparents (my mother’s parents) and my great-grandmother.

Since I was born in the 80s of the last century, I witnessed the last decade of soviet union existence and its collapse. Then Ukraine became independent and we went through other crazy times of the first decade of independence that we call “wild 90s”. But during all this time I used to come to Volodymyr every summer and for a couple of weeks in winter, and spent a lot of time gardening, talking to my grandparents, sunbathing, riding a bicycle, playing badminton, hanging out with friends, reading books, picking strawberries, attending musical festival, eating ice-cream, swimming in the river, taking care of chickens and many other fun things. Does it remind you of your childhood? Oh! I forgot to mention that there were no nintendos or playstations or xboxes in my childhood. There were no computers either. My first computer I got when I was in the 8th grade, my first computer game I played when my computer was upgraded and could support at least some primitive games. Many people think that living in a socialist society is a great thing. I can tell you that it sucks. It’s cool to have free medicine and education, but I understood one thing for the rest of my life: anything we get for free is usually of very crappy quality.

So the first ten years of my life coincided with the collapse of the soviet union and Ukraine getting its independence. What do I remember from this period? Actually quite a lot, I was always interested in history and, though it sounds funny, as a kid I was interested in politics. So these ten years we had completely empty stores. Food products were brought to food stores according to a schedule and we usually knew when to go there if we wanted to buy bread, sour cream, milk, and butter. The same situation was with clothes, shoes, toys, home appliances and everything else, but with one big difference - there was no schedule when these things would appear in the stores. So in most cases, you were supposed to know somebody who worked in a store so that they let you know when they would receive anything from the list that we called “deficit”.

When I was 9 years old my grandfather gave me as a present a book. It was the pretty usual thing to get a book as a present for me since my grandfather had “connections” in one of the bookstores and as soon as they would get some good quality books they would give a call my grandfather. The book was pretty unusual, I have never seen a book like that before. Usually, he would get me fairy tales with beautiful illustrations. I still have those books at my parents’ place. However this book was nothing like that: it had no pictures, but it had a lot of maps and portraits of some people. The book was The History of Ukraine-Rus by Mykhola Arkas. I was fascinated by this book but I was only in the 2nd grade and some things in this book were pretty hard to understand. Though I was lucky because my great-grandmother was there to help me with the things I couldn’t understand. I went through this book very quickly and that’s how my interest in the history of my country started growing bigger. The maps in the book showed different periods in the history of Kyiv Rus, a state that existed on the territory of modern Ukraine, the portraits were the kings, queens, and hetmans that ruled my country centuries ago. Many historians like to say that it would be not very correct to call Kyiv Rus as Old Ukraine. I disagree, and not because it will make my country younger and maybe less experienced, but because all countries in the world consider ancient tribes and kingdoms that existed centuries ago on their territory as the beginning of their modern states.

So here is a little bit about me. I hope I didn’t bore you too much. I will really appreciate comments and questions!

Have an awesome day!

The view on 1000-year-old Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Volodymyr Volynskyi from the Luha river, the photo was taken by my father. All the rights reserved.