The View From My Window #22: Seeing Russia From My Window

When Laura and I lived in Kharkiv, Ukraine before the Russian invasion, we lived in the closest major city (Kharkiv has about 1.5 million people) to the Russian border. We joked before a Russian invasion was a realistic possibility that Kharkiv might be the first city they would take but having such a large population turned out to be a benefit as controlling a city that size would have required more military resource than Russia was willing to use. 

Now that Laura and I are spending the summer in Washington DC, it turns out we are closer to Russia than we ever were in Kharkiv. I know Sarah Palin famously joked about seeing Russia from her doorstep but I can literally see it from my window was we live right across from the Embassy of the Russian Federation. That's the embassy compound behind the tan walls. 

The compound, which includes an apartment building, school, and sports areas, was constructed in the late 70's and early 80's. It is built on a hill called Mount Alto and no one is easily jumping the fence and making it onto the grounds as there are several levels you need to climb to actually get to the building levels.

The famous Russian spy Robert Hanssen alerted the Soviets that the Americans were building a tunnel under the compound to better spy on the complex.

UPDATE: Replacing One Icon With Another

UPDATE 10-21-2014 : The mural of Taras is progressing nicely!

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A few days ago citizens of Kharkiv, Ukraine made the news by tearing down their famous Vladimir Lenin statue in the city's Freedom Square. The statue was located two blocks from where we lived in Kharkiv and I wrote about the statue a couple times, here and here. It was one of Kharkiv's main tourist attractions and served as an historical oddity that reminded you Russia was about 50 kilometers away and that the Soviet past wasn't that long ago.

But with one icon gone, Kharkiv may have a new and better one to replace it. It turns out that on the side of one of the high rises a portrait of poet Taras Shevchenko. I've written about Shevchenko many, many times..;too many to highlight individually. The building's portrait would be undoubtedly the largest Shevchenko painting and I can't wait to see what it looks like completed.

One Less Lenin Statue

Ever since Ukrainian President Viktor Yankukovich's decision to not sign trade agreements with the European Union, most of Ukraine has been in a state of continual political protest. I say most of Ukraine because the city that Laura and I lived in, Kharkiv, has not had many protests at all and the famous Freedom Square [which I've written about many, many times] near where we lived has been blocked off so potential protesters can't get to it to hold their rallies. That's what happens when you are just 40 kilometers from the Russian border. [This blog has some photos of the barricades around Freedom Square.]

The largest rallies have been taking place in Kiev in Independence Square.  Whenever Laura and I would stay in Kiev we would try to find an apartment or hostel around the Square [which I also wrote about many, many times] so we would have been in the thick of it.  Here is an amazing video of the protest taken by someone who climbed up the huge Christmas tree that is in the Square [the embedded video sometimes does not work but you can always see it here]:



In a surprising turn, last night the Lenin statue in Kiev was destroyed by protesters.  The statue itself was the focus of one of m favorite winter photos from our year abroad.  To me it looks like Lenin is smuggling some snowballs or as one of my friends said, he might be holding a snow white kitten.  I'm glad I got to see it before it was gone for good.

Here a photo of the statue on the ground that may come to symbolize the protests in Kiev:

An Update On Our Lock On the Love Bridge

Although I'm now home in America, I'm going to keep posting as if we recently had these adventures around Europe. I'll post the dates we actually visited these locations at the start of each posts in an attempt to keep things straight.

An Update On Our Lock On the Love Bridge 

Photographed: August 30th, 2013

Before we left Kharkiv in April we placed a padlock on the so-called "Love Bridge" with the hope to visit Kharkiv again in a few years and finding our lock still there.  Plans changed a little bit as Laura was able to do some more interviews around Ukraine at the end of the summer and so she made a return trip to the bridge to see how things were going.  

Our lock was still there...it's the red one towards the middle of the photo.

It looks like the last four months have been a little rough on our poor lock.  It looks like they have painted the bridge and so our lock as a nice coat of gray paint on it and most of the printing I added to the lock has been covered or worn off.  We shall see what another few years will do to it.  

Graffiti #19: Kharkiv Skyline

Although I'm now home in America, I'm going to keep posting as if we recently had these adventures around Europe. I'll post the dates we actually visited these locations at the start of each posts in an attempt to keep things straight.

Graffiti #19: Ukrainian Skyline

Photographed: April 14th, 2013

Behind Kharkiv's famous Mirror Stream fountain you'll find a little park with a beautiful mosaic communist war memorial. And if you walk behind that you'll find a back wall filled with many large graffiti pieces.

This first one looks to be a Ukrainian pysanky egg with a smiley face.

And who doesn't love a little triangle based art.

 Lastly there is this great piece that is a stencil of buildings around Kharkiv's Freedom Square.

My favorite part is the middle section which highlights the Derzhprom Building.  It was built in 1928 and became the tallest building in Europe at it's completion.  

And on one of our last days in Kharkiv Laura and I walked around our neighborhood taking photos and I took a couple photos of Derzprom which is still a pretty impressive building 85 years later. 

Marvel With A Mango: Taking A Chance On Ukrainian Sushi

Although I'm now home in America, I'm going to keep posting as if we recently had these adventures around Europe. I'll post the dates we actually visited these locations at the start of each posts in an attempt to keep things straight.

Marvel With A Mango: Taking A Chance On Ukrainian Sushi

Photographed: April 14th, 2013

If you ever visit a major city in Ukraine you will undoubtedly see one of these restaurants...Kharkiv has several of these and Kiev has even more locations. The restaurant's name is Russian for "sushi" and the chain is one of many, many sushi restaurants that are trying to cash in on the latest culinary craze in Ukraine.  

The idea of eating sushi in Ukraine where health standards are few and far between seemed like a risk we might not want to take.  We had talked about taking the plunge many times but we only got around to it until our last week in the country.  

In the end, what were we thinking???  This was some of the most delicious sushi I've ever had.  I went with a spicy sesame roll...

...and here's a closer look.

Laura went with a simple California roll with crab inside and she really enjoyed it as well.

The Treasures of the Kharkiv Art Museum

Although I'm now home in America, I'm going to keep posting as if we recently had these adventures around Europe. I'll post the dates we actually visited these locations at the start of each posts in an attempt to keep things straight.

The Treasures of the Kharkiv Art Museum

Photographed: April 14th, 2013

The last time I wrote about the Kharkiv Art Museum I featured the ladies guarding the museum and this time around we will take a look at some of the pieces in the museum.  This first photo is of the stained glass window that was at the top of the main set of the stairs to the second floor.

The museum's main claim to fame is a second version of Ilya Repin famous painting "Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire."  This was an additional version of the painting that Repin began but never completed and it was his hopes to create a more historically accurate version of the original [which you can see in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg].

Here are a few paintings and sculptures that caught my eye during our visit.     

Ukrainian showers are still basically the same temperature today!

This last one shows the fields and rivers that would eventually be the city of Kharkiv.  

The Guardians of the Kharkiv Art Museum

Although I'm now home in America, I'm going to keep posting as if we recently had these adventures around Europe. I'll post the dates we actually visited these locations at the start of each posts in an attempt to keep things straight. 

The Guardians of the Kharkiv Art Musuem

Photographed: April 14th, 2013

I've not done any hard research on the matter but if I was to guess I would say that history and art museums in Ukraine must be the number one employer of women aged 40-65 in Ukraine. They are around every turn waiting for you to start talking loudly, share a loud laugh together, maybe grab a painting off the wall and make a break for it.

Inspired by this article from The Guardian about the guardians in museums in Russia I took photos of the guardians who populate the Kharkiv Art Museum.  Some of the guardians took a more active role in "their guarding" and silently follow you around as you examined the works.

Some read books...

Or magazines...

Or maybe looking out the window every once in a while.

Another important part of the guardians jobs is to check our admission tickets three or four times over the course of our visit.  This can be done sometimes two or three feet away from where we purchased the tickets and all within the guardians view.  

Laura was getting the double team treatment in one of the larger rooms.  This was the same room in which someone was tuning a piano that I posted about previously.

This will be Part 1 of my posts about visiting the Kharkiv Art Museum.  Next time I'll show you some of the highlights of the museum's contents.

A School Playground Ukrainian Style

 Although I'm now home in America, I'm going to keep posting as if we recently had these adventures around Europe. I'll post the dates we actually visited these locations at the start of each posts in an attempt to keep things straight. 

A School Playground Ukrainian Style

Photographed: April 14th, 2013

While walking around our apartment in Kharkiv, during out last week there, we came upon this school with its Ukrainian-blue fence.

Continuing our walk along the fence though, I noticed that something didn't look quite normal in the back.  

Moving out of the way of the pine tree you can see it looks to be what I guess is a Cossack warrior slaying a dragon.  That knife looks very imposing and I can't quite tell if the red portion of the statue is just the inside of the dragon's mouth or blood from a stab wound.  

Here's a more complete view of the action scene and you can see the warrior has stabbed the dragon in the mouth.  I can only imagine what it would be like to try to take a short cut across the playground and coming across this statue in the middle of the night.  You certainly won't see one of these on an American school's playground.  

Celebrating Maslenitsa In Kharkiv

Maslenitsa is a pagan holiday celebrating the end of winter and at the end of the festival Lady Maslenitsa is burned in effigy.  This particular Saturday turned out to be the last really cold day we had in Kharkiv this winter and so it was appropriate to celebrate the beginning of spring.

Visiting The Dolphinarium

I finally got my act together and finished the video for our trip to Kharkiv's Dolphinarium.

Baby's First Haircut

In my time here in Ukraine I've successfully avoided nearly all the potentially bad experiences that living abroad could throw at you...I've never been yelled at in the street in Russian [that I've been aware of], haven't had an icicle fall on my head, or have even fallen on the sheets of ice that go for sidewalks around here.  It's part of the reason I'm having so a good time here, I imagine.  So the thought of finally having to get my haircut in Ukraine and the possible horrible outcomes had me a little frightened as I walked into the salon today.  Laura and I...let's be more honest...Laura had thoroughly researched such phrases as...

"short around the side, longer on top"

"2-3 centimeters off the top" [that's an inch in America]

"please do not shave my head"

Thankfully, everything turned out well and the women of the salon seemed to be amused that Laura was taking photos like this was baby's first haircut.  

I should have gotten my barber's name but forgot to.  She was not happy that I didn't want to have a shave as well.

In the end it was a great experience and I didn't end up looking like Telly Savalas.

1930's Kharkiv Tourism Posters

Radio Free Europe recently posted some 1930's posters advertising the Soviet Union to the West.  Since many of the key tourist areas [Crimean peninsula, the Black Sea, Kiev] are in Ukraine, Ukrainian locations were the focus of many of the posters.  

Kharkiv, as the second largest city in Ukraine, had a few posters too.  Here are a few highlighting the famous  statue of poet Taras Shevchenko.  

Kharkiv even made the list of the top tours of the Soviet Union.

The Circus Mirrorball

I'm writing a post about our visit to two must-see attractions in Kharkiv, the Circus and Dolphinarium and while I was going through the photos I found this shot I took of the mirrorball at the Circus.