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:

Marvel With A Mango: Finally Eating At McFoxy!

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. 

Finally Eating At McFoxy!

Photographed: Februrary 12th, 2013

I wrote about the Ukrainian McDonald's ripoff restaurant McFoxy! back in February and before I left Ukraine we did actually get a chance to have lunch there. Here is our plate which doesn't look too different from what you would get at McDonald's...but then we tried it.

 

We ordered a sample of the menu hopes of sharing our new culinary discoveries.  We started off with a fish sandwich which didn't look too bad although those cheese slices aren't very melted.

Opening it we see that we are actually getting more pickles then fish but what can you do?  

And we also tried some chicken nugget type thing which was probably more mystery meat than chicken bits. 

I took a chance on a chicken sandwich which was passable...it looks better than it tastes.

And while we were dividing up our meals, we noticed the advertisement on the paper place mat under our food. That guy is clearly too happy to be eating that sandwich and he had certainly not taken a bit yet.

So I had to recreate the expression as best I could before I took a bite of my chicken sandwich.  

Here's a side-by-side, I think I got the expression right but need to position myself a little better.  

In the end without a doubt the best thing we had there were the french fries.  It's pretty hard to screw those up!

A Little Yellow Church In Kiev

 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 Little Yellow Church In Kiev

Photographed: April 11th, 2013

This little yellow chuch is the Church of the Birth of Christ was was originally built in 1814 and then rebuilt in 2005.  I had no idea at the time of taking this photo but this is the church at which the Ukrainian poet and unofficial champion/mascot of this blog, Taras Shevchenko, was laid to rest while his body was transported back to his home in 1861.  In 1930 the church was destroyed by the Communists and rebuilt 75 years later.  There is a more famous yellow church in Kiev, St. Volodymyr's, but I like this one for its smaller size and more subtle mustard yellow color.  

And here are two views of St. Andrew's which is also in Kiev and is, I'm pretty safe to say, my favorite church to take photos of. This may not seem like a controversial statement but Kiev has quite a few beautiful churches to choose from.

 Its location on one of the city's hills allows it to appear imposing while up close it is also a pretty tiny church. 

Princess Olga of Kiev

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. 

Princess Olga of Kiev Statue

Visited: April 11th, 2013

In the square near St. Michael's Cathedral in Kiev you can find a monument to Princess Olga of Kiev who ruled the Kievan Rus from 945-964.  Her husband Igor of Kiev was ruler until his death and Olga took power as their son was too young to rule.

Similarly to Queen Elizabeth much pressure was put on Olga to strategically marry princes from rival groups but she never did.  She is honored near the Orthodox church because she was the first Kievan Rus leader to adopt Christianity.

The View From My Window #19: Playing With My Shutter Speed In Kiev

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 View From My Window #19: Kiev

Photographed: April 11th, 2013

Here's the view from our apartment window on a hazy spring day in Kiev.  Nothing too amazing to take notice but...

...what a difference a few hours and some car break lights make.  I've done a couple of shutter speed experiments before but I think that this was the best result I've had so far.

The Kiev Train Station Cat Returns!

You may remember the Kiev Train Station Cat from my post in March and when we were back in town I made a little video of him/her.

 

Random CCCP Sightings

I usually react in disgust seeing someone wear CCCP related t-shirts in America...feel free to wear your Karl Marx shirt to make your political statement about communism but no one should promote the horrors the USSR [CCCP in Cyrillic] did to the Russian, Ukrainian, and all the people of the Eastern bloc.  Nevertheless, in my travels I can't help but stop and look whenever a great big Lenin statue comes into view or when we find a monument honoring the Communist history of the city or region.   

This Lenin statue is located in Zhytomyr which is also home to my favorite Ukrainian museum and future blog post topic, Korolyov Cosmonaut Museum.  

We came upon this mini Lenin in a restaurant in Zhytomyr as well. 

This Lenin stares at you while you get off the subway in Kiev. You're not supposed to take photos in the subway but sometimes I like to live dangerously.

I can't remember exactly where I snapped this CCCP emblem.

This hammer and sickle was at a soldier war memorial in Lychakiv Cemetary in Lviv.

The Oddest Building In Kiev

While walking around the area surrounding the Ukrainian parliament we came upon a building known as Gorodetsky House.  It was built around 1900 by the architect Vladislav Gorodetsky and is covered by an architectural feature called a Chimera which is a figure that is mythical or grotesque like a gargoyle.  Along with being called the "Gorodetsky House" it is also often called The House With Chimaeras.  It was originally used as an upscale apartment building [across the road is the Ukrainian president's offices, by the way] but during Soviet times it was a clinic. 

Here are several examples of the Chimeras that cover the building.  My favorite is the this group of grumpy frogs that line the roof of one side of the building.  

The Cat Guarding The Luggage Lockers At The Kiev Train Station

 In my friend Vanessa's blog, From Lawrence to Latvia, she often highlights the cats she comes upon her travels.  I've been doing the same thing while in Ukraine but I've been saving my shots for one big post of all the animals Laura and I have run into on our trips.  But the cat we ran into on Friday was just too good to hold onto.  We had about six hours to kill in Kiev before our train to Lviv so we went and stowed our bags in the luggage lockers under the Kiev train station.  At the end of the isle in which we stored our stuff was this sight.

This very smart cat had found probably the warmest spot in the entire station and I have a feeling there is no shortage of mice to keep him fed.  

He even gave us a nice pose when we got a little closer.

Using The Flash

Recently discovered photo trick: on a night with light flurries use your flash to make some very beautiful photos.  Here are a few I took by accident in Kiev's Independence Square.  

Points For Originality

I think that the old lady that shovels the snow [it's almost always an old lady with the saddest shovel you've ever seen] in Kiev's Freedom Square certainly deserves points for originality in their snow pile placement.  

Originality points aside, it's hard to believe that a city the size of Kiev still has trouble clearing out one of the major tourist locations in town.

Making Friends In Ukraine

I had a little friend take an interest in my Minecraft game while I was killing time at a train station.  He watched me play for a few minutes and then moved onto greener pastures and a family that was watching a movie.  Every once in a while his parents would yell at him to leave the other people alone but he would be right back at it five minutes later.

Random Picture Collection: Instagrams From Around Ukraine

Roughly every month I collect the photos that didn't quite get their own post and bring them together in a single post.  Past collection can be found here.  

Here are a few photos from my recent travels that I've been posting on my Instagram account. 

It was either wedge into the smallest elevator ever or take the stairs past the drunk guy sleeping in the hallway on the third floor. 

In the winter they just cover the carousel with plastic.

Yanni is coming to Ukraine...but I'll hold out for The Killers in Latvia later this summer.

Something tells me nothing in this store is "fun" or "cool."

A Father teaching his daughter how to play cards Wednesday on the train to Vinnitsya.

After rarely seeing ice in restaurants I've been served ice cubes this way two nights in a row.

Antagonizing the fish at our hotel. They either thought I was going to feed them or they don't like getting their photo taken.

The View From My Window #12: Kiev Hostel

The view from our hostel in Kiev...all night long there would be loud bangs and crashes as the snow from the angled roof would fall off.  At first I thought people were throwing their garbage from their windows down into the dumpsters below.  

Here's another view of Maiden Nezalezhnosti which I will never get tired of photographing.  

On American Soil [Briefly]

Wednesday morning found Laura and I visiting the good old U.S. of A. for an hour or so...and by that I mean we went to the U.S. Embassy in Kiev.  Awesome bathrooms, drinking fountains, and we got to cut the queue as we were 'Mericans!  It's not often I'll cut in line here in Ukraine and Laura gets frustrated how I'll let people go ahead to me to get on the subway or trying to get somewhere fast.  But after seeing the line of people trying to get into the Embassy I gladly whipped out my passport and jumped to the front.

The outside security of the Embassy seemed to be run by Ukrainian security and as I went through the metal detector and had my possessions put through the x-ray machine the Ukrainian security guard came up to me and said, "I'll be keeping your cellphone and your lipstick back here."  I looked down to see him holding my cellphone and my ChapStick.  Laura started giggling and I smiled and said "okay."    

Born Slippy

The dangerous stairs leading to Kiev's art museum reminded me of an Underworld song "Born Slippy." Somehow we made it up the stairs to discover that the museum was closed on Tuesdays.


And here is Laura cursing the Kiev guidebook that said the museum was closed on Wednesdays instead of Tuesdays.