M's postings from Kiev.
My first day in the Ukraine went pretty well. I landed at the airport and was met with lots of red tape trying to get through immigration--it took about an hour to go through two checks.
I was met at the airport by my driver who was there to take me to the hotel. His name is Yevganey and he is a former officer in the Russian Army. He left the Army because they were not getting paid regularly and it was low paying to begin with now. He now drives tourists around for a living. He likes the freedom they now have in the Ukraine since 1991 but I think he misses the old days when life was a bit easier. Today there are either very rich people or poor people without really much of a middle class.
My hotel is an ancient Soviet relic called Hotel Tourist. The room is remodeled so it is fine, but the elevator is ancient and I am up on the 20th floor. There is also a female attendant on each floor who holds the keys when you are away and keeps the floor tidy. She has a little desk rigjht by the elevator--must be a carryover job from Soviet times!
This afternoon the driver came back with a tour guide and I had a three hour tour of the city by car. There are lots of typical Soviet highrise apartments everywhere that are really ugly and crumbling, but there are also lots of beautiful Greek Orthodox churches and wonderfuly larger than life monuments to Russian/Ukranian friendship and to the Ukrainian independence.
The tour guides name is Yelena and she ia a former English teacher. She became a full-time guide about 20 years ago and got to travel all around the world as a translator for Soviet officials.
Tonight I took the subway (10 cents eac way) into the city center and had dinner at a Cossack themed restaurant. They were dressed in fancy costumes and had a little band singing and playing traditional folk songs. It was a little cheesy but still fun. I had Borscht (beet soup) and Chicken Kiev. For desert I had dumplings stuffed with cherries. All was very good.
When I got back to the hotel tonight I got the key for my room and started getting ready for bed. Then the phone rang and a woman with a thick English accent asked if I wanted a beautiful sex massage! I said nyet! (M did tell me this...)
Tomorrow I'm off with the driver and guide at 8am to try to find the town where Grandma was born. Its not called Heimthal anymore so we are having a little difficulty finding it but I think we will manage.
Day 2
I had a really successful day today. I found the village where Grandma was born! I wasn't too confident in the morning when we left the hotel at 8am. We were guessing on the area and spelling of the town. The driver had a map from the Internet that listed the town names in German before the first world war. We fouind a name that we thought was correct and headed off.
About two and a half hours into the journey I looked at the map and saw 'Heimtal' in a slightly different area on the map so we stopped the car and tried to pinpoint that on today's road map.
We headed off the main highway first on to a bumpy asphalt road which then turned into a gravel road and then in to a dirt road. We passed cows and geese in front of farm houses and also passed lots of people on horse and buggy. It was like stepping back in time.
Finally after having to stop several time to ask locals for directions, we turned on to a paved road and saw the sign marking 'Yasynivka' which is the current name of the town in the Roman alphabet. It looks very different in the Cyrilic alphabet!
The village had about 20 houses. Most seemed to have small plots of land behind them where people grow crops and raise animals. We stopped and the driver got out and spoke to one of the villagers for a while. He confirmed that the town was definitely called Heimtal previously. He told us about an old seminary down the road and also about another family down the road that might have more information.
We went and saw the ruins of the old Lutheran school and seminary. I took a few pictures.
Next we went to speak with the family that the villager had mentioned. We got very lucky! The man and his wife in their early 40's invited us into his house where he pulled out a newspaper article from 2002 that talked about the history of the town and how it had three different names over time. My guide translated the article which was in Ukranian. It confirmed what Grandma had told us.
In the late 1800's, Catherine the Great had given plots of land to Germans free of charge and without taxes for 50 years as she wanted more of her own to settle there in the Russian empire as she was German by birth. Later sometime around 1915 (can't remember the exact date), Tsar Nicholas II decided he didn't want the Germans there any more, so he plunderd the area, killed many, and exiled many more to Siberia. Then in 1917, Tsar Nicholas was overthrown and people were allowed to return home and Ukraine was a free country for almost a year with its own president until the Bolshevic revolution in 1918.
The dates really seemed to match up with Grandma's experience and it also helps to explain why Germans were in the Ukraine and why they got shipped to Siberia.
I took a photograph of the article. I don't think there was a photocopier anywhere nearby!
We then drove back to Kiev amd stopped at a roadside restaurant on the way back. I had a nice soup and some really good potato pancakes. The food was good and cost a total of $7 for soup, salad, a main course, and a glass of wine for two people! The only downside was they didn't have a restroom, only an outhouse with a hole in the floor out back! It was a little scarey!
We got back to the hotel at 6pm. It was a long day of lots of driving, but was well worth it! I was so glad that we actually found the village.
Tomorrow is sightseeing and shopping in Kiev.
Day 4 (not sure what happened to day 3)
My last morning in the Kiev was fairly uneventful. I took the subway into the city centre again to look for some souvenirs. I went to the State Department store which had lots of everyday items, but still looked like what you would expect of a communist era department store--dark and outdated looking inside with old creaky escalators. For some reason only the up escalators were working. The down escalators were blocked off and there were ladies sitting on chairs in front of the down escalators on each floor to make sure that no one went down them. Very strange. I couldn't find anything interesting there to buy so I went back to one of the churches I visited on Sunday and found a small watercolour print and some Ukrainian painted eggs. That was pretty much the extent of my shopping--not too much to buy there.
My trip home was a bit of a nightmare. I didn't think I was going to get out of the country! I arrived at the airport 2 hours ahead of my flight. There was an unruly queue at the main door to the airport. Everyone going in to the airport itself had to go through and metal detector and have their bags x-rayed. Inside the airport, it was chaos. I found a lane that I needed to be in for the 'nothing to declare' group. The line didn't move for 1/2 hour as the single customs official scrutinised documents, let others go through freely, and then walked away from the desk when he felt like it. Added to that there were four lines of people trying to merge into this one official. It was really like what you would expect in a third-world African country. It took over an hour to get through that line. Then I got in another to have my luggage x-rayed again before I went to the check-in counter. When I finally got to the check-in counter the queue there was at a standstill. I finally found out that their computers had crashed and they couldn't check anyone in. After waiting another 1/2 hour, they finally started to manually check people in with paper boarding passes and handwritten luggage tags--I wasn't too sure my luggage would make it. Next was another metal detector and x-ray of hand luggage. When I made it upstairs to the gates, they were just starting to board my plane! The plane ride home was uneventful and I was thankful to be back on British soil!
Overall, I was really thrilled that I could find where Grandma was born. That was definitely the highlight of the trip. Kiev itself is a beautiful city with lots of lovely churches to see. But, the constant fear of petty crime, the senseless bureaucracy, and the seemingly corrupt police/officials made it one of the more difficult places that I have ever visited. The Ukraine has quite a ways to go before being a hospitable tourist destination.
September 28, 2004
September 27, 2004
Chock full of pilgrims
This weekend I went to Santiago de Compostela in the northern part of Spain. I've always wanted to go there ever since I found out about it, but have never really been sure why. It's hard to get to there cheaply and doesn't fit into the 'go on Friday night and back on Sunday' thing so I've never managed until now. Since this is the last weekend free to go to Europe before the big trip , Santiago had to be the place to go. M went of to Kiev to find his grandmothers town (and did) and I took the plane to Valladolid, intending to drive to Santiago. 2 mistakes, one was hiring the underpowered car for a long road trip (apologies to anyone out there that owns a Hyundai Getz) and secondly believing the website that it was only 300kms or so (or maybe it was miles). Pretty cool scenery and you traveled over this huge highway no one else uses complete with 500m plus high viaduct, but still a 6.5 hour trip to get there. Didn't manage to find the hotel easily from the map (turns out to be much further out of town) and was compounded by the owner only speaking Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese...but no Inglese. My pidgin Italian wasn't quite up to it...where was my German speaking husband when i needed him...in blimin Poland. Resorted to handing the phone to the car park attendant to ask and then point it out on the map. Still couldn't find it so plan B consisted of driving to the airport, parking the car and getting a cab to the hotel (15 euros and 5 minutes later...Much gnashing of teeth and wishing that I had thought of it sooner!) the upside of it was it only cost 6.50 euros to park in the carpark overnight. Those of you who've parked in Heathrow/Gatwick/Auckland airports will appreciate this, as you can probabley by a used car in Spain for what it costs to park in those airports)
The hotel room was small and next to a busy road but I had my handy 'might have to share a room with my brother the snoring walrus' emergency earplugs so slept like a log.
Santiago is the ultimate destination for hardcore pilgrims who start 900kms away in France and others who start a few days or weeks away. You see them on the side of the road walking the trail...mostly barely talking to each other by the time they make it to Santiago. Apparently the long one takes about 3 months and you can tell who they were from the well tanned, socks and jandals look, whereas the part timers all had plasters and more baggage. The final destination is the catherdral, a gloriously gothic golden stone jobbie, with enormous front doors up the winding steps in front of a large square. I made it to pilgrims mass at 12:00 on Saturday and crammed in with the others to watch the 'handlers' organizing the special ones (not sure if they'd paid more or what) who got to confess to the priests. It was mostly a sung mass and quite wonderful to hear everyone responding when required. During the service there was some kind of disturbance at back of our crowd of people with the security guards dragging a couple away...Possibly for videotaping. The Spanish don't say shhhhh by the way, they say zzzzzzzh. There were lots of zzzzzzzh's when this happened. It was a sung mass so I subsituted the Lords prayer and sang along once I'd learnt the words in all the repeating bits. A nice combination of the practical and the spiritual...it's great to be an a working catherdral, one that's not just for show.
Had a wonderful lunch in the cafe attached to the oldest hotel in Europe (so the guidebook tells me) and was pretty impressed that most of what I thought I was ordering turned up. Watched yet another procession completed with dead saint under a canopy and men dressed as Joseph turn up...The entrance into the catherdral was marked by everyone throwing loud firecrackers that sounded like gunshots...Somewhat unexpected to everyone in the cafe, and somewhat frightening with Beslan so fresh in everyone's minds.
Spent the day walking around the old town...Peering in old doorways, admiring the large cooked squid and other assorted animals for eating displayed in the windows, and trying on jet jewelry...This part of Spain being home to well displayed meat cuts and jet production.
Ended up having a wee sun bathe in the park (after texting my nearest and dearest in the UK to skit how warm it was) and picked up some food to have a picnic on the way home.
Up early and did the long trek back without getting lost more than twice (always did find roundabouts tricky), the usual scramble to find a petrol station to refuel the car and a lesisurely (if cramped and noisy) flight home.
Glad I went as it's a very peaceful and 'Spanish' part of Spain, with a strong sense of it's own identity away from the influence of Madrid and Barcelona.
Must put up M's posts of his journey in Kiev
The hotel room was small and next to a busy road but I had my handy 'might have to share a room with my brother the snoring walrus' emergency earplugs so slept like a log.
Santiago is the ultimate destination for hardcore pilgrims who start 900kms away in France and others who start a few days or weeks away. You see them on the side of the road walking the trail...mostly barely talking to each other by the time they make it to Santiago. Apparently the long one takes about 3 months and you can tell who they were from the well tanned, socks and jandals look, whereas the part timers all had plasters and more baggage. The final destination is the catherdral, a gloriously gothic golden stone jobbie, with enormous front doors up the winding steps in front of a large square. I made it to pilgrims mass at 12:00 on Saturday and crammed in with the others to watch the 'handlers' organizing the special ones (not sure if they'd paid more or what) who got to confess to the priests. It was mostly a sung mass and quite wonderful to hear everyone responding when required. During the service there was some kind of disturbance at back of our crowd of people with the security guards dragging a couple away...Possibly for videotaping. The Spanish don't say shhhhh by the way, they say zzzzzzzh. There were lots of zzzzzzzh's when this happened. It was a sung mass so I subsituted the Lords prayer and sang along once I'd learnt the words in all the repeating bits. A nice combination of the practical and the spiritual...it's great to be an a working catherdral, one that's not just for show.
Had a wonderful lunch in the cafe attached to the oldest hotel in Europe (so the guidebook tells me) and was pretty impressed that most of what I thought I was ordering turned up. Watched yet another procession completed with dead saint under a canopy and men dressed as Joseph turn up...The entrance into the catherdral was marked by everyone throwing loud firecrackers that sounded like gunshots...Somewhat unexpected to everyone in the cafe, and somewhat frightening with Beslan so fresh in everyone's minds.
Spent the day walking around the old town...Peering in old doorways, admiring the large cooked squid and other assorted animals for eating displayed in the windows, and trying on jet jewelry...This part of Spain being home to well displayed meat cuts and jet production.
Ended up having a wee sun bathe in the park (after texting my nearest and dearest in the UK to skit how warm it was) and picked up some food to have a picnic on the way home.
Up early and did the long trek back without getting lost more than twice (always did find roundabouts tricky), the usual scramble to find a petrol station to refuel the car and a lesisurely (if cramped and noisy) flight home.
Glad I went as it's a very peaceful and 'Spanish' part of Spain, with a strong sense of it's own identity away from the influence of Madrid and Barcelona.
Must put up M's posts of his journey in Kiev
September 18, 2004
The great car boot sale
Ruthlessly went through all the possessions in the attic and managed to get them all stuffed into the car. At this point a word of thanks to the memory of my parents - who were great propronents of 'packing the car correctly' ie treating it like a 3d jigsaw to see just how much stuff can be packed in. You know how it goes, if we turn this up this way and wedge this thing in here then that can fit in here and everything else has to be carried in your lap...I like to think they were subsituting possessions for airbags in the pre-airbag days...But I suspect that we just traveled with a lot of STUFF.
So anyway we found a car boot sale http://www.u-boot.co.uk/index.htm loaded the car and left the house at 5:30ish, psyched to off load the goodies and make loads of dosh...The first one being the most important.
It was dark, it was cold and a bit damp and at 6:15 we were about car number 10 in a large field. Being newbies (but faking hard) we looked for a likely spot, got the pasting tables out and proceeded flog the stuff to anyone that would have it. The usual vultures (read dealers) converged and the first one asked if we had old military weapons...I think both of us laughed..Any two people less likely to have old military weapons I can't think of! The junk came out, the prices were low and we were not afraid to harangue passerbys to stop and look. Feeling no shame I even had M yelling 'It's all gotta go, we're moving to America, it;s not coming with us'...People buy the strangest things at car boot sales...Like the silk flowers but not the vase, and 24 business class airline kits...Still, £143 pounds richer we went home for a nap, with only 6 things and a few leftover books for the recyling.
Still more in the loft though....Might have to have another.
So anyway we found a car boot sale http://www.u-boot.co.uk/index.htm loaded the car and left the house at 5:30ish, psyched to off load the goodies and make loads of dosh...The first one being the most important.
It was dark, it was cold and a bit damp and at 6:15 we were about car number 10 in a large field. Being newbies (but faking hard) we looked for a likely spot, got the pasting tables out and proceeded flog the stuff to anyone that would have it. The usual vultures (read dealers) converged and the first one asked if we had old military weapons...I think both of us laughed..Any two people less likely to have old military weapons I can't think of! The junk came out, the prices were low and we were not afraid to harangue passerbys to stop and look. Feeling no shame I even had M yelling 'It's all gotta go, we're moving to America, it;s not coming with us'...People buy the strangest things at car boot sales...Like the silk flowers but not the vase, and 24 business class airline kits...Still, £143 pounds richer we went home for a nap, with only 6 things and a few leftover books for the recyling.
Still more in the loft though....Might have to have another.
September 14, 2004
Wot a lot of STUFF
The moving lady came today to review how much possessions we have and what size container (VERY BIG) would be needed for it. She was dainty and demure and really knew her stuff. Not a bad skill being able to look around the house and estimate what size container it would fit in...Wonder if she does that when she's visiting friends?
She even climbed up the ladder wearing high heels and a tight skirt...Not a skill all women have, myself included.
We have LOTS of stuff from both our houses now crammed into one, so its up into the loft and off to the car boot sale this weekend, since they don't do garage sales here.
Having someone come and pack stuff to move will be a rare treat for me since I've worked out I've moved 22 times for myself since the age of 18, not counting anyone else I've moved (like the time Ross said he was moving to a flat up some stairs and forgot to add the words '3 flights')
She even climbed up the ladder wearing high heels and a tight skirt...Not a skill all women have, myself included.
We have LOTS of stuff from both our houses now crammed into one, so its up into the loft and off to the car boot sale this weekend, since they don't do garage sales here.
Having someone come and pack stuff to move will be a rare treat for me since I've worked out I've moved 22 times for myself since the age of 18, not counting anyone else I've moved (like the time Ross said he was moving to a flat up some stairs and forgot to add the words '3 flights')
September 06, 2004
it's a family thing
a wonderful thing has just happened. My cousin Wendy from my dad's side has just contacted me. I've not had much to do with them as they were older than us, and lost touch over the years. My other cousin Susan saw our wedding website and passed it onto her. How cool..family is cooler as you get older. I've been quite envious of the relationship M has with his cousin so maybe I can mend some fences and have a wee bit more of that myself.
My left cubicle buddy has a bad cold but has noblely decided to spare showing me the yello phlegmn..and I'm grateful for that two...two good things today...oh and I just got tickets for the NZ/Aus ICC champions trophy match next thursday...keeeeeeeweeeeeeeee...sun, cricket, a day off and the possibility of whupping Aussie ass is a pretty good day out...
My left cubicle buddy has a bad cold but has noblely decided to spare showing me the yello phlegmn..and I'm grateful for that two...two good things today...oh and I just got tickets for the NZ/Aus ICC champions trophy match next thursday...keeeeeeeweeeeeeeee...sun, cricket, a day off and the possibility of whupping Aussie ass is a pretty good day out...
September 05, 2004
Sunday blessings
Summer seems to have stuck in old blighty for once...We've had at least 4 hot days in a row and I think this might constitute summer this year.. The weather gauge says 30 outside and we are inside cleaning damnit..tidying rather than cleaning, neither of us have been home much to be messy...Just seem to be bits everywhere, mostly mine for some reason, remind me why I married 'Tidy Man' again. Ran out the door to the photo shoot (oh lookitme...how glam) and the clothes didn't seem to make it up the stair...not helped by the Everest of ironing piles to tackle. Where is a Sherpa to do all the hard work so I can swan in and iron the last t-shirt..and I don't even iron M's stuff - poor sod! I'm pretty sure technically it's too hot and the last time I ironed in my bikini I still have the hotizontal line where I got too carried away, backed off very quickly though. I wonder if I could say ironing is hardardous to my health???
The new gardeners have mowed the lavender down outside the front doors so rather than smell of a tiny bit of France it looks a bit stark and bare. I managed to rescue a bit so its in the back of my car...looks pretty but I think it's supposed to put you to sleep so might not be the best thing for driving to work on Monday morning!
Better get back to the drudgery...need to work up enough energy to justify a siesta...Adios
The new gardeners have mowed the lavender down outside the front doors so rather than smell of a tiny bit of France it looks a bit stark and bare. I managed to rescue a bit so its in the back of my car...looks pretty but I think it's supposed to put you to sleep so might not be the best thing for driving to work on Monday morning!
Better get back to the drudgery...need to work up enough energy to justify a siesta...Adios
September 02, 2004
in the beginning...
I'm just about to embark on another really big adventure...moving to the states from the UK via a wee side trip to Russia/Mongolia/China/Malaysia...this seems like a really good way to let everyone keep in touch. If I can figure how to get some pics up you won't have to look at them all later...
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