online

translation

Ukr Eng

'That's because this is Odesa.' It is a statement that we hear time and again during our visit. Independently of the specific context it is meant to both explain and stress that this city is different. Different from the rest of Ukraine, and maybe different from the rest of the world. A Ukrainian port city first ruled over by a Frenchman, once the third-largest Jewish city in the world, with a dialect of Russian that has its own dictionaries to enable the uninitiated to understand it - a lot of reasons are given for how Odesa came to be different, and an equal number of explanations for how this difference shows itself. Being open to the world, and a spirit of cooperation necessary for good business are among the most common.
Yet even without the explanations, just walking through the streets, the atmosphere is obviously different from the rest of Ukraine. The wonderful boulevards, often newly renovated, and the backyards, angled and idiosyncratic, mix to infuse everything with a sense of being further west than the occasional Soviet apartment block and the unmistakably Ukrainian store signs signal. The cafés and bars everywhere in the center make it welcoming to the visitor - and when he is a foreigner, ordering in his own language, he has a good chance of being understood. After all, this is Odesa >>>

Tomsk - Day 6

Seversk: trying to explore illegally one of these secret cities of the ex-USSR 

“By the way, do you know that in town there is this statue of a dog, and, though I can’t remember why, people say that it is somehow connected with Ukraine...” The young foreign student I am speaking with cannot tell me more about this statue but I am already ready to bet that it is about a famous Ukrainian animated movie titled “Zhil byl pes”. This cartoon I watched for the first time a few years ago while living in Ukraine, remains one of my favourite. Our plan for today is already set: let’s find this statue – coming from Ukraine, how could we miss such a monument?
We are not long to locate it, a bit out from the city center. Thanks to passersby we are explained that the statue can even talk! We just scratch the belly of the dog with a coin to enjoy in Ukrainian language a famous statement quoted out from the cartoon! Still, we have no idea how and why such a statue ended up in Siberia! >>>

The Anti-Switzerland

I'm glad that I'm not Swiss. We once had a Swiss teacher at school here who, being a good citizen of his country, registered with his embassy. They told him that he was one of just five Swiss living in all of Ukraine. It is easy to see why there are that few: our teacher left after less than three months, during which time he had sworn at Ukrainian organisational skills (or the total lack thereof, If he was to be believed) and attitudes every single day. He found it impossible to live here.
In many respects, Swiss and Ukrainian attitudes couldn't be more antithetical. On the one hand there is a country where train delays of a couple of minutes are considered a national catastrophe and where, from what I saw on my trips there, littering is probably a capital offense. Now contrast that with a country where 'but it is working - somehow' is most often all that is aimed for >>>