Well, tonight I leave on a midnight (12:15am to be precise) bus ride to Kiev Boryspol airport. I'll arrive about 7am tomorrow and then have the morning to buy last-last-minute souvenirs in the historic district of Kiev before I take a flight about 2pm and go to London where Darren will meet me. I'm now just finishing some errands around the city and trying to keep calm as I attempt another big move. I think I'm going to have to make my stay in Abingdon a loooooong one as my heart can't take any more moving. Three long distance moves in one year is MORE than enough. So watch out Darren - you're getting a hanger-on whether you like it or not!!
Must run now... look for updates and replies to email in about a week once I've settled in and found internet cafes in the quaint English countryside town.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Sevastopol, Crimea
Hello all!! I'm now, finally back into civilization - for at least a day. To catch you up really quickly. I have finished the first session of the summer language camps. Much to my dismay, I was required for the beginning half of the next session. Meaning I'll be in the Crimea until the 27th of August rather than returning to Kharkov today. I was dismayed at this because, in case I forgot to tell you, this is my last week in Ukraine (at least this turn around). That means I'll have another three days here in the south, then travel back up to home of Kharkov and be there for only two days (thus attempting to cram last minute errands into half the time I expected). From there I will need to travel overnight to Kiev, and catch my plane to London on the 30th.
Well... so things aren't working out as I had planned... that's nothing too new now. After the initial disappoint of this news I finally managed to travel to an actual city in Crimea (see title) and get to internet, shops and something other than mountains and sea - ancient Byzantine ruins. Details of all my adventures will come, once I return to England. So now my spirits are in better shape and I must now return to the wilderness (hiking down a mountain to get to my seaside camp) and begin the next camp tomorrow. Now at least I have the energy and motivation to do so.. but I still don't have time to do everything in Kharkov. That will be the next bit of 'adventure' to figure out. Keep you posted!!
Well... so things aren't working out as I had planned... that's nothing too new now. After the initial disappoint of this news I finally managed to travel to an actual city in Crimea (see title) and get to internet, shops and something other than mountains and sea - ancient Byzantine ruins. Details of all my adventures will come, once I return to England. So now my spirits are in better shape and I must now return to the wilderness (hiking down a mountain to get to my seaside camp) and begin the next camp tomorrow. Now at least I have the energy and motivation to do so.. but I still don't have time to do everything in Kharkov. That will be the next bit of 'adventure' to figure out. Keep you posted!!
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Chapter 21 – Long overdue update!!
In about three hours time I will be on a midnight train (departing at 9:30pm actually) heading south to the Black Sea. I’ll be going with my school to a summer language camp for students, in my usual role as native English speaking teacher. However I do hope to catch a bit of sun, fun and free time while there. I’ve been given much advice on where to go in the Crimea and what to do… it’s now just a matter or time, will and ability. I’ll be gone for approximately 9 days (give or take depending on the situation with another native speaker taking my place for the final camp in the last week of August). Therefore I won’t be able to check emails/post more deliciously exciting blogs during that time. I’m very Excited to be seeing another part of Ukraine and hope to get to Yalta (and Odessa, which is NOT in the Crimea).
Upon returning from the Black Sea, I’ll have one last week to finish sightseeing around Kharkov, taking all the pictures I didn’t get a chance to take earlier and saying goodbye to all the friends I made here during my short five-month respite from Western Europe. At which point I’ll take a midnight bus from Kharkov, on August 29th, to Kiev. I’ll have the morning to do very, Very last minute shopping in the quaint tourist district in the center of the capital city and then head back to the airport to catch an afternoon flight on August 30th bound for London via Prague. Around 5:30pm, I’ll arrive at London’s Gatwick airport – that is unless the employees there decide to strike, in which case I’ll probably enjoy the lovely airport lounge in Prague for a good few hours or days.
From there I will move to Abingdon, a picturesque and charming little town a few miles south of Oxford. After that… we’ll I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do except that I will enjoy hopefully a bug-free existence and find some work to pay my rapidly accruing bills. As well as preparing to take part, if accepted, in a work exchange program in Moscow next fall. (More on that crazy adventure to come.) For now I have to get to the train station before everyone leaves without me and I have a repeat of the terrible adventure in Ireland when I missed the departure of the tour group. Goodbye for now! See you (virtually at least) in a week!!
N.B. Due to the lack of communication in the coming week, I’ve added several posts to the blog today to give my avid readers plenty of material to hold you over while I sunbathe on the Black Sea. Look forward to next week when tales of the seaside holiday will be posted!
Upon returning from the Black Sea, I’ll have one last week to finish sightseeing around Kharkov, taking all the pictures I didn’t get a chance to take earlier and saying goodbye to all the friends I made here during my short five-month respite from Western Europe. At which point I’ll take a midnight bus from Kharkov, on August 29th, to Kiev. I’ll have the morning to do very, Very last minute shopping in the quaint tourist district in the center of the capital city and then head back to the airport to catch an afternoon flight on August 30th bound for London via Prague. Around 5:30pm, I’ll arrive at London’s Gatwick airport – that is unless the employees there decide to strike, in which case I’ll probably enjoy the lovely airport lounge in Prague for a good few hours or days.
From there I will move to Abingdon, a picturesque and charming little town a few miles south of Oxford. After that… we’ll I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do except that I will enjoy hopefully a bug-free existence and find some work to pay my rapidly accruing bills. As well as preparing to take part, if accepted, in a work exchange program in Moscow next fall. (More on that crazy adventure to come.) For now I have to get to the train station before everyone leaves without me and I have a repeat of the terrible adventure in Ireland when I missed the departure of the tour group. Goodbye for now! See you (virtually at least) in a week!!
N.B. Due to the lack of communication in the coming week, I’ve added several posts to the blog today to give my avid readers plenty of material to hold you over while I sunbathe on the Black Sea. Look forward to next week when tales of the seaside holiday will be posted!
Chapter 20 – Дай Бог Здорова!
Sitting alone on a park bench outside the usual internet café in Shevchenko Park drinking a beer, eating a hot sandwich and enjoying the dusk, I contemplate life in Ukraine, England and in general. Old ladies and men hover around the young and cheerful loiterers, such as myself, in expectation of something. Perhaps money, perhaps a chance to dole out wisdom gathered through a tough life of stable Soviet times and the transition to an unstable ‘democracy’ to this new generation of materialists.
I finish the now cold ham and cheese sandwich and down the last drop of Obolon Sobornaya. Suddenly I see an old woman rushing towards me, and I understand what it is she wants, after months of observation of this unique and intriguing culture. The beer bottle. She wants neither money, nor pity, nor to give advice. She simply wants the nice green glass that could mean an added few copecks to her measly pension. As I hand over the bottle she says in a weak and hoarse voice, “Дай Бог Здорова!” “God give you health!”. I smile and head into the cafй to check what’s new in the cyber world of electronic mail, pondering whether it is ironic or not that she asked God to give me health after I effectively killed dozens of brain cells and put my liver to hard work with the 5.4% brew. Ironic I decide, but interesting.
I finish the now cold ham and cheese sandwich and down the last drop of Obolon Sobornaya. Suddenly I see an old woman rushing towards me, and I understand what it is she wants, after months of observation of this unique and intriguing culture. The beer bottle. She wants neither money, nor pity, nor to give advice. She simply wants the nice green glass that could mean an added few copecks to her measly pension. As I hand over the bottle she says in a weak and hoarse voice, “Дай Бог Здорова!” “God give you health!”. I smile and head into the cafй to check what’s new in the cyber world of electronic mail, pondering whether it is ironic or not that she asked God to give me health after I effectively killed dozens of brain cells and put my liver to hard work with the 5.4% brew. Ironic I decide, but interesting.
Chapter 19 – Liberation Day, 23 August
After months of depravation, oppression and overall depression, at last the day long awaited for had come. The German army is pushed out by brave Soviet men and women, leaving Kharkov to its inhabitants again to begin rebuilding their homes and lives. A day that will forever be remembered, Liberation Day, 23 August 194…?
Well I’m not entirely sure. I wasn’t here then or even born for that matter. But I do know that it is a very important date, even more so than modern Ukrainian Independence Day which follows immediately after on the 24th of August. Also I know there is a statue to commemorate this great day. I know this because now I live opposite of that giant of Soviet art.
That’s right folks… I moved… again. The 1st of July brought not only the insane heat we’ve been experiencing but also it brought Sasha to my flat to help transport my overabundant belongings from Cold Mountain to 23 August. I now live with one Ukrainian girl who is a student at my school. We share a two bedroom, first floor flat, without balcony but with an automatic boiler. Yeah!! No more scary lighting of ancient gas boilers! Also we have fairly consistent running water, which is a feature I lacked in the very first flat I lived in. She has a television with cable, including the beloved BBC World Edition news and she lets me watch it whenever (unlike scary Babushka who used to lock the door thus prevented my acquisition of news from the outside world).
That’s the positive features. The negatives: More bugs (cockroaches, spiders and freaky little refrigerator bugs) than I’ve EVER seen in a single household I’ve lived in, including a terrifying mutated 4-legged giant spider who decided to move into my bathtub for a while. Eventually I explained that the flat was for humans only and placing him on a newspaper, I released him to the wild again (put him outside my flat where insects belong!). Another downside is the bed, I’ve traded sleeping on the living room couch – which was surprisingly comfortable – for a super old and thus indented twin size bed. That’s okay I suppose, they have chiropractors in England.
Overall it’s a good situation, the bathroom and kitchen have been retiled, although there is no bathroom sink (just the pipes protruding from the wall where one would go) and so brushing my teeth in the bathtub is the norm. For the past few weeks my roomie has been in the Crimea, so I’ve had the place to myself for a while. It’s also right across the street from a Huge and Expensive supermarket as well as an extensive and cheap outdoor market (where I now normally shop). This flat is closer to the city center and thus work, so I can sleep in even later and still get to work relatively on time.
It was hard moving again and for a while I doubted my choice, but it has been a good experience learning about another part of the city and I have finally been able to keep up with world events such as the bombing in London, the IRA declaration of cessation of fighting and the Discovery success. Now as my time rolls to an end here (see post Long Overdue Update) I will say goodbye to all my flats and hope to move to an apartment where all things will be in one place (i.e. a bathroom sink IN the bathroom, a bed that doesn’t roll me into a ball shape, a boiler that needs no help to start itself and most important – NO MORE BUGS!!) Well, a girl can dream, can’t she?
Well I’m not entirely sure. I wasn’t here then or even born for that matter. But I do know that it is a very important date, even more so than modern Ukrainian Independence Day which follows immediately after on the 24th of August. Also I know there is a statue to commemorate this great day. I know this because now I live opposite of that giant of Soviet art.
That’s right folks… I moved… again. The 1st of July brought not only the insane heat we’ve been experiencing but also it brought Sasha to my flat to help transport my overabundant belongings from Cold Mountain to 23 August. I now live with one Ukrainian girl who is a student at my school. We share a two bedroom, first floor flat, without balcony but with an automatic boiler. Yeah!! No more scary lighting of ancient gas boilers! Also we have fairly consistent running water, which is a feature I lacked in the very first flat I lived in. She has a television with cable, including the beloved BBC World Edition news and she lets me watch it whenever (unlike scary Babushka who used to lock the door thus prevented my acquisition of news from the outside world).
That’s the positive features. The negatives: More bugs (cockroaches, spiders and freaky little refrigerator bugs) than I’ve EVER seen in a single household I’ve lived in, including a terrifying mutated 4-legged giant spider who decided to move into my bathtub for a while. Eventually I explained that the flat was for humans only and placing him on a newspaper, I released him to the wild again (put him outside my flat where insects belong!). Another downside is the bed, I’ve traded sleeping on the living room couch – which was surprisingly comfortable – for a super old and thus indented twin size bed. That’s okay I suppose, they have chiropractors in England.
Overall it’s a good situation, the bathroom and kitchen have been retiled, although there is no bathroom sink (just the pipes protruding from the wall where one would go) and so brushing my teeth in the bathtub is the norm. For the past few weeks my roomie has been in the Crimea, so I’ve had the place to myself for a while. It’s also right across the street from a Huge and Expensive supermarket as well as an extensive and cheap outdoor market (where I now normally shop). This flat is closer to the city center and thus work, so I can sleep in even later and still get to work relatively on time.
It was hard moving again and for a while I doubted my choice, but it has been a good experience learning about another part of the city and I have finally been able to keep up with world events such as the bombing in London, the IRA declaration of cessation of fighting and the Discovery success. Now as my time rolls to an end here (see post Long Overdue Update) I will say goodbye to all my flats and hope to move to an apartment where all things will be in one place (i.e. a bathroom sink IN the bathroom, a bed that doesn’t roll me into a ball shape, a boiler that needs no help to start itself and most important – NO MORE BUGS!!) Well, a girl can dream, can’t she?
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Chapter 18 – Staryi Saltov
Alexander – Александр – Alex – Саша (Sasha)
In Russian the diminutive for Alexander is Sasha, like in English it can refer to a person of female of male gender. In this case it is a male student of mine named Sasha. You may wonder why I chose to give you the etymology of the name instead of just telling you the story of Staryi Saltov, but you see it’s all about setting the mood… drawing you into this rather uneventful story… did it work? Well hopefully if you’re still reading thus far.
About two months ago I met Sasha when I visited his class (part of my role here as ‘native speaker’ is to visit other teachers’ classes and be an audio aid). After the class he and I started talking about international travel, student organizations, etc., exchanging phone numbers in the process. A few weeks later we met again randomly in the main park area behind Lenin (his statue that is). We spent about four hours talking and translating a Russian song into English. After that we started to met more frequently, he came over to my money-pit flat (the second flat I lived in, that is) and worked on my computer, since he’s a programmer here and knows his stuff. He also gave me some movies – American films dubbed, Dubbed! in Russian. I Hate dubbing but Russians Hate subtitles and therefore all movies are, sometimes half-assedly, dubbed into their preferred language.
Moving on, about a month later Sasha invited me to his birthday party at a lakeside resort called – dan da DA! – Staryi Saltov. Very popular with summer vacationers. I was one of a dozen privileged friends to make the hour long trek outside of Kharkov to a reserved old-school wooden cabin. There was my Sasha and his girlfriend Ira, his best friend, Sasha and girlfriend Katya, then another Sasha and his girlfriend Yulia and then Kostya and Natasha (can you tell the popular name here?!).
As the boys started gathering wood and setting up for the BBQ, Katya and I laid on the shore for a while soaking up the sun. The only problem with this idyllic scene is the fact that I have no shorts at all and was wearing long black pants on June 23rd in Ukriane (i.e. HOT). After a while however we headed back to the cabin and as everyone was gathering we ate, drank (yes, vodka was involved again) and were all very merry. The lingua franca was Russian, except for a few occasions when Sasha or some other of his friends wanted to practice their English and of course when Britney Spears was blasting on the stereo!
When the food was mostly finished and the drinks were running low the dancing started. I cannot lie, I took part in all aspects of Slavic birthday traditions from the insane number of vodka toasts (to your birthday, to life, to friendship, to drinking, to anything-so-long-as-we-have-booze!!) to the philosophical chats (conducted in Russian which raised my confidence in my language ability) to the crazy karaoke (which apparently is Very popular here) and the makeshift club dance party.
It was a damn good time until about 2am when my stomach, liver and kidneys all went on strike to protest my abuse of them. I couldn’t sleep (rather, I couldn’t lie down as the room would spin and stomach churn in a most horrible foreshadow of things to come … up that is). After drinking about a litre and a half by myself of water (which the boys pulled from a nearby spring) and about a half dozen trips to the loo (the bushes behind the cabin) I was eventually able to lay down without too much trouble. The next day came late and I felt like shit, understandably.
The one tradition which I tried and refused to finish was the Ukrainian Hangover Cure – after waking up, drink another beer in the morning and the pain and anguish will disappear. Yeah, right! I had about a sip of the beer Sasha opened for me and decided that was one custom I couldn’t hack. So it was back to the good old water and time prescription for me.
That day was spent recovering, sitting on the shore and dipping toes into the no-so-clean water, eating and chatting with some more friends who finally came by bus. We played some fun games, this time in English as the newcomer friends all spoke it proficiently. Also I went on my first catamaran ride on the lake! (Pictures to come, I Promise!!) It was fun except that my stomach was still teaching me a lesson by its protest and bobbing up and down on a lake wasn’t the best way to ingratiate myself to my knackered organ. Eventually the scary landlady pushed us off after yelling at us about the trash and state of the cabin (which was exactly the way we found it…) we left for the city once again.
This time the one guy with a car had left earlier in the day and the rest of us, six altogether, had to hitchhike our way home. I left that to Sasha as he negotiated a price with a random car that stopped by the road. (I love how you can get anything in this country if you just have money. Complete strangers will take you near to where you want for just about 20 gryvnia… aahhhh capitalism at its best.) Arriving back near the metro we finally parted and went our separate ways, Sasha and Ira off together and I to my home to rest for the remainder of the day and pray for a quick recovery, or if not quick at least full recovery. And yes, I did recover and haven’t touch vodka since… well maybe that’s not entirely the truth… but that’s another story for another time… stay tuned!
In Russian the diminutive for Alexander is Sasha, like in English it can refer to a person of female of male gender. In this case it is a male student of mine named Sasha. You may wonder why I chose to give you the etymology of the name instead of just telling you the story of Staryi Saltov, but you see it’s all about setting the mood… drawing you into this rather uneventful story… did it work? Well hopefully if you’re still reading thus far.
About two months ago I met Sasha when I visited his class (part of my role here as ‘native speaker’ is to visit other teachers’ classes and be an audio aid). After the class he and I started talking about international travel, student organizations, etc., exchanging phone numbers in the process. A few weeks later we met again randomly in the main park area behind Lenin (his statue that is). We spent about four hours talking and translating a Russian song into English. After that we started to met more frequently, he came over to my money-pit flat (the second flat I lived in, that is) and worked on my computer, since he’s a programmer here and knows his stuff. He also gave me some movies – American films dubbed, Dubbed! in Russian. I Hate dubbing but Russians Hate subtitles and therefore all movies are, sometimes half-assedly, dubbed into their preferred language.
Moving on, about a month later Sasha invited me to his birthday party at a lakeside resort called – dan da DA! – Staryi Saltov. Very popular with summer vacationers. I was one of a dozen privileged friends to make the hour long trek outside of Kharkov to a reserved old-school wooden cabin. There was my Sasha and his girlfriend Ira, his best friend, Sasha and girlfriend Katya, then another Sasha and his girlfriend Yulia and then Kostya and Natasha (can you tell the popular name here?!).
As the boys started gathering wood and setting up for the BBQ, Katya and I laid on the shore for a while soaking up the sun. The only problem with this idyllic scene is the fact that I have no shorts at all and was wearing long black pants on June 23rd in Ukriane (i.e. HOT). After a while however we headed back to the cabin and as everyone was gathering we ate, drank (yes, vodka was involved again) and were all very merry. The lingua franca was Russian, except for a few occasions when Sasha or some other of his friends wanted to practice their English and of course when Britney Spears was blasting on the stereo!
When the food was mostly finished and the drinks were running low the dancing started. I cannot lie, I took part in all aspects of Slavic birthday traditions from the insane number of vodka toasts (to your birthday, to life, to friendship, to drinking, to anything-so-long-as-we-have-booze!!) to the philosophical chats (conducted in Russian which raised my confidence in my language ability) to the crazy karaoke (which apparently is Very popular here) and the makeshift club dance party.
It was a damn good time until about 2am when my stomach, liver and kidneys all went on strike to protest my abuse of them. I couldn’t sleep (rather, I couldn’t lie down as the room would spin and stomach churn in a most horrible foreshadow of things to come … up that is). After drinking about a litre and a half by myself of water (which the boys pulled from a nearby spring) and about a half dozen trips to the loo (the bushes behind the cabin) I was eventually able to lay down without too much trouble. The next day came late and I felt like shit, understandably.
The one tradition which I tried and refused to finish was the Ukrainian Hangover Cure – after waking up, drink another beer in the morning and the pain and anguish will disappear. Yeah, right! I had about a sip of the beer Sasha opened for me and decided that was one custom I couldn’t hack. So it was back to the good old water and time prescription for me.
That day was spent recovering, sitting on the shore and dipping toes into the no-so-clean water, eating and chatting with some more friends who finally came by bus. We played some fun games, this time in English as the newcomer friends all spoke it proficiently. Also I went on my first catamaran ride on the lake! (Pictures to come, I Promise!!) It was fun except that my stomach was still teaching me a lesson by its protest and bobbing up and down on a lake wasn’t the best way to ingratiate myself to my knackered organ. Eventually the scary landlady pushed us off after yelling at us about the trash and state of the cabin (which was exactly the way we found it…) we left for the city once again.
This time the one guy with a car had left earlier in the day and the rest of us, six altogether, had to hitchhike our way home. I left that to Sasha as he negotiated a price with a random car that stopped by the road. (I love how you can get anything in this country if you just have money. Complete strangers will take you near to where you want for just about 20 gryvnia… aahhhh capitalism at its best.) Arriving back near the metro we finally parted and went our separate ways, Sasha and Ira off together and I to my home to rest for the remainder of the day and pray for a quick recovery, or if not quick at least full recovery. And yes, I did recover and haven’t touch vodka since… well maybe that’s not entirely the truth… but that’s another story for another time… stay tuned!
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Chapter 17 – Trip to the Zoo
A few weeks ago now (sorry for the extreme delay) a student and I went to Kharkov zoo together. Ostensibly, for me to give him information on America as he was planning to go and work there for a while in July or August, as well as also to show me the zoo – one of the main attractions here. First however we had lunch at a nice little pizzeria in the park and chatted about US and every day life there. However since I’ve been away for so long, it was quite a task trying to remember what every day life is like there, but it was a good exercise for me so as to not forget completely. After gorging on some delicious pizzas we went to the zoo – about a 5 minute walk away from Freedom Square.
Excitement mounted as he paid for the tickets (a few gryvnia) and we crossed over the threshold. We enter and I look around with interested, foreign eyes. The zoo is much smaller than it’s counterpart in Denver. (By the way, the US sister city of Kharkov is actually Cincinnati.) We make our way past food stalls in the middle of the path and turn right to find the bears.
Recently renovated, the enclosure for the black, brown and polar bears (oh my!) still seemed to my western trained eyes as small and sad. The area was about half the size of that from the Denver zoo and was shallowly filled with really nasty green water for the black and brown bears and slightly less green for the polar bears.
We then went on to visit the snake and other creepy crawly things room, which was housed in what seemed an old bomb shelter – dark, deep beneath the earth with not much ventilation. I decided that if the children I saw here weren’t scared and running out of the building screaming, then I should try to be tough and emulate them. I saw some pretty amazing turtles, though again in cramped quarters. Luckily there were no spiders in this part so all was well unless one of the snakes decided to make a run of it and escape, which none of them did. Moving on we went to see the bird keeps.
There were the usual parrots of all color and size, then some owls and of course… chickens?! Yep, in case you’ve never seen a chicken on a farm you can come to the Kharkov zoo. Next to the chicken coops were the cages for the foxes. This seemed like a bad idea to me, like have a cat hospital next to a Chinese restaurant but hey, maybe it works for Ukrainians. Saw some foxes in a bit of a sorry state and smelling foully so we quickly moved on to the big players – tigers and lions!
Well, I won’t go through each and every animal we saw. Basically there were a lot of typical zoo animals like elephants and tigers, as well as some not so typical animals like wolves, Mongolian horses and a strange little black RUOS’ (Rodents Of Unusual Size). After seeing most all of the animals we headed towards the exit discussing the sad state of their habitats and life philosophies more generally. At the exit we parted company. Now I may cross of the zoo from my list of “things to see in Kharkov” list – one down, a hundred more to go!
Excitement mounted as he paid for the tickets (a few gryvnia) and we crossed over the threshold. We enter and I look around with interested, foreign eyes. The zoo is much smaller than it’s counterpart in Denver. (By the way, the US sister city of Kharkov is actually Cincinnati.) We make our way past food stalls in the middle of the path and turn right to find the bears.
Recently renovated, the enclosure for the black, brown and polar bears (oh my!) still seemed to my western trained eyes as small and sad. The area was about half the size of that from the Denver zoo and was shallowly filled with really nasty green water for the black and brown bears and slightly less green for the polar bears.
We then went on to visit the snake and other creepy crawly things room, which was housed in what seemed an old bomb shelter – dark, deep beneath the earth with not much ventilation. I decided that if the children I saw here weren’t scared and running out of the building screaming, then I should try to be tough and emulate them. I saw some pretty amazing turtles, though again in cramped quarters. Luckily there were no spiders in this part so all was well unless one of the snakes decided to make a run of it and escape, which none of them did. Moving on we went to see the bird keeps.
There were the usual parrots of all color and size, then some owls and of course… chickens?! Yep, in case you’ve never seen a chicken on a farm you can come to the Kharkov zoo. Next to the chicken coops were the cages for the foxes. This seemed like a bad idea to me, like have a cat hospital next to a Chinese restaurant but hey, maybe it works for Ukrainians. Saw some foxes in a bit of a sorry state and smelling foully so we quickly moved on to the big players – tigers and lions!
Well, I won’t go through each and every animal we saw. Basically there were a lot of typical zoo animals like elephants and tigers, as well as some not so typical animals like wolves, Mongolian horses and a strange little black RUOS’ (Rodents Of Unusual Size). After seeing most all of the animals we headed towards the exit discussing the sad state of their habitats and life philosophies more generally. At the exit we parted company. Now I may cross of the zoo from my list of “things to see in Kharkov” list – one down, a hundred more to go!
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