We are no great authors only simple students who wanted to fight against stereotypes of Ukraina, the green fields of Europe. In the following you will find our experiences with Kiev and Lemberg, our trip to a different world.

Greetings from James Bond

Let us start at the border - like perfect globetrotters. First impression – that will be a nice old style train. We felt a spirit of history. We were looking for an adventure. Although we were a little bit tired we were in a good mood, ready for a challenge. And the challenge began with the entrance of the train. We were sure that in a minute this lady (the conductor) would ask us to say a poem about Matecka Russia and the hero Lenin - of course in her language. Maybe a few words about her – we are sure that you, our reader, have seen a film with James Bond in Russia Ltelinia…. But of course that was no film; it was reality. So the trip, our real film, began with 55 degrees. At least 55 degrees and no possibilty to open a window. We were sure that only few persons had the pleasure to enjoy good old Russian sauna.

The first steps in Kiev

The first impression of the inhabitants was that they are really friendly and open but… there was no possibility to understand them. Kiev welcomed us with a nice weather and beautiful railway station built in old Russian style – we were delighted and looked for discovering this old capital of Kievska Rus. The city is situated on hills with a long and impressive history. More than 3 millon people live in Kiev. Quick look during our trip to our hotel: McDonald, Raiffeisen, Ernest and Young, CocaCola - all seemed to be like in typical metropolis in period of globalisation. Big companies are here so we started to worry about us – no adventures any more!!! This is our world. We thought that in a minute we would be in our nice typical 3 stars hotel in the centre of the town and we would eat continental breakfast and maybe someone would explain us how to say bottoms up in Ukrainian and that will be a lesson of their culture.

The real story

So let us start the real Ukrainian story with a short description of our hotel. It is situated in the middle of nowhere with a temporary swimming pool in the bathroom. After three showers the floor is under water and you can only hope to swim back to your room. The toilet works only a few times a day. The ceivel is also not really save. In the room of our colleges there was after two day no ceivel anymore.

In the middle of nowhere you need a bus if you want to get some impressions of Kiev. It is really a great town. But our nice excursion was stopped soon, because suddenly the bus broke down. A service car was ordered. After a few minutes the so called service car arrived. It was a 3,5 ton cement-lorry.
On the agenda for the next two days we had some discussion groups and workshops about “how to be young in Europe”, a typical intercultural learning programme. The workshops were okay, although most of the trainers were not prepared and sometimes unable to lead a group. But let us not talk about the workshops and discussion groups. Let´s talk about a real night in Kiev.

Lost in Kiev

If the bus of your group leaves you in Kiev for a night without a serious reason you shouldn´t be nervous. That might be the best what could happen to you. Especially if there are political tensions at that moment in this country. You can really feel the spirit of the revolution. It was amazing.

If you want to understand a culture you have to get in touch with inhabitants, and… of course to drink with them. We will remember this city as a city of roses because not even the girls are looking like roses, but you can enter a hotel in a very drunken style and leave your roses and say, please take care about this, we maybe will come back tomorrow? And of course you get them back the next day!

At this point we have to stress that English is not a good language in Ukraine, because nearly nobody will be able to understand you. That´s a problem if you want to speak about the political situation.

You can nearly observe the birth of democracy in Kiev. People on the streets protesting, promoting and fully identify with a party they really believe in. For them politicians and policy are not an unimportant thing. They fully understand that in these days the future of their children is decided. We have seen young and older, a lot of poor and some middle classes on the streets with the same goals. They were asking us if they are a European country. Naturally we said to them that for sure Asia is not here.

Sitting in the centre of independent place and drinking with demonstrators could be dangerous but if you do it during a night you would learn more about this country.
The way how they think, which dreams they have and which aims. You will not find it in any book and you won’t understand it. You have to feel it. But therefore you have to drink some beer and lots of vodka. Vodka is connecting people.

The taxi

Although it is impolite to reject an invitation for drinking some vodka in a flat at 4 a.m. in the morning we preferred to take a taxi to our hotel. The young inhabitants asked us if we want a save or a cheap taxi. Of course a save taxi, we said. There seemed to be some differences between these two options!! So we took the save toyota. But getting home was a real adventure. At first, there was no fuel anymore. With great luck we rolled to a gas station. Anything seemed to be okay again. But then the driver changed a little bit his way, stopped and went into a bar. After 15 minutes he came back with cigarettes and tried to start the taxi. No chance. No battery, no possibility to start the engine. Of course we had luck again. We pushed the taxi a little bit and we were again on the way back to our hotel. The only problem was that the driver had no map. Okay, we do not tell you the story how he stopped the other cars asking them for the right way. He brought us to several hotels. And one of these was ours. Of course we needed a bill of our taxi travel. That is a problem in this country. Because you normally do not get any bill. But the advantage is, if you get one you can choose the amount of money which is confirmed on the bill. After climbing the fences we were back in our hotel. Our hotel closed the gates to come inside! We drank some more shots of vodka with the Italians and some Polish guys inside the hotel.

The gap

The gap between rich and poor is enormous in this country. Of course Kiev is the centre of wealth of the country even in Kiev the differences are huge. It is also expensive to study in this country. You can study for free, but only if you have very, very good marks. Otherwise you have to pay fees. Depending on the level of the university it is nearly impossible for ordinary people from a small village from the countryside.
At the first glance you see the different kinds of cars and houses. After you have seen this you know, that there are big differences among the country.

Incomprehensible for us is the amount of time of waiting for things. There is always a delay. We have heared this phrase not only one time: In Austria we are used to say, we meet at 8 o´clock. That´s not so easy in Ukraine. We will meet, but maybe later.

Lemberg

It was not possible to order a train ticket back in Austria. So we had to buy a ticket in Kiev. But although six days before departure, there was no train for us anymore leaving this country. Maybe later was the answer. So we tried to rent a bus. This is not so easy if you do not speak the language. But of course, we are always the lucky ones. On the way back we had one time real luck. A herd of cattles run to the highway. And thats dangerous if you drive 100 km/h!

Near the border there is a great town. Lemberg. At least in former days it was a great town. In former days it belonged to Poland - similar to Southern Tyrol belonged to Austria once. Lemberg is really a great town. But there is no money to repair anything. You can watch the decline of a great cultural town. A sorry sight!



The border

There would be great tourist options. But in the reason of the border conditions it is really not easy for Polish people to visit this town. No-one knows how long you have to wait at the border. We waited six hours. That´s normal. It is also possible that you wait longer at the border. The French Delegations took the departure three hours. Even the border is an adventure. Not only because of smuggling things. You should have money with you at the border because you can buy everything at the border, and of course you have time!

It is an adventure to visit Kiev!!!

Author:
Pawel Dowgier
Sebastian Hanusiak
Martin Aschauer