what is better? chrome or ... fur.

on krishatik, some of the street entertainers are full bands like this metal band. btw the metal is good here.

my maserati does 185.

corner kick

soccer action

inside olympic national stadium

fire! no really what happen is someone threw a flare on the running track around the field, then started to get out of control, so the cops smoked them out.

what do you get when you mix a bunch on shirtless guys and riot police?

shekhar fans

gena, ula, lyala, sasha, and some of the crowd coming in to the game

it says republic stadium. the stadium holds 99,000 people, the third largest in europe. i was built for the 1980 moscow olympics.

since i last talk to you i pretty much have just been settling in. nothing really exciting has happened that i can remember. wake up, get on the internet, study russian, go downtown(there is always something to-do, maybe just not picture worthy). but this weekend was my birthday weekend and it was also kiev day. kiev is a little over 1500 years old. it is the oldest slavic city and one of the oldest in europe. so they have a good reason to have a street festival and fireworks. they seem to have a reason every weekend really. on kiev day they always have the final game for the cup of ukraine. the cup of ukraine is a tournament style bracket that invites all teams in ukraine, no matter what level, to play in. so the final was shakhtar vs. kiev dynamo, naturally the two top teams in ukraine. this happens also to be a very political game because dynamo, the team i am trying to follow, has a fan base around yushenko, the current president brought to power from the orange (peaceful)revolution. shakhtar, based out of donetsk a mining town, has a fan and administration base around yanakovich, the ousted president. but not much happened between the fans that i saw. there were plenty of hooligans though. dynamo won 1-0! after the game, we went down to krishatik to the street festival. here are some pictures from both.

i really enjoyed yalls comments. please continue to comment so i do feel like i am talking to myself.

the owl attacks!!!!!

sasha

view of our building over the dniper river. see those two identical buildings with the crane over them? that's our next door neighbors that wake us up every morning.

view of many different lilacs over a church

vasilyok

bogdana hmelnitskogo lilac

actually it was very beautiful and smelled great. we went with our good friend sasha, which is helping us by showing us around the city. there were lots of lilacs. they have 21 out of 28 total species of lilacs growing there. and then an owl attacked lyala! after that we sat for a long time and had some beer. it is strange being in a place where people drink more beer than me. it's just these beer tents they keep calling me. i think i hear one now. enjoy these pictures while i answer the call.

ghetto ukrainian flowers

after that we went to the botanical gardens here. it was built by the soviets and has been kept up since. we saw all kind of ukrainian flowers like this one.

ukrainian rockettes

beer tents on krishatik

krishatik street

pphhhhhff

today was seemed to be a busy day. well there was a lot of walking involved for my southern american ass. first we went downtown to get lyala’s transit visa through romania aka dracula land wwaahahaaahaa. actually we will be traveling through transylvania to get to bulgaria. krishatik street, the main street here, was closed to traffic and there was a big street party for this eurovision festival. supposedly it is like the american idol of europe (barf). anyways. there were some traditional dancers, which was kinda cool for us tourist types. actually i am considered an ex-pat for actually living here whatever that means. here is a view of that downtown scene.

since then we have done some other stuff, but i forgot the card in my camera so i have no pictures. we went to a metal show of 8 bands for about $1.25. there were some really good bands but i got too drunk and forgot all their names. also we celebrated a friend’s birthday and went to his dacha (country house). we sat around and had vodka and k-bobs. tomorrow we should be getting our train tickets to bulgaria. this weekend is a big eurovision festival downtown, and we are going to check that out. i will definitely have pictures of that. we are also going to buy tickets this weekend for the ukrainian soccer championship between the kiev dinamo and the shahtyor miners. that should be a blast. until next time!!

i encourage people to put comments on the entries and photos. i would like to hear from you guys!!

lyala and meeshka enjoying the spring

cherry blossoms

the weather is a bit cold here, i would say around 15 or so. it is definitely jacket weather. but everything is in full bloom. here are some pictures at lyala’s mom’s house of cherry trees.

ukrainian cops enjoying the festival!

the vets and way over there, their wives

memorial for chernobl

check out this dude's hair!

stereotypical ukrainian guy

gypsies at a beer tent

chernigiv town square

soon after i arrived, lyala and i went to chernigiv, lyala’s hometown to pick up some of her stuff and spend the weekend with her family and friends. this was the same weekend as the V-day holiday, which is a big deal here seeing as wwii took place here. they had some bands, school projects, beer tents, etc.. these are pictures from that celebration.

my dom

i got to kiev-borispyl and didn’t have any problems with my luggage since there was none except for meeshka thankfully. they did deliver my luggage a couple of days later with everything in it. so i fell asleep since i hadn’t slept in two days. when i woke up my sleeping schedule was all messed up, i was waking up at 8am!!!!! here is a picture of my apartment building. i know it doesn’t look like much, it is the style of the 80s soviet construction.

i felt like i flew forever because i cannot sleep on planes. i think it is because i don’t have enough room. anyways i played around with the camera a bit as you can see in the picture below. it is an evil water droplet on the window looking at me at sunset.

icy sunset

goodbye charlotte

well everyone i am finally here and have my internet set up. this site is kinda strange with the pictures but i guess it will have to do for now. i am limited on the amount of traffic that i can use outside the country so i will be more conservative with the pictures than i planned. enough of the technical introduction.

on may 3rd i said my goodbyes and left for the airport. i had meeshka and a ton of luggage with me. i have to admit that i was a bit nervous. moving out of the little place that i have lived in my whole life. after the traditional sam adams at the airport bar before i leave, the plane leaves on time. goodbye charlotte!!!!