Category: travel

Ukrainian.

mike d. 4 Comments Features, travel

Let’s look at the Ukrainian language. I’ve learned a handful of words while here:

Dyakayoo – Thank you
Tak – Yes
Nee – No
Perushkey – tasty sweet bread with filling
Marushkah – a bus or shuttle that holds about 15-18 people
Borscht – a really great beet stew
Verenikey – a dumpling, usually sweet
Chi – tea
Smachno – It is delicious
Nahmyah – No one is here
Dva – two
Znovvum Rrrokum – Happy New Year!

The alphabet is pretty unusual. Unlike Chinese, where the characters are so unique from the English language that it’s impossible to relate to, the Ukrainians use Cryllic which has an alphabet that, at first glance, looks similar to English. Here are the cryllic letters along with the sounds for each letter bolded. There are 33 letters.

А-ah
Б-bat
Ð’-Vice
Г-hat
Ґ-goat
Д-Dan
Е-fell
Ñ”-yesterday
Ж-dodge
З-zebra
И-e(soft)
I-feet
Ñ—-yeast
Й-e(not soft)
К-cat
Λ-Lion
М-Mom
Н-New
О-home
П-prank
Р–rice
С-salt
Т-tent
У-scoot
Ф-foot
Ð¥-haunt
Ц-cats
Ч-chair
Ш-shout
Щ-freshcheese
Ь-silent
Ю-you
Я-ya

I don’t really know why there’s a letter that’s always silent, but I’m cool with it. Anyway, using the alphabet above the proper spelling of Altynivka is:

АΛТИНІВКА

And the spelling of Kiev is:

КиЇВ

Using this, it should really be pronounced Keeve instead of Key-ev.

Here’s a beautiful print I got in Kiev with the proper spelling of the city. I really love this print.

printua.PNG

Ukraine. Part 14.

mike d. 6 Comments travel

January 5th, 2009 – Day 8

This morning Jess and I got up at 4:30am and started our trip back to Kiev. We’ll spend most of today traveling. Tonight we stay with Slytvana. Tomorrow we’ll explore Kiev and then I depart on Tuesday.

—

The trip from Altynivka to Kozelets took forever. I have my big roller luggage and OH man was that a terrible idea. Dragging it through the snow has been torturous. The travel went like this. First we walked through the snow for about 30 minutes to get to the train station. There’s a 3-4 hour train ride from Altynivka’s train station into Kiev. Once in Kiev, we navigated the metro (not fun with a roller suitcase) and then walked for about 10 minutes to get to the marushka (bus). The bus ride is about 90 minutes or so. It dropped us in downtown Kozelets and then we had another 30 minute walk through the snow before reaching the house. Especially hilarious is that each transition requires about 50 stairs. And since Ukraine hasn’t discovered ramps yet, my roller suitcase was extra fun.

BUT! Now we’re here at Slytvana’s and Lord knows it smells good. I’m not sure what Slytvana is cooking for dinner but I’m certain it will be delicious. I think we’re just going to hang out here tonight, though I’m not certain. I wouldn’t be opposed to this idea, because lugging around this bag has left me rather sore. If Alicia and Dwane visit Jess I will have to tell them to bring backpacks.

So far for this whole visit I have spent 110 of the local hryvnia. That’s about eighteen US dollars. Tomorrow I’ll spend a lot more because we are going shopping in Kiev. Jess guesses that the local non-city worker earns about 1000 hryvnia a month. That equates to just under two thousand USD a year.

—

The food was totally good. We started with a green borscht. It had some greens, onions, potatoes, egg, and broth in it. That was followed with a rice dish that tasted a lot like the filling in those stuffed cabbage that I love. Then we had tea and chocolates. That was lunch. Dinner was a crazy crepe like something that was served with a chocolate sauce. Then we had pizza which was far far better than any pizza I’ve ever made. The pizza was topped with various kielbasas and vegetables. Finally more tea and compote. What a feast!

Check out the Feature today. It talks a bit about the Ukrainian language.

Stupidest thing ever.

mike d. 3 Comments A Day In The Life..., travel, Work

We’ll take a short break from Ukraine so I can tell you a story of rental cars.

Right now (surprise surprise) I’m in Ohio for work. I had to extend my stay a few days and decided to drop the car off at a different location. I called up my travel agent and they said no problem. Except for the car.

If I were to drop the car off at a new location, Budget rent-a-car would bump up my required payment for every day of my trip. So instead of paying 42 dollars a night for five nights, I’d be paying 75 dollars a night for five nights. That is a mighty difference. If, however, I were to drop my car off and immediately pick up a new car specifying my new drop off location… I’d get the same rate as before.

I called up budget.

Mike D: “This just seems stupid. If I drive for an hour to Cleveland and drop off my car and pick up a new car I can take a better rate.”
Budget rep: “yeah, in fact you can just take that same car with you.”
Mike D: “WHAT!?!? you don’t even need this specific car in Ohio? What?! This is stupid. Couldn’t you just set up a new plan over the phone and not inconvenience me two plus hours of driving?”
Budget rep: “I’m sorry sir, but we have to close the transaction.”
Mike D: “can we not close the transaction over the phone?”
Budget rep: “I can’t do that.”

Dumb.

I thought I’d try and save the trip by also stopping by the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But they close at 5:30pm on Friday nights.

I dislike Ohio.

Ukraine. Part 13.

mike d. 2 Comments travel

January 4th, 2009 – Day 7

Today was a much needed day of relaxation. I spent much of the morning just hanging out and tending the fire to try and warm the house up. It’s now 60 degrees and much more comfortable. In about an hour, the English club will be getting together. I prepared some U.S. trivia questions and Jess has made sugar cookies and more ‘brownies.’ It should be fun, I really like spending time with the kids here, there’s never any pressure to drink and they speak a bit more English than the adults do. Afterwards we may, or may not head to Larissa’s for food. Tonight’s my final night in Altynivka.

—

The English party was totally fun. Six kids showed up: Vira, Julia, Julia, Nastia, another Vira, and a little dude who I hadn’t met before. They seemed to really enjoy the trivia and did a good job coming up with answers. After they answered my trivia, they asked Jess and I to answer Ukrainian trivia.

Here are a few of the questions they asked, how much do you know about Ukraine?

1. Who’s the president of Ukraine? (you might be able to get this, he was in the news something fierce a few years back)
2. What is the biggest holiday in Ukraine?
3. How many oblasts (like provinces) does Ukraine have?
4. What two seas does Ukraine touch?

That night we did indeed head back to Larissa’s for a meal. We had borscht and my favorite stuffed cabbage. Oh heavens… that was a freakishly delicious meal. After the meal, Vira gave me the two necklaces that she’d made for my sisters and Larissa gave me a traditional Ukrainian blanket, and a pillow case that was embroidered by her mother. It’s beautiful. I was really touched, what a fantastically kind family they are.

Here’s the pillow case with embroidery.

embroidery2ua.PNG

I bet you wish you had an… EXTREME EMBROIDERY CLOSE UP!

OH MAN! HERE YOU GO!

embroideryua.PNG

Also, click more for the answers to the questions
Read more