Mural: (The snake represents Russia)
Posted on 11/28/2018 8:40:32 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
I came to Kyiv from Italy to visit some friends living here last summer. My intention was to spend a few days in the city, and then go on a long trip back to Rome, through Eastern Europe, via trains and buses. During those two weeks, I never left a two-mile radius in the old city.
While Rome and Italy felt stale, stuck in their ways, overly touristic, dying on the vine, and emotionally unstable, Kyiv showed signs of hope, strength and newness—like a strong flower poking through the hard dirt. There was a feeling of optimism in the youth—passionate energy firing into new restaurant concepts, into the coffees shops, into the craftspeople making everything from beautiful furniture to quality textiles. I felt Kyiv in the massive art installations in old buildings all over the city. I felt it in the sounds of a violin echoing off the concrete walls in the underground passageways...
I saw layers of stories beneath the rocks—of war, of blood, of euphoria, of joy, of architecture, of breakups, of love—each force never lasting long enough to create a one-dimensional identity, but long enough to make the city into what it is today.
...My good friend from San Francisco lives here. He hired six developers to help create his startup; there is no way he could have afforded to bootstrap this at home. Two other friends from San Francisco set up their sales and development team here because the workforce is good and the costs are low.
(Excerpt) Read more at petersantenello.com ...
Mural: (The snake represents Russia)
That second image reminds me of an alchemy “formula”.
Also lots less poo on the streets, less face hardware and fewer stupid tattoos, and they probably don’t hate Los Angeles with nearly the same other-worldly zeal as San Franciscans.
People from Kiev might also tortue you less about HOW LONG they have lived in Kiev.
I spent a little time in Kiev and concur with this snippet of observation.
After 70 years of communism, it is hardly prosperous, but well off compared to most of the rest of Ukraine.
The residents think of themselves as European rather than “Russian” and have little in common with the more “Russian” eastern part of Ukraine.
The difference in vibe between Kiev and Donetsk is extreme.
Jeez no comments about the women.
I’ve been to Kiev twice in the last 5 years. The city center was quite nice (at least downtown) the suburbs were soviet/chinese communist cement-block dirty and UGLY.
People were very fashionable and conscious of their image. People were generally polite if asked, but were definitely cold. Typical of post Marxist societies.
Young women of Kiev were all tall, thin, fashionable, well put-together, elegant and very beautiful. They really take care of themselves. Old women were all short, fat, hunched babushkas. I tried to figure out when and how the former became the latter, but wasn't there long enough to witness the metamorphosis.
Have you been to Lviv? My ancestors came from near there.
She grew up in a two bedroom apartment with 6 family members. Nobody in her family had ever owned a car and she had never driven one.
No. Only Kiev and some surrounding countryside (where we had some business). I wasn't in Ukraine long enough to "figure it out." And I didn't speak the language. People I met were all very smart, civilized and conscientious. The land was open, rich and seemingly very productive. There seemed to be a lot of social order - all the ingredients for a highly organized, wealthy and productive country.
Yet its politics, corruption and economy was a mess. So there was a vast disconnect in my mind. I can only imagine what Ukraine would now be if it never had experienced Communism, Stalin and WWII.
I'm in Kyiv now, my fifth time here this year, with yet one more trip to come.
One of lifes great pleasures is in late spring when the chestnut trees are in bloom along Kreschatik street is to sit at an open air cafe and just savor the flavor of old Kiev
It's Lwów!!!! ;)
Typical of Slavic societies, Poles tend to be very cold towards people they don't know, but once they get to know you they open up. But you don't get the fake smile thing from them.
A bunch of different spellings for the same place name.
I think that’s the Polish spelling. If the border were xstill the pre 1939 border, the region would be a part of Poland now. That was part of the Soviet land grab after WWII.
And Breslau and Danzig would still be a part of Germany.
The fact that he can’t spell Kiev right was all I needed to move on to other stories.
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