70 Years of Liberation! what a Great Trip

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

My wife only misses family and friends, but she just told me the other day that she loves Texas right out of the blue. So I doubt she will want to stay long in Ukraine when she goes for a visit.

I agree with Alla about Matushkas. In the summer everyone looks miserable and probably is. Clothes dryers are rare, but I rent an apartment that has one. The broken sidewalks and streets definitely add character and I agree about liability lawyers. In Ukraine, you do not get paid for being stupid or obtuse and that is one of its greatest tributes. And in the courts, at least you know what justice you can get when you pay for it.

I recently read about a stiletto race held in Kyiv. The winner won a car! I can just picture it after seeing countless women skillfully walking the Kharkiv streets in stilettos.

Your wife is beautiful! Aren't you glad you do not have to use cartoon characters or photos of movie stars for your avatar?

I do not think you could pry Alla out of Vermont, and she starts whining about 2 weeks after arriving in Ukraine. She still loves a lot of things about Ukraine...cheap shoe repiar, knife sharpening, cheap medicinal products theatre and opera, speaking her natuve language everywhere! I do no tthink you will ever replace it in her heart. At first she was not so thrilled with the USA or Vermont (an "improved village") but I think the automobile makes all the difference. After learning to drive and being comfortable driving, she can be in downtown Montreal in an hour and and have all the "city" she wants and escape back to quiet Vermont and have no lines at the bank, grocery store, little traffic, etc. We can be in Boston in 3 hours, with cheap JetBlue sale fares we can be in Manhattan before the stores open.

Once they adjust to life and the differences, they seem to like it. we have kept a lot of the traditional Ukrainian things...food, holidays, etc., removing shoes. (any holiday that produces gifts is worth keeping and/or adopting) I think I look forward to going to Ukraine more than she does now.

Her review is..."It is not a fairy tale, but the pluses are more than the minuses" I think she likes it here even a little better than that.

[Tanya and Barry 59]

Your wife is beautiful! Aren't you glad you do not have to use cartoon characters or photos of movie stars for your avatar?

I do not think you could pry Alla out of Vermont, and she starts whining about 2 weeks after arriving in Ukraine. She still loves a lot of things about Ukraine...cheap shoe repiar, knife sharpening, cheap medicinal products theatre and opera, speaking her natuve language everywhere! I do no tthink you will ever replace it in her heart. At first she was not so thrilled with the USA or Vermont (an "improved village") but I think the automobile makes all the difference. After learning to drive and being comfortable driving, she can be in downtown Montreal in an hour and and have all the "city" she wants and escape back to quiet Vermont and have no lines at the bank, grocery store, little traffic, etc. We can be in Boston in 3 hours, with cheap JetBlue sale fares we can be in Manhattan before the stores open.

Once they adjust to life and the differences, they seem to like it. we have kept a lot of the traditional Ukrainian things...food, holidays, etc., removing shoes. (any holiday that produces gifts is worth keeping and/or adopting) I think I look forward to going to Ukraine more than she does now.

Her review is..."It is not a fairy tale, but the pluses are more than the minuses" I think she likes it here even a little better than that.

Kherson had (has) a one man cobbler shop. Just one old guy with room enough for him and a little bench. Also, we went to a jewler to have my wife's engagement ring made smaller. Barely room for two or three people. Something out of "Fiddler on the Roof." :-)

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Kherson had (has) a one man cobbler shop. Just one old guy with room enough for him and a little bench. Also, we went to a jewler to have my wife's engagement ring made smaller. Barely room for two or three people. Something out of "Fiddler on the Roof." :-)

Always amazes me, especially the little shops in the underground areas going to the subway or pedestrian underpasses. Just enough room for a guy and his small workbench and a window you take your things to. Alla takes her shoes and purses and knives to a guy that fixes shoes, leather goods and sharpens knives. He makes the knives scary sharp...he does most of our kitchen knives for about $4 for the whole shootin' match. Alla wraps them in fabric and puts them in our checked bags and brings them to the guy to be "made normal" again.

Alla had her wedding dress made there for less than a dress you would buy in TJMaxx by a seamstress on Lenin Square in Donetsk. It was cheaper to have good clothes MADE than to buy them.

One of the really great thing sabout Ukraine is the fine handwork for low costs. Of course it means the pay scale is low, which is not such a good thing.

[tom&tanya 48]

Gary,

Sounds like you had a great time! I just got back from 16 days in Ukraine myself. Tanya and I had a great time also. We spent 7 days in Crimea. Swam in the Black Sea, visited Lividia Palace where Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met in WW2. Also visited Vorontsov Palace and the Swallow's Nest. All of it ... WOW! Then back to Tanya's village and her folks house. I understand and share your admiration for this country and it's people!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Gary,

Sounds like you had a great time! I just got back from 16 days in Ukraine myself. Tanya and I had a great time also. We spent 7 days in Crimea. Swam in the Black Sea, visited Lividia Palace where Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met in WW2. Also visited Vorontsov Palace and the Swallow's Nest. All of it ... WOW! Then back to Tanya's village and her folks house. I understand and share your admiration for this country and it's people!

It is a great place everywhere,,,and you missed the big crowds in Crimea! Good choice of timing.

I always get a little miffed when I read how "Richard Nixon was the first US President to visit the Soviet Union" Really? Yalta doesn't count?

On a side note we had a discussion earlier this week when we saw the sad news that our President had brought in barricades, police and attack dogs to keep people away from the WW2 and Iwo Jima Memorials.

I showed this to Alla and asked "What do you think would cause Yanukovich to close the Memorial of Glory in Kharkov? To post police and attack dogs to prevent brides from placing flowers and thanking the people that died? To prevent the young children from walking there with their class to learn of the brave men and women that died so they would not be exterminated by fascist pigs? To prevent the people that come every day and put Red carnations at the feet of Rodina?"

Her reaction was..... "impossible! Ridiculous!"

Ukraine is a fascinating place, it is true. Without all the "It's Ukraine" moments it would just be another tourist trap.

Edited October 12, 2013 by Gary and Alla

[tom&tanya 48]

Well personally I don't agree with Obama on a lot of issues but in this case I think this tactic of government shutdown as a negotiating tool has got to be completely and forever discredited. To allow a minority of house members to do this is perilous to our democracy in my opinion. Factionalism is the downfall of all democracies.

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism."

George Washington

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Well personally I don't agree with Obama on a lot of issues but in this case I think this tactic of government shutdown as a negotiating tool has got to be completely and forever discredited. To allow a minority of house members to do this is perilous to our democracy in my opinion. Factionalism is the downfall of all democracies.

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism."

George Washington

Yes and no. Checks and balances are exactly for that purpose.

The congress is required by the consitution to produce a budget and that budget must originate in the House of Representatives. They have not done that for 5 years!

What we need is what other countries have, a constitutional amendment...they get sworn in and have 100 days to produce a budget for TWO years (the term of the House members and all current Senators) If they do not, the whole lot of them are tossed out, we have a new election 90 days later and we go again, and NONE of the members in the congress can run for office in the new election. During that period we use a default budget of "last year + COLA" We would be no worse off for the period than we are during their frequent "recesses"

Then this nonsense stops. STOPS. Unless there is system that prevents the monkeys from breaking the china...they WILL do it, over and over. And each time we give them another responsibility (healthcare for example) they will beat us over the head with it...IF we let them. I agree it needs to be prevented by implementing something which makes it impossible. Checks and Balances still remain but certain constitutiona l requirements MUST be met or GTFO!

The Soviet Union collapsed, their were two revolutions, two total economic meltdowns, a nuclear reactor went "China Syndrome" on them...and the Memorial of Glory NEVER closed.