I went for a day and stayed for nearly....a week?

No tourists, I have the place to myself

Bob Dylan picked up a Noble prize...

Bob Dylan picked up a Noble prize for litrature, to get the $$, he had to make a speech.

This is what he said:

Its the best weekend of the year...Ivano Frankivsk!!! (Part two)

Only in the Ukraine can you do this

Its the best weekend of the year...Ivano Frankivsk!!!

I got to a place called Ivano Frankivsk, I was told it was pretty boring, but the Porto Franko festival is on, it would be pretty runde not to have fun, so I did...





Who wants to be a hero?

A wave is coming to Europe...

Paraska, man versus mountain...

On top of the world

 Waiting for a bus back

Leaving Las Skope...


Bonus video, something Communist

Volovets, what went down...

Welcome to Volovets

View coming to Volovets

My Idiot abroad moment

Lost in...Google translate?


Who loves you Communism?

Tourist information said go to Skole, so...

The first hike, the red trail

Lviv, LIVE and alive!!!

I was looking for...

And old guy giving it welly...


Looking for perfection...


Interesting guy

A favourite...

I got to Lviv, the best value place in Europe maybe?

I got to Lviv, not a bad spot at all






Jesus moment?

Swimming in the Ukraine, what I learned...

Not the type of doctors cert you want to go swimming here

So I got to Kiev, i got past the pickpockets and checked in to the hostel, there was a pool around the corner, I was on a roll, so I went.

The girl at the desk asked me for the Doctors cert, and I told her I didn't have one, too bad I couldn't go.
Turns out I cant go swimming anywhere else either. I thought the pools were only for people in rehab, people  recovering from car crashes and the like

What I was beginning to think swimming here was like

So, I was talking to a local the other night, hes a swimmer, I told him you don't look too bad?

As it turns out the doctors cert is a throw back from the Russians, you need a cert from the doctor to prove you don't have any contagious diseases.

Oh how I laughed, they might have got rid of the Russians, but the Russian way of doing business is still here.

Want to do business with Russia, just ask Donald

"You cannot be single", a true story by Yoshi

Mr Yoshi and myself

Last Saturday myself Yoshi,Tatiania and some married dude in Kiev for the night went out, we settled on a Hookah bar.

A hookah bar

Are you with me so far? In between the clouds of smoke Tatiania says to me

"Some people are crazy, I'm glad I'm single"

Eager to know more, I ask what she is on about, as it turns out, she speaks the local lingo, actually she is from Ukraine and she has just overheard the Ukraine guys conversation with is wife/girlfriend.

She rang him, when she found out he was out with some people, she gave him an earful and insisted on him going home, so he made his excuses and departed.

So we go home, I was staying on a different level on the building, I said goodbye to Tatiania and Mr Yoshi.
Next day, I heard that the Ukraine guy and Yoshi stayed up talking, nothing illegal there.
And later, Yoshi told me his version of what happened.
Its funny how people that are abused/persecuted turn around and persecuted others, well....


The Ukraine guy started on Yoshi and told him that he cannot be single, at one point in the story Yoshi told me "Fuc%ing is important too"

He lectured Yoshi, Yoshi told him he was living his life, he wasn't doing anything wrong, exactly like anybody else would say, Yoshi ended up lecturing him, I wasn't there, but I'd say it was good.



So, you cannot be single and happy (guilty), also if you are not single, you cannot but help pass on the abuse to some random Japanese guy.
No one ever tells me that i cannot be single, I'd love to hear that one, and that's something I would have to agree with.

 Its my birthday every day, and whats wrong with that?

One of Yoshi's girlfriends left him, so he went to the only place in the world where he thought they would understand him, and he was laughing when he said Kosovo. Oh the misery!!!

Kosovo, a place where people lived in their basements for years, where they had a horrible war 

Funny and not funny at the same time, if you can believe that?

The mind boggles, you meet people all over the place.

I wonder who I'll meet today?

As Frank Zappa would say

Kiev was a Russian style Metro, what they were really thinking was...

Welcome to the deep deep Kiev metro AKA Kiev Nuclear fall out shelter

So, I was riding the Metro with my friend Yoshi the other day, in Ireland apparently they can build a Metro, its too sandy and really in the Germans could do it for us, that would be better, no?

I was saying the land in Kiev must be very sandy as they had to go deep.

Yoshi in a moment of brilliance said, its as deep as it is so that they can use it for a bomb shelter.

One of the subway stations, no signs, no graffiti

So, I look it up, and as it turns out, the Metro was built by the Russians, around the time of the Nuclear madness was kicking off.
Its a typical 3 line Metro that the Russians built, each station is designed differently, and they don't use signs at the stations, you are supposed to know the station by the design, nice for locals, not so good for tourists.

A bit of history

The Kiev Metro is a metro system that is the mainstay of Kiev's public transport. It was the first rapid transit system in Ukraine and the third one built in the Soviet Union (after Moscow and St Petersburg Metros). It now has three lines with a total length of 67.65 kilometres (42.04 mi) and 52 stations.

The system carries 1.439 million passengers daily, accounting for 38% of Kiev's public transport load. In 2013, the metro carried 536.2 million passengers. One of the deepest stations in the world, Arsenalna (at 105.5 m or 346 ft), is found on the system.

Its a long way to the top if you want to...

 
Now the interesting thing about these shelters and bunkers, I was in one in Germany is that there isn't much air.

I mean, in the German bomb shelters, you needed to come out after 40 minutes or else you would die of Carbon Monoxide poisoning maybe beans were on the menu too, I really don't know?

War bunkers don't really offer you much support, if bombs are falling, you will suffer even if you think you wont.

People kinda need air, and there's usually not much beneath the surface.

Proof Stalin truly was MAD

This command bunker is located in the very centre of Kiev. To hide it from curious eyes it started to be built behind the secret plant “Arsenal”.

They were building mines and plats, the earth was taken away in covered trucks at night. When main works were over, the USSR collapsed and the secret construction object was soon forgotten.

They do not often remember about it today as well. Even those who come there to replace bulbs do not know what object they visit.

Want to build your own nuclear fall out shelter?

Here's 10 things you might want to take into consideration.

1)      Affordability assessment
2)      Risk Assessment
3)      Household Survival Plan
4)      Geological Assessment
5)      Shelter sizing
6)      Choosing a shelter location
7)      Shelter entry system
8)      Shelter Air System
9)      Emergency Escape System
10)   Top things to have in your survival shelter

 A happy ending?

On the way to see a man made disaster, Chernobyl

On the way to Chernobyl museum


Interesting what you can buy...


More Melbourne vibe in the Living room


I got out of Kiev, i got the "Choo Choo" train to Liviv

I went to leave Kiev, and learned about the Ukraine attitude

You want to leave Kiev?


Yes, you can buy tickets online, but only with a Ukranian bank card...D'oh!!!!

 I like voting with my feet, and tried to get out of Kiev. It was a bit like the movie The cars that ate Paris

CARS THAT ATE PARIS Trailer


And the good news was, a happy reunion





In Kiev, all girls want...

A Melbourne vibe in Kiev, very nice!!!

 Too much Art, never!! Just look the other way

Georgie Best moment


The living room...a Melbourne vibe



Narrow views, not narrow minds in the Kiev festival

An Opera failure, but it was great!!!

Aint life grand?

Art everywhere

 

Quality everywhere!!!!

I got to jam with these guys on the tambourine, I told them we sould go on tour...with the Rolling Stones, after all the Stones are WAY OLDER!!!!

Amazing!!!

Hallelujah to the art festival

The best weekend of the year in Kiev and I was there...

A great day out in Kiev

On one of my many strolls, I found some art gallerys, in one a guy told me the next day would be a big art sale on all the streets in the area.

He said that there would be "Too much art" and he also said to come in for a beer.
Well, I didnt call in for a beer, but he was right about the too much art bit and I pretty much saw it all.




I look like...


Foxes wedding in Kiev


A good translation


The never ending art gallery

Kiev metro, beware!!!!

Myself and Mr Yoshi

A word of warning for Kiev...



Another deception artist, whos not a pickpocket.

Vasyl Lomachenko



Art displayed over the Living Room bar

The best thing about Kiev, the train out



When I left the hostel, I noticed the straps undone on my bag, its only then did I notice that the pickpocket gang were after my bag, that was zipped on to my bigger bag.

A lucky escape indeed!!

Odessa, the other side

 What life looks like in Odessa

History of Odessa 

Industrial city, 25 mi NE of the mouth of the Dniester River on Odessa Bay, in Odessa oblast, in the Ukraine. The city is said to be on the site of a Miletian Greek colony settled c. 800 b.c. 

Life is a...

Odessa history continued...

The Russians gained it from the Turks in 1792 and established it as a fort, naval base, and commercial port. It became important during the labor movement in the 19th century and spawned the abortive revolution of 1905, which included the mutiny on the battleship Potemkin here. It fell to Germany in 1941 after an epic defense but was liberated in 1944.

I stopped into see Odessa, it was on the way...to somewhere, I wasnt sure where that somewhere is, but I'm going there.

I switched hostel, to the nice part of town, you pay 1 euro more, the standard goes up considerable!

So, I ended up in the beach, me the Chinese |Sheen (as in Charlie Sheen) Arcadia, its where the rich people hang out, a cheap Ibiza and there is a club called Ibiza too. Impessive stuff, especially since I wasnt expecting very much at all?

Arcadia, Odessa

Trouble in paradise

A little bear dog, I want one!!!