Best, Worst, Most unexpected thing about FSU

[james&olya 1,121]

Agreed, they are very friendly to visitors. I do not agree about cleanliness of cities though.

I usually did not look so close at their eyes...but yes, alla has very dark hair and piercing BLUE eyes.

I have not yet been able to travel widely over there, only Kiev, Boryspil, Poltava, Kharkov in Ukraine and Kazan in Russia. But with that limited exposure I saw a real difference between Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine, outside of the showplace centers of the cities, looked very tired, beat-up, poor, and dirty. Trash everywhere, the infrastructure sadly decaying. I expected the same then when I went to Kazan and was blown away by the newness, relative cleanliness and neatness. Not like Switzerland but definitely putting American cities to shame! The architecture, both old (Kazan is 1005 years old) and post-soviet is amazing! Some ugly old soviet apartment buildings still but those are largely hidden away behind much newer, more aesthetically pleasing architecture.

Very few McD's in Kazan but in Kiev there was one everywhere you looked it seemed! Every block downtown had one occupying the prime real estate in those beautiful buildings along the main street (Kreshchatyk). I didn't eat there, I found that Ukrainian food is incredibly good. And the drive-thru's were called 'McDrives'

In Ukraine I felt like a foreigner, everyone dressed 'European' it seemed. In Russia I was struck by how much everything seemed to be like the US! They seem to be copying us more than western Europe from what I could see. And the roads and traffic were like here, relatively well designed and with people driving relatively normally. Kiev was crazy!! Absolutely no regard for speed limits! But then I witnessed first hand that on the few occasions police pull someone over for speeding it only took the equivalent of $2.50 as a bribe to take care of it.

Many people, especially kids, wear printed t-shirts with writing, always in English. Sometimes it didn't seem to make sense, like the young woman wearing a t-shirt that said 'plastic flash'.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I have not yet been able to travel widely over there, only Kiev, Boryspil, Poltava, Kharkov in Ukraine and Kazan in Russia. But with that limited exposure I saw a real difference between Ukraine and Russia. Ukraine, outside of the showplace centers of the cities, looked very tired, beat-up, poor, and dirty. Trash everywhere, the infrastructure sadly decaying. I expected the same then when I went to Kazan and was blown away by the newness, relative cleanliness and neatness. Not like Switzerland but definitely putting American cities to shame! The architecture, both old (Kazan is 1005 years old) and post-soviet is amazing! Some ugly old soviet apartment buildings still but those are largely hidden away behind much newer, more aesthetically pleasing architecture.

Very few McD's in Kazan but in Kiev there was one everywhere you looked it seemed! Every block downtown had one occupying the prime real estate in those beautiful buildings along the main street (Kreshchatyk). I didn't eat there, I found that Ukrainian food is incredibly good. And the drive-thru's were called 'McDrives'

In Ukraine I felt like a foreigner, everyone dressed 'European' it seemed. In Russia I was struck by how much everything seemed to be like the US! They seem to be copying us more than western Europe from what I could see. And the roads and traffic were like here, relatively well designed and with people driving relatively normally. Kiev was crazy!! Absolutely no regard for speed limits! But then I witnessed first hand that on the few occasions police pull someone over for speeding it only took the equivalent of $2.50 as a bribe to take care of it.

Many people, especially kids, wear printed t-shirts with writing, always in English. Sometimes it didn't seem to make sense, like the young woman wearing a t-shirt that said 'plastic flash'.

It is a strange situation that most Ukrainian homes are spotlessly clean. Alla is borderline OC. Yet the outside is filthy. Go figure. Alla has no problem with this..."Outside is not mine"

One of our sons goes to school in Moscow and when he is here for the summer he always stocks up on the English printed T-shirts. His favorite is the one that says "Let me drop everything I am doing and work on YOUR problem" I bought him one of theose hunting type ball caps, camoflage, with little lights built into the brim so he can read in his dorm room. The other guys in Moscow all want one now! They think it is just incredible. What a country!

I did not drive in Ukraine, except for a couple times in Donetsk when we borrowed a friends car. It is too crazy for me and I really didn't need to drive. They are freaking wild and crazy. They will just drive upo on the sidewalks if they want to and they park just about anywhere. Some streets in Odessa would be completely blocked with parked cars. Just nuts.

[Sergi9 110]

Good

Minsk - Fashion, seems every woman is dressed to kill and how they navigate the cobblestones with high heels in the snow is simply a miracle.

Food, not to bad. Mushrooms incredible.

Culture.. theatre, circus, opera, ballet... WOW very affordable. Nutcracker in FSU.. awesome

TV- was there during xmas and new years so this might not be typical but old fashioned variety shows seemed to abound.. I liked that.

Variety in foodstuff that is beyond the imagination .. and affordable. In US, salami comes in Oscar Mayer or some generic brand.. In Belarus you get "wall of salami"

Farmers market.. incredible. Its the size of a football stadium indoors and produce is outdoors.. SO MUCH FOOD

2 cups of Coffee and 2 pastry.. less than a buck. and the pastry is decorated by someone who could easily win Iron Chef contest

Public transport, affordable and convenient

Odd

Soviet style department stores... each person works a four foot section of counter, you cannot touch the merchandise.. don't ask the person next to that counter to help with hair dryers if they are the toaster person..

Architecture in downtown.. awesome

Bad

No smiling on the street. Apparently it is not considered "normal" to smile at or engage conversation with strangers. They think you are "affected" or strange. Its very difficult to get used to not making eye contact purposefully on the street, and NOT SMILING...

Beauracracy-- cannot be avoided... gruff police like people everywhere..

Can't read street signs.. my bad.

Edited January 6, 2011 by Sergi9

[james&olya 1,121]

It is a strange situation that most Ukrainian homes are spotlessly clean. Alla is borderline OC. Yet the outside is filthy. Go figure. Alla has no problem with this..."Outside is not mine"

One of our sons goes to school in Moscow and when he is here for the summer he always stocks up on the English printed T-shirts. His favorite is the one that says "Let me drop everything I am doing and work on YOUR problem" I bought him one of theose hunting type ball caps, camoflage, with little lights built into the brim so he can read in his dorm room. The other guys in Moscow all want one now! They think it is just incredible. What a country!

I did not drive in Ukraine, except for a couple times in Donetsk when we borrowed a friends car. It is too crazy for me and I really didn't need to drive. They are freaking wild and crazy. They will just drive upo on the sidewalks if they want to and they park just about anywhere. Some streets in Odessa would be completely blocked with parked cars. Just nuts.

I was impressed also by the contrast between public space and privately owned space in Ukraine. The inside of the apartments I saw were beautiful even though the outside made you think you were in a ghetto!

I decided if I could drive southern CA freeways at rush hour I could handle Kiev! I rented a car at the airport and ventured into Kiev. Trying to read street signs in cyrillic while negotiating the friday pm rush hour traffic was memorable! Streets in Kiev looked like they were designed more for public transit buses than private automobiles. Many one way streets and often long traverses the opposite direction you wanted to go to get to a street that could lead you back to your destination. Drivers there are skillful in handling their vehicles but that is about the only good thing I can say. Except maybe that there is little overt hostility expressed on the roadways in spite of the extremely aggressive driving. The only speed limit seemed to be whatever speed your vehicle was capable of reaching before you had to hit the brakes for a stop-light. I saw maseratis and ferraris that must have been doing 80mph at least on downtown streets. No police tried to give chase! And on the rural highways many drivers would go 160 km/hr on the two-lanes, playing chicken with oncoming traffic! The woman I was visiting was one of those drivers! The term 'bat out of hell' seemed to fit! And I agree with you about the parking. They use the sidewalks as parking lots, even have parking 'attendants' you had to pay. And if no parking was available anywhere else you just parked in the street! Blocking traffic! I suppose they have little choice since the cities there were obviously not designed for widespread ownership of private automobiles.

One of the most bizarre things was the extremely bad road servicing an area with single family homes I saw in Poltava. They had an area of newer, nice looking western style homes mixed with old, small cottage-like homes. The dirt/rock road getting in there was barely wide enough for a compact car, full of very large and deep potholes, large rocks protruding that threatened to gut your drivetrain, no evidence anyone had ever done anything to try and make it passable. It was worse than any alley or even forest fire-trail I have ever seen here in the US. I couldn't believe we were on an actual road but it showed on the map! I was told it was OK then, just wait till winter if you wanted a challenge!

Kazan was completely different. They were building new roads everywhere and the existing ones were very good, just with a lot of traffic. Traffic seemed to usually pay attention to lane markings and speed limits. It was very easy to get around there. Streets usually went both directions and traffic patterns seemed the same as any large city here. If it wasn't for the preponderance of very large apartment buildings and the signs being in Russian you would have thought you might be in a very nice city in America!

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I forgot to add... the sweetest sound to the ears...; "the click click click click....of high heels on the sidewalks of Minsk".

That sound is permanently embedded in my brain.

[visaveteran 1]

OK...if you guys want to keep this horn dog in paradise theme running, the sexiest women I have ever seen were in Latvia in August. First, Riga is a beautiful, non communist looking city with lots of charm and beauty. I would have this routine...catch the bus to the central city in the morning. Go to the Black Cat Cafe for expresso and pastries...and of course the waitresses were gorgeous. Then I'd hit the internet cafe and would arrange a date for the evening. Then I'd go sit in this beautiful park and watch the women parade by. It was a women watching paradise.The stylish and sexy dresses and skirts and ultra tight jeans left little to the imagination. Even older women looked amazing.

Then it would be lunch time and I'd eat at my favorite restaurant called Nostalgia. I loved that place...more beautiful, flirty waitresses and I met some interesting folks there. Lots of Germans and Brits there trying to cash in on the business friendly city. All in all, Latvia was my best pure vacation style trip to a former communist country. BTW, the Latvians really hate Russians and Russians can't even vote.

If you want to talk about a foreign city I could live in, it would be Riga.

[nyhazmat 0]

The good - Ladies that "act" and dress like ladies, at least like the ladies we all want. I really like the fact that you can go to the beach, Dnipro River, and have an open pit bar-b-que. We had a large family gathering and cooked shashlyk, and when it was done, suprise-suprise, everyone just started cleaning up, no trash left anywhere. The scenery at the beach was great also, head on a swivel kind of stuff.

The bad: My wife doesn't want me to venture out by myself, I don't speak Russian, and she is afraid of the types of people that I will encounter and what may happen. Safety is an issue in Cherkassy. We have way to save on taxi fares, if there is a meter that the driver uses, no changes, I can talk like usual. If there is no meter or if the meter doesn't get used, I play the part of the drunk uncle and don't speak at all. It really saves on cab fares. Clothing is expensive, and the styles, while my wife would like to see me in some of it, well, let's just say that it is not my style.

Having spent my younger days in So. Cal. on the freeways, I believe that I could drive there but the cost of rentals is just not worth it. We have a driver for the longer trips that works well with us and we can just sit back and relax.

All-in-all, I could live there, but Mila is not interested.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

OK...if you guys want to keep this horn dog in paradise theme running, the sexiest women I have ever seen were in Latvia in August. First, Riga is a beautiful, non communist looking city with lots of charm and beauty. I would have this routine...catch the bus to the central city in the morning. Go to the Black Cat Cafe for expresso and pastries...and of course the waitresses were gorgeous. Then I'd hit the internet cafe and would arrange a date for the evening. Then I'd go sit in this beautiful park and watch the women parade by. It was a women watching paradise.The stylish and sexy dresses and skirts and ultra tight jeans left little to the imagination. Even older women looked amazing.

Then it would be lunch time and I'd eat at my favorite restaurant called Nostalgia. I loved that place...more beautiful, flirty waitresses and I met some interesting folks there. Lots of Germans and Brits there trying to cash in on the business friendly city. All in all, Latvia was my best pure vacation style trip to a former communist country. BTW, the Latvians really hate Russians and Russians can't even vote.

If you want to talk about a foreign city I could live in, it would be Riga.

I have never been to Latvia and what you describe sounds great, but I am not surprised (I would have been a few years ago) Seems the countryies that were not associated with Russia for centuries have a completely different way of life. Czech Republic is another example. I think the women in Eastern Europe are awesome, much more concerned about their appearance than western European women.

Yes, the sound of heels is music to my ears and it is a sure sign I am back in Ukraine. I swear (though people say I may be just a tad crazy) that the air in Odessa always smelled of perfume. I just have that in my memory. Maybe I am just imagining it, but in some areas there are so many woemn that maybe it is not just my imagination.

NYhazmat...your wife is like every other woman. Alla nearly flips out if I say I am walking to the market or go to get ice cream. She doesn't care that you do not speak Russian, you would do just fine...she is afraid of the other "vulture women" Alla has no concerns when I go to the market with her mother early in the morning, you think she expects her mom to "protect me" No she gets to sleep and she knows her mom will chase off other women

[Gen+Olya 0]

More bad stuff...

220V. doorbells. Don't ask! Huge holes in the sidewalks and comedic "wheelchair ramps" which would be a tragedy if anyone went near them with a wheelchair and no shortage of pedestrians fall down them also since they are invisible as you approach the underpasses that go under streets. (see also under "good things")

Frequent loss of electricity and/or water and/or hot water. No dryers. Had to dry my clothes on a line above the tub and iron everything. Sucks. Can't drink the water and had to drink bottled water and juice. BonAqua with gas was my favorite. Coke Lite was also a favorite. Front loading washing machines under the kitchen counter with doors that do not lock in operation. Don't ask! Incredibly expensive clothes and shoes and electronics.

Just a note: those are not wheelchair ramps, those ramps for baby strollers. In FSU people on wheelchairs ought to stay home.

[james&olya 1,121]

Just a note: those are not wheelchair ramps, those ramps for baby strollers. In FSU people on wheelchairs ought to stay home.

That was what I was wondering also, they were too narrow for a wheelchair! I guess it is good that they are child-friendly but unfortunate that they have a backwards attitude to the handicapped.

BTW, is the location of your photo Kiev, the park just past the end of Kreshchatyk Street? It looks familiar!

[Gen+Olya 0]

That was what I was wondering also, they were too narrow for a wheelchair! I guess it is good that they are child-friendly but unfortunate that they have a backwards attitude to the handicapped.

BTW, is the location of your photo Kiev, the park just past the end of Kreshchatyk Street? It looks familiar!

Actually, the photo was made in the National Botanical Garden, it’s located just south of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War (the one with the statue of the Mother Motherland). And the photo is quite old, May 2nd, 1986.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Just a note: those are not wheelchair ramps, those ramps for baby strollers. In FSU people on wheelchairs ought to stay home.

Oh...so they send BABIES down those greased skids at 45 degrees!??? Actually I never saw anyone use them for anything. I took photos of them for humor. In one there was a service closet door open at the bottom of the ramp.

Bad...huge holes in the sidewalk you can fall into, seriously, FALL into them, like into a catch basin beneath.

Good...Ukrainians "know not to walk into holes"(so says Alla)

Unexpected....No liability attorneys!

[Tnic 5]

Just a note: those are not wheelchair ramps, those ramps for baby strollers. In FSU people on wheelchairs ought to stay home.

How bout for the carts and hand trucks the retailers and venders use? They're also quite convenient when hauling luggage at the train station and since the man handles the bags I used them every time.

The GOOD.

Click, click, click. The food is great and the people are friendly after you get to know them. The stores I shop at have very reasonable prices for clothes and shoes, comparable to say TJ Maxx/Marshal's and no Chinese stuff so I've become somewhat of a fashion plate in Simferopol. And speaking of Simferopol, this is one of the best places I've lived and after living on the I95 corridor just north of NYC (Bridgeport, CT area) the drivers here are nothing to be concerned about. In CT they were aggressive AND mean, here its just aggressive. And finally, the lifestyle simply suits me to a T and living here in retirement is the best decision I ever made. Well, to marry my Mila is the best, but, you know.

The BAD

Crumbling infrastructure everywhere you go. Manhole covers disappear over night and you better watch your step because as Alla said, "Ukrainians do not fall into holes." so if I did my clever disguise would be revealed. If you find an unmarked hole snap off a tree branch and stuff it in there. Sections of sidewalk get displaces by tree roots or even hauled off to Uncle Sasha's courtyard and there always seems to be mud and/or water to cause a major detour when walking to the market. Plenty of stray cats and dogs, but not as many as I've seen in other places in the FSU.

The UGLY.

Uggs are here cutting down on the click, click, click and they still don't look sexy even on a Ukrainian.

Surprising.

The low cost of living here in Crimea. The relaxed atmosphere in Simferopol. People just take it a little more easy here unlike in the big cities where you get shoved out of the way by someone in a rush, and everyone seems to be late for something in Kiev.

[Spoon 7]

One of my most interesting culture shock moments was on the Moscow Metro. As most of you know, Russians are pretty cold unless they know you. People would let the door just go as they walked in even if there was a babushka behind them. What surprised me more was how well the babushkas could stiff arm a door coming at them. Well, me being me, I would hold the door for people in the Metro instead of letting them contend with a heavy door in their face. It was great to see the reactions too. People would be looking down and realize something was odd. I could see in their faces that they thought I was some panhandler looking for money as they started to look up. Then that look changed to either confusion of bemusement when they realized I was an American. I even got a couple of awkward "spaseba's."

The best though was having a home cooked meal with the extended family. Made me appreciate families even more.

[james&olya 1,121]

One of my most interesting culture shock moments was on the Moscow Metro. As most of you know, Russians are pretty cold unless they know you. People would let the door just go as they walked in even if there was a babushka behind them. What surprised me more was how well the babushkas could stiff arm a door coming at them. Well, me being me, I would hold the door for people in the Metro instead of letting them contend with a heavy door in their face. It was great to see the reactions too. People would be looking down and realize something was odd. I could see in their faces that they thought I was some panhandler looking for money as they started to look up. Then that look changed to either confusion of bemusement when they realized I was an American. I even got a couple of awkward "spaseba's."

The best though was having a home cooked meal with the extended family. Made me appreciate families even more.

In Ukraine I had the opportunity to go to a swimming beach in Kiev. The changing booth was primitive but functional. While I waited for Valentina to change, I noticed an abundance of broken glass in the sand around the booth. I got a number of puzzled stares when I went to work picking up the glass and putting it in a trash can. They seem to not think it dignified to perform such an act of service in spite of the obvious danger in allowing the hazard to remain. In Russia I have not seen that attitude yet, maybe I just haven't been there enough.