Gas for the People!

We took this picture in a village approximately 30km out of Kyiv. We have seen many more very similar installations throughout the region and we can confirm that all pipes are easily accessible for any interested party..... and just in case, there is uncertainty about the matter, the word "gas" is written in big cyrillic letters on the fence.

Getting ready for Easter

I know, Easter is long over, but I still want to share this observation with you.

People in Kyiv get ready for this very important religious day (or for the beginning of spring?) by applying a lot of (mostly) white paint on various parts of streets, sidewalks, fences and trees.

As a result, it all looks freshly cleaned.

The kids were told, that the paint contains some chemical ingredient, that keeps off unwanted insects, but this could not be verified so far.

The Treasures of the old "Seidenstrasse"

Who in Europe has not heard of Samarkand?

But where is it ? Does it still exist? What country does it belong to?

Peter is currently working in an organization called "EECA - Eastern Europe & Central Asia", which includes most of the territory of the former Soviet Union, i.e. today's CIS (GUS)-Countries. Uzbekistan is one of them. So the management team of this region had one of its regular meetings in Uzbekistan. A team building activity besides the usual management talk gave more possibilities to experience the country side, including the fabulous city of Samarkand.

Some history: Samarkand used to be a central trading point on the "silk road" over may centuries. Its roots go back to long before Christ, and in the islamic world its mausoleums for relatives of the prophet and mosques are well known as the ones with the "blue domes".

Cutting it short: If you ever find an opportunity to visit Samarkand, do so! We were visiting this city with a professional guide who tried to make us knowledgable about a city and country we had not known before. I will not repeat the numbers ... it were many! Such as the 1018 stars that Ulug Bek identified and registered in the 15th century.

Most impressive were not only the mausoleums that were built sometime between the 10th and the 17th century, with a peak round the 15th century when Samarkand was the capital of an empire reaching from India to Egypt, from Mongolia to Central Asia, Iran, Irak and even the European parts of Turkey. Some touristic highlights : Mausoleums of various chiefs (Tamerlan, Ulug Bek, and his decendants - there are at least 2 names for each of them, so don't worry about the names at all), the shrine of Ulug Bek(supposedly the biggest single piece of Jade around the world), the astronomical observatorium (Sextant) he built, the mosque that was devoted to Ulug Bek's most loved wife, the "City of the living King" and last but not least the 3 big mausoleums on the central square (see picture above).

In today's life Peter was impressed with people's positive approach to life, their ubiquitous drive for trading and most of all - the strong emphasis that the (seemingly straight forward authoritarian) government put on education in this remote place. Even a farmer whom Peter met in the mountains round Samarkand, spoke as "foreign" languages Russian and even some words German which he claimed he had learned at school. Almost everybody speaks Uzbeki, some sort of Farsi and in many cases Turkish as the basis of life.

Food in Uzbekistan: get ready for some basic, but fresh vegetables, followed by Pilaw and lots of grilled meat from lamb, beef and chicken. Those who know the tradition of shashlik in Ukraine will find the same also here, in similar quality but without pork. Peter and his colleagues had a fantastic evening when cooking Pilaw from lamb and beef at a semi-private house in Samarkand. An unforgettable experience!

Also unforgettable: the local currency "Soum" is only available in such small notes that if you want to pay for a dinner for a couple of people, you literally need ot bring a suitcase of cash with you (and they usually don't accept credit cards), and the Soum is not convertable. So before changing Dollars - think carefully how much money you might need, but also think about how much you can carry at a time!!

Spring has come !

When driving through the country side on the way to the Kiev-Golf-Club, we see that many birds have arrived:

Most of the nests of the storks are already taken and the storks are busy repairing them after the long winter.

One of the farmers sells something strange as you can see in front of his house: ostrich-feathers and eggs!
We stop and have a look into the backyard. There they are - we see about 5 ostriches.

Maybe we should go there and ask for some meat next time we come by?

Golf will never take off in Kyiv !!

During the last months, we have had a couple of encounters with the Ukrainian "Golf scene", and it has become clear to us that Golf will never take off here. Some of the goodies:

1) there is a Ukrainian Golf association, and there is a German-Ukrainian Golf Association. At one of the local get-togethers we met its president, Michael Hamalij. He is a nice guy, full of energy and currently planning the next edition of the "Ukrainian World Golf Challenge". This bi-annual 1-week long event shall take place in Germany next time. See some pictures of the last event, that took place in Vancouver, Canada. Why did also all the other Ukrainian World Golf Challenges take place outside Kyiv? Maybe because of the attractive locations, such as Australia, Hawaii, ...
But most probably because given the attitude of Ukrainia golf clubs, it must be simply impossible to organize a proper golf tournament with more than 2 participants.

2) Sylvie's Birthday came up again, and the golf season was about to start. So what's better than to offer a day out on the golf course, with some pro to get us up to speed quickly? Kyiv-golf-center http://www.golf-center.com.ua/?tid=1&lng=en offers such a course April 18-19, plus an Easter party for the kids on April 19. So we must go. But registering is not so easy:

+ When you send an E-mail in English to the contact address you simply get no answer. When Peter called to follow-up, English speaking Olga complained: "but that's clear, if you write in English, nobody understands. You need to call me." After some conversation she promisses to change the contact address, now you can send a mail to her directly from the web site, if you correct the spelling mistake.

+ The web (and Olga) say you need to register via the internet-registraton form. Don't look for it- it's not there! So I sent another mail in english (copy to Olga).
As expected - no response

+ When Sylvie does her guided tour of House of Chimeara, Peter and the kids drive secretly to the golf center to register personally, so to say as last resort before Sylvie's birthday.
As expected - No registration forms available, we go home, worried.

+ After Sylvie's birthday, we go there again. From the site we call Olga. She confirms our registration which she had accepted over the phone when we had talked to her last time !!!!
But now the people want USDs in cash from us, 2 weeks in advance of the course.
Unacceptable for us, so we go home again, this time pissed off.

3) April 18 - perfect golf weather, all 4 of us are keen to hit the first balls in the season. We decide to try Kyiv Golf club, about 1 hour west o Kyiv. http://www.kievgolfclub.com/golfstream/en/main
When we get there, the guards won't open the door. They say - opening of the season next week. When we talk to the sales manager over the phone, she explains that this year they will only accept members (reportedly some 16 so far) and people who registered upfront (probably you have send Euros in cash before they let you in). We wish her good luck for commercial survival (she will need it) and drive off to the Kyiv Golf Centre.

4) finally, we make it! we can really buy 2 buckets of balls and play. All 4 Zehetners enjoy it, meet the local Pro and have a chat with this nice guy.
Given the difficulties for newcomers, he will have a lot time to talk to the few who really get there in the future!
Anyway - this time we drive home - happily!!

Heating period is ending

HEATING SEASON TO END ON APRIL 14 IN KYIV, SAYS FIRST VICE
MAYOR
Kyiv, April 9 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Kyiv's
central heating will be turned off on April 14 because of the favorable weather
conditions. This was announced by the Kyiv City
Council press service, referring to First Vice Mayor Anatoliy Holubchenko.
He said that a respective decree of the council is
currently being prepared. According to
Holubchenko, apartment houses will be the first to have their heat supply
switched off. Central heating will be cut in this sector by the end of next
week. Medical and education institutions will have
their heating switched off at the request of their directors.
The heating season in Ukraine traditionally starts
on October 15 and ends on April 15.

We will see, if this will cool off the heated towel racks in our bathrooms.
....... ;-)

Gorodetzky

Although the private house of Gorodetzky is also known as the monster house, this name is really not appropriate for this building. House with Chimaera is the real name. Sylvie had a chance to visit the inside of this house with a small and privileged group. Tours are only on Saturdays and all tours in 2009 are already fully booked.
The house is being used by the president for smaller meetings and he has his big office building right across the street.
All the facts about the house can be found on Wikipedia at (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_with_Chimaeras).
An interesting detail is that all the animals on the outside of the building are living animals and on the inside of the building, the hunter Gorodetzky used fur on the floors and stuffed animals for decoration that he brought from his hunting trips to Kenia. Also the other animal sculptures inside the house mainly show the wildlife as dead trophy.
Gorodetzky always tried the latest and newest and this is why his house (built from 1902-1904) featured electricity, an elevator, and many tile stoves.

Gorodettky also built the national Art Museum of Ukraine, that the whole family went to visit one Friday evening. The occasion was the vernissage of an exhibition by Anatoly Krivolap. His daughter, the painter Anna Krivolap, had invited us and we got to see many interesting paintings (non-figuartive). The kids discovered that the paintings had no titles, just great colour and structure, and so they went on to attribute a title to every oeuvre. Father and daughter share a website: http://www.akrivolap-akrivolap.com/.