Lomography

Kharkov
written by wil6ka on January 28th, 2009 (0 votes)

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Well, there are not many cities that have several ways of writing, but in case of Kharkiv, Charkow, Kharkov, Харків or Харьков. It depends where you are from and maybe what political position you have, if you use the Ukrainian, Russian or International version of the second largest city of the Ukraine. And that depicts already the major conflict of the Ukraine.

A friend told me " There are actually two Ukraine’s", one with a massive Russian influence and one with a pro-west attitude. In the current Gas-Dispute in Europe with the Ukraine and Russia you saw the perfect example. The Ukraine have a Soviet past and a great percentage of native Russians make up the population of the country. So it is like an adolescent teenager, who wants to move out the family home, but still: parents remain family after all.

I got lucky and was invited last fall to work at the Karasin University last year. Among the students I worked with had been roughly 90 percent girls – and did I ever mention that Ukrainian girls have that little something – so I was a lucky teacher. Kharkov is one of the most relevant Eastern European educational centers with more than 13 universities. Despite the fact, that barely people in the West take notice of the city, there is so much to discover.
Certainly a big Lenin-Statue, There is a grand football team “Metalist” advanced to the next round in the UEFA-cup. They have a fantastic theater and it is a young town, because it is crowded by students from the whole region. And there are these awkward things happening, like people queing up for half an hour to get a spot in the bus.

As a tourist it is just perfect to take long walks to discover the rough charm of the Post-Soviet Union. You will see Babuschkas selling nuts on the street. There are little booths selling discounted bread, You will get delicious ice cream on the street, even in the winter. And just so many beautiful people, young and old and quite original – not very affected by the shallow trademarks of products in the west. Because life is too short to bother about fashion. And in fact it is. The average life expectancy is just about 60 years…what a pity.
In the summer you have large fields of wheat and just a fruitful vegetation in the winter you have snow. So, there is much to discover in Kharkiv, Kharkov, Charkow…a whatever…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharkiv
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine