Your Gateway To Real Ukraine
We are an 18 year old country. Undoubtedly we all became more mature in the national issues. Today every Ukrainian has his own point of view on whether we need Russian as the second national language. The path was long and not serene. What did we get on our way?
Continue reading ’5 Greatest Ukrainian Achievements during the Independence’
If you are looking for an outdoor excursion while in Ukraine and enjoy learning about the flora of the country, you can visit the Seaside Park in Nikita. The park is the most well protected of all thanks to the mountain crests that surround it. The climate in this little corner of Ukraine is mild and the evergreen trees in the garden love the warmth. Additionally, visitors to the park can see cedar, osmantuses, mastic pistachio-tree, various palm-trees, and a wide variety of bright flowered blooming subtropical shrubs. Myrtle, pheyhoa, haerops – also known as palmetto – and orchidaceous trees can also be found at the Seaside Park.
If you start your trip to the gardens in the Upper Park, you will get the opportunity to wander through carefully manicured paths into the plantations, the area of the gardens that contains plant species from the world. Bamboo from China, Silver Fir, Plantain, Evergreen Stone Oak, and gigantic sequoiadrendron can be found here. There are also 500 year old yew trees in this part of the garden, a throwback to the local forests that are long gone.
To the east of the park visitors will find Cape Martyan, and area where rare shrubs, tree, and grasses in over 500 species grow in 120 hectares of dry land reserve of virgin conditions. This area is used by Ukrainian scientists on a regular basis and it is only open during certain times of year.
You can see more great photos and get more information at virtualtourist.com
Everyone is becoming more and more interested in ethnic customs and weddings are one of the biggest times in people’s lives when they want their ethnicity to show. October 11, 2008, marked the second annual Rozhanytsia Festival in the village of Bobrytsia in the Kiev region that is the perfect example of what a truly traditional Ukrainian wedding is like. Even though the many villages in Ukraine has their set of customs, rituals, and traditions when it comes to their young people – and old people – getting married, the basic wedding, which visitors to the festival got to experience, is the same all over the country. The wedding included traditional songs, dances, and wedding cake called ‘korovai’ in Ukrainian.
Because of Ukraine’s diverse geography, there are plenty of differences within each wedding ceremony. The director of the Choven Theater and founder of the festival, Roman Korniienko stated that the festival does not try to show the differences. Instead, the festival attempts to show the variety of the traditional throughout the country. He is hoping to organize at least one live wedding for next year’s festival in an effort to revive the old traditions.
A traditional Ukrainian wedding is in three parts or ‘porohy’ and each division encompasses various Ukrainian traditions. The stage before the wedding is usually the biggest one with the wedding itself being the finale of the celebration in which family members and friends – but not the bride and groom – get to drink and ‘make merry’ on their behalf. Additional traditions are being revived as the festival planning for next year continues in the hopes on enlightening Ukrainian youth – and the rest of the world – of some of the traditions that have almost been lost.
The head of Gazprom warned that the prices of gas in the Ukraine that is imported from Russia might more than double in the upcoming year.
The prices on Ukraine could be raised to over $400 per each 1,000 cubic meters in the year of 2009. That would be an increase of over $220 from this year. If this happens, which is what is expected then that means that Russia will be paying more for the same gas that it is buying from Central Asia. This increase in the price of gas could cause an issue.
Gazprom is one of the prime companies that delivers to over a quarter of the gas suppliers in Europe and mostly throughout the Ukraine. There have been disruptions previously when there have been disputes over the pricing of the supplies sent to Europe.
Gazprom has said that the deals with the Central Asian suppliers are still not settled and they will be reviewed. Both parties have yet to come to any agreements on a new contract.
So what does this mean for the Ukraine and its gas prices? As of right now it means that is likely to be an increase in the upcoming year but what the amount of the increase will be is still not known. We will have to wait and see what those in charge decide once they have all reached an agreement.
An annual tradition, the European Neighborliness Days is underway on Ukrainian-Polish border in the Lviv region. The Belz and Pavlovychi sectors of the state border service are part of the program and part of this year’s focus of the event is the preparations for the 2012 European Football Championship. Even though it is still four years away, that is not a long time when you getting ready to host numerous other countries at soccer.
This year’s festivities will include both meetings of businesses and state authorities, but also a large folk art fair, folk bands and rock bands. Members of the State Border Service of Ukraine and Poland have scheduled meetings to discuss investment projects along the borders of the two countries and how they can be implemented.
The event has been going on at the same site for the last four years, ever since it launched in 2004. It is a way for the two countries to come together and enjoy a good time while also conducting business in a safe and comfortable environment. The borders of both countries are becoming more and more open with over 10 million foreign visitors entering Ukraine last year alone with most of them coming from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.
The Molodist – or Youth – Film Festival is the biggest movie event of the year in Ukraine and this year it is set to kick off on October 18 and run to October 26, 2008. The festival presents the work of many of the young moviemakers in the country and from around the world and it includes feature films, student movies, and short film debuts. There will be a non-competitive program that includes special shows, retrospectives of actors, actresses, and directors as well as a competition section that is open to a variety of different genres and movie styles.
This year’s international jury includes American actor Armand Assante, Russian actress Alla Demidova, Hungarian director Andras Fesos, Ukrainian artist and illustration Serhiy Yakutovych, Gaga Chkheyidze who is the head of the International Tbilisi Film Festival and Ukrainian television host, writer and journalist Yuriy Makarov. The festival will be presides over by this year’s honorable president is Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko. The co-heads of the board of trustees are actor Gerard Depardieu and Hares Youssef. There will be plenty of international celebrities also attending, but there has been no release of who they may be.
Tickets are available in advance and currently there are 400 films scheduled to be screened at the festival.
You can get more information on this festival by visiting molodist.com
According to the UN World Tourism Organization, Ukraine is quickly following in the footsteps of Russia in the tourism department. The country has a population of 48 million people and is quickly becoming a desirable tourist market. The Ukrainian government has started heavily promoting the country as a tourist destination and 23 million people visited the country in 2007. This number is expected to grow and UEFA’s decision to host the Euro 2012 football tournament has resulted in a bunch of new investments, such as hotels with international names such as Intercontinental, Radisson, and Hilton.
The UITT was chosen as the 2008 venue for the launch of the country’s ‘Year of Tourism’. According to the President of Ukraine, Victor Yuschenko, tourism in the country has grown 25% annually. The government is very confident that the market is growing and this year’s exhibition will feature 688 exhibitors from 58 different countries and regions. This is an increase of 40% since the year before. Additionally the Ukraine International Travel Market will be celebrating if 15th edition and it has moved to the International Exhibition Center in Kiev. The move is thanks to the travel markets growth and it brings hotels, SPA, recreation centers, museums and travel agencies from over 40 countries together to promote tourism.
With the Lunar New Year set to begin on Jan. 29, it’s time to start thinking about where to get some red-colored dishes (symbolizing good luck), or something with lots of noodles in it (symbolizing long life), or traditional, sticky sweet rice flour balls to remind you that life can and should be so. Thankfully, Kyiv is not as completely homogeneous as it might seem.
Continue reading ‘Asian restaurants in which to fete the new year’
Canadian Inna Gertsberg has been living in Kyiv for one year and working in advertising. For her one of the most memorable aspects of life in Ukraine has been the familiar sight of middle-aged expat men playing playboy lovers with girls half their age. If you could have seen these men in their own countries, she says, you’d be surprised too!
Western Ukraine is the homeland of one of the most profound and intriguing altar sculptors of the 18th century – the famous artist known as Master Johann Pinzel (1751 – 1770s). Master Pinzel, whose real name remains a mystery, is most known as the founder of “Lviv Rococo” style in art and the author of beautiful altars and sculptures he made in Buchach and Horodenka. Continue reading ‘The Year of Pinzel in Ukraine’
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