I
don’t know why but for a long time Ukraine had fascinated me, I used to have an
artist friend in Barcelona who exhibited on The Rambla and she was from Ukraine
and for a really daft reason, I had a romantic idea about Kiev, based solely on
the last movement of Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky, The Great Gate of
Kiev which probably no longer exists. (Oh, it does but in a modern version).
And
then, about a year ago I got to meet a young girl, Marina. We chatted by
text and video online and got on well, and I discovered that she lived in Kharkiv
which is to the east of Kiev, not far from the Russian border. Of course,
Ukraine used to be part of the old Soviet Union and it achieved independence
when the USSR became simply Russia.
And
during 2015, I would often read about the fighting in the east of Ukraine,
mainly around Donetsk. Rebels, supported by Russia want closer ties with
Russia. But the government in Kiev looks west to closer ties with the European
Union. And of course I read about the Malaysian Airlines aircraft which was
shot down near to the Russian border. During 2015, Russia grabbed back Crimea
and there is still sporadic fighting around Donetsk.
So to
this day, it is not a happy or peaceful part of the world. Let’s not forget
either that the notorious Chernobil is in Ukraine to the north of Kiev. I think
that most of Ukraine escaped the subsequent radiation because the wind at the
time carried it in a westerly direction.
But
despite this turmoil, (or maybe because of it because it was a way of giving
support to my new friend who actually lives there all the time), I decided to
visit her. We chatted about dates and settled on the last week of the year –
New Year in Ukraine, how exciting! I think some of my friends were a little
nervous about this trip but where in the world is totally safe? Walk out of
your front door and you take a risk. Stay indoors and maybe the roof will
collapse! In any case, I know from experience that TV news always paints an
exaggerated picture of troubles in a city for example. There were riots in
Bangkok in 2014 which really hit the news but I bet there were many parts of
the city where you would have been totally unaware of what was going on. I used
to travel to Belfast in Northern Ireland on business at the time of “The
Troubles” and again, it was peaceful except for one occasion when my client got
lost in the area of The Falls Road. “Oops”, he said. The airport was
ring-fenced with huge concrete blocks, I remember that.
So
three days after Christmas 2015, I took a flight from Barcelona to Kiev. There
is a connection to Kharkiv but I wanted to spend some time in Kiev. The flight
was an hour late so I would probably have missed the connection anyway! Before
leaving Barcelona I changed some euros into Ukrainian Hirvnias. This was a wise
move based on previous experience because, on arriving in a new country the
first move is to find an ATM but they always dish out large denomination notes
which are far from idea for the first purchase one makes which is usually the
airport bus. But the exchange rate was so awful that I “bought” an absolute
minimum, just 100uah which cost me 6 euros – I knew that would cover the bus
fare and nothing more.
It
was dark by the time the bus arrived at the central station and for a short
while I lost my sense of direction because it was the opposite side of the
track to what I was expecting. But I had my trusty map which I had printed out
from Google Maps before leaving home so I soon realised that I had to walk
through to the other side. There are many platforms and departure lounges
between the two sides of the station but I never saw any trains! I thought it
would be like Woking! It is all rather unnerving to have absolutely no idea
what the Ukrainian text was saying to me, of course it is in Cyrillic, same as
Russian. I took a long cold walk up the hill to where I knew my hotel would be,
The Ibis. I had forgotten my gloves, being rather complacent in the balmy
temperatures in Spain, so I had to put each hand in my pocket alternately to
keep them warm. I had no Ukrainian money but that didn’t matter, very soon I
was in a warm international hotel and they accept Visa cards.
I had
a couple of beers, a really nice meal in the restaurant and went to bed. I
couldn’t make contact with Marina but I was confident she would be waiting for
me at Kharkiv Airport next day. Which she was!
My
short flight to Kharkiv was in the afternoon so I had time to take a walk
around Kiev. It felt so exciting, so different! And the other peculiarity was
that, having experienced Christmas in Spain on the 25th December, I was thrust
into the anticipation of the Orthodox Christmas on 7th January.
I was
a little nervous about the ATMs in the airport and the railway station; I could
see no sign of a menu in English. A good job I bought those 100uah! But, on my
walk, I was aiming to find a bank and there I gained a huge wad of Ukrainian
notes. I asked for various denominations and they took me at my word, giving me
a wonderful selection of notes, down to what would be coins in the EU. One euro
is a coin of course, but in Ukraine, the equivalent - 25uah - is a note. Even
5uah is a note. So when I paid for anything I got out my wad of money and
peeled off the required amount rather like a mafia boss!
I
took a leisurely stroll back to the hotel, checked out and walked back down to
the railway station to pick up the airport bus. The rest was routine, very easy
because I only had cabin baggage and the flight to Kharkiv was only one hour.
And there to meet me at Meeters and Greeters was Marina who previously I had
only seen on my computer screen. She looked younger than I had imagined and I
joked later that maybe she had sent her younger sister instead. She carried two
shopping bags and it was only later that she handed one to me as a gift which
touched me enormously. Inside were a card, a coffee mug and a brilliant choice,
a book of drawing paper which I used a lot during my stay in Kharkiv.
She
rang for a taxi from a firm which she knew and it arrived quickly. The airport
arrivals hall - also at Kiev - was full of men offering taxi rides but of
course the prices are exorbitant. We found the hotel easily, Hotel19,
absolutely beautiful! Marina stayed for a short while in the room and then went
off to her English class.
I
chose Hotel19 on the Booking.com website and I wasn’t disappointed it was very
stylish, they had obviously chosen a skillful designer because there was a very
strong image; everything had the same corporate ID.
I
won’t document the week in detail because it is a bit of a blur now anyway.
Most days, Marina came from her home which was out near the airport and we
either went out walking, visiting art galleries, travelling on the Underground
but we also spent a lot of time chatting in the hotel room, usually for
afternoon tea which I ordered on room service. I tried to draw her portrait in
the book she gave me but it didn’t look anything like her. So I promised that I
would get Antonina in Barcelona Rambla to draw a portrait and I would send it
to her. At first she came by bus and train until I realised how long it took
her so, from then on, I paid for a taxi. By Spanish standards it was very
cheap, about 4 euros for a 30 minute drive. When I told her how cheap it was
for me she accepted the money.
During
my stay, I got chatting with one or two of my fellow guests in the hotel as
well as the staff who were super-friendly and Marina was impressed at how
gregarious I am, but I explained to her that I wasn’t always like that! In my
previous life I was something of a recluse as I wrote in a previous chapter.
The
strange thing for me was that, having celebrated Christmas in Spain, I was back
into the preparations for the Orthodox Christmas with festive stalls selling
food and drink and Christmassy music in the bar but their big celebration was
the New Year and that of course we share that date! Marina spent New Year’s Eve
with her family so wandered around town trying to find a bar that was open. By
this time the whole town had shut down, the shops had closed, I expected that
but all the bars were closed also. What happens is that there are private
parties up to 1am and then the hoi-polloi are allowed in but I wasn’t going to
wait that long for a beer so I went back to the hotel and raided the mini-bar.
Then I went out for a meal with a Dutch guy I met at the hotel, we managed to
find a small bar and restaurant. A meal and wine for 3 euros. He invited me to
a party but it was due to start at 1am and he wasn’t sure how far it was from
the hotel or when he would come back. I didn’t fancy being stranded in a town in
the early hours of the morning where I don’t speak the language so I chose the
easy option. I spent the rest of the evening in the hotel reception because
they had laid on food and drink – what the English would call “bubbly”, not
Champagne but a weak fizzy wine. Asti Spumante, I think is a popular brand in
the UK. That was just as well because I drank quite a lot of it but I had no
hangover the next morning.
I
waited for Midnight and The President’s speech and then went to bed.
I had
an interesting conversation with an American guy one evening in the bar, a
lawyer so he said. He came to my table so he got what he deserved. I will
explain! I guess lots of western guys come to Ukraine looking for a girlfriend
and Ukrainian girls appear on websites either looking for an affair or
something more permanent. But this man - he told me he was 48 - was bragging
about two young Ukrainian girls that he knew and he couldn’t make up his mind
which one to take out on a date (euphemism for screw) the following day. He was
a body-builder and he showed me photos of him, bare-chested with a young girl
draped over him (I thought maybe he had a wife back in the States). I asked him
what was in it for them which I admit was a bit cheeky. He seemed quite happy
to explain that obviously, what with his well-developed body, they found him
attractive. But he was macho-man personified, I assume living in a world where
people are either full-blooded male (or in his case, wide-bodied man) or curvy
female. Anything else is a perversion because, when I mentioned that I had a
ladyboy friend in Manila, he got rather agitated and left rapidly, steaming
gently.
When
I saw him two days later at breakfast, I went over to his table and used the
apology which is a bit of as cop-out: “I am sorry if I upset you the other
night”. He said it was fine but he didn’t look very happy with the world. Maybe
the Ukrainian chick had stood him up (but he had a spare). When he left the
restaurant passing my table, he didn’t even look at me.
Before
he showed me his glamour pictures, we had been talking about web-design and in
particular what is called SEO, search engine optimisation which means getting a
high ranking on Google and appearing on the first page. The common notion is
that no one bothers to look beyond the first two pages of a search result.
I was
getting a little bit high, talking technology late at night so I was full of
ideas for him. He showed me his website on his mobile. And he told me his name.
Next
day I thought, OK I will have a look at his ranking in Google but when I
entered his name and city in the USA, the first few results were all about his
being banned from his professional association 10 years ago for a fairly
serious misdemeanour. That’s SEO working! I forget the details now but there
was a messy divorce and I think that he persuaded his new wife to impersonate
his previous wife on the telephone in order to obtain confidential information.
I don’t want to appear smug and I am not mentioning his name or even where he
lives. And in any case it was a long time ago. We have all done stupid things
in the past (maybe not breaking the law necessarily) and I am no exception. I
just think it was an ironic reversal; there we were talking about how to get a
high ranking in Google. I guess he managed that! More recently people have
claimed the right to be “forgotten” but clearly he hadn’t achieved that; I am
sure he would like that but maybe he would lose his website ranking also.
I met
three guys at the hotel. The third, from London, was investing in property in
Kharkiv because he had confidence in the future of the city. I hope he is
right. It is very near the Russian border and I guess many people there are
Russian sympathisers but most of the trouble seems to be further south in the
region of Donetsk. Kharkiv is 500km directly east from Kiev. (I knew that
because, when travelling to the airport at Kiev on my way to Kharkiv the
airport bus was on the main road to Kharkiv with signs showing 500km. I was
glad it took the turning off to the airport!)
When
I returned to Barcelona, I did it in two stages again. I could have taken a
very early flight from Kharkiv at 7am which connected with the daily Barcelona
flight but that would have meant getting up at some unearthly hour. So I went
the previous afternoon and spent a leisurely evening in a hotel close to Kiev
Airport. The flight to Barcelona was at 9.40am and the hotel had a free shuttle
bus to the airport which only took 20 minutes so that was easy.
During
2016, I travelled 3 times to see Marina. On the second time, when it was
warmer, I offered to take her to Kiev. She had never been there - indeed she
had never been on a plane. But I had to go back to the UK because a friend was
visiting me so I arranged to go back a month later and take her. We were not
very lucky with the weather, it rained a lot but it was an interesting couple
of days. At the end of our time there, she went back alone to Kharkiv and I
returned to Barcelona. Oh, I should add, that on the outward journey, I went to
Kharkiv to pick her up before going to Kiev. I thought that it would be best to
take care of her on her first flight.
And
then in September, she came to visit me in Girona. That was wonderful! It was
still warm enough to go to the beach and then I went back with her to Kharkiv
for a few days. She wanted to come earlier but I needed to produce a letter of
invitation in order for her to get a visa. And the office of the Policia
National which handled that was closed for the whole of August. That was
very frustrating!
From
this point on, I wrote about my journeys on my blog so I won’t repeat them here.
Anyway, this is a biography, not a blog!
