David, Liliana, Chrisna and I took off for a long weekend in Kiev at the beginning of December.
I was hoping to meet with a colleague who develops centers for entrepreneurship in Ukraine, and see if there was a possibility for some similar efforts in Moldova.
Kiev was COLD.
Kiev was GREY.
Kiev was EXPENSIVE.
We stayed at the flat of a friend of Liliana's. We learned that folks with basic jobs cannot afford to live anywhere near the city center. We were 15 minutes walking to a subway station, and then a 30 minute ride into the city from there.
So we walked on the ice in the cold wind, past block after block of huge gray apartment buildings near nothing but other huge gray apartment buildings, past street side vegetable vendors to the subway.
We took the trains, which were really quite ok, until we reached the center of the city. When we got out, were must have been
hundreds of feet underground. The escalator going up was the longest and steepest I'd ever seen in my life. Sure enough, we emerged on a broad hilltop, covered with cathedrals, nice buildings and fancy shops. We saw the surrounding city from high up in a cathedral clock tower.
For the most part, we were not that impressed. In the summer or spring, this would likely be a much nicer place. But the winter under-emphasizes the trees and rivers, and over-emphasizes the course blocky architecture and lack of attention to exterior aesthetics. It was my second visit, and Kiev is remains in my mind an expensive, ugly, unkempt city with beautiful people walking about when the weather is nice.
We ate street food. The picture at the top shows Chrisna and I at our absolute happiest moment of the trip. We found a Turkish Kebob stand just outside of an expensive food market, and boy was that good!
Getting a Haircut
And the cultural highlight of it all for me? I got a haircut. That's me in the first picture waiting, looking at the newspaper as if I can read Ukrainian. I found the sports page immediately. Now that's living baby! I've gotten a haircut in all kinds of places. It's one of the things I like to do when I travel. If I find a plain old barber shop, or simple salon, I'll make sure to go and get a haircut. There are lots of reasons this is a good idea, and a few reasons why it is a bad idea. The good is that hair salons and barber shops are gossip centers and a great way to get some local flavor and information. Second, hair style is highly regional cultural specific. The differences between a foreign and a local haircut can be very subtle, but completely obvious to a local. Getting a local haircut immediately helps you blend, certainly not completely, but at least enough not to stick out quite so much. Third, each haircut in a foreign place is an adventure for both oneself and for the barber or stylist. What will it look like? Who is this person? How can we communicate? Fun fun fun.
At this place, the poor stylist had just put curlers in her hair, and she was so embarrassed that she yelled at David for taking a picture. Then her friend ran out of the back laughing, and got another picture of he cutting the American's hair. Chrisna waited outside completely nervous about what this was going to look like.
Kiev was COLD.
Kiev was GREY.
Kiev was EXPENSIVE.
We stayed at the flat of a friend of Liliana's. We learned that folks with basic jobs cannot afford to live anywhere near the city center. We were 15 minutes walking to a subway station, and then a 30 minute ride into the city from there.
So we walked on the ice in the cold wind, past block after block of huge gray apartment buildings near nothing but other huge gray apartment buildings, past street side vegetable vendors to the subway.We took the trains, which were really quite ok, until we reached the center of the city. When we got out, were must have been
hundreds of feet underground. The escalator going up was the longest and steepest I'd ever seen in my life. Sure enough, we emerged on a broad hilltop, covered with cathedrals, nice buildings and fancy shops. We saw the surrounding city from high up in a cathedral clock tower.For the most part, we were not that impressed. In the summer or spring, this would likely be a much nicer place. But the winter under-emphasizes the trees and rivers, and over-emphasizes the course blocky architecture and lack of attention to exterior aesthetics. It was my second visit, and Kiev is remains in my mind an expensive, ugly, unkempt city with beautiful people walking about when the weather is nice.
We ate street food. The picture at the top shows Chrisna and I at our absolute happiest moment of the trip. We found a Turkish Kebob stand just outside of an expensive food market, and boy was that good!
Getting a Haircut
And the cultural highlight of it all for me? I got a haircut. That's me in the first picture waiting, looking at the newspaper as if I can read Ukrainian. I found the sports page immediately. Now that's living baby! I've gotten a haircut in all kinds of places. It's one of the things I like to do when I travel. If I find a plain old barber shop, or simple salon, I'll make sure to go and get a haircut. There are lots of reasons this is a good idea, and a few reasons why it is a bad idea. The good is that hair salons and barber shops are gossip centers and a great way to get some local flavor and information. Second, hair style is highly regional cultural specific. The differences between a foreign and a local haircut can be very subtle, but completely obvious to a local. Getting a local haircut immediately helps you blend, certainly not completely, but at least enough not to stick out quite so much. Third, each haircut in a foreign place is an adventure for both oneself and for the barber or stylist. What will it look like? Who is this person? How can we communicate? Fun fun fun.
At this place, the poor stylist had just put curlers in her hair, and she was so embarrassed that she yelled at David for taking a picture. Then her friend ran out of the back laughing, and got another picture of he cutting the American's hair. Chrisna waited outside completely nervous about what this was going to look like.
No comments:
Post a Comment