I know, you’re hearing Ukraine and that would be the last place you would go to right now, isn’t it? However, I am writing this post from home, from Ukraine. It is summer here, it is good to be back. There is war in the east, economy sucks, people are sad, but over the years it was getting worse and worse each and every time I was coming home from somewhere. Since I remember myself I have not heard people saying wow there was hope for Ukraine, things would change for better, there was a future. However, there are little paradises in Ukraine, if one wants to create them. Life goes on, people marry, people have kids, I see some happy and some sad, everyone watches the news, war is not going to end this summer not even the next summer, it will be there for all the following years …If not war, then its consequences which are never sweet. But I will be coming home in Chernivtsi, we want to live, we don’t want to die for somebody else’s ideas of patriotism which in Ukraine means money for a very small circle of people. 6000 are already dead. For what?
I have not traveled much in my country, because there is no time for that. At home, there is time for eating 😛 … So I’d like to present to you my native city. Yes, it is beautiful and I definitely can say it now, after seeing all those fancy places. It is cute and charismatic. Chernivtsi is adorable. People are hard-working here. When they work they work, but when they relax they do it to remember 😛
Chernivtsi has known the rule of different crowns, which has been beneficial – it is what it is only due to that. My grandfather used to say that in the past one could write a letter to the city administration in whatever language. They would reply in the same language and by that he meant Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, German, Polish, Hungarian or Yiddish. That kind of a thing, oh Chernowitz … History has been a bitch for the local population, you would need to read and read and read, it’s not that simple to explain in a blog post. Therefore, please deviate from the mainstream touristic route which means Kiev-Lviv-Odessa and include Chernivtsi on your travel map.
The University building has been enlisted on UNESCO Heritage list. It is really beautiful!
The famous Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu has studied in Chernivtsi, there is a memorial desk on the school walls.
There is a beautiful square called the Turkish Square … in memory of Ottoman times …
Sorry for the bad public transport system … those will be there eternally, I think …
Once upon a time trams used to run in the city … I wish I could see Chernivtsi in that era …
Beautiful photos, I’d never considered visiting Ukraine (particularly given current circumstances) and hadn’t heard of Chernivtsi. Although I suppose I should have given it some thought – my forebears lived there for a period in the early 20th century before returning to Samara/Kuybishev in Russia.
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There are a lot of Bulgarian in Central Ukraine, they still speak Bulgarian. I’ve met a lot of them when I was traveling by the famous train Moskva-Sofia which used to pass through Chernivtsi and Bucharest. Unfortunately, that train has been suspended recently. Regarding traveling in Western Ukraine at the moment – let me tell you that it is absolutely safe. Me myself, I have just returned home for summer and there was no trouble, except that it is on the news … and it will be for at least the next few years. So welcome, feel free, summer is great here!
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