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I write here some experiences to show the reality which is often quite different from what travel guides tell you. This is not so different from what I've done in other areas, such as psychology and bicycle component reviews, where I analysed and saw the nonsense in books, magazine articles etc. Sometimes these areas overlap so I will link to some pages of psychological analysis, and analysis in bicycle components.
You can find an overview of what I'm working on on this page: WHS: Projects.
My plan in December 2018 was to have a talk in Kharkov, in a English language club and to perhaps have a talk in Kiev too in a language club there... Due to some issues there it didn't happen when I wanted it and I shortened my trip so this 'event' was delayed. I will try to arrange it in Kiev and Kharkov in May 2019...
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You can email me about any of the topics I write about on these pages, via the link on the top-left of this page. I'm especially interested in views on Ukraine by people living there... See my VK page for more about this topic. Or here: The real Ukraine. |
2017-8-1: A while ago, I read a brief review of a travel guide (I think it was about Romania) that said that in that particular country people drive carelessly, but the person commenting on that book disagreed. I then thought back to some comments that people from Ukraine made about the trains long ago, around the time of my first trip to Ukraine: "The trains in Ukraine are awful!". Only much later did I use the trains, and found out that they are fine! I like them, and the night trains are great... Even the elektrichky, which are ultra cheap barebones (well, the seats are of wood, fine with me, who cares about that for not too long distances?) are good. Then recently I mentioned to a fellow traveller on my trip in Latvia, that I prefer a less neat nature, not so neatly cut grass etc., and the comment was that people want to show something nice/neat, like cleaning up your house before a visit, and I can understand it but now comes something interesting, which explains the disparaging comments from people about their own country and in travel books, and more:
1) Local people want to show their country in the best light, and they can be disparaging as a warning about some things to prevent disappointments. They can also give experiences as facts which however are not facts (see Ukrainian vs. Russian in western Ukraine)
2) Travel writers use the input of what people tell them as facts, so not critically analysing what they are told. The reality is often just a little bit or even a lot different, but if the writers see anything that makes them think that what they were told might be right, then what was told to them they then write about as being fact. And so exceptions are thought to be 'always so', and thus described as being the norm...
The travel writers all got it wrong about the use of Russian and Ukrainian in western Ukraine, as I discovered when comparing experiences with Ukrainians who are more critical in their thinking (see also my critical book review of a Dutch book on Ukraine), I further didn't see dangerous driving in Ukraine (instead I found them watching out for pedestrians at least as well as in NL), I also didn't see people riding on sidewalks with cars except where explicitly allowed, the trains in Ukraine are just fine (and considering the low price of fares, complaining about it is insane anyway!) and there is more that just isn't an accurate description in the travel guides.
So you need to take all negative 'warnings' in travel guides with a bucket of salt...
See further for a summary and why I made these trips. The links here go direct to my descriptions of the particular trip, in reverse chronological order.
Of many of my trips I've not yet uploaded pictures made with my main camera (delayed and delayed, I hope in Oct. 2018 I will finish this), but you can find many other pictures that I made with my mobile phone, on my VK page. There I also give more views/information on various topics related to life in the countries that I visited. See: http://www.vk.com/w.h.scholten (When in Ukraine, use VPN, e.g. for Android phones/tablets you can use turbo VPN, as the politicians decided in their wisdom to block VK there as it's a Russian site... hmm, and use what instead, that other, abonimable, social site? (something with 'book' in the name) No thanks.)
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In future I would like to visit Belarus, Romania, Moldova, Georgia, but I think it's not needed any more, to decide on what I want to do in the future.
Feb./March 2018: London (UK). This was for work but I added several days to explore London. I discuss supermarkets, traffic lights, museums and more.
On youtube with a music video I read a comment, several years ago, about Ukraine, that it has "the coolness of Russia, without the cold". Funny, but of course Russian-coolness pre-Crimea invasion... Summers in Ukraine are hot which I like, winters are cold with lots of snow which I like, it has cool old style buildings, some of the soviet buildings are not bad, the tile art-work on flats, bus stops, is interesting, the food is good (e.g. vareniki with cottage cheese and sour cream, or pancakes with cheese and raisins to name just 2), some Ukrainian tea brands make my favourite teas, I like various Ukrainian popular and folk music, folk costumes are cool, and more. What's not to like are for example treatment of animals and people who have money showing it off. I also don't like the ridiculously expensive restaurants in Kiev for the same reason, they are for show-offs.
In cheaper hotels the receptionists often don't speak English, whereas in hostels which are even cheaper, receptionists often speak English. In general few people speak English (or German, or French), which was quite surprising as I had the impression that the Soviet and hence Ukrainian education system was very good, so it's useful, to say the least, to speak some Russian or Ukrainian, so you can buy bus and train tickets, and ask directions etc. That way you can also have much more fun on the trips, talking to people on buses, trains, in hostels, etc.
By the way, last year I already tried to get a long term visa for Ukraine but got no reply from the embassey here in NL to emails, and a non-useful reply by phone. Some people then said "They likely don't know the rules themselves..." ;-). I was then told by some people whom I met in Ukraine, that getting a long term visa is quite difficult unless you get a job from an already established company in Ukraine, and told me about an option of esp. starting a business which comes with several requirements, but also of 2 other options. More on this topic perhaps elsewhere later... So moving to Lithuania or Latvia as was suggested to me by a traveller in Kharkov, would be far easier.
Pictures to be added ca. end of Dec. 2017 of trips 3-6,8.
Information on Ukraine:
I don't like the Netherlands, not just the land itself, though that's a big part of the reason. It is boring and ugly flat farmer's land, then a town or city, then farmer's land and so on, with a pathetic single row of trees along roads (this combined with the land being flat and that it's close to sea also means it's almost always windy, the more so the close to the sea of course), river banks cut off for maximum use and made vertical, which all together gives a fake-nature feel. This ugliness is everywhere except in just a few areas such as Veluwe, a part of the province Brabant, and the southern province of Limburg. After returning from Ukraine, the narrow roads and buildings built close together in NL gave me a claustrophobic feel. The weather is also quite bad, a lot of rain, in any season, almost no hot days in summer, almost no good cold snowy days in Winter.
Germany is more to my liking. Most of all in Eastern Germany, where there is more space, and there you will find nice parks, the 'volksparks' (people's parks). It felt to me there a bit similar to Ukraine... What was surprising is how little street lighting there is, and how few houses have lights on at night (outside). This is bad if you have some problems with your bicycle that you need to fix as happened to me, but good for testing bicycle lighting, which I did :) People were often curious about why I was travelling with so much stuff, whereas in NL nobody indicated any interest. When I got talking with them, about not just my trip but about various topics, I liked them more than people in the Netherlands... The disinterest is typical of NL not just in this case of riding with a bicycle. I experienced it with people from other countries too, of course, but in NL far more so.
Last modified: 2018-10-20