Ukraine

Kiev

Despite being born and raised in Kiev, I found that I didn't remember much of the city (ofcourse it's also changed a lot), and that made me a little sad. The one place I did remember well was my old house and school. Nothing changed there apart from cars being parked out the front. It was such a strange feeling seeing it all again! Everything seemed so much smaller and less imposing than I remember. Even the walk between my house and the school seemed shorter, the little hill where we use to toboggan more of a bump than a hill. My school turned out to be much smaller than MacRob; I would have assured anyone that it was bigger. Here is what they look like:

House



School



What made the trip down memory lane really special as well was reconnecting with my childhood best friend. For as long as I can remember she lived one floor above me, we were in the same class at school and we had the same name. How could she not have been my best friend? :)

I almost didn't knock on her door because I thought that after 17 years there was little chance her family would still be living there. I am so glad I did though! To me it felt like the little girl I remembered hasn't changed at all, simply got a little bigger. Apparently the same could be said about me. I wish I had childhood photos here for comparison purposes.



And later dinner at her house, where her husband got Tim drunk and gifted him with a 3 litre barrel of beer. Jack & Polina be warned - the beer is coming your way! It's going to be a very well travelled beer as well, it's already crossed one country due to lack of suitable drinking companions.



And last but not least - catching up with Dennis and meeting his lovely wife. I can't believe that I didn't take more photos.



It was a very adult occasion with far less carousing than previously associated with Mr Matveev. Things have changed due to the presence of the following two factors:




Lvov

Spared Nazi destruction during WW2, Lvov was an incredibly lovely city and a very welcome stop before Poland. I really liked the complete lack of Soviet era buildings in the historic city centre. Having now had months and months of Soviet architecture, I can't believe how an architectural style could be so utterly without redeeming features (my opinion). How can anyone could build something so ugly after this kind of example?