This will be the last post from my Ukraine series. Overall I spent in Ukraine around 5 weeks and visited 4 cities. The last place we went to was Zaparozhye, a city with population of around 1 million people stretching for several miles along Dniepr - the longest river in Ukraine. During our visit we stayed at my cousin who lives and works in the city.
Zaporozhye is famous for its power plant - DneproGES. It is a huge dam connecting two parts of the city and supplying electricity to the numerous plants nesting along the river bank. It was built in 1932 and is the largest hydroelectric power plant in Ukraine.
We took a walk across it and I should say it was quite a nervous adventure. The bridge above the dam swings with each passing truck and you literally have to hold the railings to be able to stay straight.
Somewhere in the middle my cousin commented that the bridge is long overdue for repairs and then I really regretted I allowed him to get me out over there. I truly felt relieved when we were finally over on the other side. By the way, the dam was named after Lenin and still holds that title (you can read it on the sign, in Russian of course).
The entertainment industry in Zaporozhye is not nearly as developed as in Kiev. There is just one bowling club in the city. ;-) We did find what to do however.
We went to the historical museum which is located on the Khortisa island just down the river from the dam. There is a popular belief that in the XIV-XV centuries Khortitsa served as a camp for kozaks, free people who fled from landlords and made a military camp on the island. The museum guide however rebuffed the idea and claimed that archaeological surveys prove that there has never been a camp on the island itself, although there were quite a few kozak camps in other places along the river.
In 18th century Russian queen Ekaterina II abolished kozaks military organization - the Sitch. Part of the kozaks who fled Russian troops settled on the banks of Dnepr river founding the city of Zaporozhye.
Today the city government with support from private businesses is building a reduced size model of a camp on the island which among other things will have VIP accommodations for important guests. Part of the financing comes from entertainment industry. I was told they use the camp to film some scenes from a future movie about Ukrainian kozaks.
Now this is a bonus shot from the city of Zaporozhye. I captured the scene close to my cousin’s apartment. This may mean nothing to you but the image does revive some memories from my childhood. The lady by the wall (click on the image to enlarge) collects empty bottles for recycling. My dad not once used to send me to such a place to exchange for money the empty bottles we collected over the week. I didn’t mind much since the profit was usually all mine to keep. ;-)
As I already mentioned, this will be the last post from my Ukraine series however I will be happy to answer any of your questions in the comments. Ukraine is an interesting country which offers genuine history and amazing traditions. I hope this series of posts conveys this idea despite some dark bits here and there.
I have recently received an email from one of my readers asking how to call Ukraine without spending a lot of green. Since both my and my wife’s parents live in Ukraine (as well as many relatives) the topic of international phone calls to Ukraine has never been off the table and we have probably tried every possible way to save on international calling. Here are a few tips that will help you call Ukraine (and other ex-Soviet countries) without braking the bank.
As I mentioned before, our next planned stop was Kiev, the administrative and business center of Ukraine. We spent in Kiev 2 days and were staying with my cousin who moved to the city in mid 90’s and has lived and worked there ever since.
Being the capital Kiev attracts more investment and business than any other city in Ukraine. Imagine Washington DC, New York, and San Francisco combined in one piece. Of course you should scale it down to Ukrainian size but you get the idea.
Abundance of business is the reason why my cousin moved to Kiev in 90’s. He is a professional freelance sound engineer who has worked with every possible rock and pop band in Ukraine. In 2005 he happened to be at the audio console when then elected president of Ukraine Victor Yanukovish was giving a press conference (the results of that election were later overthrown by supreme court). 
My cousin also has a great sense of humor. You can see it from some of the pictures here. On one of them he is posing in his studio at the drums. The other one is taken in Botanic Garden which is a huge park we visited together in Kiev. The sign says: “Beware of ticks. Stay on the trailâ€. In the background, my wife, my cousin and his wife stage three dangerous ticks. :-)
The next destination of my trip is Kiev where I am visiting my cousin. Kiev is the capital and the biggest city in Ukraine. For the trip we decided to take a train - the most popular way of travel over here. Tickets are fairly cheap (around $10-20 one way) and not hard to get unless you travel to hot destinations (like Crimea in summer time).
There is often a line of people at the station so be prepared to spend some time. Since the trains are owned and operated by the government there doesn’t seem to be any incentive to change the system. People who have money and want to avoid the wait have to find ways around it. The usual approach is to find a friend or relative of someone who works at the tickets booth and arrange a transaction privately. 10 Hryvnas ($2) in the passport usually do the magic.
I told you earlier about 
Ukraine is a beautiful country. The central part is flat and has very scenic views. I took this picture of sunflowers as we were leaving Kiev for my hometown. Karpati Mountains cover south-west. I never went there but my friends tell me the area is very nice as well. Crimea Peninsula is the southern part of Ukraine. Crimea has sub-tropical climate and is a popular vacation destination among Ukrainians and Russians.
We visited my home town over the weekend and left our kids with grandparents for a week (we are back to Kharkiv right now). During my 2 days stay I enjoyed homemade food (some of it is depicted to the right) and spent quite some time discussing Ukrainian politics and economy with my dad who gave me an excellent however a little sad explanation of why Ukrainians are poor. Here it is:
We went to my friend’s summer house yesterday. The house is a small cabin near Kharkiv and half-acre of land around it. We ate barbecue, drank beer and talked, talked, talked. My friend runs small business and has radically right (by US standards) views on economic situation in Ukraine. According to him Ukrainians a poor because they don’t want to work. They are grown up with an idea that the government will always take care of them which was one of the premises of the old regime. 
Here is the scoop of the problem which affects us directly. Ukraine issues two types of passports: internal to use inside Ukraine and external to use for travel. My wife’s external (travel) passport expired last spring and we obtained a re-entry permit from Ukrainian consulate in the US before going to Ukraine. We planned to get her travel passport renewed in Ukraine however once in Kharkiv we realized that we left her internal passport back in the US (you need to have it with you to renew your travel passport). I promptly asked my friends to DHL me the passport only to find that the Ukrainian law doesn’t allow passports in the mail. Now we (or rather my wife) are stuck in Ukraine without documents to leave the country and we can’t get them from the Government because Ukrainian law doesn’t allow us to receive necessary paperwork by mail. Tell me, should I laugh or should I cry?