Blogs from Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, Europe

I know that I haven't blogged in a long time, and there were a few reasons for it. Firstly, I wanted to wait for my camera to be fixed, so that I could add photos, but I haven't been very proactive with that. I think I should just get a new one, and it will be easier. Secondly, I was waiting for my issues with my accomodation and job to get sorted out, so that I would be more settled in. But the last week has been quite exciting and action packed, so I figured I could just talk about that for now, rather than have a massive entry later. So when I left you off last week, I was still living with Olsa, and was waiting for a language centre to accept me, after many ... read more

We did not have a chance to go to some internet cafe in the last couple of days. And this one has obviously USB ports disabled. So no pics :( And blog without pics is rather boring .... Ok, at least few words. We went to Volgograd, it was unbelievable hot !! Especially in a train car without airconditioning. I popped out my head from the window - hot air. In Volgograd it was around 40 degrees celcius. We well remember how we we cursing at irish weather .... :) We visited museum of the Stalingrad Battle. Very nice. Can't be described in words. some details here: http://panorama.volgadmin.ru/opis_eng.html Then we went to see Mamayev Kurgan. Very emotional. All the sculptures, music playing, sounds of the war in the background, some speeches in russian - what was ... read more

October 15th - Trip, arrival and homecoming Down to the station on the double and onto the morning express to DP. Apparently the Ukrainian version of an express train is simply one which runs during the day with really uncomfortable seats, because it doesn't seem any faster or slower than the usual night trains. I have rather a lot of difficulty with my seat, its not written obviously on my ticket and my understanding of Russian isn't great. I asked the original doorman by making a seat with my hands, and he told me what I thought meant 15. Turns out it was 55, and I was confronted about 2 hours into my journey by a man who woke me up to kick me out of my seat. Eventually, we found a new one. One row ... read more