Kharkiv & Tiesto

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Today I will put down the little things I remember about my trip to Kharkov on 9-10 September 2009. Actually, it is rather difficult to describe simple walks in many different words. I just go with a map, camera and a player, make pictures, listen to music, rest and eat, sometimes get lost, look and the beautiful buildings and places, and that's all.


I might do long stories, including routes or something like that. I don’t want.


That autumn I was leaving in St. Petersburg for about 4 months. I went to Kharkov because Tiesto had a concert there on September 11; since he is my favourite dj, I had no doubt whether to go there or not. Tiesto is the only dj I will go to see any time he is close enough to Russia. By now I've heard him in Minsk (that's a story to be put down soon), St. Petersburg, and in Kharkov. I wanted to go to Copenhagen on May 29, but decided not to.


I came to Kharkov in the morning by train from St. Petersburg with a train change in Moscow. Visa is not required for Russian citizens there. But they do check your luggage and you fill a paper. It is not very boring. I went to the train station and there I was arrested by the militia to check my luggage. I suppose I look like a convict. Well, not every young man has to be handsome and good-looking, some are less pleasant to look at perhaps, and look suspicious. Be I damned. I am no evil person. And my luggage was only the laptop and some personal stuff. The militia man asked why I came to Kharkov. I said, tourism. He said, there is nothing to be seen. I said well, all the same. I had a bad feeling after this inspection. Then, check-in at the hotel Turist, by the way, prices there are very cheap. After that, a visit to the office of the company to take my Tiesto ticket. There was no problem with that, and the ticket was in an envelope and looked attractive. Their company is a good organizer.


Kharkov looks a usual big city, with metro, parks, historic center and so on. I had a whole day before the party, so I walked all time. The Lenina Prospekt, the Square of Freedom, the Shevchenko Gardens, the old Sumskaya Street, the Lopan River, several churches, a snack in a Soviet-like cafe for cheap, walk again and finally, go to the hotel.


There are some nice fountains in the center and there you can take a rest. Everything is close in the centre, you don’t have to take buses or anything. There are the Botanical Gardens and a zoo close to the centre, museums and other cultural attractions. It will not take you too much time to see the main attractions in the centre.


I am leaving for Kharkov a second time in several days. Guess why? To see Tiesto again, with the Kaleidoscope show. That will be massive. Moreover, I will see a most pleasant, charming and positive girl there. We got acquainted by the Internet. And I really hope to have a wonderful walk with her. That's exciting. Of course, I will be taking some new pictures of the places I like, especially churches, cathedrals, and parks.


This time I will be three days in Kharkov, and may be I manage to get to see some new places. That trip will be described in detail here as well later.


Having had the pleasure of the first day, I ate my supper. It is funny how I almost never feel hungry after kilometers of walking in the city and very rarely visit cafes and buy snacks. Might that be wrong? But I do eat some tasty stuff in the evening. Fruit and meat, and milk products, that’s my healthy diet. Though, to hell with diets, one will be dead all the same, sooner or later, no matter what he eats or drinks.


The second day was peculiar. As far as I remember, I paid for one night only at the hotel, which means that I had to check out at 12-00 and wonder until 9 PM. Oh, that’s quite clear. I went to Kharkov the very next morning after I came from a 3-day little trip to Helsinki and Stockholm, where I spent most of my restricted budget at that time, that's why I had to be economical. I hope you don’t care about chronological order of my tales, neither do I. That story will be much longer, I suppose, and I'll put it down also later.


So my fate was to wonder across the city for some 6-7 hours, which I did. I went to the Gorkogo Park that day. I walked in the centre that day again. I had to be careful not to walk too much, since I was to party all the night. But I did get tired, and ran out of money. I was hoping, leaving St. Petersburg, to change my euro coins, but I didn't know that banks do not accept them.
That day I sat in two parks, having rest. Also saw some churches and monuments to famous people. In a little square I sat for a whole our or even more, before going to the Gorkogo Park.


I had money for a good supper though, which I did have, and that made me suffer during the party. There is nothing worse than to fall asleep in the middle of Tiesto’s set.


They say Bobina is a magnificent dj. I suppose so, but listening to him before Tiesto was quite, if not say much, boring. The Ukrainian artists before Bobina, Smart Apes, played really well and positive music, I liked that.


If a Tiesto fan reads this, he/she will agree with me that Tiesto is wonderful in his playing. And the crowd goes mad. I am not writing a guide on Kharkov, so these deviations are justified. Everybody yells and music makes one happy. That’s one of things I like most in life.


Now some more details about that night. As I said I had little money, it was enough only for a glass of juice... That was a Very Thirsty night, I was suffering much, and very sleepy (perhaps due to the walk). A moment came when I could not stand thirst any more, and decided to try to find a bottle with water. Somebody might leave a bottle somewhere. I did find almost a full bottle with mineral water, and that was my rescue. I drank with so much pleasure and danced again.


But then came one more enemy, sleepiness. I could not stand it any more and went to the whole, sat near the wall and slept for an hour.


At five o'clock it was over. People and me went outside, and a whole crowd started to the supermarket to buy food. I bought a 2-litre bottle of gas water. That was happiness.


My train was to leave at 7 or 8, may be 9, which does not matter much, just I did not have to wait long.


A fine thing then happened in the baggage room. I did remember that I paid for two days of storage. But the man said I had to pay the second day. I had no money by that time, except for some euro coins. We had a small argument. I tried to persuade the man I had paid, and then even added that my train was to leave soon. Finally, I got my laptop back.


After a good night of dance it was a good day of sleep in the train. When I came to Moscow, I found a place to exchange the euro coins for half price and bought me a good sandwich. The journey was mainly over, there were some hours to wait for the train to St. Petersburg.


My next travel to Kharkov will be no less interesting.

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Photos

A Monument to Gogol
A famous writer

A Monument to Makarenko
One of great Russian teachers of the XX century

Tiesto Party
Radmir Ekspohol, Kharkiv, 10 Sept 2009