Ukraine

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September 11th 2007

Published: September 12th 2007

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Rubino

Mukachevo

Through the Castle

When you enter a new blog on this website, you can choose from a list of locations for the entry. It starts with a general region such as Europe. Then you pick a country, and after that a city, zone, etc...For this entry, I got as for as Ukraine. The nearest city in the drop down list was approximately 400 km away from where I was. This was about the millionth sign that I will probably never find Felsoszinever (pronounced Fell-show-see-never) on a map sold anywhere in the Western world. Nor will I ever probably find Uzhgorod or Mukachevo, other towns I visited close to the Hungarian border. Nonetheless I was there, and these pictures prove it.

Most of you that are reading this probably received my long winded email on my trip to Ukraine, so I will spare you the details. If I did not send it to you and you want to read it, let me know. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me for most of the time while I was in the Carpathian mountains. I will not blame this on the vodka, but rather the weather. As one of the few people who still

Ukrainian Border Agent

Immediate Friends

uses film and no flash, the lack of light was not conducive to my 1970's model camera. So thanks to Orion, my fellow intern at the ICDT, for most of the pictures.

In sum highlights include: eating my first fat sandwich, vodka and cognac for breakfast, getting turned away at the Ukrainian border, and deep conversations with ultra-conservative Hungarian nationalists over bottles of vodka and disco music. As far as cultural experiences go, this probably has to rank as number one on my list. It's hard to imagine the contrast between being inside the European Union and on the fringes of the European Union, but the contrast is stark. Not quite the difference between San Diego and Tijuana, but in the same ball park. The differences become apparent at the border with the organized and expedient Hungarian customs officials (who are typically known as some of the EU's worst) and the slovenly and disheveled Ukrainian officials. Although both sides of the border took equal amounts of cigarette breaks. But the differences run much deeper. I recently read that HIV/AIDS prevalence is declining in the EU, but rising steadily in countries on the fringe (although the article made no mention