Architecture Ukraine: Beyond the Front

I did not know the term, but I am part of it a little: dark tourism. It’s about a day trip to Auschwitz. Or Westerbork. Or as they do here: Chernobyl.

I am trying to fit in this day in my schedule, but when I was checking on internet how to organize it, I also found a website for a tourist military trip. Play soldier for a weekend. Drive a tank. Learn how to shoot. Fun for the whole family. If only there were lions here…
https://www.tripadvisor.nl/Attraction_Review-g294474-d4379418-Reviews-Military_Tours_in_Ukraine_Day_Tours-Kiev.html

Don’t think Kiev’s cuisine is only having big chunks of meat, potatoes and beet soup. There are at least a hundred sushi restaurants in town. And of course you can find a restaurant with raw food speciality.

For the last couple of years I made small step preparation for a project of rebuilding Mogadishu in Somalia. I am in Ukraine for three weeks now and in that period there have been three hotels blown away in Mogadishu by terrorist group El Shabaab. It is quite relaxed here, in Ukraine.
A good day to be cynical…

During a conflict, a war, you have a border that frequently changes position. The exact track of the border is not fixed, and both camps take strategic places on both sides of this border. But actually it is not one border, but two.
In the Ukrainian war we have the pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army.

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You cannot escape it. Talking to soldiers. Talking to people from OSCE who are monitoring safety in the area of Mariupol. You start talking about the war and about military strategies. And I hear myself talking in a conversation, even though I really have no expertise on it. I parrot some people, and I listen and ask questions.

I remember playing the game of Risk with friends. And another board game  called Diplomacy was our favourite. Back then we always were arguing about the Black See as well…

Photo by Liva Dudareva (METASITU)

It’s very warm here.  A continental climate really shows… Last few weeks a temperature between 28 and 35 degrees happened pretty often. But that’s not the only reason why ‘the city is hot’.

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De street where I ‘live’ in Kiev has a necessary services.

And I saw it again: the law of the inhibiting lead. In the past everybody knew about the television that was controlled by the state. Nowadays some of the channels are more transparent and democratic than for example the Dutch broadcasting associations.

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I heard it a few times now: ‘I was never really concerned about it, but now I have to choose between Europe and Russia.’ Not a single conversation in Ukraine is not about politics, the war, the future. But it’s different for all how to choose which side they are.

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