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Features

Kyiv’s Metro Attracts Local and Foreign Admirers

Metro systems have long been a fixture in European and American cities, but in the city of Kyiv, underground trains are a contemporary option for public transport. Opened in the fall of 1960 after an eleven year construction period, Kyiv’s metro system is a measure of speed and style. Indeed, though rapid transit may have been a latecomer, but these days over 1.7 million passengers swear by its speed and efficiency.

Features

Top Ten Reasons to Travel to Ukraine

If you have been following this website, you will have already discovered dozens of reasons to travel to Ukraine. If you are new to our Ukrainian travel community, the writers would like to take an opportunity to offer ten excellent reasons to consider Ukraine as your next tourist destination.

Features

Contemporary Ukrainian Tractor Industry Tells another Story

In the novel, “A Short History of Ukrainian Tractors,” readers may be familiar with the travails of an elderly pensioner desperate to write his treatise on the fallen state of the Ukrainian tractor industry while doing verbal battle with a Ukrainian émigré who wants his hand in marriage in exchange for a visa, but there is another story to tell about this indispensable piece of farm equipment.

Features

Ukrainian Flora and Fauna Come Alive with Myth

Christened with the moniker, “a land of golden wheat”, Ukraine is undoubtedly one of the most fertile agricultural regions of Europe. With over 30,000 species of plant life, natural vegetation covers one third of the country, and nearly 45,000 species of wildlife roam the geography of Ukraine, as well. Elk, bear, wild boar, and wolves inhabit the dense forests. The coastal region of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov is a birdwatchers paradise with herons, pelicans, gulls, and martins populating the craggy coastal cliffs. Yet, physical variety is only part of Ukraine’s flora and fauna story.

Features

Ukrainian Libraries Sequester the Origins of Written Language and History

Often a fixture of childhood or a place of refuge during adulthood, libraries around the world share the pungent smell of binder’s glue, the brittleness of worn texts, and the familiar silence of learning. Yet, reading was once the sole intellectual providence of religious men, and like other regions of the world, in Ukraine the relationship between faith and written language spawned this country’s first libraries.

Features

Tracking the Soulful Traveler Like a Panther

Sometimes, in the month of November, a faint outline of Ukraine casts itself against the steel gray sky, appearing wordlessly in the soulful traveler’s rearview mirror. The faint, porous Ukrainian borders materialize long after the sun begins to wither. Only when the air is motionless, the sky, so crisp, that the teeth ache, and the corn stalks have disappeared under the plow does one detect the foreign vista behind. The film stills rolling across the plains are not part of this century. One does not see the effects of Chernobyl on the bruised land or drink the poisoned water. Most cannot picture the pinched faces of young girls with little to believe in but the familiar strains of pop music and the hands of their boyfriends between their thighs. The empty grocery store shelves and the derelict buildings of a once grand and fortuitous country do not cross the view.

Features

Ukrainian Chocolate

Dentists may despair at the international obsession with chocolate, but no matter one’s nationality this sweet blend of cocoa and sugar is beguiling to palettes everywhere. Svitoch, one of Ukraine’s most popular brands of chocolate, has fed this country’s history of chocolate obsession since the 8th century and continues to satisfy cravings today.

Features

Psanky Eggs and Ukrainian Easter Traditions

Easter bunnies hop across tables in America. Solemn Christian remembrances of Biblical stories of the resurrection capture the attention of many believers in spring as well. While the exquisitely painted and decorated psanky eggs may be a signature of Ukrainian Easter tradition across the world, a host of other customs rooted in pagan belief defines this rite of spring.

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