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.
* Over 500 cities in Ukraine were founded more than 900 years ago and
nearly 4,500 villages are more than three hundred years old making this
country one of the oldest and exciting places to visit in the world. Take
a walk through history and discover Ukraine’s past with your contemporary eyes.
* 80 % of the country’s 150,000 cultural, historical and
archaeological monuments dating back to the 9th to 11th centuries,
the pinnacle of the Kyivan Rus rulers and the time period when
Christianity came to the region, are concentrated in Ukraine.
* More than 600 museums introduce travellers to Ukrainian
history, art and culture. Check out the Psanky Museum shaped like an
Easter egg in Kolomiya or the National Bread Museum in Kyiv for a twist.
* Archaeological excavations abound in Ukraine with magnificent
fortresses built by the Italians in the 14th and 15th centuries in Crimea.
Ruins are not only excavated but preserved as long as the money holds out.
The Golden Gate in central Kyiv is one of Ukraine’s excavation projects
still in process.
* If enjoying the outdoors strikes your fancy, Ukraine’s geography
is ideal for mountaineering in the Carpathians, diving in Crimea and
hiking in one of the country’s 33 national parks, biosphere and nature reserves.
* Reconnect with your spiritual side. Ukraine’s mixed pagan and Christian
histories. Odessa’s catacombs and the Lavra Caves in Kyiv pull the curtains back
on a monastic history shuttling you to a veiled world of the soul.
* A land of many masters, Ukraine’s glorious battles and tales by
fearless Cossack warriors are retold in the ruins of defensive fortresses
sprinkled throughout the country.
* Ukrainian hospitality reigns supreme. Guests are welcomed like
family into Ukrainians’ homes and treated with an endless supply of food and
drink, and of course conversation.
* Festivals, parties, and music. Ukrainians love to celebrate
and with nearly a dozen national holidays, a host of religious remembrances
and dozens of street and village festivals like Ukraine’s national fair,
the Sorochintsy Yarmarok, the International Koktebel Jazz Festival in Crimea
and the Hutsul celebration in the Carpathians, travellers experience a festive
atmosphere almost from the moment they step off the plane.
* Stand in the past for a moment.
Local dishes: The potato is the most widely used vegetable in
Ukrainian cooking.d with garlic or fried bacon. There are also dishes made
of dough (zatyrka), pieces of dough dropped into boiling water
or milk) and dumplings (halushyky) made of wheat, buckwheat, or
corn flour with or without the addition of potatoes or cheese. A
typical dish made of flour is filled dumplings (varenyky) with
various fillings, including cheese, cabbage, meat, fish and
buckwheat. Halushky and varenyky are served with fried bacon,
fried onions, or sour cream. Meat is usually eaten on feast days,
Sundays, or at family celebrations. The most popular meat is pork
and its products, such as ham, sausage (kovbasa), blood sausage
(kyshka), smoked bacon and salt pork.
Also popular are dishes of pea or bean purée.
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Dr. Yulia Barbul : Pediatrics & Neurology
Ukrainian Jokes in English (№ 22) |
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| What's On Kiev?
Does humour translate? You decide.
It seems mother-in-law jokes are a global phenomenon, as is demonstrated by these jokes sent to us by Oleg Stepanenko.
A man comes to visit his friend in the home he has just built and finds that every room in it is completely spherical. He asks why he has built the house in such a strange way, to which the friend replies:
- When I started construction my mother-in-law said: “I hope there will be a corner for me in your new home.”
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A woman enters a police station:
- Please help me. My husband is lost, I can’t find him anywhere. Here is a photo of him. If you find him, can you tell him my mother decided not to come?
A mother-in-law shares her home with her daughter and her new husband. One day she says to him:
- There is a whole in the roof. Will you repair it?
- It’s not my house. Why should I care?
The mother-in-law registers the house in his name.
- The house is yours. Will you fix the roof now?
- It’s not your house. Get out!
If you’ve heard a good Ukrainian joke,
translate it and send it to us at whatson@tmu.in.ua
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