When my husband and I were first dating, we took a 10-day trip to the Ukraine. While I'd wanted to visit Russia since forever (and did so earlier that year), Ukraine had only briefly registered once on my list of places to travel.
Well, having no expectations helped, because I fell in love with the Ukraine. From the romantic hills of Kiev, the beautiful pastel Beaux-Arts style buildings in Odessa, the charming canals and grape harvest in Vilkovo (a small town in the delta of the Danube, known as the "Venice of the South"), to the decaying elegance of Lviv, and the rustic Carpathian mountains - Ukraine enchanted me. It was and is a highly underrated place among Americans.
The events of the past month have got me thinking about Ukraine again, so I decided to look online for vintage and contemporary photos and postcards that would help give people - especially Westerners - an image of Ukraine.
The postcard above and below are different views of Andrew's descent, which is a road that spirals down from Upper to Lower Kiev. Today, souvenir stands line this street (I actually bought a few vintage pins for Misha the Bear off this street!). The house where Mikhail Bulgakov (of Master and Margarita fame) lived in is also on this street; today it's a pretty neat museum.
Modern-day Andrew's descent (photo by me):
The postcard below is of the now famous Independence Square, where there have been massive protests in the last month.
Kiev's railway station (I included this because I love the car and the family in the foreground).
Some postcards of Lvov, in the west:
Lvov opera house then:
Lvov opera house now (photo by me):
Lvov main square (known as "rynok" or "Market"; contemporary photo by me):
And, saving the best for last, the enchanting town of Vilkovo:
When we came to Vilkovo, they were having a grape harvest, so we saw many people ferrying buckets and bags full of grapes on their boats to the center of town. The people there were very friendly and we were offered so many grapes to take with us. We also had a boat tour of the canals and a birding tour the next morning.
This man was one of many people we saw paddling a boatful of grapes over to the center of town. (All Vilkovo photos by Dmitry Gimon)
There are two ways to get home: one is by boat along the canals, the other is by taking this elevated wooden pedestrian walkway.
This is how you reach your neighbor on the other side of the canal:
You can see more Ukraine pictures
here and
here. I hope you've enjoyed looking through these photos and that they've given you a sense of the country!
