Independence Parade

So after a week of parade rehearsals finally we had yesterday a real thing. Following tank unit rehearsal last Tuesday on Thursday some other military machinery made on Kiev streets for rehearsals with some military orchestras. I was more interested in making photos of musical instruments. See photos at http://picasaweb.google.nl/gordie26/ParadeRehearsal
Unfortunately my mum could not watch the parade as she had to leave on Saturday. My dad does not feel well and she decided to leave Kiev earlier. I just said goodbye to my mum on the airport, and few minutes later I greeted Kathy - my good friend from Seoul. Last time I saw Kathy was March 07 in Seoul. She will spend a week in Ukraine.
So yesterday Kathy and I walked towards Khreshchatik and faced huge crowd. We could not see much from a parade but people watching was great. Leaving the parade crowds and going home I saw a lovely doggie. I looked at the doggie and tried to guess the owners. I approach a couple with a kid and in Russian asked if the lovely dog is theirs. The lady answered in Russian but than asked a husband in English to help her with some difficult word. They are Americans living two years here and gave me recommendations for two vets. So I'll check these vets out.
Following the parade I decided to take Kathy to Chernihiv - a very old city about 140km from Kiev. On the road we saw military trucks from the parade. On Thursday during rehearsals soldiers were warning people that they should not be close to the street as trucks are "dangerous". Well - why the same trucks are than without any special escort driving along main regional road???? Danger or not - this was a great opportunity to make some interesting shoots. See the parade and "road parade" photos at http://picasaweb.google.nl/gordie26/KievParade

Today I decided to take Kathy to Pereslav - a Cossack village about 100 km from Kiev. According to my guidebook this place has a nice 18th century church with a bell tower. Close to Pereslav is a nice open air Museum. The drive there is quintessential Ukraine. Flat fields. Poplar trees on horizon. Blue sky with low woolly clouds. Very picturesque. We were the only car on the road. In Pereslav we found the church and the belltower without any difficulty. However - Soviet times die hard and this beautiful baroque church is a church only from outside. During Soviet times the religion was forbidden. Shortly after revolution churches were destroyed but I guess it was hard work to level to the ground all churches across Soviet Union. Although bolsheviks did their best to destroy as much as possible, some churches remained but the Soviet government turned them into museums. In Pereslav case into the museum of "1943 Battle for Dniepro river". The museum was closed but next to the church entrance door there were same remnants of a Soviet tank. Kathy and myself read the bulletin board in the city and found announcement "buying natural hair". Hmmm...
As there was not much in the city to explore I started to look for a way to the open air museum. I asked a lady on the street and showed her my Ukrainian guide book. She never heard of a place. I usually do not ask men for instructions as they are usually not helpful. Either they are embarrassed a woman ask them something or they are embarrassed to tell a woman they do not know something. However it was around lunchtime. Not many people on the street. So I asked a guy for a help. And he was VERY helpful! Not only he knew about the place - he knew how to give directions and wanted to draw them for me!
Following helpful guy's directions I was soon on a road outside the city. After one curve I saw a pile of old Soviet military machinery - tanks, plane, military boat...All left there in the field to rust since WWII. I had to stop and make a photo. Among rusty tanks there was a couple on a date. "Meet you by the 4th tank" would sound bizarre to me but this military graveyard might be the best Pereslav can offer to lovebirds. See photos http://picasaweb.google.nl/gordie26/Pereslav
To ensure I am on the right road (Ukraine is short of any traffic signs) and encouraged by experience with a very helpful guy I stopped again and tried to ask a young man a question. I got a blank, stone look. My theory about helpful man being an exception confirmed, I drove on to babushka's selling veggies. Bought some watermelon and carrots and got perfect directions again. Thank God for for women on the road!
The open air museum is more like an ethno park badly needing some maintenance. There are nice buildings around. Some even have a board in Ukrainian about what the building is about - but nothing in English. But it's a nice park with lovely flowers and orchards. There was a museum of Ukrainian "rushnyk" a ceremonial towel representing feminine strength, vigour, and fertility - but in the museum there was no explanation about towel symbols, age of towels, how long it took to make one, stitching used...So frustrating.
Kathy and I were hungry and decided to look for some food. We asked the guy at the souvenir shop if somewhere close is a place with a good Ukrainian food. He told us "Smerekova hata" is a place to go. We found a place easily and it was a lovely place on a lake. The place was not too busy - but the waitress was avoiding us. Kathy and myself tried to make a contact and order some food but after 20 min I decided it's a time to go. If after 20 min I cannot order a food I might wait for an hour to get it and within an hour I am in Kiev. Nice place, but I hope next time I visit the place again - staff will be trained.

Doggie vaccinations, dirty tanks

Igor is expected to move to Ukraine around Sep 20th. Since June every two weeks I send an email to Ukrainian Embassy in Den Haag inquiring about required doc's for doggie import to UA. Not one email got a response. I also sent emails to the State Customs Office. No feedback. Few vets I visited in Kiev with a question about how to get a doggie in UA have not been of much help.
Last week I found the number of the Veterinary Inspection at Boryspil Airport. I called yesterday and spoke to a man with a sleepy voice. The guy had not spoke a word of English. I spoke Russian. He told me about vaccination requirements and regulations I have to read. I carefully wrote down every word he said. He dictated a long list of vaccinations. I also went to the website he suggested http://www.vetcontrol.org/ and found Article 71.15 about import of dogs, cats, foxes, rabbits and other animals. The regulations states doggies imported to Ukraine need vaccinations against following diseases:
- pseudorabies - Aujeszky's disease;
- rabies;
- TBC;
- tualremia
- distemper;
- hepatitis;
- canine dermaptophytosis;
- canine viral enterities;
- parvo virus;
- adenovirus;
- leptospirosis;
This was almost identical to the list written down during the phone call with the "sleepy voice" of the Airport Vet Inspection. Looking at the list I wondered if a small doggie can survive such a vaccination cocktail.
The next requirement is that a vet's health certificate has to be legalized by the Dutch authorities and translated to Ukrainian by authorized translator. As I knew where I can get official UA translation I have not worried about it.
What worried me however was a vague statement about the quarantine. But first I wanted to sort out the vaccination list. Some illnesses I recognized but few I never heard of. So I contacted Sandra and Maria and asked if the list makes sense to them. They contacted the vet in the Netherlands who replied:
- pseudorabies or Aujeszky's disease is a disease for pigs; there are no vaccinations for dogs;
- TBC - no vaccinations for dogs;
- tularemia - not known disease for dogs in the Netherlands;
- canine dermatophytosis - kind of a mite common for cows, no vaccination for dogs.
Furthermore Sandra and Maria wrote that the Netherlands and Ukraine officially signed a treaty about animal imports which clearly stipulates all "normal" doggies vaccinations.
So I called Boryspil Vet Inspection today and asked them why a doggie needs vaccinations for pigs, cows and humans. I spoke to a different person today. Not to a "sleepy voice". The explanation was that instructions from yesterday must be my misunderstanding. Hmmm - I recall the guy dictated to me in his sleepy voice all diseases...God knows what he was dreaming.
I asked the person today about the quarantine and the answer was if a doggie has a health certificate - no quarantine. So Igor will fly to Kiev.

My mum is here and today I decide to come home earlier. However the traffic was horrendous. It took me 1 hour to drive home while normaly it takes me 10-15 min. As all streets around my house were jammed mum and I decided to go for a walk. We walked towards the main street and what a sight - the street was jammed with tanks, carriers with rockets, military trucks with some cylinders... What a sight and I am without a camera.
On August 24th Ukraine celebrates the Independence Day so I suspect they had today a "rehearsal" for a military parade. The trucks and tanks looked like from old Soviet movies. Than tanks started to roll. All these tanks and trucks generated such a thick black cloud of smog I thought I would suffocate. I lack words to describe the blackness and acid taste of gases generated by tanks. Due to the heavy black smog the visibility was so poor - if it was not for a thunder of tanks rolling I would think these are some dirty construction machines and I would heavily complain about the carbon footprint. The tanks left the main road completely ruined. I hope it will be patched soon.
With what is going on in Georgia I can understand Ukraine want to show what they have. Perhaps thick black cloud of pollution is a kind of a new strategic weapon.

Last weekend I was in Crimea. Lovely place. I also understand better why my Ukrainian colleagues worry about Russia. But about Crimea - next time.

Traffic Police

For the last six months I have not been stopped once by police when driving. Since last Saturday I have been stopped three times. On Saturday I drove to Chernigiv - one of the oldest cities in Ukraine about 140km from Kiev. I went there with Olimpia, a Romanian colleague who is here for two months. I did not have GPS and with no or very little road signs it took me one hour to find an exit to Chernigiv. Chernigiv is also closest city to Chernobile - but I had no intention of going there. The road to Chernigiv is straight, no potholes and not much traffic. The best road I drove so far in Ukraine. Customary for Ukraine - the highway passes through the villages. There are no signs indicating max speed when entering a village. There are some red stripes on the road before entering a village but I had no idea what they mean. Until I got stopped by the police. A polite policeman informed me I drove 95km/h while 50km/h is max allowed in a village. My defence was "there are no signs". "Of course there are - the red lines on the road". "Ohhh - that's what they are. Where I come from we have round metal signs with numbers." The policeman asked for documents which in my case consists of:- POA from the bank that I am allowed to drive the bank's car;- copy of insurance policy;- technical licence;- driving licence - in my case Croatian international and Croatian original driving licence. He looked at the pile and said he has to check them and started to go towards his car. I had no idea if it's a custom in Ukraine to get out of the car and follow him or to stay in the car. In Russia you get out of your car. I opted to stay in the car as I had to call a colleague and check what's the going rate for over speeding. I decided to walk to a police car once I know the rate. Alexey told me the going rate for overspeeding is between UAH 20-100 which in USD is between USD 5-20. The policemen returned and told me doc's are OK but I breached a speed limit. I asked if UAH 20 is enough. He said yes. I gave UAH 20 note. He returned doc's. It felt great to be in emerging markets.
On Sunday I went to veggies market to buy some of babushkas fresh garden produce. I go there weekly. As usual I parked the car on the more or less same spot. Other cars were parked around. About 30 min later with bags full of fresh tomatoes, yellow peppers, sweet peaches, raspberries, etc walking towards the parking spot - I could not find my car. For a moment I feared the car got stolen. Than I saw a truck on top of which was my "Ravche". Next to the truck was a policeman who told me I parked the car on a wrong spot. Telling him I usually park here and showing him parked cars around did not help. He asked me for documents. I told him they're in the car - which is on the truck. In order to get my car off the truck I should negotiate with guys in the truck. I called Alexey again. Going rate for improper parking is UAH 200-1000 - depending on the car. I offered UAH 150 and after some negotiations we agreed on UAH 250. Once the car reached the asphalt policeman asked me for docs. So I give him all doc's but noticed in my international driving licence there is no original Croatian driving licence. I panicked as I should always have the original licence next to the international. The policeman looked at my international driving licence which is falling apart but still valid and asked me: "So you are US citizen?" "No - I am Dutch citizen". "But this is not Dutch licence?" "No it's Croatian International licence." "And where is the original?" "Well - here!" was my response and I gave him a Korean driving licence I always keep in my wallet. I told him "Look its written here "driving licence"- the only inteilgible text among hangul. The policmean was very cool. He carefully examined both my driving licences - and than I noticed for a first time that they both have the same photo. He shaked his head, said "OK" and than let me to go. I counted my blessings.
Today in the city I have not stopped on cross road as for the last 5 months I know I have a way of right. About 50m from the crossroad a policman stopped me and asked why I have not stopped as I do not have way of right. I argued I have. He told me they changed signs some time ago. The signs hang high above the road. Well I truly have not noticed as I watch the road not skies when I drive. The policman told me he will write a protocol and I will have to go to the court. "No - I would like to pay now. How much I can pay". "The rule is to write a protocol". "Yes I know that but I would like to pay now". "The rule is to write a protocol." "Do you really want to write a protocol?" "That's the rule". "I know that's the rule, but I would like to pay now" "But the rule is to write the protocol"". Obviously I will not win this one. So I said "OK. As you are sure you want to write a protocol and this will take at least one hour - let me call my secretary to cancel my next meeting in the office". I called and started to explain I am tied up with a policman who needs to write a protocol. After I finished my phone call a policeman returned me doc's and told me to go. He also advised me not to brake rules in future and pay attention to signs". I profusely thanked him on such excellent advice but quickly drove away before he starts to charge me for his advices.