Don-etsk? Don't Tell!

Well, Mama Semaniuk’s threats must have worked.

No, Andrijko did not get a haircut (sorry Mama). We’re talking about her threats to write a strongly-worded letter to Ukrainian authorities regarding the dilapidated state of trains in Ukraine. “That’s it! I’m writing a letter to the President!” she exclaimed about six years ago, as all of us were drenched with sweat on our less-than-livable third-class train car. We guess someone listened!

We had the pleasure of taking the brand-new high-speed train from Kyiv to Donetsk last Thursday evening. What an improvement! With the comfortable and roomy seats, air conditioning, and smooth ride, one sometimes thinks he is on an airplane, and readies his seatback tray into the upright and locked position. The train includes a screen showing video clips of the new train and surrounding countryside, as well as information on weather, time, and speed of the train. The fastest we witnessed was 161 km/h. Yes, there were still some stops along the way, but this new Hyundai train shaved five hours off of the normal duration of the trip. All trains in Ukraina haven’t been upgraded, but this is a definite step in the right direction. Well done, Ukr-Zaliznytsya!

It is a strange day in Ukraina when your only complaint on the train is, “The wi-fi isn’t working.”  Ah, first-world problems.   

Once we arrived in Donetsk, we set out the next day to explore all that the city has to offer. Honestly…not much. Besides the Lenin statue, which shouldn’t even be there, the small river walk, and some other minor memorials, we didn’t find much to keep our interest. The volunteers in Donetsk were not as friendly or outgoing as in other cities.

The city itself did not seem to have as much EURO buzz as Kyiv. The fan-zone, essentially a giant parking lot, was rather sparsely populated, especially considering it was Friday night. Thank goodness it was game day!

The new Shaktar Stadium in Donetsk is beautiful; you even cross a pedestrian footbridge across a moat to get to it. The inside is equally appealing to the eyes, as the chairs are all nicely arranged in a pattern of black-and-orange (the colours of the local football club). White chairs spell out “Shakhtar Donetsk” on the main level. Why is the pattern of chairs in Olympic stadium so random?

The game, as many of you know, ended in disappointment for us Ukrainian fans, with our boys suffering a 2-0 loss at the hands of the ever-talented French squad. Some observations from the game:

-Those of you who watched saw the massive rain delay. Lucky for us, we were perfectly positioned to only get mildly rained on for a total of about ten minutes. People twenty metres away from us were soaked. We were dry. Jackpot.

-Only non-alcoholic beer was served at the game. Why bother? Good thing we don’t drink.

-You really DO meet Ukrainians from everywhere at this tournament. A brother and sister casually asked if they could take a picture with us, and now we have some more friends! They’re Ukrainians from Texas, one of whom remembers Zrada from Soyuzivka a few years back. This literally doubles our previous total of two friends. Points for us!

-Security is much tighter in Donetsk. At the Kyiv game, security basically looked at us, and said, “Go on through.” In Donetsk, every single individual entering the stadium was stopped, patted down, and some were searched or questioned to a greater degree. Many would be happy with the increased security, but others – not so much. A friend of ours wore a blue-and-yellow dress to the game. Nothing revealing, just your average dress that went down far past her knees. Security thought, however, that she was part of the Ukrainian all-female protest group FEMEN (yep, the ones that go topless) and denied her access. She and her mother were forced to go back to their hotel, get their passports, and show the security guards where they were from so they would be assured she is not part of the group in question. They even made her buy a jersey to cover up. That was unnecessary.

That was our game-day experience in Donetsk, in a nutshell. Saturday, we headed down to Mariupol – a small city on the coast about a 90-minute train ride from Donetsk. We spent the day at the beach; we played Frisbee, napped, and dipped our feet in the Sea of Azov.

People didn’t much like us there. We overheard several people making fun of us and our Ukrainian on several different occasions. A crazy fish-selling lady hurled racial slurs at Andrijko. A random man offered Andrijko a haircut on the beach for 15 hryvni. Andrijko didn’t give in (again, sorry Mama). After some delicious borshcht at a café near the train station, we headed back to Donetsk for a relaxing evening.

Speaking of borshcht, Andrijko had it several times while in Donetsk.  Donetsk train station borshcht = not bad.  Mariupol train station borshcht = better. Korsar Café borshcht in Donetsk = best! They put RIBS in their borshcht. Throwing Andrijko’s favourite food into his favourite soup was a nice surprise. He may or may not have shed a tear. No further comment.

We are now back in Kyiv, safe and sound after a twelve-hour train ride (we didn’t take the high-speed on the way back). It is so nice to be back. Baba Vera greeted us with some fresh-baked bread, and people here don’t make fun of us for trying to speak Ukrainian. That’s pretty much all we need!

Stay tuned for more updates, and some pictures from our weekend trip!

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