Uzhgorod, Ukraine Travelogue

Uzhgorod

Ужгород

Nevitsky Castle in Uzhgorod

August 27, 2005

The bus from Kosice, Slovakia to Uzhgorod was naturally late so we waited and upon arrival, the bus driver went around and told everyone not to open the windows because that causes a draft and naturally drafts cause illness and death… before even leaving the bus station, we were already in Ukraine. The bus was the most decrepit of the buses at the lot and in the back there was an old beat-up and rusty washing machine and some other large machines that clearly no longer worked. This only made me feel more like I was in Ukraine.

The scenery along the trip was nice and there were no problems along the way, although when I received my immigration card I remembered the hassle I've experienced at Ukrainian border crossings. As we approached the Slovakian border we waited for about a half hour, I suppose the process is quite drawn out now that Slovakia is in the EU and Ukrainians now need visas. After the wait we made it to the Ukrainian border and stopped. Naturally no one questioned why we weren’t in the process of going through immigration and simply sat silent. Yanna needed to ask the driver to drop us off at a different spot once in Uzhgorod and so also asked what we were waiting for. The response made Gruber quite upset… the customs officer was on lunch break and so we waited. After a half hour of waiting and a half hour of passport control we entered Ukraine only about one or two kilometers from our drop off location in the city.

We got dropped off near Gruber’s and walked to his apartment. The place was ordinary for Soviet-era apartments and quite spacious. I learned of the water cycle and when there is and isn’t water. Its not too complicated, unless you really have to go to the bathroom. There is however extra water in jugs that you can dump into the toilet’s top so it can flush at any time.

I started my city tour at a place to get some food and drinks, where we met a couple other Peace Corps volunteers. The menu was in Ukrainian and English, which I found odd. The food, I had goulash was good, but nothing out of the ordinary. The girls here were dressed like prostitutes and very few were over the age of 18. The restaurant seemed to be half mafia and half underage kids dressed like whores. After dinner we watched some Seinfeld re-runs and then grabbed a cab home.

Typical Street in Uzhgorod

August 28, 2005

After getting up Gruber and I headed into town to meet British Carl and Yanna. British Carl is English and found his way to Ukraine because he wanted a Ukrainian wife. He found one and now is divorcing her in order to marry another Ukrainian girl. Considering he is about 60 and he only dates women under about 35 that’s pretty impressive, but in Ukraine it isn’t too difficult. Over the years he’s been a spy in Northern Ireland, worked on oil rigs, and was a mercenary in Africa. At one point he claims he killed a woman with a blow torch because she broke into the British Embassy. He’s interesting and the Peace Corps volunteers love him because of his stories. I suppose this is one of the few places a guy could disappear to.

At one point in our brief conversation a couple Roma came up and asked for some money. He then told me about how he is from a gypsy family, one of the gypsy families from Ireland. He said that he wanted to get educated and upon his departure his mom disowned him. Over the years everyone disowned him except his uncle and to a degree his father. Upon his departure his father said that he supported him and wished him well, however couldn’t communicate with him or he would also be exiled from the tribe. His uncle was exiled along with him and is the only family he has left. He has not seen either of his two siblings or parents since he left, but has heard of his parents’ deaths. He told me that the gypsies are despicable and teach crime as a way of life. He said that because he disagrees with it all he was exiled and he never regrets that.

After we left British Carl, I spent most of the day with Yanna. We went to the open air museum, which was interesting because Yanna helped explain everything to me. The region has changed hands many times so the language, culture, and people are somewhat confused on who they are. Over time this area of Transcarpathia has been under Soviet, Ukrainian, Czechoslovak, and Hungarian rule; the people are a mixture of all this. The Slovaks and many of the Hungarians are Catholic, the Ukrainians Orthodox; the language is a combination of Hungarian, Slovak, Russian, and Ukrainian. There are nine ways to say yes, including "Da," "Tak," "Nine," "No," and it goes on.

People tell time according to Kyiv, Slovakia, or Budapest. Whenever a time is mentioned the person must specify if they are referring to Kyiv time, which is the same time zone Uzhgorod is in or if they are referring to a different time. Many ethnic Hungarians have their clocks set to Budapest time and either assumes everyone knows that they are Hungarian and will understand the time, or they specify. This leads to the Ukrainians and Russians specifying that when they say a time it is Kyiv time.

There are also a lot of Russians in the city because it is the industrial center and hence during the Soviet time many workers moved to the city to work. This combination leads to a strange language and each village has a different dialect depending on people. A majority of Hungarians would be Ukrainian with a lot of Hungarian vocabulary, whereas a Slovak village would be Ukrainian with a lot of Slovakian vocabulary and the Ukrainian villages simple have a strange dialect seeing as how they have developed their language in the isolated mountains for so long. The catholic masses switch from Ukrainian to Slovakian to this strange Carpathian hybrid language.

The city has a large castle, which is strange in Ukraine. Only this region and the rest of the western border have castles. This is because the Ukrainian people have never been castle builders and they have never truly been influenced by Medieval Europe. This region, however has a history of central European rulers under Polish rule and hence castles.

At the open air museum the architecture of all the buildings was quite unique, even to each other. The wooden church was the most impressive along with another very colorful building. Considering nearly all of these buildings were built in the 1800’s, they have few similarities. This museum truly exemplifies the region and their diversity.

After the museum we saw salt, pepper, and paprika shakers in the shape of owls and other animals. This is a very typical remnant from the Polish Carpathian mountains, and I found out is quite typical throughout the mountain chain. I wanted pigs however none were to be found, so I departed with Yanna in order to catch up with Gruber, who had no interest in seeing any of the tourist sites again.

As we walked the streets we saw the old European-influenced cobble-stoned streets, buildings and signs in both Cyrillic and Latin script. The architecture was a combination of Soviet, Slovakian, and other influences. As we made it to the town square the rain started pouring so we hid as Gruber and Yanna told me about the Slovakian layout of the city and the Catholic Church dominating the town's center.

With little to do in the rain, we grabbed a bite to eat then headed over to Yanna’s house. Yanna’s house was great, over the driveway there are metal grates holding grapevines. It provides shade for the area and gives them grapes for winemaking, a tradition in the region. Nearly every house had some grapes and everyone makes their own wine when it’s the right season. The house is under construction, but they welcomed us into their bedroom and fed us everything they could find.

The family moved to this region during the Soviet times, since it was better to be closer to Moscow, at least economically speaking. The family is a strange mixture of ethnicities, Yanna’s mother is half Slovakian and half Polish, whereas her father is half Slovakian and half Ukrainian. Her mom speaks Slovakian, Ukrainian, and Russian and her father speaks Ukrainian, a little Russian, and both of course speak Carpathian, which is their native tongue. Although they have Slovakian blood and both families are from Slovakia, they now need visas to go there and are forbidden to immigrate there. I guess their parents’ gains in the move east is now the family’s curse forbidding them to move west. Although having said that, Yanna loves the Carpathian region and seems to have very little motivation to leave, other than the occasional weekend trip to Košice.

With the influence from the west, the food has a strange flair and although much of the food is cabbage based and normal for this part of the world, there was one dip that was spectacular. It consisted of tomatoes, red peppers, and hot peppers along with some garlic and olive oil. It was incredible and I ate nearly the entire jar. We were fed well as the family talked to us and asked me about my past experiences and what I was doing in Poland. They all seemed very welcoming and when a problem arose they seemed to see it as more of an opportunity to do something than as a problem.

I made the mistake of asking what the best way back to Košice is and they argued and talked on the phone for too long trying to give me as many options as they could find. Of course the first option was by far the simplest and quickest, however that didn’t change the fact that they were going to give me eight other options. After eating a lot and seeing the renovations on their house, we grabbed a couple grapes from the vines and made our way out.

Back at Gruber’s apartment we headed downstairs for a going away party for a friend of his. The dinner was nice and I’m glad I was there, but by the end of the day I was ready for it to end, especially considering my Russian is out of practice and I had an overdose already.

After dinner we headed out, Gruber walked Yanna home and then we talked until we both fell asleep.

Culture in Uzhgorod

Sheep in Uzhgorod

August 29, 2005

Today was a lazy day during which we found our way to Nevitski Castle. The castle is only ruins now, but the views are great. It sits on a hill over the Uzh River and looks out over the hills and valley below. The walls and part of the moat remain, but little else. Yanna again told me all about the castle and its historical roots. After enjoying the view for awhile, we went back to Uzhgorod for pastries.

The trip home was good and on a really nice bus, a new one from Slovakia. Once in Slovakia, I sat in Prešov for a couple hours at the train station watching the Roma and sporadic passengers. Once on the train the trip was fine, although it was a long day and I was ready to be back home in Krakow.