A Tour of Mykolayiv

Since I'm leaving Ukraine very soon this is my last chance for blog updates. Before I leave I want to show you the city where I've spent the last year plus a few months. To begin our tour we'll start with my daily route to the university.

This is where the marshrutka (small bus) drops me off when I go to the university from my apartment. This is the USSR cafe and bar with a small notary in the bottom corner there. All cafes in Ukraine DO NOT look like this, but it is the theme of the restaurant. Behind it is a huge grocery store, I've been very lucky to live in Mykolayiv. It's unusual for a volunteer to live in a city of 500,000 people.

As I cross the street, this tank sits in the median. Tanks are fairly common monuments throughout Ukraine. There were probably a lot left over from Soviet times so this is where many of them end up.

This says market.
And there is a large covered market on my way to the university. You can buy food, magazines, sweets, and many other things here.

Just past the market, many people sit outside selling whatever they have. It could be anything, the most common things are fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish. Mostly these things come from the surrounding area and families often sell the goods they produce themselves in this way.


This is a tobacco kiosk. Vendors often display all the goods they sell in the windows, as you can see here.

This is the entrance to a park that's right next to my university. It's one of the nicer ones I've visited because it's well cared for.

This woman saw me taking pictures and said "Hey! Take a picture of me!" So I did.

Inside the park it's very green and a nice place to relax. Sometimes I would sit for a few minutes if I had time before teaching my classes.

One of the cafes has a rabbit that lives in this little cage.

In addition to beautiful trees, etc. the park has many recreational activities. You can see air hockey and тир which is BB gun shooting. This is very popular in Ukraine.



This is a trampoline with bungee cords. It's only for children :( A guy holds bounces the kids down onto the trampoline and then they go shooting up in the sky. It looks like lots of fun!



A hair cutting school on the left and a place where you can fill up bottles with water on the right.

This is the entrance to my university. It is very small, there are two buildings and they share this one with a primary school.

This is the sign for Ukraina university. The sign is written in Ukrainian, as most official things are, even though Mykolayiv is a Russian speaking city. Really, the residents don't even call it Mykolayiv (the Ukrainian name) they call it Nikolaev (the Russian). The country is pretty evenly divided between Ukrainian and Russian speaking cities. Even more common is for people to speak both languages and just mix them together. It works well for them, but it can be difficult for us volunteers.

From the university, I take you downtown to my favorite restaurant. This is Celentano's pizzeria. It's a chain with many restaurants throughout the country. Pizza in Ukraine is different from what Americans are used to. Here it's not unusual to find pizza with mayonaise, hard-boiled eggs, or ketchup instead of tomato sauce. But if you can find a Celentano's you know you will get a decent pizza at a good price.

I was just walking near the water and saw this guy hopping around. He unenthusiastically agreed to let me take his picture.

This is the top of a staircase that leads down to the water. It's common for Ukrainian newlyweds to have their pictures taken at all the major sights of the city and if you are here during the weekend you'll probably see brides getting their pictures taken at this spot.

Here you can see the rest of the staircase. Pretty - but it's a lot of steps!


This is a pedestrian bridge and in the distance you can see some cranes. Traditionally, Mykolayiv is a ship-building city and this is the area where they would be built. The economy is in bad shape right now and there isn't a whole lot of ship-building going on any more.

This fountain is near the water and there are many tables nearby with places that you can buy snacks and drinks. One of the library English clubs that I attended would meet here during the summer instead of at the library. English club was always fun!

Near this area there are lots of things for the kids!


Nearby is a large square with some government buildings and monuments.

And, of course, no Ukrainian city is complete without it's very own Lenin statue.

Also in the square is beautiful Orthodox chapel.

And an eternal flame monument. If I remember correctly it's for the soldiers of World War II.




From the square we walk down Sovietskaya St. toward the rest of of the city. After Ukraine became independent all official documents, signs, and street names were changed from Russian to Ukrainian so officially Sovietskaya St. is called something else, but everyone in Mykolayiv still calls it Sovietskaya.


There was a concert going on that day which is not so uncommon.

In the center you can see some small children wearing traditional Ukrainian clothes.


On Sovietskaya there are many vendors selling souvenirs, but there is also some artwork on sale near the park.



This park is called pensioner's park and many men come here on a nice day to sit and play chess, or just watch.

Nearby was the Bunker Bar. I was curious and went down one day. There were all kinds of things from the war in this bar like machine guns, helmets, etc. a lot of older men that looked like they could still be fighting in the war who were all staring at me and wondering what I was doing there. I slowly backed up the stairs.

Just before I left this bar was closed and it's a lego store now. Things are changing.


This is the Canadian Burger Club which is like a McDonalds, except kind of trippy. I've often wondered if there are actually Burger Club's like this one in Canada.

This store is called Tango. They don't do the tango here and I'm not sure if it's associated with tango in any way, but that's okay.

In Mykolayiv we have our own McDonalds! This might seem to you like a silly thing to get excited about, but in Ukraine McDonalds is a really nice restaurant. People here are often very well dressed because they're going somewhere special.

Another monument, next to the McDonalds.

You're probably just as surprised to see this as I was. I'll go ahead and tell you the story that I've heard from Ukrainians and previous volunteers. Some Americans opened this place up because there aren't many places you can get a good cut of meat in Ukraine. They really don't eat steak or things like that. Anyway, the business was very successful. It was a little too successful in fact which resulted in them being pushed out by criminals. They were convinced to sell and leave. Dixie Barbuque still sells barbuque, but now it is also a strip club.


Now we are away from the city and at the beach! I was really lucky to live in Mykolayiv which has so many things to offer.


Unfortunately, this is a common sight. Ukraine is a very beautiful country, but it could be much more so without the garbage problem.



This man is a Palestinian living in Ukraine and he made me SO HAPPY! He sold me falafel and hummus that he made at home and brought to his little fast food kiosk just for me. These things weren't even on the menu because they are not popular in Ukraine, but all volunteers miss the variety of foods available in America and any time we can get something a little different it is very exciting!


This is me at the train station. Buses and trains are how we travel in Ukraine and volunteers do a lot of traveling.

There's a really cool painting inside the train station.



This is the first neighborhood where I lived in Mykolayiv. Those doors are the entrance to my apartment building.

Every neighborhood has it's own playground like this one.

Someone was burning trash or leaves or something while I was taking pictures. This is a pretty common phenomenon here. Especially in the spring and fall. Leaves are burned when they fall from the trees and the fields are burned to prepare the fields for the next crops.





In Ukraine they reuse and recycle. In my neighborhood many of the backs of benches are old doors.

There is a dentist just a few blocks away from me!

And a mosque! This was a big surprise. There are not a whole lot of mosques in Ukraine, unless maybe you live in Crimea.

We went inside and they were so excited to meet us and happy that we came!

This is a different beach that is part of a very large park, called Victory Park.



There are more tanks and military vehicles in victory park. Great fun for the kids!


Here is one last view of the inlet where ships were built, this time from the other side.


I started writing this post in Ukraine and am finishing it in Italy just a few days after my service ended. I'll miss Ukraine and I have a few more posts to put up, hopefully in the next few days. Stay tuned!