Moscow Times

Hi, everyone. Me, Claudia and Ross are sitting in a hostel in Moscow, making the most of the free internet. It’s snowing here, so it’s properly Russian.

We left Voronezh last night, after three months. In these three months we met so many amazing people, had so many amazing experiences and saw so many amazing things. Despite all the bad things about Russia, and Voronezh in particular, it was so hard to leave. A lot of our friends were at the station to see us off and there were a lot of hugs and tears and the whole thing was so sad. We’ll all keep in touch, definitely, and I hope to come back to Russia sometime in the near future. So, that’s it. Voronezh is over, let the three days in Moscow begin…

We'll miss you! - Catherine, Kersti, Nena

Kiev – an international city…

Germany, UK, USA, Russia

So, Kiev’s been and gone and we’re now back in Voronezh, until we leave again in a week and a half. There were four of us who went: me, Claudia, Anna and Richard, all foreigners in Ukraine. I’m from the UK, Claudia’s from Germany, Anna’s from Russia and Richard is from the USA. Whenever anyone asked us ‘Ot kuda?’ (‘Where are you from?’) we had to reel off the list of countries. It was quite funny. The concierge on the train to Kiev didn’t find it funny though and when I asked to go to the toilet she tutted and said ‘Ach, innostrantsy (foreigners)!’ I took it as a compliment. Sometimes it feels like Russians like to use the term ‘foreigner’ as an insult and it really annoys me. Never mind. At least borders don’t matter when it comes to making friends and when we leave soon we’ll have a lot of goodbyes…

Claudia, Me (Joe), Richard, Anna

Kiev in Pictures

This is our last day in Kiev so here are some pictures of what is a beautiful city…

A nice building

A Square

Independence Square

A building on Andrew

The University

Nato Go Home!

Ok, it’s a grey, wet Monday morning and we’re in Kiev, on a short trip away from Voronezh. Although the weather’s a bit rubbish the city is still amazingly beautiful and our hostel is right in the city centre. However, the hostel owner is from Norway and seriously anti Russian, and by default pro NATO and EU.

The Protest

Anyway, this morning we went for a short walk and by chance we went past the Polish Embassy and there was a small protest. An old lady was there giving out bags and we got one thinking it was nothing, but then we looked closer… Inside was a lighter, a fridge magnet, a city map and a metro map, plastered with the slogan ‘Nato, go home!’ When we got back to the hostel the owner showed his political side again with the remark ‘Communist motherf***ers.’

Nato...

So that’s Kiev so far. Cool, huh?