Spring Holiday

I'm in Latvia and Estonia for the week. I'll be updating my Twitter feed regularly- http://twitter.com/RWgeek

Scotland Trip

I'll be posting updates via Twitter for my Scotland trip. I'm leaving tomorrow (Sunday the 27th and coming home on Friday (1/1/10).
http://twitter.com/@rwgeek

New Photos from Kyiv

I know these are massively overdue. It's been a very busy fall.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwgirl/sets/72157622007433335/show/

Photos from Berlin

Finally organized and captioned:
http://picasaweb.google.com/shea.wills/Berlin2009#

Those are from my April trip.

Blog Update: New Photo Sharing Website

I have nearly ran out of room with Picassa so I switched to Flickr. I have it set up slide show style. If you click "Show Info" you can see the captions of the pictures. I can change the format if anyone doesn't like it. You can also change the speed of the slides.

So, Odessa is up. I hope to have Kyiv up in the next few days.

4/18/09- Yaremche

A marshrutka piloted by an insane or suicidal driver took us up into the Carpathian foothills. We passed villages that were either picturesque or something out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Like everything in Ukraine, they were one of two extremes.

We roasted the entire way since the old women in the marshrutka would shiver if we even cracked a window. Alexander told me they always do this, even in the heat of summer. He also told me his name for these old women: hamsters. In an odd way, they do resemble a hamster. They are all bundled up (despite the temperature) and they have bags in both hands which adds to their round, hamster-like profile. Try as I might, I can't get the comparison out of my head.

We survived our trip to Yaremche, and went about exploring the town. Soviet monuments were everywhere. The Ukrainians are very ambivalent about their past. In some places they've done their best to eradicate their Soviet past, in others it's still on display; either as a point of pride or due to apathy and practicality.

Behind this Soviet solider is a cross. Surely an unintended irony.


A block down the road was a memorial to the victims of the Soviets and the Nazis.


We walked up to the emerald-green Prut River.

This waterfall was once bigger, but the Soviets tried to destroy it with dynamite.

4/18/09- Ivano-Frankivsk and the Carpathians

The train ride alone has made this trip totally worth while. I can't even begin to describe the beauty of the countryside. There's farmland, there's marshes, there's valleys all with silver and gold- topped Orthodox churches dotting the landscape. I tried to take pictures out of the train window, but most didn't turn out. I also caught my first glimpse of the Carpathian mountains. Mountains I've wanted to see since reading Dracula for the first time.

I met Klaudia at the train station, and after dropping my things at her flat we went to the Ukrainian market.

Rabbits with fur only on one foot (to prove they were rabbits? to show they were healthy?), chickens that were beginning to mummify, and quartered pig heads were all on display.

After the market we wandered around the downtown area before boarding the bus to Yaremche.