Thread: Russia-Belorussia-Ukraine-Russia trip.

Originally Posted by Basil77

Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev

Gorgeous church! Thanks for posting that...!

If anyone reading this is bored... Why not make a thread about the top 10 nicest looking Orthodox churches?

When I went to school the story was "There is no religion in the USSR, only some old people are religious..." Also that churches were used for storage and allowed to fall into disrepair...

But they seem to have made a great comeback!
There are lots of great pictures of churches on this site...

It seems people were more religious than the official statistics.

Originally Posted by Ramil

Originally Posted by Basil77

Originally Posted by Wowik

It is not truly Orthodox church. Initially it was a Catholic church.

Unfortunately I don't know the history of this exact church. Are you sure It was catholic in it's past? Today, as you can see, it has orthodox crosses on top. I found an article about it:

The architecture is definitely catholic. Just remove orthodox crosses and you'll see a catholic church.
Just compare:

Hehe.....! To me it looks Orthodox... I think I've heard that Ukraine is acutally a mix of Orthodox and Catholic people though?

But you can never know... Some churches were built Catholic but the country later became Lutheran... or people moved around due to religious wars etc....

Here is an Orthodox church in Finland that looks EXACTLY like a Lutheran church.
Helga Treenighetskyrkan, Helsinki

Originally Posted by Johanna

Here is an Orthodox church in Finland that looks EXACTLY like a Lutheran church.
Helga Treenighetskyrkan, Helsinki

1. Сlassicism was popular in XIX century everywhere.
2. The same architect Carl Ludvig Engel build some Lutheran church also.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categ ... dvig_Engel
I like his buildings in Helsinki.

Orthodox Cathedral

Originally Posted by Wowik

Originally Posted by Johanna

Here is an Orthodox church in Finland that looks EXACTLY like a Lutheran church.
Helga Treenighetskyrkan, Helsinki

1. Сlassicism was popular in XIX century everywhere.
2. The same architect Carl Ludvig Engel build some Lutheran church also.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categ ... dvig_Engel
I like his buildings in Helsinki. Orthodox Cathedral

Haha, yes you are right about that of course...

I have walked past that building many times actually (I studied near there for a while). I don't think I realised it was a church at all! The entrance isn't visible from the street and it looks like it might be a government building, lol!!

Basil (and others)... as it has been pointed out several times, this is a language forum. So, even though I am very tardy with this, I would be remiss if I did not correct your postings. I'll work on your other ones soon.

Originally Posted by Basil77

Well, I've returned and since I[s:1jnleige]'v[/s:1jnleige] announced this trip here I think I have to give some report about it. The trip was nice, but as I wrote above it wasn't touristic so I [s:1jnleige]haven't[/s:1jnleige] didn't visit any historical sites or so. I just made some pictures from the road so I'll post some of them here. One sad remark: tonight, while watching the celebration of Berlin Wall Fall on TV, I was thinking about the fact that while Europe opened [s:1jnleige]it's[/s:1jnleige] its borders at that time and now celebrating this, we, here in the former USSR, are now vice versa and have built up new borders and walls that never existed here before[s:1jnleige],[/s:1jnleige]. I still remember the times[s:1jnleige], than[/s:1jnleige] when you could cross [s:1jnleige]for example[/s:1jnleige] the Russian/Ukrainian border without even [s:1jnleige]a[/s:1jnleige] having to stop and only a [s:1jnleige]reading the sideroad[/s:1jnleige] road sign stating "Ukraine (or whatever) welcomes you!" was there to greet you.

About the trip. It's already late and I have to wake up rather early tomorrow (oops, already today), so I'll post a couple of pictures from the first part and will continue tomorrow.

[s:1jnleige]Tranzitting throw[/s:1jnleige] Transiting through Moscow:



The weather was fine for that period of the year so I even took some picture[s:1jnleige]d[/s:1jnleige]s [s:1jnleige]some[/s:1jnleige] of the countryside [s:1jnleige]peisage[/s:1jnleige] from the car window (somewhere in Smolensk region) :



The are many war memorials along the road [s:1jnleige]since[/s:1jnleige] as there were many battles fought in [s:1jnleige]that[/s:1jnleige] this area during WWII and the War with Napoleon (I didn't make photos [s:1jnleige]picture[/s:1jnleige] of them since their fotos [s:1jnleige]could[/s:1jnleige] can be found elsewhere). Then you pass the Smolensk region by the Minsk Highway and you cross the Dnepr river, [s:1jnleige]and[/s:1jnleige] where it's very [s:1jnleige]small[/s:1jnleige] narrow [s:1jnleige]there[/s:1jnleige]. [s:1jnleige]Then[/s:1jnleige] When I cross it I am always remembering a quote from Gogol about "Rare bird, who can fly even half of the Dnepr's wideness". Of course he [s:1jnleige]meant[/s:1jnleige] did not mean THIS part of the river, but it's still funny for me. Unfortunately I[s:1jnleige]'v been[/s:1jnleige] was too lazy to stop and [s:1jnleige]picture[/s:1jnleige] photograph the river, sorry.
Soon I'[s:1jnleige]v[/s:1jnleige] am [s:1jnleige]been[/s:1jnleige] at the Belorussian border. Russian and Belorussian citizens can cross it without stopping ([s:1jnleige]in case[/s:1jnleige] if they already bought insurance police [s:1jnleige]already[/s:1jnleige]) (basil, I am certain there is a better term for "insurance police" maybe a "visa"?) . I stopped only to buy one (it works in Ukraine and Moldavia also). After crossing the border you can notice that you are in a different country (road signs in Belorussian; even some unknown for me road signs).

Originally Posted by rockzmom

basil, I am certain there is a better term for "insurance police" maybe a "visa"?

Thanks for corrections, rockzmom! It's awful how many stupid mistakes I've made! I should re-read my posts more carefully. About visa. The citizens of Russian Federation don't need a visa to go to Belarus or Ukraine. But we must buy insurance in case a road accident occurs (the Russian insurance isn't valid abroad).

Beautiful photos!!

Originally Posted by Basil77

Originally Posted by rockzmom

basil, I am certain there is a better term for "insurance police" maybe a "visa"?

About visa. The citizens of Russian Federation don't need a visa to go to Belarus or Ukraine. But we must buy insurance in case a road accident occur[s:1pcw6h45]e[/s:1pcw6h45]s (the Russian insurance isn't valid abroad).

Ahhh... okay then. It would be "Russian and Belorussian citizens can cross it (probably should be "the border" and not "it") without stopping [s:1pcw6h45](in case[/s:1pcw6h45] if they already bought [s:1pcw6h45]insurance police already)[/s:1pcw6h45] the mandatory auto insurance which needs to be purchased ... (how? at a police station or the border crossing?)."

Originally Posted by Basil77

It's awful[s:1pcw6h45]l[/s:1pcw6h45] how many stupid mistakes I've made! I should re-read my posts more carefully.

Not to worry! This first one you said you wrote when it was very late! And besides, your English is still about a million times better than my Russian.

Re Rockzmom's corrections. Respect to you girl...

Re the standard of Basil77's English: Actually, you didn't make any serious, irritating or confusing mistakes. I was so interested in the content that I didn't think of it. Nothing was unclear.

I work with people here in London who are very successful in IT ($$$) but who would make a lot more mistakes in a text like this than you did.

I suppose for some jobs it's necessary to sound "near native"... But for many jobs it doesn't matter and being a non-native English speaker can work in your favour.

One thing I'd recommend is to read a culture guide to the main English speaking countries. Such as the "Culture Shock" series. The worst problems I have come across are to do with culture / behaviour confusion and misunderstandings, not the language per se.
Yes, I know it STINKS to have to adopt ones manners to English-speaking "standards", but for practical reasons it's good to be 100% familiar with them, depending on what you plan to use your English for.

Originally Posted by rockzmom

how? at a police station or the border crossing?

Any insurance company agent can sell it. And since they have some profit from it they are more than willing to sell it to you. There are plenty of these agents at any border check points, they are residing in cars, little booths, wagons etc., and of course they have advertising signs, you just can't miss them.

My Internet connection was very slow for last couple of weeks for some reason so I couldn't upload any more photos. It's fixed now so I can continue. So, I came to Ukraine. Road to Kiev in Chernigov region:



Then I turned to Moscow-Kiev road. It's condition is perfect (the part in Ukraine, the Russian part was horrible when I travel by it last spring):



A little while I turned to the local road. And immediately saw many signs that I entered agricultural countryside. Cows and gees on the road, horses etc.:







Ukrainian countrysiade have a fascinating feature: stork nests everywere: on roofs, chimney tubes etc. At this time the birds are migrated for the winter so I'll post a couple of pictures of stork nest from my previous trip in summer:

On the way to my mother-in-law house in a small Ukrainian village I passed several small towns:





Although this part of the country speaks Ukrainian (to be strict they speak so-called "Surjik", a mix of Ukrainian and Russian), some signs are in Russian:



The last several kilometers to my destination point were very challenging because the road barely exists where. Also it's a "black earth" region so the dirt is very greasy and slippery so it was more like a rally. My wife panicked:" AAA!!! We'll stuck here! We'll turn over the car's top!", but my son thinks that it was the coolest part of the trip. You can imagine how my car looked like after driving 15 km by the roads like this:



After spending several day's at my mother-in-law we finally came to the Russian border:

Great pictures Bas - you really have an eye for the interesting details.
Thanks for sharing them!

"Black earth" is very fertile soil, isn't it?

Originally Posted by Johanna

Great pictures Bas - you really have an eye for the interesting details.

Thanks!

"Black earth" is very fertile soil, isn't it?

Yep.

Great report, Basil77!It feels almost like we travelled there with you.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Great report, Basil77!It feels almost like we travelled there with you.

Спасибо, Женя!

And finally some pictures from the last part of the trip.
Zheleznogorsk, the center of Kursk magnetic anomaly (anomaly means that magnetic compass doesn't work there):



Globalization, як вона є (Coca-cola plant in the city of Oryol):



Some funny village names:



Translation: "Long cheek"



"First warrior"



"Free sickle"

Great stuff Basil77! Thank you. If you are interested I can post snaps of a trip from New Jersey to New York State. Boring stuff actually.

Scott

Originally Posted by fortheether

Great stuff Basil77! Thank you. If you are interested I can post snaps of a trip from New Jersey to New York State. Boring stuff actually.

Scott

Thanks! Boring stuff for you, who lives in U.S. But for people like me, who have never been there and probably never will such pictures can be very interesting!

Exactly, fortheether, why don't you post them?
I have no idea what that looks like either - my guess would be 5 lane motorways and roadstops?

Would be nice to see what that precisely that looks like.

I for one like pictures of "regular" things and "regular people".

Originally Posted by Basil77

Originally Posted by fortheether

Great stuff Basil77! Thank you. If you are interested I can post snaps of a trip from New Jersey to New York State. Boring stuff actually.

Scott

Thanks! Boring stuff for you, who lives in U.S. But for people like me, who have never been there and probably never will such pictures can be very interesting!

Basil/Johanna,
I'll post some snaps soon for the trip and about my town.

Scott