Interesting places
An article from lovelylife.in.ua listed ‘7 Dreamlike Places‘ to visit in Ukraine, I particularly liked the Maniava waterfall, located in the Carpathian mountains in the Ivano-Frankivsk region (Google map)
Also listed are prehistoric settlements and a mysterious deep ‘black lake’.
Football
After much huffing and puffing I decided to adopt FC Karpaty Lviv as my Ukrainian football team. From what I can see they are a mid-table kinda club, which is fine with me, I’ll like the badge and please green and white striped shirts.
It wasn’t an easy choice, Lviv is also home to FC Shakhtar Donetsk, one of the two biggest clubs in Ukraine (Dynamo Kyiv being the other).
I’m going to write a longer post about my choice in the next week or so.
Sadly we won’t be in Lviv for a game but we’ll get to see KS Cracovia play a match in Kraków, so that’s okay.
Music
I finally discovered a Ukrainian band that I like!
Один в каное (One in Canoe) are a three piece from Lviv (fancy that!).
They have a wistful, alt-folk, romantic sound that I quite enjoy. Apparently the band do not play in Russia due to Putin’s aggression against Ukraine (fair enough).
They are touring in the Autumn though not anywhere near where we’ll be. So I’ll make do with picking up a copy of their new CD and a t-shirt when in Lviv.
Check out this video and let me know what you think:
Books
I’m reading ‘Taras Bulba’ by the great Ukrainian writer Nicolas Gogol. It’s a fine novel, very funny in parts, somewhat sinister in others.
The novel is set among Cossacks and describes the life of an old Zaporozhian Cossack, Taras Bulba, and his two sons.
I need to read more on the Cossacks.