Good evening Europe! Eurovision and the Ukraine

Friday May 12

Dana and I arrived at the Kiev, Ukraine airport for our flying adventure of Ukraine and most importantly, Eurovision.
Dana and I have talked for years about going to Eurovision and this year, we are making it happen. I have an EU passport but Dana does not. Unfortunately, Dana like all the other Aussie's trying to get their Ukraine visa's processed at Ukraine, did everything they did to come prepared but still had problems. I'm always amazed to see how various people can manage to make one process 100 times more difficult than it needed to be. The visa costs $100 US or Euro (even though those currencies are completely different). On the website it said that people could pay with card (Visa is the official partner of Eurovison) but this was rejected by officials. People could not even pay with the Ukranian currency. The whole process took about 2 and a half hours. No one spoke any English and the officials would just leave for 30 minutes at a time with peoples passports not telling people where they were going. I ended up going ahead of Dana to collect our bags and the bags of the other Aussies, as apparently if you don't collect your bag within an hour of arriving, your nag gets locked away. I love all the random conversations you have with people at every corner. While waiting for Dana on the other side of security, a German guy was telling me about his time working in foreign affairs in Central Asia where he met his current partner. Because of difficulties obtaining Visa's, his partner and him have to meet in various places in Europe to be able to spend time together. Exhausted, but, we made it! Dana's husband Marek's friend Tristan met us at the airport. Tristan is Australian and moved to the Ukraine for a relationship that didn't work out but decided to live here and do business here. We went out to 'Puzata hut' which is a Ukrainian food buffet fast food restaurant. Tristan warned us halfway through the meal that if the food looks dodgy, it probably is as he has had food poisoning four times here. I ate my slightly pink chicken as I was too hungry and tired to care. It's great to see a chain of Ukrainian food: chicken Kiev borsche etc. Our airbnb didn't look much like the actual photos. Our double bed , is really a single bed. Our host smokes inside and the kitty litter is next to the toilet. As you walk up the apartment, you feel everything post soviet with the weather to match. Our host Natalie appears to be a single Mum though, she is sweet and a lot of people here don't get paid more than 1 Euro an hour. So I am happy that we could help out Natalie and Dana and I snuggle up top to tail on our single bed.


Saturday May 13

After initial culture shock, it's great to get a bit of sleep and then immerse yourself. Tristan, Dana and  I went all around Kiev. The main square is amazing, really beautiful. It has been great to really appreciate the history here and what people in the Ukraine are experiencing. It's interesting, as Tristan seems to talk down a lot of the problems here, I'm not sure if this is a coping mechanism or stories that are being fed to different people. We hear in Australia about what has happened here, but visiting brings a totally different perspective. It's hard to talk down that 10000 people were murdered here in the main square. There are memorials placed all the way up the square, with photos and flowers. I didn't take any photos, as I don't feel it is my place, I don't know their stories. I did take photos of the bands made in Ukranian flag colours to represent all the people who died.

One lovely man who we talked to in the street to ask for directions, spoke with tears in his eyes explaining what happened in the square. He spoke about how he does not live in Kiev, so he is oppressed. Kiev has a lot of Soviet influence it seems, than other parts of Kiev. Most people in the Ukraine are not allowed to travel to travel to other countries with there visas unless if it is for business or shopping on Poland. People here don't really smile, which may be cultural from Soviet influence. This presentation is not confusing for me though, as this is how it feels in Lithuania.

Independence Monument.

Great to see how excited all the locals are to be hosting Eurovision.

 
We had lunch at this amazing cafe where all the decor is made up to represent the struggles that Ukraine has endured, their revolution, their culture and hope for the future. The password to get in in Ukrainian translated to English is 'battle on and you will win'.

Secret door to the restaurant. Hand showing all the people who fought for freedom.

 It's a lovely time to be in Kiev as their folk festival is also running right now.


 

Orthodox church. Elderly Ukranian woman started screaming, not sure why, maybe because I took a photos, but I saw no signs not telling me to take a photo... Tristan says that women screaming like this outside of the church is not uncommon. 'Something to do with religion', he says.

 

Dana found out that sunflowers are a national flower of the Ukraine, which is great as I have been wearing pretend little sunflowers in my hair every day traveling.

 

Major tourist trap for me and Tristan: plant the birds on the tourist who never asked for the birds then ask for money! A Good tourist trap though, and yes I gave them money.

We went on a fantastic walk through a pretty park, past the bell tower and on the way to the micro miniature museum.

 

This exhibition was amazing and is like nothing I have seen before. You need to use a microscope to be able to see that that this artist has made. Tiny scrolls of music sheets, a ship, a piece of hair that has been drilled lengthwise and then an artificial rose placed in the middle of the hair, incredible.



 


We went on to have an afternoon drink at Tristan's friend's house, Cristina. Cristina's house looks very different to where we are staying. Cristina is from the Ukraine but grew up in the USA. Cristina';s friend Jason is a foreign affairs reporter  on television but is from Moscow, which I find a little off. They are much more wealthy than anyone else in comparison.

Making our way up the giant escalator.

And then....


EUROVISION!

I had made some t-shirts for me and Dana with a Lithuanian and Australian flag on the front and a boxing Kangaroo and grateful dead skeleton on the back. Unfortunately, Lithuanian didn't make the finals (their performance was pretty bad) but we rocked the t shirts anyway along with glitter, diamontes and rainbow socks.








 


 


 
 
Eurovision is so great. It makes me so happy. I have never been a stadium with this many people (about 25000 I think). It's amazing to see everyone cheering and dancing and wildly waving their flags. before you go in, everyone is drinking beer and dressed in outrageous costumes that represent the country they are cheering for. A lot of people here (including an Australian) have been to 6 or 7 Eurovisions, they are my idol.
 

 



The volunteers at the door loved that we incorporated Ukrainian flags in to our costumes. Australia is such a magical far away land here. Tristan said that for a lot of people, we will be the first Australian's they have met. We came prepared with water and snacks but got told that we couldn't bring them in. I was humored and impressed to find that we could pick up most of our consumables at the end of the night, among the hundreds of snacks that everyone else had to hand in. It was funny to see that someone took a liking to out strawberry croissants but left the chocolate ones. :P. It was so exciting to walk to the event among the Ukrainians dressed in orange to represent freedom.

It's very different watching Eurovision live, rather than on TV. Man, those stage crew are freaking incredible, quickly running on stage to clean the floors, move giant props on and then off again with camera man darting around quickly.









It was a huge night,as it starts at 10pm so that the time matches all the major EU countries.

My favourite performances were Italy and Moldova, oh and Sweden. Australia was great but I think he should have been given a different song.

My friend Jenny asked me, 'is Eurovision like a cult'? Well, perhaps yes, but a very good cult. You really can't be sad with Eurovision, it's just not possible. And no one gets hurt. It really does celebrate diversity Interesting that everyone booed for Greece though and I was hoping they could crop out the Australian who mooned everyone on stage, but he got in too quick. Ed tells me that he wasn't even Australian? Cheeky bugger. And yes, countries tend to vote for their neighboring countries or allies, but it's just such a great night! I can also confirm that most singes actually do sing really well, I think the acoustics seem to change when on TV so people sound off key. Dana also believes that all the performers who are fake playing instruments, can actually play but there isn't enough time to have people hooked up to amplifiers etc (this is true). Let's leave that one to the jury.

Thank you Ukraine. Your people are strong and I hold hope for you for the future.

Love Rasa