JetLag Jane

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Ukraine

Ukraine

Cricova, Chișinău and a lot of cheese: A day trip to Moldova (and a self-declared republic along the way.)

On a warm midsummer day, three Australians and an Odessan made the day trip to Moldova to do a little sightseeing and wine tasting. This little landlocked country, wedged between Romania and Ukraine, has known many masters in its history and is today one of the poorest and least visited countries in Europe. The day we spent there has stayed in my memory for its brooding realist architecture in the capital, the lonely expanse of a patchwork of farms, the fruit trees lining the main roads and  ...

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Ukraine

The Cats of Odessa

In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this. Terry Pratchett Cats are worshipped, or at least revered, in the beautiful Black Sea city of Odessa in Ukraine. Cats really are the embodiment of class and cool- they are entirely self-obsessed, utterly aloof and invariably gorgeous. As we wandered through the cobblestone streets, market places and boulevards of Odessa, we came across a feline fiefdom which is fully endorsed, encouraged and indulged by Odessan  ...

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Ukraine

Abandoned Utopia: a visit to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine.

Why visit Chernobyl? I have a fascination for Soviet history and abandoned human environs- and luckily a Ukrainian friend who suggested his homeland would be a good place for a summer holiday- and he was right! I hadn’t watched the HBO series before visiting- I only knew about it from documentaries, books and sadly, an episode of Top Gear. I can guess what you may be thinking- isn’t it dangerous to visit a place that is radioactive? The standard line from tour operators is a day  ...

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Ukraine

Odessa: The Catacombs

The Museum of Partisan Glory is an underground museum and monument to the people of Odessa who fought back against the occupying Nazis and Romanians during the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. Built in 1969, the museum has two sections; the underground catacombs and the above-ground hall and gardens. The catacombs first appeared in the 19th century, at the time of the construction of most of the grand buildings found in Odessa. The estimated 2800km (Odessa to Moscow and back again, then a bit  ...

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Ukraine

Odessa, Ukraine

Part One We landed in Odessa in the mid-afternoon on a direct Fly Dubai flight from Dubai. There was a glimpse of the sad, crumbling old airport building as we taxied in. Eventually, we saw the huge, modern, glistening, new terminal, which looks like all the other ones in the world built over the last couple of years. Despite this structure, the tarmac looked like a grey patchwork quilt and on the edge of the runway was an old plane with its nose dangling sadly amongst the tall grasses. As  ...

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