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Travel In Western Ukraine

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
May 16, 2011
in Retirement/Living
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Monastery in Kiev, Ukraine
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A Pastoral Land Where Time Stands Still

“My friend Ivan and I were on a bus rolling through the wheat fields of western Ukraine. Green shoots, gentle slopes, farm animals, villages, towns, and churches continuing on until the horizon all gave the region a 19th-century look. Only the power lines and cars gave away the here and now.

“Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union after World War II. During those Soviet years, western Ukraine became the Soviet breadbasket. The Soviet Union fell in 1989, and Ukraine achieved independence in 1991. But the region looks as I imagine it must have looked 50 or a 100 or even 200 years ago. They’re still growing wheat.

“We heard Ukrainian spoken far more than Russian. The Russians stay mostly in the east, and in and near Kyiv (Kiev), the capital.

“I say we were rolling along through the breadbasket, but bouncing or jostling along might be more correct. The roads look like they’ve been pounded by jackhammers. Even on expressways, vehicles must slow down to avoid potholes. Highways resemble open pit mines. The costly imported Mercedes and Audis I saw passing us must get beaten up in a matter of a few months.

“Clearly, over the past decade or so, while the rest of the world improved its roads, Ukraine spent its money on something else.

“The challenging roads made little difference to our driver. At a break–buses here stop every now and again at bathrooms…very convenient–Ivan said, ‘Check out our bus driver. He’s a character.’

“Ivan’s front-of-the-bus seat gave him a closer view of the driver than I’d had.

“The driver turned out to be a cell phone addict. I’d only seen one cell phone addict before, in the seat next to me on the plane over here.

“She’d boarded the plane while talking on her phone, carrying three bundles, and blocking the aisle. When she finally sat down she continued to talk and dial, talk and dial. Nonstop. Right before takeoff, a flight attendant physically took the phone away from her, stuck it in the addict’s purse, and put the purse in the bin.

“Now, here in western Ukraine, our bus driver talked on his phone full time, drove the bus part time. Every now and again he put the phone away, but, after a few seconds, he’d pull it out and start screaming into it again. He was never more than 15 seconds or so without it.

“One thing I noted with both addicts: They talk, rarely listen.

“We stopped in Vinnytsia to see the remains of Hitler’s World War II bunker, just outside town. Germany occupied Ukraine at the beginning of the war, and Hitler spent a couple of days here in his easternmost front.

“Borders around here have changed a great deal over the centuries. So have the people who run the countries within the borders, from Swedes and Hapsburgs to Poles and Russians.

“In the 1980s in Argentina I met a guy in his 90s, the father of friends. He had grown up in the 1890s in a shtetl in Eastern Europe. He lived in the same place for the first 10 years of his life, but the country he lived in changed three times. He was unclear as to exactly where he had lived (after all, he was a small boy). But it must have been in this region where I am traveling now.

“The fluid borders show up in many ways. Cities here have a Polish quarter, an Armenian quarter, a Hungarian quarter… Menus offer Polish and Russian food. Architecture comes from the Hapsburgs, the Germans, from local traditions. The statue in the main square may be of a local hero or a Magyar king.

“I like the cross-cultural mix, from imported goods at market to ethnic restaurants, from the music and culture to the multilingual speakers. I can see myself spending more time here in western Ukraine. I’d have to learn the local alphabet. I’d have to learn to read a menu and maybe to say a few words in Ukrainian. But I suspect I could get comfortable…”

Kathleen Peddicord

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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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