May 18th, 2013 at 11:00AM: Alex Robertson Textor
Launched in 1956, Eurovision is a Europe-wide music competition held every May under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Participating countries select their representative songs over the course of the preceding winter and spring. Some countries – like Sweden – make their selections via televised heats held over several consecutive weeks. Others ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Ukraine posts
Eurovision 2013: All Of Europe Under One Roof
May 18th, 2013 at 11:00AM: Alex Robertson Textor
Launched in 1956, Eurovision is a Europe-wide music competition held every May under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Participating countries select their representative songs over the course of the preceding winter and spring. Some countries – like Sweden – make their selections via televised heats held over several consecutive weeks. Others ...A Traveler In The Foreign Service: Europe's 'Most Beautiful' Women And Other Reasons To Love Bulgaria
Oct 15th, 2012 at 10:00AM: I had to go to Bulgaria just to see if Bill Bryson was full of crap. In his book, "Neither Here Nor There," published in 1991, Bryson wrote, "Sofia has, without any doubt, the most beautiful women in Europe." I was in college when I read the book, and at the tail end of the Cold War it seemed like an improbable assertion. We'd been led to believe that women behind the Iron Curtain were ugly, and, ...Budget Vacation Guide 2012: Kiev, Ukraine
Jan 3rd, 2012 at 9:00AM:
This summer, soccer fans from around the world will flock to Ukraine when the country co-hosts UEFA Euro2012 with Poland for the very first time. There's no better time to visit the capital city of Kiev, which has spent the past few years beefing up its tourist infrastructure and recently unveiled a completely redesigned Olympic Stadium in preparation for the final match of the quadrennial ...The world's ten creepiest abandoned cities
Apr 27th, 2011 at 11:00AM:
Some cities die. The people leave, the streets go quiet, and the isolation takes on the macabre shape of a forlorn ghost-town - crumbling with haunting neglect and urban decay. From Taiwan to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, these abandoned cities lurk in the shadows of civilization. Their histories are carried in hushed whispers and futures stillborn from the day of their ...Observe the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl searching for radioactive beasts with VBS
Apr 26th, 2011 at 12:00PM:
25 years ago today, a catastrophic nuclear disaster took place at the Chernobyl power plant in the city of Pripyat. Haunted by the specter of radiation, the one time city transformed into a spread of creepy abandoned buildings and one of the most poisonous places on the planet - the Red Forest. With humans gone, the town has been taken back by wildlife. Today, wolves wander abandoned schools ...
Five ways to get more European stamps in your passport
Mar 2nd, 2011 at 10:30AM:
Lake Ohrid, Macedonia.
Yesterday, I wrote about the fact that European passport stamps have become harder and harder to get. The expansion of the Schengen zone has reduced the number of times tourists are compelled to show their passports to immigration officials. For most Americans on multi-country European itineraries, a passport will be stamped just twice: upon arrival and upon departure. ...Travel then and now: Travel to the USSR and GDR
Mar 1st, 2011 at 3:30PM: This year is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union and 21 years since the reunification of Germany. While citizens of the USSR and GDR were unable to travel abroad and restricted in domestic travel, foreign travelers were permitted under a controlled environment. In the early nineties, if you were a foreigner looking to go abroad to the Eastern Europe or Central Asia, you called ...Knocked up abroad: getting pregnant in a foreign country
Feb 16th, 2011 at 2:30PM: My first clue that something was different came when I woke up one night on vacation in Kiev at 3am, proceeded to eat 3 slices of toast with caviar spread, went back to bed and woke up a few hours later wondering if they made blueberry muffins in Ukraine (tragicially, they do not). That "time of the month" hadn't happened but flying tends to always mess with your body, so I didn't give it much of ...Aquarium crocodile swallows cell phone
Jan 22nd, 2011 at 1:00PM: A visitor to an aquarium in the Ukraine was trying to take a picture of a crocodile with her cell phone when she dropped it right into the creature's mouth, the BBC reports.
Last month at an aquarium in Dnipropetrovsk, Rimma Golovko reached her hand towards Gena the crocodile in order to get a good shot as it opened its mouth. She fumbled and the phone fell right into the Gena's gullet. The ...The sushi invasion of Eastern Europe
Dec 15th, 2010 at 9:00AM: Traveling through Eastern Europe recently, what stood out to me the most (aside from ultra low prices and varying success with capitalism) is the extreme popularity of sushi. Particularly in Kiev and Warsaw, sushi restaurants are nearly as prolific as the national cuisine and if you find yourself in a fashionable restaurant, odds are raw fish will be on the menu.
My husband and I had differing ...Photo of the day (12.9.10)
Dec 9th, 2010 at 5:30PM:
Finding contrasts is one of the best things about travel. We love seeing places, people, and cultures different from our own and when we see a familiar item in an unfamiliar context, it's especially interesting. Pick up any travel article about Turkey, Morocco, or Japan and you're guaranteed to read a few examples of "old world meets new" contrast. Today's Photo of the Day by Mike GL captures a ...Five great European budget-friendly travel sites
Dec 3rd, 2010 at 9:30AM: Practical, how-to budget travel advice is indispensible. There's something particularly valuable about travel advice that opposes the emphasis on expensive hotels and other forms of high-end consumption that characterizes the contemporary travel media, perhaps especially in regions like Europe where costs are generally quite high.
Budget-friendly travel in Europe is no impossible dream, and the ...Ten great bands that I only discovered by traveling
Nov 12th, 2010 at 11:00AM: To travel is to trade.
From the 15th century Portuguese explorers to the overconfident 18-year old who crosses the ocean with a loaded iPod, travelers are always in the business of exchanging things: ideas, food, fashion, genes and diseases. Music is right up there, and with the ease of the MP3, we freely unload playlists to one another like apples in a market.
When I look over some of the ...
Wanderfly.com travel-planning site launches in beta
Aug 4th, 2010 at 10:00AM:
A new travel-planning website and booking engine is launching this month in beta, and I was excited to give it a test run, having first heard about the site this spring at a EuroCheapo travel happy hour. Wanderfly.com is a "personalized recommendation engine" that takes your interests, budget, and even social network connections to give you inspiration and help you plan your next vacation. ...Gadlinks for Wednesday 12.2.2009
Dec 2nd, 2009 at 5:00PM:
I hope you're all having a good start to the final month of the decade! It's time to look ahead -- not back. So let's look to the future by taking a peak on the world's newest destinations, shall we?
How cool would it be to take a green break to start the new decade? Here are five clean holidays for those eco-friendly travelers out there. [via Green Traveller]
Eastern Europe must be on my ...Photo of the day 7/23/09
Jul 23rd, 2009 at 5:00PM: I would imagine that political races are different in Kiev, Ukraine from what I'm used to. But I had to do a double take at this picture by borderfilms (Doug). I had to look closely to see if it was altered in any way. I think it's real, but who knows. If it is, then this is one heck of a way to make a statement. It sure beats the wire framed political signs growing in front yards across the ...Bowermaster's Antarctica -- Science in Antarctica
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Jan 14th, 2009 at 11:00AM:
Thanks to the 1959 treaty that governs Antarctica, the entire continent is supposed to be devoted to science (rather than military exercise, national claims or mineral exploitation). And no one does science with more conviviality than the Ukrainians at their base in the Argentine Islands called Vernadsky. I stopped in yesterday for a visit with the thirteen scientists and support crew who have ...Airline Celebrates 5th Anniversary with Free Flights for All
Oct 22nd, 2008 at 1:00PM: United Arab Emirates-based Air Arabia will be celebrating its 5th birthday with a special treat for its customers. Everyone flying on the Persian Gulf's original low-cost carrier on October 28th will fly for free. Passengers are still expected to pay any applicable airport taxes and fees. The free flights are for one day only and only include one-way service. Before you get excited, you should ...Chernobyl: Vacation Hotspot? Or Mutation-Causing Wrong Turn?
Oct 4th, 2007 at 1:01PM: One place I really want to visit, but common sense tells me otherwise, is Chernobyl. No, not the power plant itself, but the nearby ghost town of Pripyat and the wasteland that surrounds it. Apparently it's just safe enough for visitors to spend a brief time scavenging about before too much radiation mutates their brain cells. We've posted before about tours which the adventurous and/or fool ...
Which European Country has the Worst Drunks According to YouTube Videos
Sep 20th, 2007 at 7:28AM: Europe has a long tradition of drinking. While this may not be such a bad cultural norm, there are a few bad apples who embrace their love of alcohol just a little too enthusiastically. If you've been to Europe, you know what I'm talking about. Sure, my home country of America has its share of drunks, but for whatever reason I always see far more stumbling, incoherent, word-slurring reprobates on ...
