Introduction

Kyrylo Silin

I love walking. When I’m in an unfamiliar place, I try to explore it on foot. If possible, I rent a bicycle. It lets me move faster and see more. If cycling does not feel safe, I stick to walking.

In this section, I write about places I’ve visited and how they felt to me at the time. Some places change between visits. Others do not. This blog is a record of those moments, paired with photos taken along the way.

🇦🇪 Dubai

February 24, 2019 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

Prior to going to Dubai, I already had certain expectations. That said, I didn’t expect that my first experience would be falling for a scam. Well, kind of. You see, as a Ukrainian citizen, I can visit the UAE without a visa. However, I was dumb enough to pay some agency to provide me with a tourist visa. When I had paid them the full amount, I realised that was a mistake. When I asked for a refund (30 minutes after my payment), they refused.

Alas, that’s the price I had to pay for being careless. I was able to enter the UAE with a visa that nobody even checked.

Let’s start. Dubai is the land of cars.

When you are a pedestrian in this city, it’s considered a mishap. When you are a pedestrian, you wait. No, you WAIT.

If you don’t want to WAIT, you may go. Just don’t expect this experience to be safe or pleasant. Sometimes there are no sidewalks in Dubai.

So, if you don’t want to take a taxi, don’t expect that it’ll be free either. Dubai forces you to pay. The more, the better. The fine for jaywalking here is 400 dirhams (about $110).

Without a way to cross the road, without a safe sidewalk, a daily routine such as going to the grocery store turns into a suicide mission that you’ll have to fund if the police catches you.

Although I am a daring individual, I would not go beneath an overpass for no apparent reason. I found myself there looking for a method to go around this juncture. There was no such thing, as it turned out. A kilometer away was the nearest crossing (not just a safe crossing, but any crossing).

You have no chance against this concrete jungle, even if you wish to take a gamble and run for your life while evading rapid cars.

Some of the crossings are not that safe. Take a look at how broad this junction is. You can easily erect another skyscraper here.

This particular crossing has a tiny pedestrian island. I wouldn’t feel comfortable there waiting for my green light.

Basically, everyone here screams that you’re not welcome when you transport yourself using something other than a wheel.

It’s really surprising to me that walking in Dubai is tough. I can clearly see that the city invests in public transportation. Walking and public transportation go together (or walk together?). Dubai offers multiple ways of budget traveling. One is renting a bicycle. I was eager to try it out, but I couldn’t because I didn’t have mobile data when I was on the street. In order to rent a bicycle, you need an app and an internet connection.

Cycling infrastructure does exist in Dubai, but it’s not connected together. The bicycle lanes here end abruptly, and you are forced to yield to cars.

As a result, not many choose to cycle.

Those who do prefer cycling might even have no infrastructure whatsoever.

If you don’t yield to a car, you might bump into a road worker’s middle finger in the form of pavement construction.

In other cases, the cycling infrastructure is there, but the cyclists have not yet been born in that area. And to be perfectly honest, some paint on the ground is not cycling infrastructure.

Anyway, enough of the cycling. You can take a tram in Dubai.

The only problem is that the coverage is rather poor. The tracks start from nowhere and lead to nowhere.

A much better alternative would be the Dubai Metro, a fast and completely autonomous railway system covering all key destinations in the city.

Every station looks identical (unlike in my city, where every station must have a personality).

The metro is also completely safe. There’s no way to fall on the tracks. What I love about it is that everything is automated. What I don’t love is that there are separate coaches for women and men. Women can go inside coaches for men, but men are not allowed to go to the women’s place.

I also am not a fan of strict rules like no eating or drinking, or even chewing gum.

No chewing gum yadda-yadda, very dangerous yadda-yadda, can cause a trainwreck yadda.

Those four birds that are not following the leader clearly didn’t obtain their flying license legally. I don’t think flying like that is okay in the UAE. Does anyone know how many dirhams the fine is for that violation? And also, if they chewed bubble gum, that amount would probably be doubled.

In general, most of Dubai’s life finds itself on Sheikh Zayed Road. The cars and the trains make this experience quite noisy. Even with your windows closed.

Speaking of penalties, the signs informing us what’s not allowed are everywhere. I actually think some of them make sense, like this “red light violation” rule. However, given the technological advances Dubai has made, I think it’s a rather poor attempt. We can install such a sign here in Ukraine, but it won’t do any good. Dubai, with trillions of dollars, can develop a more advanced solution. An automated system that imposes certain rules on everybody would be perfect. The little human interaction, the better. Anyway, I’m not gonna solve it for you, Dubai (unless you share with me some of your petrodollars).

If you do speed, you have no chance against the police here. By using muscle cars, they can chase anyone without breaking a drop of sweat.

This is probably the only place in the world where bus stations have automatic sliding doors and air conditioning.

Having no internet on the go, I did appreciate the detailed map of bus routes.

However, at a bus terminal, the stops were rather inconvenient & uninformative, providing only a little bit of shadow.

The buses themselves are fairly modern and convenient to use (and air-conditioned as well).

Wheelchair passengers are welcome to use them as well. I didn’t spot any people using wheelchairs in Dubai, though.

html Copy code At some metro stations, I saw a hi from the past: a payphone. In order to use this particular exhibit, you would need to bring some change and also wire up your own telephone handset (inserting the ends of the wires directly into your ears can be tried but is not recommended).

While most of the things you see in these pictures are brand new, this lamp post is not. I’m sure it’s new as well, but it tries to look vintage, which makes it look out of place.

Similarly to the Philippines, the rear side of trucks mentions a number to call in case the driver goes bananas on the road.

In turn, if you want to go bananas, there’s a number for “Home & Hotel” service available in town. The service can be Russian, Turkish, or Pakistani. Hmmmm…

Basically, closer to the evening time, there’s someone who sows the unfertile soil of Dubai with these pamphlets. I was surprised to see something like that in a place that is protected by Sharia law.

Most of the time, the streets of Dubai look deserted. Wide highways and large distances between buildings with no people walking make it hard to believe that the city is home to 3.3 million inhabitants.

Everything changes at night, when the heat is lower. Dubai is about luxury, so people spend their time spending.

If you are from a hot climate country, or maybe you’ve been to such a country, you might take a guess and say that during the day there’s nobody on the streets because everybody is inside malls. Well, that’s a witty observation. Let’s take a gander at one of the malls during lunchtime.

Nope, nobody’s here. Maybe they went to a park for a picnic?

I can see a few lost souls, but that’s not a park for a city that has such a high population. Maybe they are skiing?

It seems like it’s almost nobody, again. Maybe the men are at work?

Nope… Yo, where’s everyone in this city?

Dubai’s land skyline is dotted with skyscrapers. But who is this built for if the streets are empty?

You turn your head to the left and see skyscrapers.

You turn your head to the right - the sea?

Most of the skyscrapers look blue.

Not all of the city is like that. These barracks are for Indians or Pakistanis. They make up the majority of workers here in Dubai.

This is apparently a church in the same area (or a mosque?).

I was ignorant enough to read this as “TOILET”. To be honest, in some of the areas of this neighborhood, I could smell an unpleasant presence.

Guys, I am not lying. I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that this is also the scariest place I found in Dubai. The city feels very safe in general.

Even in the worst neighborhoods of Dubai, school buses dare to go inside.

Sometimes there’s even fancy architecture.

Being a multinational city, occasionally you will see Russian signs in Dubai.

I was especially surprised to see this Russian ballet dance center on the outskirts of the city (and, please, don’t ask me what I was doing there. I was just trying to find a way to cross a road, okay?).

You can also find some imported Russian products.

I was especially surprised to find Ukrainian ice cream here (which is the best ice cream in the world, by the way).

Speaking of other products, there were a lot of Filipino goods available at supermarkets.

That’s not an accident. According to my personal perception, 1/3 of the country speaks Filipino. No matter where you go, Filipinos will be working there. It was fun to practice my Tagalog once again and surprise a few folks. “Kabayan” in Tagalog means “fellow citizen”.

There’s a Catholic church available to everyone. But I guess it exists mostly because of the Filipino community here.

What I don’t get is why it looks like Alcatraz. Look at the gate and the barbed wire.

Usually, the Catholic churches I’ve been to look very nice both inside and outside. This one has a 3-meter concrete wall, which can withstand a direct hit from a modern tank, and 3-meter screens to catch all incoming grenades. Do they do masses there or mass shootings? What are they hiding there? Or is it to protect them from the outside? There are too many questions for a church.

Filipinos do love their pork. I think that’s why in certain supermarkets there is a pork section. The sign says “for non-Muslims,” but it should really say “for Filipinos.”

Dubai keeps erecting new condominiums. The construction is sprawling.

Surprisingly, at the same time, the city feels empty.

Tolerance bridge won’t save the situation if there’s nobody who can tolerate or be tolerated.

Don’t forget that the climate here is pretty harsh. I was lucky enough to visit Dubai in February. People told me that the coldest season is now. All the bushes, all the grass, it wasn’t growing by itself.

It’s all man-made. Without a man’s touch, nature will eventually restore everything back to how it was.

A lot of money is wasted on these green pastures. What’s the point? Nobody walks here, people who drive don’t care that much.

Moreover, to keep it green, you have to waste the most precious resource on our planet, water.

I also don’t see any cows around. Who knows, they might convert that into a cow field and produce some Dubalpine milk.

Dubai isn’t a new city but it still lacks history. They tried to build “historical” places, but they look too modern.

But I will admit that some of it does look very beautiful.

I love the idea of donating old or unused clothes. We don’t have such boxes in Ukraine, so I just donate some of my clothes to people I know. If we had these boxes, I would do that much more frequently.

I heard the Dubai Mall is the biggest in the world. I don’t know if that still remains true, but I do know that it’s a clever idea to denote what language every staff member can speak.

Being the biggest mall in the world doesn’t guarantee the largest number of visitors. It was relatively empty.

I don’t blame people. In order to get here, you need to ride the metro. When you’re at the station, it’s a 15-minute walk through an overpass tunnel going straight to the mall. Yes, there are conveyor belts to speed this up, but even with them, it’s a very uncomfortable experience because there’s not much to look at.

I think people would happily use golf carts or electric scooters in order to get to the mall or back to the metro station. That’s a free business idea for you, Dubai.

I have a tradition: I go to McDonald’s in every country that I visit and order a Big Mac.

What’s cool in the UAE is that I can customize my Big Mac and literally beef it up.

I didn’t see any squirrels here. Who should live in that house?

This guy?

A lot of famous tech companies are located in Dubai Internet City. Oracle.

Microsoft.

Most of the fancy buildings are built by Emaar. Their brand name is everywhere.

Emaaaaaaar! Find it in this picture.

A lot of these buildings look nice, but when you build thousands of them, they start to look the same (and bland).

Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V.

Despite the abundance of skyscrapers, there are also a lot of wastelands.

This is still very much inside the city.

I don’t know any Arabic, but I found it interesting that the spelling of “men” is so long in this language.

Free hot drinking water is a rare find. Kudos to those who thought about it.

Sharps disposal box. I had never seen anything like this before. Is this for diabetic people? How interesting.

This guy is likely from Yakutia, the coldest inhabited region in the world. Old habits die hard.

What a dynamic duo they are!

This is a sad broadwalk if no pets are allowed. Maybe it’s okay if my doggo wears modest clothes?

What I loved about Dubai is how clean it is. The fact that you can go outside, spend the whole day, and come back home wearing completely clean shoes is pure bliss. This is something that’s practically non-existent in my country.

It’s not a capitalist country if there’s no golf course.

These houses are also situated on the territory of the same golf course. I guess you can live and play here.

In very rare cases, you can see traffic helpers, just like in some Asian countries.

In order to lay down a few bricks, you need nine workers. Open question: how many workers does it take to screw in a light bulb in Dubai?

Some of those guys could visit this place and fix it.

In very rare cases, manholes can be left open.

Where the school buses sleep.

Where “environmental-friendly” vehicles sleep. I’m not sure why this parking space is reserved for them. There’s no charging station here.

Where distribution boards (?) are left in the open air. This is not typical of Dubai.

The gap between the rich and the poor is very evident in the UAE. I had thought that everybody in Dubai swims in luxury. It turned out that only some people really do swim in luxury. They swim their yachts.

The rest swim in their own sweat, induced by the sun.

Unfortunately, similarly to many Asian megalopolises, you have to use overpasses. At least in Dubai, all of them have working elevators.

That’s because the streets belong to cars.

I really love how some malls in Dubai make the directions clear. The malls here are huge, and it’s really easy to get lost.

Quarantine rules due to COVID-19 are taken seriously here. If you need to wait, you need to wait.

That was my Dubai story.

🇵🇭 Cebu. My longest journey abroad so far

August 24, 2019 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

Cebu City is the 2nd largest city of the Philippines. It is located on Cebu island and it’s the oldest city of the country. It’s similar to Metro Manila in a way that Cebu City is just a piece of the puzzle in the bigger picture. Many smaller cities comprise Metro Cebu and Cebu City is just one of them.

During the day, just like in Manila, the city is full of people. Most of them are concentrated at the roads. The traffic is not as bad as in Manila, but it’s getting worse every year. I’ve been told that 10-15 years ago Cebu had no traffic problems. Overall, the lack of public transportation is a major problem of the Philippines.

During the night the city is empty. If you see a group of people on the street at night, they’re probably call center workers. Other people go to bed early and wake up really early. Some people sleep on the sidewalk. It’s really peaceful.

Those who don’t sleep and have no work prefer to go to karaoke bars or restaurants. There are almost no parks or pedestrian areas in Cebu, so hanging out outside is a bit complicated and not so enjoyable.

A patch of burnt by the sun grass vaguely resembles a park. People have to sit on the ground because there are only 3-4 benches for that area. When it’s raining, you can no longer hang out there.

I have to say that my perception of Cebu is affected by what I saw in Manila. That’s why I cannot stop myself from comparing them. In many ways Cebu is like Manila but with fewer people, fewer business districts. It’s also more clean and spacious.

People here speak Cebuano (unlike Tagalog in Manila). Locals don’t show as much interest in foreigners like me as they do it in Manila. This can probably be explained by the fact that the city receives more tourists than Manila.

IT Park, a developing business district, hosts a lot of foreign companies. In a way, it’s similar to BGC in Manila, however it’s tiny compared to BGC (which itself isn’t huge).

Unlike BGC, IT Park has problems with flooding during the rainy season. On a rainy day the weather forced me to remember autumn in Ukraine, where you need to jump from an island to an island inside a big pond that the street turns into.

When you walk outside IT Park, regular life hits you. No sidewalks is a trademark of many Asian countries. You always have to watch your back to make sure a crazy jeepney driver doesn’t roll over you.

In Cebu I finally got used to huge roaches. I still can’t stand them, though. Especially, when they fly. These critters can crawl anywhere, no matter what floor you live on. Once upon a time I woke up with one in my bed. Yuck!

Here, like in the rest of the Philippines people build big fences and protect them with broken glass. I wonder, if Filipinos are so friendly, why are they afraid of each other?

No problem if you didn’t manage to obtain a license for your motorcycle. You can draw it by yourself! “Regested” it says.

On Catholic Christmas people go to the church. Not just any church but Basilica del Santo Niño. In 2019 I was lucky enough to follow this tradition. Thankfully, we knew nothing about COVID-19 back then.

It can get really crowded there. The street turns into a can of sardines where our sweat is the oil that we all swim in. It’s also really hot, so you might pass out. Yet, it doesn’t stop anyone.

Cebu has a lot of beaches and mountains. That’s why it’s perfect for nature lovers (I am one!). What can be better than hiking in the mountains on a Saturday morning? As result, there can be landslides blocking the roads. They do happen from time to time.

This way to the toilet will make you feel dizzy as you walk through it. Is the idea to reject visitors, so that the toilets will remain cleaner?

On the way to the toilet you can purchase wet wipes or tissue. Quite nifty!

Cebu’s specialty is lechon, a roasted pig. Typically, Cebuanos order a pig and roast it over an open fire when they have a holiday. The pork would be eaten with rice. This piece of bread is not real lechon, so don’t be confused.

90% of the country has never seen snow. Yet, Christmas here is pictured with snow. TV goes a long way and forms an alternate reality for a lot of people on our planet.

Something that I struggle to understand is the love of Filipinos for winter clothing. Once in a while I see people wearing winter hats when it’s 30°C outside. Sometimes it’s a spring coat. This guy won all style points. A pair of Timberlands! Let alone his costume. I would be a boiled sausage inside that apparel.

COVID-19 cannot stop construction here. Many high-rise buildings are being constructed 24/7.

When you have an active construction in front of your windows, it can get a little noisy.

Let me share with you a fun fact. Because of Sinulog it also can get a little noisy on the streets in September… or October, or… well, these young musicians start practicing really well before the event. In fact, Sinulog is held on the third Sunday of January.

This is probably the only “Jeepney stop” sign in the country. You see, with jeepnees, there are no “stops”. They stop wherever the heck they want. There are “waiting areas”, though but you can discover them only if you’re local. Good luck finding such an area if you’re a tourist. You’ll probably have to smell that stop with your guts because those jeepneys leave a trail of soot.

Speaking of which, pollution is a serious problem in the Philippines. Not only Filipinos litter everywhere, but other foreign countries also send trash there (and Philippines receives money).

It was a rather surprising encounter. A telephone call box is something that dinosaurs used to use. It was so inconvenient to use that technology that they couldn’t figure out how to call each other and warn about the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. That’s why they died.

No matter where you live, in a shabby boarding house, or in an expensive condo, most likely you’ll have to use laundry services. Something that is a bit hard to stumble upon in my city is almost on every corner here in Cebu.

Cebu is open for everyone. Koreans and Japanese come here to study English. Chinese have a temple. Europeans and Americans come for resorts and beaches. Magellan died here. Kyrylo went home.

🇺🇦 Lviv

July 21, 2019 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

Lviv is probably the only place in Ukraine that I really wanted to visit. You see, I come from Eastern Ukraine where culture is influenced by Russia. The language we speak is Russian. On the other hand, Lviv is western Ukraine. It is influenced by Poland, Hungary and other western countries. People there speak Ukrainian. Lviv is also the most touristy city of Ukraine, so I had to go there…

Lviv leaves mixed feelings. The city centre has a truly amazing old architecture. However as soon as you take tram to escape it, it turns into a typical boring Soviet-style city. Pay attention to the horizon.

This old architecture, unfortunately, isn’t achievement of Ukraine. It’s called Old Town and it was built by previous inhabitants who were mostly Austro-Hungarian people.

This gift, which they left us, Ukrainians, is not really appreciated. It hurts me when I see graffitis on old walls, doors, or anywhere in the city centre. I am not nitpicking, they are everywhere.

Soviets also didn’t appreciate what Austro-Hungarians built. It is a real crime to build something like what you can see on the left next to something like what you see on the right.

A lot buildings and architectural whistles in Old Town badly need maintenance. If you don’t come too close, everything look amazing. Like this palace.

But if you look down at your feet, ugly details will start showing up.

Modern Ukrainian culture leaves no chances for survival. Designers of this bench were probably imagining that it would be used by poets to write books, musicians to compose music, dreamers who dream about their love, students who prepare for their exams… Instead, it is used by alcoholics.

I actually managed to find them. How dare you, Mr Bear!

Yeah, I managed to find all of the perpetrators. How can you explain yourselves, guys?

Despite anything, Lviv is packed with amazing architecture. It is home for many architectural wonders.

It’s not just the facade. The insides of some buildings were created with extra love.

Lviv has a lot of Catholic presence, which is not so common for Ukraine. That’s why you can see a lot of bas-reliefs related to religion, and especially Catholicism.

It’s not just on the walls. You need to lift your head up and look into the skies to see everything.

So yeah, Lviv is the centre of tourism in modern Ukraine. Old Town is full of tourists from all over the world. Polish children even organise field trips to the city.

The shops have a lot to offer. Lviv has its own identity. It’s proud of numerous things. For example, coffee and chocolate.

It’s proud of beer (it says “pivo” in Ukrainian).

And finally, it’s proud of lions! Lviv in Ukrainian roughly means “the city of lions”.

Old Town never sleeps. There are always restaurants that are ready to serve clients any time, any day.

There are always people who entertain.

There are a lot of thematic restaurants all around Old Town. One restaurant won’t let you in if you don’t know their password. Another restaurant serves only Jewish food. When you are ready to pay your check, you are supposed to bargain about the price of the meals you consumed. Another restaurant will make you pay astronomical prices for their meals unless you ask a “90% discount”.

You would need 3-4 days to cover most of the Old Town.

It’s very convenient that there are tram lines connecting Old Town with the rest of Lviv.

I realise that most of what I showed is about Old Town. You may be wondering now, what about New Town, the rest of Lviv? Well, I did manage to explore it a few times and unfortunately there’s nothing worthy of your attention there. Soviet Lviv is not exciting. Hey, let’s just focus on the pictures of Old Town!

And if you want to escape it…

You’d better go somewhere high, so that you can appreciate it from the distance! Because Lviv is all about Old Town.

In my previous life I was probably a citizen of Lviv.

🇳🇱 Amsterdam

June 23, 2019 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

Amsterdam feels like Asia without steroids. I didn’t realise it when I was there but it becomes more evident as I’m typing this post. Let’s analyse why that is so.

Firstly, you have water canals for trading. Just like in Bangkok (and probably many other places in Asia). But here in Amsterdam the canals are used for tourists.

Secondly, the water canals are just as dirty as in Asia.

Thridly, the streets are so narrow that they just beg for street food vendors. No street food in Amsterdam, though.

Next, public toilets are just on the streets. There’s no shame in peeing on the street. Again, the only difference is that in Asia they do it wherever, but in Amsterdam there’s a dedicated place on the street.

Next, they have KTV bars (karaoke). Nothing is more Asian than karaoke.

Finally, pedicab taxis. They’re not in abundance like in the Philippines, and probably less annoying but they do exist. Should Amsterdam be actually called Little Manila?

Of course, I was just joking. The capital of the Netherlands has its own face, and that’s why it’s one of the most popular destinations in the world. Where else can you see old houses that almost float above the river?

I mean that literally. Some houses actually do float in the river because they’re boats.

Architecture here is on another level. It is simply impossible to take an ugly picture. I close my eyes, sit down and point the camera at a random direction. Turns out I just wanted to tie my shoelace and accidentally pressed the “Take picture” button. Here we go, that’s how a masterpiece is born.

It’s really above and beyond. Usually, McDonald’s butchers the look of the building that they occupy with their huge “M” signs everywhere. In Amsterdam, though, McDonald’s is very modest. It’s just like any other restaurant.

Because old houses are tiny, they use hooks on the roof to lift furniture (or yo mama).

Modern houses look simple but stylish. One important feature is that ground floor windows don’t have grills. Unbelievable luxury.

There are always exceptions, though. I said stylish, but look at this! It’s hard to believe that this khrushchyovka was erected among the 17th century beauty.

Not many know this, but people in Amsterdam are rather forgetful. Count how many “P” signs you can see on this street.

Make a few steps outside the touristy city centre and there will be nobody. Do Dutch people actually live here?

Probably, someone does. That someone is really lucky: they have a metro station right in their backyard!

In your average city lovebirds hang lovelocks to bridges. In Amsterdam they lock lovebicycles there.

Tourists from all over the world generate gigabytes of data to be posted on the internet.

In its turn, Amsterdam generates clogs for them.

So, this is how a first-world church looks like.

It is so first-world that it’s almost about to accept donations in bitcoins.

Yeah, Netherlands is first-world. You can drink tap water in the Schiphol airport.

But you cannot park your regular petrol car anymore. Sorry, grandpa, only electric cars are allowed.

Netherlands has a very efficient train system that connects all major cities.

However, it’s not perfect. We stopped after 5 minutes into the trip. The train driver said something in Dutch and everyone laughed. As result, we were stuck for 15 minutes. That, basically, sums up my very first experience with public transportation in Holland!

Some things don’t change, no matter what country you’re in. Mice choose to live at train stations, and Schiphol is no exception.

I’m not grumpy, though. You see, it doesn’t take a genius to build basic amenities for a train station: escalators instead of staircases, benches instead of nothing, roof to protect from the sun and the rain. Sounds simple enough. Yet, many cities fail. But Amsterdam wins.

Pigeons belong to every city across the globe. They eat whatever they can. I call them flying rats for that very reason. The Dogs & Burgers kiosk at the top right corner of the picture is alarming (did they forget to mention pigeons?).

The Ukrainian flag is used for scaffolding. Not sure if I should be proud or angry.

Driving here is probably unbearable. First, you have to yield to cyclists. Next, you have to pay crazy fees to enter the city centre and park there. Finally, you have to wait for moveable bridges.

Similar to Rotterdam, people without bikes who want to use bike lanes use tiny cars instead.

The past blends with the present through architecture. We should all thank Dutch people for preserving this historical landmark that Amsterdam city centre is.

Thanks for preserving this beauty, thanks for everything!

🇳🇱 Rotterdam

June 19, 2019 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

The Netherlands is a country that I had always wanted to visit. In my head it was a little paradise, where people follow the rules, nobody knows trouble and cycles all day long. Did it live up to the expectation? Rotterdam will tell.

The city is very clean, has a lot of high quality asphalt and… not many people. I don’t know, maybe I’ve become too used to the Philippines, but Rotterdam has a lot of space and barely any life.

And by clean I mean really clean. This place is one of the few that has some litter.

A lot of modern and spectacular buildings stay dark at night because there’s nobody inside.

I can’t say Rotterdam is concrete jungle but nature is definitely being ousted here. You can see little specks of soil here and there, maybe a few trees, but it’s a very controlled environment.

Those few brave trees who survived fled to the river. That’s the only way to withstand urbanisation.

My dreams about the wonderland with obeying people were ruined because… you know, people are still people, no matter where. Breaking rules is in our nature. I had no idea that bicycle lanes can be shared with mini cars and mopeds.

So hear me out! With every mini car on a bike lane, one real bicycle gets sad.

It can get suffocating even when you park.

Despite that, cycling in Rotterdam is still very enjoyable. I spent a few memorable hours doing nothing but cycling wherever the road takes me. I stumbled upon an underground tunnel just for cyclists. I couldn’t believe this existed!

I also found a home of the worst oatmeal ever, Quaker Oats. I have to admit that the area around smelled yummy, but don’t let this deceive you.

Speaking of food, you have to try the stroopwafel, a Dutch specialty. A stroopwafel with a hot cup of tea is my bread and butter (by the way, bread and butter is also nice with tea).

The Rotterdam metro is trying to look like McDonald’s. Sometimes it blends nicely.

There’s a good criteria that separates rich countries from developing ones. Tap water is drinkable in the former.

Another good criterion is having a freaking helicopter on a yacht. Merely yachts don’t impress me anymore.

So yeah, Rotterdam is an incredibly rich city. As result, everything looks expensive, quacks expensive and is expensive. You want electric cars? No problem.

Cruise ships? You got it.

Retro cars? Check!

I don’t see much commonality between Netherlands and Ukraine, but one thing that made me chuckle is the casinos. We have exactly the same thing at it looks equally ugly on the outside.

Okay, maybe there’s one more thing that unites us. My granny used to grow these flowers.

Because Rotterdam was destroyed during World War 2, it has a lot of modern architecture now. Some of it looks nice.

But other parts remind me of Soviet Union.

Really old buildings are maintained properly. They don’t have air conditioners or plastic windows, so they look fashionable even until now.

This is probably the worst looking piece of “architecture” in the whole city.

This church looks old enough, but new buildings block it. It was really tricky to find an angle to take a picture of the entrance. Even then the sign blocked the view of the door.

Islam presence is growing, and new mosques get open frequently.

China is also expanding its influence. I didn’t expect to see Bank of China here (it also exists in the Philippines).

As for Ukrainian presence or influence… well, that’s about it.

Remember I told you that all the trees fled to the river? Well, there’s actually a park with a lot of greenery. Dutch people are so used to wheels that even in the parks they use segways.

And when they sit down they won’t stop cycling. Hup Holland hup!

When you don’t want to give up rap music but work as an office clerk.

This is the first cruise line in the Netherlands that connected Netherlands and United States.

What do you see here? I see a wedding ring, a wine bottle opener and a swatter. Art.

This is how a proper bicycle parking rack should look like. Now take a look at your nearest hipster restaurant and notice the abomination near the door that they call “bicycle parking rack”.

One can say that Dutch people take pride in what they do.

A typical Rotterdam porch: a glass door, mailboxes and a few vases with flowers.

I had heard that Dutch trams were modern and silent. They do indeed look modern, but I wouldn’t say they make no noise. It’s quite noticeable (which isn’t necessarily bad if you have trams cruising in half a meter from you).

A lot of boats and ships occupy rivers. They’re stationed forever and serve as hotels or places to live for locals. Do rent a boat at least for a day because it’s a unique experience.

But always be mindful of pirates.

Full ahead onto the next journey.

🇵🇭 Manila. Chrismas and my future prospects

January 26, 2019 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

As you might have noticed, I’ve been a frequent visitor to Manila. In fact, every year I spend more and more time in the Philippines. One might think that there’s not much to speak about anymore. Wrong. This time I’ve gotten to experience a beautiful holiday called Paskó (Christmas).

Christmas season starts on September 1 and ends on December 25. Filipinos don’t take it lightly. Manila changes drastically. All the malls, parks, and other public spaces get decorated with Christmas lights, lanterns (called paról) and such.

Why not, right? Although it consumes a lot of electricity, it’s good for business, and makes ordinary people like me happy. It’s very lively.

Malls know it best and put the most effort. As result, famished for pictures tourists get attracted.

That said, life doesn’t revolve around Christmas 24/7. Workers gotta work.

The construction is just crazy here. The city is being built every day and every night. Everyone suffers because of noise, pollution and congestion.

So yeah, most of the time Manila is congested. The roads are full of cars. Average speed is close to 5 km/h.

This is not always the case, though. There’s one, just one special day in the calendar when Manila turns into a ghost town (only for half a day). If you guessed the morning of December 25, you’re right.

Frequently, popular roads, turn into situational markets or places for beggars. Since the car speed is so low, even a child can knock on your window and ask for a peso.

While one bunch struggles to survive, some other people live in year 3000. Who could’ve guessed that you can shop like this?

Churches, though, have been here since forever. But what if old churches were built according to modern blueprints, they would look something like this one. This church is on the rooftop of a mall (yes, Philippines likes to shop religiously).

Speaking of urban planning in other areas, Manila, as you may know, doesn’t have any bicycle lanes. That’s bad. So they started building them. That’s good. However, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw what they did. A bicycle lane that goes through… trees and light poles?

This one is really a prominent piece of cursed achitecture. It used to be a sidewalk, but now it’s a bicycle lane and a sidewalk. If everybody follows the rules, there’s no room for pedestrians to walk. Luckily, cyclists still prefer cycling on the road.

Basically, cyclists are not welcome in Manila.

Cars still rule the streets. A casual car of a casual consul from the Russian embassy. Looks scary because you don’t see what’s inside.

Scooters or motorcycles also have their place. Often times I would pass by this parked scooter. Every time I would have the same question: “why?!”.

You might think that they’re builing a nice bicycle lane here. No, they’re just repairing the road because it was damaged due to construction of the highrise building nearby.

Modern Filipinos communicate a lot through smartphones. It’s not a lucky shot, where I noticed a group of people not noticing each other. That’s just how life is in 2018.

Modern life here is also about food and restaurants. The hypewave has also hit my brain. I’ve got lucky enough to go to the first branch of the famous Rico’s Lechon in Manila when they just opened. It’s famous because even the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, likes it (there’s a picture on the wall with Duterte and Rico, the owner of the restaurant).

As for me, year 2018 in the Philippines was important because I started learning Tagalog (an official language of the Philippines spoken in Manila). While it’s not mandatory to know the Tagalog language if you live here, it certainly smoothens your communication experience. With help of it I’m able to connect with Filipino people on a different level, which can’t be achieved with English only.

So Tagalog lacks the letter “F”. That’s why the word “Filipino” is actually “Pilipino” in Tagalog. This leads to interesting results that may tickle your brain.

A lot of people seek happiness and good salary outside Philippines. They’re called Overseas Filipino workers (OFW), and get treated in a special way. Filipinos work all over the world (maybe except Ukraine because I haven’t met a single Filipino there).

“First world country, thirld world people”. This is usually associated with Singapore but someone meant Philippines this time.

The climate can also be harsh here. Either draught with insane heat, or endless rainfall. Because of this some light poles have marks on them. They represent the level of flood on the street. During those rainy days some parts of Manila can be reached only with help of a good boat.

If runners are crossing, the sign says they should be wearing red sneakers. I’m wondering, what if the runners wore blue sneakers? The sign looks a bit silly because it looks like the guy is escaping from someone, rather than training.

A memorial for American and Filipino soldiers who fought in WW2 against Japan.

Makati, which is a part of Metro Manila, has a remarkable street. Nighlife is flourishing there, but at the same time also smells like armpits, sewers and roaches. If there are children in the room, please cover their noses before you start smelling the picture below.

I celebrated New Year’s Eve 2019 on the street. There was a concert with many Filipino stars. Some of them were so horrible that you had to cover your years ;-)

Yes, I spent New Year’s Eve 2019 in Asia again and entered year 2019 on the street. Might it be my home now (Philippines, not the street)?

🇵🇭 Legazpi

January 19, 2019 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

Legazpi is a city in the southern part of Luzon island. Its population is nearly 200,000 people, so it’s considered low for the Philippines. The reason why people go here (including me) is Mayón Volcano.

Despite the volcano, we all know that all the roads in the Philippines lead to Jollibee, a famous fast food chain that competes with McDonald’s, KFC, and others. As a diligent Filipino city, Legazpi follows this tradition.

The first day was wonderful. The sky was clear, the weather was great, the birds were chirping, the kids were playing, the street vendors were honking and selling, and the folks were happy. What’s most important, you could see the volcano from all the angles.

However, on the next day, when it was the time to go close to Mayon, it all went to shits. Yes, it became cloudy and started raining. How could that happen? No matter how close you are, you wouldn’t see anything. Mayon became too shy.

The only little thing I could see was the coconut bug I found on a tree. It didn’t care if it was raining, storming or snowing as long as there are coconut trees to munch on.

Yeah, no matter which way you take, the clouds would mystify (sic!) the road. Maybe Jollibee has the point? Maybe it is the solution when there’s nothing else to do?

Or maybe it was the right time to find cover under a hut and enjoy the rest of the day doing nothing? I mean, there are friends and coconuts there, so it would be a pleasant evening.

But if you don’t give up easily like me, you will move on. You’ll want to admire the view but you won’t see much. So is it really the time to be upset?

Of course not! Despite the bad weather I can still have fun.

Despite the litter everywhere I can still have fun.

Despite poverty I will still have fun.

I will still be enjoying old churches…

…or modern haciendas.

Breathtaking nature is what motivates me.

Even if it rains, I can go wherever the river flows.

Even if I didn’t get to see Mayon close enough, I can still imagine it through the fog.

And you know why? Because it is more fun in the Philippines.

🇵🇭 Bohol

January 5, 2019 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

Bohol… what a wonderful island. With each visit, I get to know the Philippines better and better. It’s interesting that I’ve never managed to leave Luzon (the island where Manila is). So this trip allowed me to visit my first Philippine island (2nd out of 7641).

Bohol is famous for its fabulous Chocolate Hills. I didn’t expect that there were so many of them.

One simply cannot resist peeping in.

As you have already guessed, the Chocolate Hills have nothing to do with chocolate. They just look like chocolate truffles.

Every Filipino knows this landmark because it’s printed on the 200 pesos bill. What’s shown on the bill is just a small fraction of what you can see from the observation deck.

It was really silly of me not renting a scooter on my first day here. It turned out to be a cheap and easy way to navigate around the island. Using public transportation is not a viable option. It is more costly and time-consuming in the end. You also have to haggle your way. Fixed price for scooter rent solves all of those headaches and provides flexibility for traveling anywhere and stopping whenever.

That said, maybe it was a smart move. You see, the word on the street is that you might get into a gun accident if you park where you shouldn’t.

This vending machine sells water. I was rather surprised to see something like this here. In Kharkiv, we have the same machines all over the city. They are a bit more advanced, but the idea is still the same.

Tagbilaran, the capital of the island, offers trikes as public transport. The fare is fixed but can get higher if you travel farther. The signature frame is what makes it different from other trikes across the Philippines.

Alona beach is an ultra-touristy beach on Panglao Island (not too far from Tagbilaran). This was the first time I saw and touched clean white sand. I’m yet to see blue crystal water, though. The water there was just clean enough.

Forgive me my savagery, but I found it really strange to see people sitting at tables just 1 meter from the sea. Wouldn’t it be better to have a picnic on the sand instead?

Water in some other areas can actually be really murky. Not sure if this is because of pollution or natural reasons.

In regular countries, litter is recycled. In Bohol, they make lanterns out of it. I should’ve asked for a blueprint because my room is too dark anyway.

Tarsiers live here. I won’t bore you with standard information about them, but do visit them in case they’re gone from our planet (the species is endangered).

I’m actually more of a bug and worm guy. Who doesn’t want to start their morning with a good cup of fresh Filipino coffee and a pinch of healthy chichaworms?

This island is the place with the most kind people, who apologise for being close. Where else would you find such gentlemen?

But sometimes, when you’re close, you don’t need an apology.

The island is bursting with nature. No matter where you go, it’s beautiful.

I wish I could be one of these little goats eating green grass, so I could unite with nature.

But I’m only a human, and the only thing that Mother Nature offers me is a stalk of unripe bananas.

Every dog knows that there are no sidewalks in the country, so you have to walk by the side of the road.

One distinct feature of Bohol is that almost all of the vehicles on the island have broken speedometers. Including this bus.

I’ve never seen an open-space cyber cafe, but it’s a thing here. Just inside a mall, why not.

However, malls are not the reason why people go here. Diving, swimming, and enjoying sunsets are just a few of them.

Although, please, never forget that life doesn’t end here.

🇵🇭 Cavite province

Semptember 30, 2018 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

Cavite is a big province in Luzon, Philippines. During this trip, I was lucky enough to visit Bacoor, Maragondon, and Kawit.

Somehow, Maragondon gave me Ukrainian vibes (check the flags).

The main point of interest in Maragondon is Bonifacio Shrine. The road to it is sinuous and thorny.

If you find yourself vulnerable, lost, and stuck…

…just ask some local cows for directions.

The shrine itself was actually abandoned. The official way to enter its territory was through a window in the booth by the gate. Because of this, wildlife was prospering. I’m not lying, there were absolutely no people there and the entrance was blocked.

Unfortunately, lady History preferred not to reveal pictures of the shrine. Here’s a picture of a Kawit church during a mass, instead.

🇵🇭 Baguio

Semptember 1, 2018 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

Baguio is a big city in Luzon, Philippines, which is famous for its cold weather, mountains, strawberries and… lions. Why lions? I have no idea, but they have a huge lion head somewhere (and I didn’t stumble upon it)!

One of my goals for this trip was to visit the famous strawberry fields. You get to pick strawberries by yourself, so you buy only the freshest and most delicious ones.

However, I came there only to discover that strawberries were not in season…

It’s recommended to visit the farm from February to May. So, I had to eat the dust instead.

On the way to the farm, you pass “The Valley of Colors”.

It doesn’t look like anything special, though. Just a bunch of happy houses. That said, one of the inhabitants took the name too seriously.

An immediate observation about Baguio City: their jeepneys look way better than in Manila. They are more snazzy and better maintained. This one looks nothing special, however, it’s more clean and longer.

Have I already mentioned it even has a baby TV-set?

Without planning it, I discovered that I went there exactly on Baguio City Day. During the holiday, their central street turned into a street for pedestrians.

Not only are jeepneys cleaner here, but Baguio in general is much cleaner than Manila. This is because they keep their surroundings clean.

They also have Clean Comfort Rooms™ all over the city (it’s just a paid toilet).

It’s quite amusing that you get a ticket to be able to pee. Oh, and there are also discounts for students and senior citizens. Hot stuff!

This is the most thankful toilet I’ve been at.

And also the most demanding one!

Why can’t I pee there?

Seriously, this toilet is very talkative.

In the night, if you climb up high enough, you can see some mysterious building that is very well lit and changes its colours. It turned out it was just Baguio City Hall.

The handicapped crossing sign looks like a sign for wheelchair racing.

Wildlife.

Some insect.

So here’s the story. I decided to enter some random cave…

You can stumble upon some amazing plants. I don’t even know the name, but it looks like the fire from a candle.

This is the fanciest speed bump I’ve seen. Not only is it metallic…

…but it also reflects the light.

Strictly for very elderly. Just elderly won’t cut it.

In the middle of the market, there are people with rifles. Looks like the army.

Since the city is in the mountains, it has a lot of fantastic views. Like Mines View.

The mountains almost touch the skies…

Very peaceful… (and mysterious)

Just grab your friends or a book and hang out at the pond…

You don’t like ponds? No problem, Baguio has options.

Let’s get back to the city. There’s a park that speaks to you like a bro. “Scoop your poop, you fool!”.

“If you smoke, you’re a butt head!”.

I wonder what’s the story behind this sign. The owner must be holding a grudge against someone.

It’s quite funny that playing cellphone games is a problem. So can I text all day long instead?

This looks like a place for rituals.

Who can say where the road goes, where the day flows? I can! Onto the next adventure.

🇵🇭 Tagaytay

February 7, 2018 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

The main point of interest in Tagaytay, Philippines, is obviously the Taal volcano.

The road to the volcano starts from Staalbucks.

Just kidding. The road to the volcano starts from here.

Normal folks prefer to mount a horse and pay a fee but if you have ever met me, you wouldn’t dare to say I’m one of those. I chose the ever trusty Shanks’s pony.

The benefit is that I could stop whenever I want and relish the moments of beautiful nature…

…horrible odour from horse feces… [picture censored]

…magma close to the surface…

…and, obviously, friendly goats.

Prior to going to Taal, I didn’t read anything about the place. I just wanted to see a volcano. Namely, a crater with red burning lava! Well, this is how it looks like in real life.

The volcano is active and you can see yellow and burnt grass.

The island-in-a-lake-on-an-island-in-a-lake-on-an-island.

The sand is red. Supposedly because of the heat of the volcano.

The Taal volcano rules. I was surprised to see that the Korean translation mentions its author.

Time to go home, there’s nothing else to do here.

🇵🇭 Manila

January 10, 2018 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

Manila still remains the city of contrasts. Somebody lives in expensive condominiums.

Somebody survives in DIY houses.

Somebody captured the moon with a net of wires (me).

Somebody’s balcony faces a construction yard.

Personal protective equipment for construction workers.

Some parts of the equipment can be looted by anybody because it hangs on the walls.

Although living conditions are different, the roads are shared by everyone.

Some pathways are closed. I wonder how people with disabilities are supposed to enter.

Some roads are shared with pedestrians (!). I wonder if they need an according licence for their shoes to use the roads.

Once upon a time my taxi driver was honking on every intersection we passed. I wonder if this sign suddenly makes sense to you.

That said, there’s a cat patrol to oversee road commotions.

The poshest Jollibee I’ve seen so far. It looks almost like a typical Apple Store to me.

This wall would probably be illegal somewhere in Germany.

“Slow down” says the sign, and that’s what I’m going to do.

🇹🇭 Bangkok

December 10, 2017 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

I’ve got a strong idea: I need to spend these winter holidays in Asia, away from the snow and cold weather. Bangkok’s capital, Thailand, was perfect for that.

As you may know, Thais speak almost no English. I’ve learned “sawadee ka” & “khop kun krap”. These won’t get you anywhere, unfortunately.

The Thai abugida (alphabet) allows some nice tricks with it. The word is written with ropes. Can you imagine the same for English?

Even though it’s hard to navigate without knowing the language, a lot of touristy places do have signs in English.

Thailand cares about tourists a little bit more than your average city. They even know what you typically would like to buy and provide you a “Tourist choice”.

The MRT (Metropolitan Rapid Transit) is the fastest way to get from point A to point B. However, be aware that the staff won’t let you bring your favourite durian on the train.

Along with the MRT, Bangkok offers a developed bus network. There are caveats, though. Some bus stops are hard to find. A lot of them don’t provide any information about routes. Additionally, I was never able to figure out the fare: sometimes you pay per station, sometimes the price is fixed. It was very hard to make any sense of it.

I have to admit, I was very impressed with the friendliness of Thai people. In the vast majority of cases where I needed help and asked a Thai person, they were nice to me. So if you are on a bus and don’t know where to go, don’t worry, someone will help you out if you ask.

Having said that, be mindful of tuk-tuk drivers, because those people are not nice. Every time I wanted to try a tuk-tuk, the driver’s offered price was higher than Uber’s. Yes, they look flashy and cool, but their goal is to rip you off.

In a way, tuk-tuk is the jeepney of the Philippines (except that jeepney drivers don’t rip you off): they are ubiquitous.

Another viable choice to navigate the city is a plain old taxi cab. Quite often they are even cheaper than Uber or Grab. Those guys also want to look gaudy.

It’s interesting that every cab has information about the driver. It provides some kind of safety in case they lock you in the car and decide to murder you.

Speaking of Uber, in Bangkok you can book UberMOTO. So, instead of cars you actually book motorcycles. I haven’t had a chance to try it out, but it makes a lot of sense to me, because look at this damn traffic.

Finally, you can always cycle. The prevalent majority of cyclists use small-wheel bicycles. I don’t know why but maybe because they need to maneuver between cars?

Bike lanes do exist, but they are super rare.

As for me, I was a pedestrian.

The life of a pedestrian in Bangkok is full of adventures. When I attempted to cross a road, I had to wait for 15 minutes. Not only the traffic is heavy but the average speed of a lane is so high that you have to run to survive.

Quite often traffic lights are absent (or not working) and the car flow is constant so pedestrians are blocked. You can really wait for 10 minutes. It’s not an exaggeration.

There are police stations here and there but I don’t think they’re in control of the road situation at all.

Sometimes, traffic guards help out.

One other threat that pedestrians have to deal with is rats (squint your eyes, the rat is in the middle of the photo).

The bad smell from trash lying on the sidewalks attracts them.

Being an observant pedestrian, I couldn’t miss an opportunity to take a picture of someone who parks their car like an asshole. At that moment, I felt like I was home.

A solar powered sign. I have a few questions. Why is it off? Does it only work when the sun is up? Why is that so? You actually need them during the night, when there’s no sun.

The LEDs on the ground are supposed to alarm drivers of the bridge.

Now, let’s get back to tourists. Bangkok is full of them.

I guess these guards hate them. Once in a while some cheeky bastard takes a picture with them without their consent.

Tourists visit nothing but touristy places so it’s easy to avoid them. This pathway is in 50 meters from Khao San Road (a super busy street), and there’s not a single person but me.

While I’m standing there, the Khao San Road crowd feasts on insects.

“Wai!” says Ronald McDonald.

“Ni hao” replies Mao and his friend.

I like how nature and urbanism meet each other in Bangkok. Someone is feeding squirrels.

Someone is feeding pigeons.

With the exception of the pigeon. “Don’t feed the pigeon” says the sign.

Nobody is risking to feed freaking monitor lizards, though.

A leaky faucet is a problem.

But a leaky pipe is fine.

Speaking of pipes, Thailand is probably the second country on Earth where you can buy pipes for smoking drugs just on the street. The first one is likely Afghanistan.

Thailand loves massage. Not only you can be massaged by real people…

…but also by machines!

You can also check the weight of your luggage (or yourself for that matter).

Speaking of religion, as you know Thailand is a Buddhist country. At first, it was cool going to a wat (temple), but it became repetitive very quickly. The thing I noticed in Thailand is that they like to beg for money.

You are supposed to donate to monks.

Donate to Buddha.

Donate to the bear.

Donate, donate, donate! Donate to this urinal!

Just don’t lose your head in this donation carnival.

There are so many places to donate to that it’s no wonder thievery is flourishing.

However, I think donating gold would be better because Buddhists love gold.

Thailand is a very weird country in regards to strictness. You are supposed to take off your shoes upon entering a temple, wear proper clothes, stand up at the cinema when they show some propaganda about their king prior to a film, but at the same time you get ladyboys, hookers, pipes being sold on the street and these wrist bands: the “Long live the King” band neighbours with “Mad cunt”.

My face after reading the whole board.

Speaking of the king, they have a serious propaganda there. The king is everywhere. He’s in schools.

In hospitals.

Even on money.

All over the city there are people playing some sort of propaganda.

Despite that, to my surprise, Muslims also exist in Thailand. The “Muslim prayer room” sign.

Once in a while there will be a random monk on the street doing their chores like topping up. They use the same streets as we, commoners, do.

The most authentic Armani suits in Thailand (no).

In Thailand people can still use payphones.

A key holder at a bus stop without any keys. I wonder if bus drivers leave their keys there because I don’t mind driving a bus. Imagine a buspooling service. Cool, huh?

Free mobile charger stand.

A lot of Thai signs are amusing. Sometimes they’re polite. “Please don’t touch” (an old exhibit).

Yet, in the same room there’s a sign, which says “Don’t you dare to mask the air conditioner”.

“Caution! Wet floor”. That’s really “helpful”.

Water canals (called khlongs) pierce the flesh of the city all over.

Floating 7-eleven in a khlong.

In case of flooding or heavy rain the water will naturally flow inside these channels. Make sure to have matches to send them down the stream.

Hua Lamphong railway station strongly reminded me of Kharkiv Railway Station.

A homeless person sleeping in front of a 5-star hotel.

Drum rehearsal.

Asian version of San Francisco’s Painted ladies.

Alternative version.

Fitness in a park.

You can wash cutlery in hot water before using it.

Typical simple Thai diner.

While exploring Bangkok sometimes I felt like Lara Croft.

Stunning work of the ancients (spoiler alert: it’s actually modern).

I asked these guys to pose for me…

…but something went wrong.

I’d like to remind the reader that I was there on Christmas time. The fact that it’s Christmas is barely reflected on the streets.

New Year fireworks lasted only 5 minutes.

Nevertheless, Happy New Year 2018!

🇵🇭 Manila. First impressions. Food, life and traffic in the Philippines

August 1, 2017 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

Manila is truly a city of contrasts. Posh tall buildings border with shabby huts. I turn my head to the right only to see how actively the city is being built. Construction never stops, so does progress.

I turn my head to the left and see a stinky river. This makes you think that the place has absolutely no prospects. I turn my head to the right and see highrise buildings being built as you look at them. Quite a contrast.

A lot of Filipinos earn money by working in call centers. Entire districts are being built just to accommodate their needs. However, not everyone is a hard worker. If you go outside downtowns, you can see people doing absolutely nothing.

People who live in cheap boarding houses go to expensive-looking buildings to work.

Manila is also the city of malls.

One of the biggest malls in Asia is here. It occupies two big buildings connected by a sky bridge. The inside looks like a small town.

I was shocked to discover that to enter any mall, you need to be searched first. Most of the time, the scan is half-assed: they take a quick glance inside your backpack and poke around with a stick, and that’s it. If you want to bomb something, it won’t be a problem. That being said, in some parts of the city security guards are on almost every intersection. They have rifles, shotguns, and pistols.

There’s no shortage of food in Manila. Food is everywhere. Start with something familiar first.

When you feel brave enough, try something you’d never normally eat.

Finally, try some street food. You’d be surprised that some things are edible. How about duck fetus?

I was disappointed to know that vegetables are expensive and not that tasty in general. The situation reminded me of USA. However, the abundance of fruits fully compensates for it. I saw a lot of fruits in the Philippines that I’d never heard of.

In Ukraine, avocados, pineapples, coconuts, and other tropical goodies are not that tasty. In addition to that, they’re also overpriced. In the Philippines they’re cheap, they look great, and they taste amazing.

Finally, seafood is a major plus. My jaw dropped when I saw these juicy shrimps. Not only were they huge, they were also cheap (compared to Ukraine, of course).

Interestingly enough, people don’t use sunflower oil there. They use anything but! I thought the only oils that exist were olive and sunflower. I managed to find sunflower oil and guess what? It was produced in my country!

While the presence of Ukraine is barely noticeable worldwide, I somehow managed to find a Ukrainian toy there. It is made in Ukraine, but I’d never seen it here.

Anyway, I hope you’re not hungry anymore after all of the food I showed. Let’s take a walk to let the food settle.

We walk-walk-walk and see… a coin operated phone charger stand. Quite a find, I don’t think I’d ever stumbled upon this until then.

I didn’t notice a lot of wild dogs on the streets, but the cat invasion is a thing. They chill along the streets and enjoy doing cat things.

Despite all the pollution from the high volume of traffic, wildlife is still present. Yeah, small lizards are everywhere. I really wanted to catch one, but they were too fast for me. If I wanted, I could catch a frog and cook an elixir.

I’m quite happy that some of the cats can only be seen inside a cage. I wouldn’t want to stumble upon these kittens while walking to a sari-sari store.

Some wild flowers looked incredible.

I also saw some hibiscus. We drink it here, but in the Philippines nobody knows it’s drinkable. The tea situation is tough there, so no wonder people prefer soda or coffee. Loose leaf black tea is really expensive, so I had to drink tea dust in tea bags.

A rare find. This plant can actually fold its leaves once it’s touched. The name is “makahiya”, which means “to be shy”. It’s not poisonous.

In Manila, cars rule the streets.

Pedestrians are not respected. Technically, you can’t respect someone who doesn’t exist: there are almost no sidewalks.

If you don’t own a car, you’re not screwed, but it’d be hard to navigate around the city barefoot. Your best bet is to take a bus with hundreds of people… or a jeepney.

Inside a jeepney you’re stuffed like canned fish.

Some people have extremely expensive cars. I wonder what the point is. You can’t speed up even if you wanted to: there are too many cars.

Maybe buy a heavy vehicle and ram your way through?

Some places like BGC have lesser traffic, though.

You may think that getting a bamboo bike would be stylish and practical, but I assure you, it’s better not to cycle here as it imposes a serious safety risk.

Another interesting fact is that Manila barely has any public parks. If you look at the map, you will see a lot of green “islands”. At first, I confused them as parks. When you zoom in, quite often it turns out to be a golf course. See the fenced off area on the right?

Real parks are tiny.

Some parks don’t have enough trees (and a lot of them don’t have enough benches). There’s a good reason to have them: the sun burns you alive.

This sign protects a piece of untrimmed grass pretending to be a mini park area.

Speaking of signs, what I like about them is that they’re handmade. Unlike in Ukraine where everyone just prints an A4 paper with a sign, people in Manila actually use paint.

Even printed papers try to be legible.

Speaking of history, the Philippines had strong American influence in the past.

Spain also left its imprint: Catholicism. Catholic wedding.

When Rodrigo Duterte came to power, the Philippines started seeking other allies, so don’t expect something like this to happen any time soon.

Albeit the influence, it’s still a part of Asia with Asian toilets.

The story of how the country has passed is long.

But the wheel of history never stops spinning.

Now the country is independent.

🇺🇦 Kyiv

February 2, 2017 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

Ukrainian winter. It’s really cold outside.

The sky is the limit.

Probably most corny place in Kyiv. Achievement unlocked.

🇵🇹 Lisbon business trip

September 19, 2016 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

I haven’t travelled for a while. However this year is lucky for me so far: I travelled to Lisbon.

Airbrake, my employer, has organised a team meeting in Portugal. It turned out that the country is quite nice and relatively cheap. The people there are really friendly. Almost everybody there can speak some English. Given that we are a partially remote company, with staff throughout the world, Lisbon as a meeting location was a pretty good compromise for everybody on the team.

I would like to thank my colleague Thomas in advance for allowing me to use his photo album to make this post. All the cool photos were made on Thom’s camera. All the grotty photos were taken with my camera.

This shot is cool (thanks Thom).

This shot sucks (boo Kyrylo).

Now you know how to tell the difference between the photo quality, so let me continue. We couldn’t just book a hotel because we needed a place to work, too. Therefore we had to find something special instead. Something special turned out to be The Surf Office.

The Surf Office is neither an office, nor a hotel: it’s a mixture of both. It provides a place for remote teams where they can work and live in the same building. I had never heard of this concept before, but I believe it provides an unique experience. Our team occupied 3 out of 4 floors (I suspect the 4th floor was not used by anybody).

I was on the 3rd floor.

The building we lived in has an amazing kitchen, but we never had chance to use it.

The vibe has commanded us to go surfing instead.

The vibe has told us to go cycling, too.

Beware, though. The vibe always guides you to a restaurant.

The city has a pretty distinct look.

Most of the time it’s quite hilly.

The streets are very narrow.

The houses are very old.

Old doesn’t always mean bad. Lisbon is full of beautiful buildings.

The problem is that it’s really hard to find a good angle to photograph a building because the streets are so narrow.

Lisbon never sleeps. During the night the city is full of life. It’s really bright and you feel safe (well, safer than in Ukraine, at least). Just don’t mind random people trying to sell you “cocaine”. During my stay I was offered “cocaine” at least five times (don’t be fooled by these people). The rest are just awesome.

Here in Kharkiv we have one of the biggest squares in Europe. Some people like to brag about it. As we all know the size doesn’t matter. What matters is how you use it, that is how you use the space. Lisbon does it well, that’s for sure.

We spent a lot of time cycling. I must say it’s quite hard to cycle in Lisbon and I didn’t spot many cyclists there. There are some good bicycle lanes near the embankment, but apart from those I didn’t see any bike lanes anywhere else.

Perhaps, it’s because kilometres of roads are covered with cobblestone. It contributes to the whole antique look and creates a special southern charm, but makes cycling a lot harder.

Overall, the city reminded me of [San Francisco]({% post_url 2014-07-11-internship-in-san-francisco %}) a bit. If you take a close look at the map and compare Lisbon to San Francisco, you will see that the landscape has a similar shape. Lisbon also has a bridge, which looks almost identical to The Golden Gate bridge (same blueprint as we were told).

The symbol of the city is its old-fashioned tram. Almost every fridge magnet has a tram on it.

Trams are everywhere in this city.

Another prominent tourist attraction is the Bica funicular. It’s still functional, but in my opinion it’s absolutely useless nowadays: it can lift you only about a block up (not entirely sure, but trust me, the distance it covers is insignificant to such a young buck like me).

That said the metro is not as iconic.

The walls of the city speak to you. Their language is graffiti.

Graffiti are everywhere. If you ever find yourself on Rua de São Paulo (or somewhere around that area) try to pay attention to the walls. Baco, some unknown guy, is known to be a snitch.

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A post shared by Stephan van Duin (@travel_and_science) on Sep 3, 2016 at 8:28am PDT

Don’t be disappointed, though. Apart from vandalism, the city has quite a lot of good graffiti.

Most of them are concentrated at a place called LX Factory. This place is stuffed with all sorts of restaurants, shops and other interesting things. It’s under the bridge, so passing trains create a special urban atmosphere.

If you walk slowly there, you can notice some interesting details around you… such as babies.

Or programming references.

Speaking of programming, there’s also a co-working space in one of the buildings.

If you have a limited budget for a co-working space, you can always fall back to a proven technology.

This typewriter still works, but good luck finding any key labels.

If you go to the rooftop, you will see a fantastic view. There’s a restaurant there, but you don’t have to book a table if you just want to check the view.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. What if the picture has words on it?

🇺🇸 Internship in San Francisco

August 24, 2014 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

During my internship at Bugsnag I took some pictures of the city. My bicycle was my companion. I cycled through many neighbourhoods of San Francisco and even managed to cycle to neighbouring towns. The quality of the photos isn’t astonishing. My second companion was my Chinese smartphone. That’s why.

The hotel I temporarily settled in was the first hotel I have ever visited.

Bathroom.

Bugsnag’s office was very snug and cosy. In fact, when I showed the photo to my parents, they confused it with a flat.

When I moved from the hotel to a studio apartment, I was lucky to have a laundromat in my building. It saved me many hours. It is the best invention of humanity.

Bugsnag’s office is near the UN Plaza. Lots of birds and homeless people nearby. Once upon a time I stepped on some American chewing gum. It is of very good quality (curse them).

It is a noisy place, though. The traffic is very dense.

Although I’d never been to San Francisco before, it felt like I had. Thanks, GTA!

The IT is real here. Once upon a time I had a project that required integration with Salesforce. Those were grim days. To my surprise, I found the headquarters of hell on Earth.

Tourists are quite common in this city.

It was always hard to keep track of which litter is recyclable and which is not. SF is obsessed with it. An interesting observation: foundations of urns are the same, but the top is like a cap and it’s possible to replace it.

The public transportation system is incredibly advanced. You can take trams, trolleybuses, buses, trains and taxis. The buses and the trolleybuses have a rack in front of them, so you could mount bicycles on them.

The trams look and in fact are old-school. It’s funny, but they’re quieter than our Tatras.

The city is perfect for cycling. It has enormous hills to train your legs.

Even cars look funny on these hills.

It’s a bit painful to constantly cycle uphill, but there’s always a reward.

And the drivers are very cautious.

Well, there are always exceptions.

And the infrastructure for cycling is well thought out.

And even the government cares about cyclists.

There are lots of places you can park your bicycle throughout the city. Even benches welcome cyclists.

Parking of cars is self-regulated.

There are a lot of parking lots. But they’re all empty during the night. I think cars dislike the moon and they all hide underground. A lot of buildings include parking lots in their basements. Some buildings are built specifically for parking.

There’s a vast variety of lamp posts. Even during the night the city shines.

The port of San Francisco greets you.

I mean, it really greets you.

The embankment is quite long.

It’s called The Embarcadero.

The embankment pier has some nice views.

From the same spot you can observe a chameleon lighthouse thing.

The whole embankment is filled with interesting objects. For example, the traffic lights by this building are synced. It’s really hypnotising, when the colour switches.

San-Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

This is supposed to be scary, but it was almost quiet when I approached it. There’s a deep pool behind this plate.

The city is experiencing an IT boom. It’s really easy to determine the time now.

A warning from Alcatraz.

The trip to the embankment ends here. The boats are sleeping and I decided not to disturb them.

“The roof is on fire” saying is all about San Francisco. I’ve never seen so many fire trucks in my life. The city burns every day. It’s almost guaranteed that you will hear the siren of a fire truck at least once a day.

I have a hunch it’s a serious problem. I witnessed the hotel on fire.

Something that no tourist agency will tell you is that there are a lot of homeless and bonkers people on the streets.

“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Ha ha, fooled ya, I’m a submarine”.

Speaking of the homeless, it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t contrast them with the rich. From what I read the gap between them is substantial. The contrast can be observed with the naked eye.

There are some rich neighbourhoods like Sea Cliff.

There are a lot of posh buildings in this area. A lot of habitants of these houses see the ocean every day.

I noticed people prefer not to use curtains.

Apparently people don’t litter in this neighbourhood. It is really clean.

Swiss presence.

China Beach is also in this neighbourhood.

From that point you can observe Golden Gate bridge.

By the way, beaches are not typical beaches.

Don’t even try to bring your swimming trunks.

It’s a calm place, though.

I don’t know much about baseball, but apparently it’s a big thing here.

People love baseball.

There’s a big monument on the stadium’s roof. The holy bottle of Coca-Cola and the giant glove catching it.

Don’t like baseball? Play basketball or tennis.

Maybe golf?

Oh, are you too short for basketball? No problem, swings are also fun!

Stare at the sand beneath the swings if you are not into sports, after all.

McDonald’s is not the solution, don’t even try.

People seem to be religious here.

A chapel with a huge bell.

In general, I saw many churches.

Richmond is the neighbourhood where the Gospel House is.

Although it’s obvious that Kharkiv and San Francisco are pretty different, the real difference is revealed to the watchful observer.

Some places reminded me of the Motherland. Every child of Ukraine would recognise this carousel.

This building always attracted me for some reason. Its roof suggests to me that it’s some elite mysterious casino. Well, at least that’s my perception of it.

Not sure if the pets are always on a leash, but the grass is indeed clean.

The Holocaust.

I must say, almost all the monuments I’ve seen are dirty and look unmaintained. Here’s someone’s wedding with violins and horses.

I’ve never seen anything like this before. Seems redundant.

Some road signs explain the street’s name.

Some of them are really verbose.

There’s a common abbreviation for “crossing” that played a trick on me. It looks like this — XING. You can often see this word on asphalt. I was always wondering, why on Earth, wherever I go I’m in Chinatown.

If you cycle outside of San Francisco, towards Mill Valley, you magically teleport to the Fallout sceneries.

Except there were no helicopters in the game. This one just landed in front of me, out of nowhere.

There are many diners and restaurants, but this one is just the best. It has the fanciest faucet ever.

At the same time, it could not afford a normal covering cloth for the table.

During my stay I was lucky to visit GoGaRuCo 2014. Fun fact: I have applied to each of the companies you see on this photo and they all rejected or ignored my application.

I’ve messed up many other good photos that I couldn’t include in this report. It was high time to pack my bags, though.

The airport of San Francisco didn’t want me to leave.

However, the aircraft was ready.

Kiss it bye-bye.

🇺🇦 How I cycled to a football match between Metalist and ETM in Vysokyi

April 12, 2013 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

A month ago, I bought a cheap, used mountain bike. I’ve ridden it twice since then (or technically three times, counting the test ride after I bought it). Why did I go for a cheap bike? Well, I wasn’t sure I’d actually enjoy cycling. Turns out I do.

By the way, this is my second bike. My first one met a tragic end when I took a spill over the handlebars on a hill. That fateful crash was the end of my steel companion—dented wheels were the least of its problems. I tried fixing it myself, but only made things worse. Back then, I didn’t have the skills—or, more importantly, the internet.

Conquering the roads

With my second bike, I set myself a clear goal: I want to learn how to cycle on roads, not sidewalks. For one, cycling on sidewalks isn’t allowed by the rules. And besides, it’s much faster to ride on roads.

From noisy chains to game day

Thursday was a perfect day for cycling—10°C, clear skies, and a mild breeze. My route was from home to the township of Vysokyi. Why Vysokyi? I wanted to catch a football match between Metalist and ETM. Vysokyi is where Metalist’s training camp is located.

Two days before the game, I’d taken a ride around Kharkiv and noticed my bike chain was making odd noises, so I needed to oil it. I’d never done that before, so I turned to the internet for help. Half of Wednesday went to finding and buying oil and oiling the chain. The rest of the day I spent trying to adjust the transmission for better reliability—also a first for me. I didn’t finish it that day, so I had to continue on Thursday morning. Luckily, the game didn’t start until 4 p.m., so I planned to leave around 2.

By Thursday, I’d managed to get the bike somewhat fixed. I double-checked the chain and felt nearly ready to go, but… I realized the transmission was still acting up. Bloody buggering hell! I gave it a third try, and finally, it worked. The time was 3 p.m.—no problem; I could still catch the second half.

The journey: cycling to Vysokyi (almost)

I started cycling around 3:10. The distance to Vysoky was 25 km, so the round trip would be 50 km.

Obviously, I decided to stick to the sidewalks, as neither I nor my bike was road-ready. Why? First, I didn’t know traffic rules well enough (I didn’t even have a driver’s license). Second, I didn’t have reflectors or lights. I did have a helmet, but since I’d be using sidewalks anyway, I figured it was safe without it. I’m not an aggressive cyclist, either.

As I rode, I noticed that cyclists tend to attract attention here. I had a few random interactions along the way. But anyway, enough of these sentimental details. What about football? I’ll be honest—I didn’t make it to Vysoky, and I didn’t see the match. I cycled about 22 km and then realized it was about to rain. So, screw football—I decided not to get wet and dirty and turned back. Unfortunately, it rained anyway. I got soaked, covered in mud, and cold—all while wearing shorts.

That’s how far I got.

Cycling back was tough. I was exhausted. I’d already hit my second wind and was working on my third. Suddenly, the transmission problem popped up again. Gear shifts were clunky, making it really hard to ride uphill, so I had to dismount. But since I’m writing this, I made it home alive.

Lessons learned: roads, rain, and resilience

There are a lot of cyclists playing with fire on our roads. Riding in the dark without lights is practically asking for trouble. I also realized how awful sidewalks are for cycling here. The curbs are high, ramps are scarce, and the sidewalk asphalt quality is terrible. Still, despite everything, I enjoyed this little adventure.

Oh, and by the way, Metalist won: Metalist 6:0 ETM.

🇺🇦 Euro 2012. Ukraine – England. My trip to Donetsk

July 1, 2012 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

I was lucky to visit Donetsk on the 19th of June. I went to a Euro 2012 football match between the Ukrainian and the English national football teams. I went to the match with Kyrylo (namesake), a friend of mine.

Day 1. The match

The train journey from Kharkiv to Donetsk takes about three and a half hours. We took a modern train officially called HRCS2, but everyone calls it the “Hyundai.”

Donetsk didn’t impress me at first. The first thing you see when you exit the railway station is an ugly market.

What caught my attention was the prevalence of Russian-language banners, which was quite a contrast to my city, where most signs are in Ukrainian.

We found a hostel to rent for the night. It was an old, run-down building with a strange smell inside.

Here’s the view from the backyard.

The good news? The “luxurious” room, complete with a broken TV and a fly flying around, cost us only 5 euros.

While waiting for the receptionist to bring the keys, we entertained ourselves by watching a soap opera.

Got the keys. Kyrylo is trying to fix the TV (for some reason—it’s not like we were going to watch it).

After settling in, we decided to head over to the Donbas Arena to check it out. We picked up a couple of maps at the Euro 2012 help booth.

We decided the tram was the best way to get there.

On the way, we passed through the miners’ land. Donetsk felt like a giant village. The streets were gloomy, the atmosphere was depressing, and there weren’t many buildings—just grass and trees.

But when we reached the stadium, everything changed. The lawn was perfectly manicured, the flowers were in full bloom, and the fountains were sparkling with water.

I had a hunch that Shakhtar’s Brazilian players live in those blue containers. Why not? They’re not far from the stadium.

The Donetsk Copacabana.

With 10 hours to kill before the match, we decided to grab a bite. We found a great restaurant with delicious food. After breakfast, we made our way to the so-called “fan zone.” Since we had football tickets, all public transport was free. We took a bus, and the fan zone was just a couple of kilometers away.

This bridge connects the park to the rest of the city.

It was scorching hot, and I didn’t have a cap, so I had to find a way to cool my head down.

The fan zone was large, but honestly, it was a bit dull. The only fun part was taking photos.

We posed with some folks promoting Carlsberg.

Took a picture with some fans.

And with some Englishmen.

The English were super popular that day. Everyone wanted a photo with them, so there was a bit of a queue. The English were happy to oblige, but I couldn’t understand the fascination. Why take photos with random strangers?

On the other hand, nobody seemed interested in taking photos with us.

Out of nowhere, a guy approached us asking to take a picture of me and Kyrylo and send it to my email. Not sure why, but he never did.

Some people began dancing on stage.

We ran into a few more Englishmen, some of whom were pretty drunk.

One of them claimed that the English fans would be louder than the entire Ukrainian crowd. I thought it was nonsense, but… he wasn’t lying. They were louder.

The fan zone was fun, but we were running late for the match, so we had to leave. A quick stop at the bathroom before heading to the stadium.

Finally, we arrived at the stadium. Donbas Arena is breathtaking. We managed to get there just in time.

I was blown away by the atmosphere. There were many empty seats, though. Sadly, the tickets were expensive, and not everyone could afford them.

It was Andriy Shevchenko’s final game—our best footballer. At the stadium, we felt like we were incredibly loud, but when I watched the game on TV later, it seemed much quieter. The illusion of sound.

Ukraine lost, and we didn’t qualify for the next round, so everyone was disappointed. We initially planned to return to the fan zone after the match, but we decided to head back to the hostel to rest instead.

Day 2. Aftermatch

The next day, our train was at 19:00, so we woke up around 11:00, giving us plenty of time to explore the city. It was nearly lunchtime, and we were hungry enough to eat a whole elephant. I suggested we visit the same restaurant from the day before, but Kyrylo wanted McDonald’s. I wasn’t too keen on that, so I ate first, and then we’d go to McD’s. While I ate, Kyrylo ventured out to explore more of the city.

Donetsk is known for its mafia, and we joked about it constantly. But honestly, it probably does exist. When I finished my meal and stepped outside to wait for Kyrylo, I inadvertently got caught up in a conflict. Apparently, a guy tried to kill another “big guy” with a screwdriver. I doubt that’s entirely true, but you can read about it here (in Russian).

Afterlunch

We decided to explore the city center. It turned out the area around Donbas Arena isn’t really the center at all, but there was a McDonald’s where Kyrylo had his meal.

Donetsk has a cool boulevard, which was specifically built for Euro 2012. We wandered down it and found a beautiful, expansive park. However, there were tons of McDonald’s ads everywhere, which was a little disappointing.

Kyrylo, trying not to cry over our team’s defeat (though it was probably more of a hangover situation).

Time to head to the train station. We took a bus with a crazy driver who seemed to be in a rush to get home and turn off his iron.

The good news was, we were on time. Goodbye, Donetsk.

The city center of Donetsk is definitely better than Kharkiv’s, but overall, I still prefer my own city. I wouldn’t say I enjoyed Donetsk, but I can’t say I didn’t either.

I’m just glad I had the chance to be part of Euro 2012.

🇺🇦 How I went to IT Jam 2011 in Odesa

July 22, 2011 | Kyrylo Silin · @kyrylo · bluesky:@kyrylo.org · mastodon:@kyrylosilin

Apologies in advance for the photo quality, tilted angles, and other possible mishaps. First, I’m no photographer. Second, I was inexperienced with the camera I brought, and as a result, had no idea how to set it up. Lastly, the camera itself wasn’t top-notch. You might want to grab a cup or two of your favorite drink before diving in—this is a long one.

The journey begins. Kharkiv

One fine evening, my friend Serhii called with a plan: he wanted to attend a conference (IT Jam) for software developers and IT professionals. Without hesitation, I was in. My reasoning was simple: I’d never been to a conference, and I wanted to see what it was all about—not for knowledge, but for the experience. After all, I believe the benefits of watching a talk are the same whether it’s live or on video.

So, we formed a group of four, each of us registered online, and bought round-trip train tickets. Since the conference was free, it was affordable for any student.

Farewell, Kharkiv!

Arrival in Odesa

I’d been to Odesa before, but only in passing. My football team was once en route to Illichivsk for training, and we were packed into a tiny yellow bus at the Odesa train station, so I remembered little beyond surviving that cramped ride.

This time, we arrived at Odesa at 8:30 a.m. to perfect weather—not too warm, not too cold. With a couple of hours to spare before the conference began, we decided to wander around and find breakfast.

Here we are, inspecting the map and planning our route.

The sea station, where the conference was held, was within walking distance from the train station. Suddenly, a man with keys in hand approached us as we studied the map. He offered us a ride, clearly as an unlicensed taxi driver, so we declined.

Our route took us down Odesa’s most famous street, Deribasivska, and then onto Pushkinska St., which has a similar feel. Passing several notable buildings, we joked that we should visit those instead of the conference.

Pushkinska St from a sidewalk.

The intersection between Pushkinska St and a Random St. The Random St view.

After some unspoken consensus, we ended up at McDonald’s for breakfast. Fast and convenient. I’m not a frequent visitor, so I defaulted to the Big Mac menu, but it wasn’t available on the breakfast menu. After some tough deliberation, I ordered a fancy omelette with a latte—my first-ever latte.

With breakfast done, we had just enough time to reach the sea port. The streets of Odesa seemed deserted—until we reached the Potemkin Stairs, where everything clicked into place.

The view of the beautiful sea port, and an ugly ads banner.

Still not too late to hop on a train home.

At the sea port. Try to spot me.

Nearby, there was a monument with an egg and a well-built toddler inside. Unimpressive. Not even the cannons, yachts, shipyards, or various ships caught my attention as much as the sheer length of the queue.

Whoa… Quite a line.

The ship’s name is Amerigo Vespucci. Built by Italians in 1931. Used by Ukrainians in 2011.

The conference begins

After our walk, we headed to the conference and signed in. To my pleasant surprise, there were quite a few women attending. One perk was the free food: cookies, tea, coffee, water, sandwiches—you name it. Naturally, it disappeared fast.

Quite the line to sign in.

A snack before the opening was a good idea. For those who weren’t hungry, there was info about the conference to read.

The spectacular Sasha, one of the presenters, opens the conference.

About the conference

A quick overview: the conference had 42 talks, each 30 minutes long with 10-minute breaks between. Topics included mobile tech, Java, web dev, .NET, Quality Assurance, and general tech. Every 40 minutes, from 11:10 a.m. to 3:40 p.m., attendees chose from seven simultaneous talks. Unfortunately, only Spider-Man can be in seven places at once, so I only managed to attend seven talks.

The talks

The first talk I attended was on building a simple Rails 3 app using Git and GitHub, and deploying it to Heroku. Even though I was familiar with the topic, I was curious to see it done by an expert.

However, the speaker, Serhii Parizhsky, had technical issues and was replaced by Andriy Mykhailov, whose topic was Puppet. A few attendees walked out in protest.

I missed most of the Puppet talk while fiddling with my camera in the dark room, but the speaker’s style wasn’t particularly engaging.

Fortunately, the second talk was about Rails. Originally, I planned to attend a talk on online payment architecture but switched because I was eager to see the Rails talk. So I stayed put.

Serhii and Sasha. Sasha announces Serhii.

Serhii had issues with his computer, so he borrowed a laptop running Ubuntu from the previous speaker. To my surprise, he struggled to use it—couldn’t unlock the screen, compared Gedit to Notepad, and struggled to create a new file.

Eventually, he typed “rails new appname” (or something similar) into the terminal. A reasonable question from the audience—“What are you even doing?”—sums up this talk. I was disappointed.

The third talk covered Agile development methods, presented by Dmytro Lapshyn. He was confident and knowledgeable, but Agile didn’t resonate much with me. After the talk, a silver-haired gentleman struck a deal with Dmytro, apparently impressed.

The fourth talk on leadership by Dmytro Mindra explored the role and types of leaders in a team. It was engaging, well-presented, and straightforward.

Next, Naos Wilbrink, a Dutch specialist, spoke in impeccable English about data privacy. His clear and precise talk was my favorite, as he emphasized the value of every bit of information. The audience was lively, with plenty of questions.

“Crotches”.

The penultimate talk by Yevhen Dmytrychenko was on load testing tools. Not the most applicable topic for me, but interesting nonetheless.

I had hoped to attend a talk on neural networks in e-commerce, but it was replaced with Leonid Bugaev’s semi-promotional session on motivation. Despite the shift, I enjoyed it.

Rework is a nice book, but it’s too abstract—just like the talk.

After the talks, there was a break, with tweets tagged #itjam displayed live on a TV. Easels with paper and pens were scattered about, and someone even sketched a Java “Hello World” program.

Then came a lottery with conference tickets as prizes, including one for RubyShift in Dnipropetrovsk, which I was secretly hoping to win. Sadly, no luck.

The next part of the conference was an interview with the “big bosses” of Ukrainian software companies. I didn’t catch their names, but I do remember their way of speaking—it was all the same. And it was horrific. They weren’t speaking Russian, nor Ukrainian, nor even English. It was a nuclear mix of all three languages.

They’re all Ukrainians (except one), so why on earth were they doing that? I’ll cut the big nub from Denmark some slack—at least he was speaking English.

Question: “Do you use any math in your company?” Answer: “We do. We play poker!”

Wrapping up

It was time to leave. In general, the “big bosses” panel was underwhelming, loaded with ads and irrelevant content. One boss proclaimed, “The best programmers are in the USA. And… they are Russians.” It was a popular line, but I strongly disagree.

Despite a few downsides, like English-only materials, I enjoyed IT Jam. The conference was informative, and I’d gladly attend next year. But really—why no Ukrainian or Russian option? A bit pretentious, perhaps?

The conference is over. But only for us.

No trip to Odesa is complete without a shot of the famous Potemkin Stairs.

Odesa is a cool city. Goodbye, Odesa!