The "Real" Ukraine

As I've mentioned before, Kharkiv is home to the "largest square in Europe." That's assuming you don't count Russia as Europe because Red Square is, in fact, larger. But it is pretty big alright, and dominated by a statue of Lenin on one end (the west) and a monolith Soviet monumental building, that now serves as home to one of the Ukrainian ministries, at the other (the east). The Kharkiv Hotel is on the north side, and some shops and cafes are on the south. My travel agent, Olga, is in one of those offices on the south side of the square, and we stopped there (on our way to the metro station at Universitet) to return a brochure she had lent me for a resort near Yalta that we are thinking of going to soon. The Square, as I've said before, was renamed Freedom Square (Ploschad Svobody) a few years ago, but everyone still calls it Lenin Square (Ploschad Lenina), for obvious reasons.


Our guidebook says that "First-time visitors to Ukraine often criticize the soul-less rows of concrete apartment blocks that make up so many modern Ukrainian cities. But few actually venture into these spaces." Well, we did, and today we schlepped out to Saltovka, a suburb northeast of the center of Kharkiv. Although we were stunned at the enormity of the area (it extends over two metro stops, an area encompassing 15 over-sized city blocks), it wasn't nearly as desolate as we expected. First of all, there are trees, lots of trees; and secondly, behind each dreary building (there are literally 1,000 of them), all made of pre-fabricated concrete slabs, and available in three sizes - small (5 stories high), medium (9 stories high) and large (16 stories high) - there are playground areas, parks, paths, places to hang laundry, and gardens - lots of gardens. This neighborhood, which according to our guidebook is called "Kharkiv's bedroom," was built in the 1970's after Kharkiv became a major manufacturing center for the Soviet Union (remember the tractor factory?), and the subway line from the center of the city was extended to reach the area. Today, apparently, it houses 600,000 Kharkivites. We went to the last subway stop on the line (Geroyev Pratsi) and emerged in the midst of a fabulous market - better than the Central Market we visited the day before. But it was really hot out and I was desperate to find some shade. We had planned on taking a tram into the "heart" of Saltovka, but the guidebook left out the number of the tram we should take! So we just jumped on Number 26 - it was jammed and stifling (and this was about 11 a.m.). Instead of going into the heart of the neighborhood, it seemed to be going around the perimeter, so we got out at the first stop and just walked around among the buildings. We wound our way back to the metro, got on and got off at the next to last stop (Studentska), and emerged to see exactly the same things, minus the great market. More concrete slab buildings, as far as the eye could see. Our guidebook tells us that: "Traveling out to Saltovka is beyond the tour guide's tether, but this quintessentially Soviet suburb definitely counts as the real Ukraine." So now, I guess, we have seen the real thing. But, frankly, except for the fact that it is definitely a suburb with vast, wide boulevards (with names like The Street of Tractor Builders or The Street of Heroes of Labor), the uniform design of each building (it reminds me of Levitt Town on Long Island), and the absence of smaller cobble stone streets with shops on either side, I didn't find the "soul" of the area to be very different from that of Kharkiv proper. It's like any other major city suburb with high rise apartments, only more so. It's not as dense as the city, or as vibrant somehow, and it seems much less affluent - but as apartment suburbs go, I guess it's not too bad.

When we got back to the city we decided to reward ourselves with a restaurant lunch and looked up one, Dkanka, that was recommended in one of our guide books, mostly because it was close to the Pushkinskaya metro station, which is where we got off. We found it buried behind a huge modern building on Lermontova Street and next to this weird little construction that looked sort of like a fairy-tale village (it even has it's own website - www.stargorod.net) There was a restaurant, a "beer garden," and other pretty buildings that looked like they belonged in Bavaria rather than in Kharkiv. (I later went to the website, but couldn't figure out what it is because it's all in Russian or Ukrainian.) Dkanka was a sweet little place, very traditional Ukrainian looking, with waitresses in traditional Ukrainian costume. We, as usual, ordered way too much - one hot green borscht, one cold beet soup that for some unaccountable reason was not called "borscht," a small chicken salad for Ed and the usual pancakes (really crepes) with red caviar for me. Too much food on such a hot day, but guess what - we finished it, of course!

By now it was late afternoon and time to call it a day. We went home to cool off and chill out and WORRY about my really big adventure tomorrow - my first mani-pedi and cut and color in Kharkiv!!