It's not often that you see a Moskvich car in Kyiv nowadays. But in Brovary, I've seen two:





And then there was also this:

Been to Brovary today, was pleasantly surprised by how little garbage I saw there. Also, tons of kids and tons of playgrounds, old and new, everywhere. I wouldn't mind borrowing their mayor.

I'll post more pics later; for now, here's my favorite, of the stuff hanging out to dry on someone's balcony:

Saw this on the way from the dentist yesterday:


"I eat here."







The name of the street is Klinichna. Yes, Clinical Street. Very close to the Institute of Sugar Beats bus stop.

At the polling station on Sunday:



Inside the polling booth - two ballots, both ridiculously long:

On Saturday, I was feeling claustrophobic in Kyiv's center, so I got into a random marshrutka and went where it took me: to Poznyaky and Osokorky, on the Dnieper's left bank.

Some of my favorite pictures from the trip:









All photos are here.

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Marshrutka driver seemed like a very religious guy:





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Lots of street trade, just like everywhere else in Kyiv:







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So many flyers everywhere, I don't think they have any informational value anymore and instead serve as decorations only in this otherwise gloomy area:



Election-related flyers from Poznyaky and Osokorky are in the Mayor 2008 Flickr folder.

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A very strange logo on the store that seems to be selling doors - looks pretty phallic to me:



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Mishuga Street - named, as it turns out, after an opera singer Oleksandr Mishuga (link in Ukrainian), who was born in a village near Lviv in 1853, in a shoemaker's family:





While meshuga is a more familiar transliteration of the Yiddish word, here in Kyiv the name's spelling varies from Mishuga (first photo) to Myshuga (second photo).

And then there's also this sign for a wedding salon on Mishuga St. - composed by some meshugener in an inexplicable mix of Ukrainian (line 1) and Russian (line 2):



A Lenny Kravitz billboard on Mishuga St.:



Kravitz is, of course, a mis-transliteration of the Ukrainian word kravets, a tailor.

Café "Karadenis" - another cute mis-transliteration from the Mishuga St. neighborhood, this time of the Turkish word Karadeniz, the Black Sea:

We've had enough of Chernovetsky (this, more or less, is the meaning of the sticker above), but it looks like he's just been re-elected.

I voted for Klichko. Even though I'd heard enough about the evil people on his team to convince me that he's no good, either, I figured that at least he's got a name to lose if he, once elected, chose to be counterproductive and destructive as mayor.

But he hasn't made it, which is not surprising.



And - I'm really disgusted with Yulia because of her Turchynov project.

Also on Instytutska, the building that was supposed to be an extension for the National Fine Arts Museum:



I may be wrong, but I think it's been there in its present, unfinished, form since way back in the early 1990s. If they ever finish it, they'll probably turn it into a business center, instead of giving it away as a much-needed gift to the state-run museum.

Across the street from this decade-long frozen construction project, there are two new buildings - built from scratch in just a few years:



The one on the left is basically sitting on top of a high school, while the one on the right towers over one of the entrances to Khreshchatyk subway station.

This photo says tons about what Kyiv is like these days:



A Ukrainian-language sign on Instytutska:

Please don't park your cars on the lawn.

Added in handwriting:

Why not?

Soon, we'll have many new neighbors moving into the two apartment buildings that are blocking whatever view we used to have on this side:

We're in Kyiv.

One of the first things that greeted us was this mess at the playground in front of our building - same as ever:

A few more shots from our Sunday walk at Vorobyovy Gory.

Migrant workers (most likely) playing football on one of MGU's football fields (if you can call it that):







(An earlier post and a picture from a similar gastarbeiter game is here.)

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At Luzhniki, something very Soviet was taking place - judging by this poster, at least:



Something called "The All-Russian Military-Athletic Forum 'READY FOR LABOR AND DEFENSE'."

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On the roof of the Luzhniki stadium - where the Champions League final is to take place Wednesday - one could see this lonely figure, most likely a security guy charged with getting the arena ready for the big game:



And across the river from Luzhniki, no one seemed to care about either labor, or defense, or football - or the swastikas (see my previous post):

Here's what the MGU war memorial looked like on Sunday, just nine days after Victory Day:







And here are some swastikas down by the river:



Welcome to Potemkin Village.

The Night of Museums/International Museum Day is today - but downtown Moscow already looked pretty artistic on Friday: