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Recent Posts
- In the King’s Footsteps (Day 3) Lake Ammer
- Hiiumaa, the real Adventure Island
- In the King’s Footsteps (Day 2) Andechs Abbey
- In the King’s Footsteps (Day 1) Lake Starnberg
- The Iron Curtain and Freedom of Travel
- Why I never get hired
- Hitchhiking against the Skeptics
- Bombs, Explosions and my Time in Beirut
- The most stupid plan of all times
- But what about the Comet?
Category Archives: Ukraine
Wait, when was World War II again?
Zur deutschen Fassung dieses Artikels. A strange questions, it seems, especially coming from someone studying history. But the more you travel in the post-Soviet world, i.e. in the countries that became independent after the end of the Soviet Union, the … Continue reading
Posted in Abkhazia, History, Military, Photography, Russia, Ukraine, World War II
Tagged Soviet Union
14 Comments
Two Night Trains to the East
I am calling them night trains on purpose, not sleeper trains, because when I booked the tickets, I couldn’t discern if there would be a bed, maybe even a shower, or with how many people I would share the dormitory … Continue reading
How Climate Change will end
Many big issues are at their heart debates between optimists and pessimists – with some pretentious self-declared realists thrown into the mix. This is also true about climate change. Will we develop carbon-neutral technologies? Or can we capture the carbon … Continue reading
Posted in Belarus, Economics, Environment, Technology, Ukraine
Tagged Chernobyl, climate change, Soviet Union
12 Comments
Now, Christmas is really over
Most readers of this blog probably live in the Western churches’ (both reformed and unreformed) as well as the Gregorian calendar’s sphere of influence, where the three magicians already put an end to Christmas two weeks ago. But here, in … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Photography, Travel, Ukraine
Tagged christianity, christmas, Odessa, trees
1 Comment
Uman: Communism or Cheesy Story?
There is really no reason to visit Uman. It is a small city like hundreds of others in Ukraine. But because it lies halfway between Kyiv and Odessa, I decided to break the journey and to spend a day and … Continue reading
“East West Street” by Philippe Sands
As a lawyer and budding historian, I found Philippe Sands‘ idea of telling the story of international criminal law through the biographies of Hersch Lauterpacht and Raphael Lemkin interesting. But the book East West Street is overloaded with the irrelevant … Continue reading
Posted in Books, History, Holocaust, Human Rights, Law, Ukraine
Tagged international law, Nazis
1 Comment
Kyiv – Day 21/21 – Train Station
And the three weeks are over. Too bad. On the other hand, I like going to Kyiv’s main train station because it shows the way that train stations everywhere should aspire to: large, majestic, comfortable, open around the clock, and … Continue reading
Kyiv – Day 20/21
Yesterday was such a beautiful day that I went for a long walk. That long (and aimless), in fact, that I apparently walked far beyond the city limits of Kyiv. Because suddenly, it looked rather rural. And pretty. The whole … Continue reading
Kyiv – Day 19/21 – Communism and Capitalism
Capitalism’s triumph over communism most certainly wasn’t due to aesthetics. Links: More about Ukraine. More about economics, some of it more profound than merely a photo. Zur deutschen Fassung dieses Blogs.
Kyiv – Day 18/21 – Snow
Recently, many readers were jealous because of the mild Ukrainian winter. You needn’t be jealous any longer, for it finally snowed and became slightly colder. But before you say “oh, how pretty”, I should point out that the photos were … Continue reading
