Kimono in Zaporozhye, Ukraine

Before leaving UK for good I was determined to go back to Ukraine one more time, and, if I could fit it in my suitcase, take a kimono with me. Well, on Tuesday I got back from Ukraine and I'm proud to say that I managed to have one kimono day there! Truthfully, I could have wore kimono couple more times, but it was so hot! Plus, I only brought one kimono with me.

The kimono I choose was a last minute decision because up until the morning of, I had no idea if it will fit in the suitcase. I weighted my suitcase, and I still had 11Lb until the max, so I went on a crazy running around spree around my house, looking for kimono to take. I settled on this summer weight hitoe, with a ro obi I got from Bangasa Kimono. In true Lyuba fashion, I wasn't even sure that they will go together but at that point I was willing to take a chance. I piled up accessories I thought would go well together and figured I'll deal with it in Ukraine.

Turned out everything went together very well, and I'm extremely happy with the coordination. I thought the obi might get lost since both kimono and obi are white based, but the obi ended up showing up just fine. This also was the first time I wore this grey ro obiage. Gosh, I love it! Such a change from all the other pale ro obiage I own and have to wear all the time.

My friend tried to talk me out of wearing kimono at first. I mean, it IS Ukraine after all and people are not exactly known for being very accepted to those who are different. I was mentally preparing myself for lots of negative and ignorant comments, but I'm happy to report that I got no negativity of any kind at all! I got exactly the same thing as I get when wearing kimono in US or UK. Couple people asked for photos, some called me "geisha girl", others just did double takes and smiled. Since I'm used to all of that, I was able to be happily oblivious to everything.

The highlight of my day was when I saw two Ukrainian Cossacks reenactors walking around, and I've made a very fast beeline for them! I wasn't missing a chance to take pictures with them! In case some of you don't know, Ukrainian Cossacks is one of my other passions. I ABSOLUTELY FREAKING LOVE THEM! Turned out there was a special event earlier that day, but of course we missed it :( These two guys were just hanging out in the area afterwords. I'm a little bummed, because I missed all the cossack amazingness, but at least I have photos with some of them to make me feel better. They didn't believe me when I told them I LUV cossacks though... HAHA.

I would have taken more photos with them, but my Ukrainian friend is not used to my ways, so she got very embarrassed and the next thing I knew, was walking away very fast with my camera! While I was still talking to the guys! I told her that next time I see cossacks, she is staying the whole time LOL!

Back from Ukraine and JUST in time

I am still "recovering" after my first-since-I-left-Ukraine-back-in-2001 trip to Ukraine. I am definitely avoiding the mountains of photos I took since I don't have an easy way of cropping and shrinking them :( Maybe within the next few weeks I will get to them.

At first I was calling myself not-so-nice names for picking a 9am flight from Ukraine, that forced me to wake up at 4am just to get to airport on time, but now I am very very glad. Because of that, my flight landed in UK at 10:30am last Thursday (the flight was actually 3h 20min but because of time difference it seems like it was only an hour+), right before all that mess with volcano ash started! Call me lucky! I sure as heck calling myself lucky right now because otherwise I would have still been in Ukraine.

As far as Ukraine goes, I LOVED it! It was so nice to be around people who speak my language, actually 2 of my languages :) My friend and I went around Kiev, looking at museums and historical places. We went to the famous Orthodox churches/monasteries called Kievo-Pecherska Lavra, then Mamaeva Sloboda which is a rebuilding of Cossack Sich. I was ecstatic! :) I got myself whole bunch of books and souvenirs, and absolutely no clothes! lol So much for my grand plan of going shopping for clothes in Ukraine. Clearly books are more important to me :P

The one thing that I absolutely hated though, enough to never want to come back to Ukraine to live there, is the rudeness of people. It was overwhelming and left me want to punch every other person. I guess I left Ukraine just before I had to deal with it fully, so I don't remember it well. But now, coming back, I was fully emerged in the 'grown up' world and I didn't like it one bit. My friends there were laughing at me, saying that I should accept it for what it is and that it's the way of life here. Maybe it is. But I don't want to accept it. When I got back home, my mom told me that she got the same comments from my uncle and from all my cousins that visited Ukraine. Hmmm.... maybe there IS something there to think about. Before I left, we turned on a TV and a comedic program was on saying that "to love Ukraine is so much easier from America or Canada." Sad, but true and I'm 100% agree with it.