Extreme Kiev

So my stay in Kiev can mostly be characterized by doing some "extreme" sports. I did ATVs one day and wakeboarding another day, with Anna and Natalie. A short video here of my most successful wakeboarding experience:


I also did the requisite sightseeing, including the Botanical garden, and the building with all the animals on it pictured here.





















I also saw some interesting scenes of Kiev. Something I prefer to do while traveling is to see parts of the places that I am that aren't really listed in the guidebook. Below is one of the native creatures of Kiev, the hedgehog. I had never seen one before, but they are apparently all over the place, this one seen after the outdoor dance on Tuesday night. Also featured here is a picture of one of the statues that adorn hidden backstreets in Kiev, this one is also a Hedgehog from a famous Soviet era cartoon called "Hedgehog in the Fog."




















One thing that I need to note about Kiev. It has the highest percentage of beautiful women of any place I've seen in the world. It seems like one in five ladies walking around is just stunningly gorgeous. Of course, the problem is they mostly have that ultra serious and dour look on their faces like the world hates them and they hate it back, which detracts quite a bit from their overall attractiveness. I really prefer a smile.

Also, the food here is great. Tasty and cheap (almost China cheap). I ate a lot of "Chicken Kiev" while I was there. Also, the staple of a budget European tour: Kebab. Less than one dollar for a big wrap of chicken and veggies.

I left Kiev on the train to Budapest. This trip was a full 25 hours long, including a 6 hour stop at the Hungarian border to change the wheels out and do passport control. Apparently, during Soviet times, the USSR used different train track width from other countries, so as to prevent invasion. What that means today is they have to change the wheels on these cross-border trips. They pick up the train with big cranes, and drop (literally, it is quite jarring) the train on the new wheel base. This takes quite a long time. Fortunately, there was a single working power outlet on the train that I was on, so I was able to recharge my laptop after it ran out, so the time went by pretty quickly with watching movies and such.

Now I'm in Budapest. Off to dance in a bit...see how things go.

Lithuania

I just finished my week in Lithuania. The first thing that has to be said about Lithuania is that it is one of the most beautiful countries I've seen in my life. The landscape is simply breathtaking - green and clean, and with beautiful architecture. It is also cheap. Not Vietnam cheap, but something around China cheap. Vilnius isn't the most well cared for city on earth, especially compared to some place like Stockholm, but in a way the aging city has an appeal. There is something nice about the occasional weed growing through a sidewalk crack. It actually reminds me of home (El Cerrito).



In addition to the beauty of the place, the food is quite good as well. I was so busy shoving it in my face that I didn't take the time to take any pictures of it. Anyway, its good. You should try some.

I took a short trip outside Vilnius to a town nearby called Trakai, which is noted for its lakes and Gothic castle. Here is an example of the beautiful Lithuanian "Architecture." We took a pedal boat out on the lake surrounding this castle. The water was cool but not cold, so it was quite nice to put your feet in, and the water was quite clean too.

Afterwards, we had some meat pies that are traditional for the area and some local beer, which was "quite not bad."

Other days were much the same, relaxing and enjoying the city and the company. Did some dancing on Sunday and Monday, but the dances were always on hard cement and my knees did not like that so much.


Now I'm in Kiev, Ukraine. Check back in a few days more more info on that.

It has been about a month since I sat down and made any further record of my travels. I'm currently on a bus from Riga in Latvia to Vilnius in Lithuania. It's a 5 hour ride, and amazingly, there is internet on the bus. Technology just keeps on advancing...

First thing to update on, Herrang:

Herrang went well for the most part. I was one of the Week 3 party organizers, and it was a big job that took a lot of time and energy but it was worth it in the end. The theme was Superheroes, and I was working with Robert Klingval who is a crazy Swede, and a great guy to work with. People had been telling us for weeks that the party was going to be the best party ever, and so we had a lot to live up to, but I think that we did a great job in living up to the expectations. We had a comic book storyline going on, here is a basic summary.

Supervillians interupted a Superhero conference and captured the great Dawn Hampton, and they were using her energy to fuel a device that would put and end to good dancing forever. Superheroes had to disable the device by overloading it by dancing near it. At the end there was a showdown between the heroes and the villains featuring the one man dance with Superman (Lennart Westerlund), Invisible man (empty space), and Batman (Daniel Heedman); then little Oswald and Emi from Barcelona dancing poorly until Oswald got angry and ran offstage where Pep came in in green body paint as the Hulk and finished the dance; finally Kevin St. Laurent as Captain Swing and the rest of the Killer Dillers as the villains doing a fantastic "Aerials Battle" fight choreography; followed by the rescue of Dawn Hampton who did her Bhangra number and destroyed the device and saved dancing.

It was indeed the best party ever...

Some bad things happened though in Herrang, Isabelle and I had a falling out that is probably not recoverable from. It's a pity, but these things happen in Herrang. I'm not going to go into details, but needless to say there are multiple sides to every story.

Week 4 was Comp and Show classes with Johanna, which were a lot of fun, but hard work. Not quite as much work as 5 years ago when I did C&S the first time, but still good. One class was nothing but swingouts, and that night at the social dance I couldn't do anything but swingouts, which was kind of funny. My muscles just wanted to keep going with them.

After Herrang was over, I spent almost a week in Stockholm, then went down to Gothenburg in southwestern Sweden for the Gothenburg Lindy Exchange. It was a good event with a lot of live music. I played with the local band on the Saturday late night event, and many people said it was the best part of the event, so I'm glad to have been a part of that. I also did some DJing at the Sunday Lindy in the Park, at least until it was cut short by rain.

I returned to Stockholm, and the next day I got on the boat to Riga. It is a nice cruise ship that takes a leisurely 16 hours to cross the Baltic sea. I ran into Helena and Manuel, who are dancers who also happened to be going to Vilnius, so that was nice to have some people I know to hang out with. I also met a crazy Russian guy named Vanya who was my roommate. I should have known better than to say yes to his question, which was, of course "Do you want to drink with me?" The rest of the night is a drunken haze which involves some crazy lindy hopping to pop music with Manuel, and trying to play clarinet at 2am on the deck of the ship. Morning wasn't too bad though, except for a general lack of sleep, and that brings us up to where we are now...on the bus to Vilnius.