Soviet Love Scene <3

Over the past couple of months I have come to appreciate the little town of Krasnodon where I live. Partly because I get to leave back home soon but more importantly because I have started exploring more of it. I remember my friend and fellow volunteer whom has already left back home, Gillian, would call me up on the phone while she was strolling about her town. I would always ask her why she would want to walk around such a depressing place. Like me she also lived in Eastern Ukraine. I forget how she would answer, but now that the end is in sight for me I also find myself strolling about town. I guess she was just soaking up as much of her town as possible as I am now doing.

Most Ukrainian towns are pretty quaint albeit a little depressing. In the east or industrial part of the country the towns are a little dirtier, and a little dustier, but underneath that rusted soviet facade there is still some charm. The towns still have the same infrastructure as they did when Stalin and Lenin were walking arm in arm with their fellow comrades. Tall gray apartment buildings stand out amongst the landscape and succeed to this day in their goal of bringing everyone together for a more communal way of living. Every city that I have traveled to in Ukraine has at least this common denominator: tall, gray, drag buildings. Some places more than others and some less.

Here in my town I do stumble upon other kinds of buildings every now and again; a building that is nice because it is different and not gray. Today on my walk through the park I came across a small stone building, I think it could of been limestone, which predated the current soviet concrete architecture. It had plants in the windows and trees in the yard, and I just couldn’t believe it - I get my entertainment and inspiration in more creative ways here in Ukraine in case you haven’t noticed. Well, the small stone building made me think of what this part of the world would look like if it wasn’t all destroyed and then rebuilt into the monotonous gray style that it now is.

I think I would be pushing the envelope to say that it would like the rest of Western Europe, but I’m sure that it would look at least 3 times better than it does now and it would make Krasnodon an overall better place to live. For example: Western Ukraine has many older and beautiful buildings, and appeals to people for that fact alone. In my opinion the people are nicer there in comparison to easterners because they have a more aesthetically pleasing environment to live in. The west gets more tourists which in turn puts more money into the local economy, and I could go on and on but you get the point. And all of this is possible because a simple building, or rather a lack of them. 

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side, but I’m okay with that. I have come to appreciate my town on a different level. And if I lived in a nice looking town I might have not been able to reach that level of awareness. This ol’ dusty place has become my second home.