Written by Greg Prohl
Tuesday, 15 May 2012 10:33
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(Just another perfect Kauai beach)
So, you want to go to Hawaii, huh? Well, there’s maybe a few things you should know that they don’t tell you in the travel brochures. Now don’t get the wrong idea. Hawaii is a beautiful place, fabulous beaches, warm breezes, stunning colors and lush, otherworldly terrain, all that stuff you’ve heard is absolutely true. But there’s also idiot tourist drivers gawking at the scenery instead of oncoming traffic and running you off the road, there’s head colds that hit the day you arrive and last most of the week, there’s rain that can wash out entire days of your stay, there’s motion sickness that can turn your boat cruise up the Napali coast into a five hour ordeal spent draped over the side feeding the fishes. In short, it ain’t all a 24/7 paradise.
(Kauai landscape)
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Written by Greg Prohl
Monday, 30 April 2012 13:41
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(Fields of Letychiv)
The small town of Letychiv in west-central Ukraine holds a special position for me. It’s the town where my wife was born and where her family still lives and thus, whenever we visit Ukraine, Letychiv becomes our de facto base of operations for much of our stay.
Situated on the main highway midway between the large cities of Vinnitsa and Khmelnitsky, and at the confluence of the Volk and Southern Buh rivers, Letychiv has a population of around 11,000 people. Modest and unassuming, Letychiv embodies many of the same sorts of charms as you would find in any similar sized city in the U.S., a quietude you would hardly expect given Letychiv’s tragic history.
(Orthodox church in Letychiv)
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Written by Greg Prohl
Saturday, 14 April 2012 15:48
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(Along the River Buh in Mykolaiv)
Mykolaiv is a major city of southern Ukraine, pop. 500,000 as of 2008, located on the Buh (pronounced boog) River, about 65 kilometers inland from the Black Sea and 120 kilometers east of Odessa. Mykolaiv is known as the city of shipbuilders and is the main shipbuilding port of Ukraine and indeed all of eastern Europe, as it also was for the former Soviet Union. There are three major shipyards where all manner of boats are made, both commercial and military, as well as the Admiral Makarov University of Shipbuilding. The city also plays a major role in the engineering, metallurgy, and food industries.
Mykolaiv is not a place that is going to show up as a major attraction on anyone’s tourist map radar. It’s primarily a working class city without a whole lot to recommend it as a travel destination in and of itself. There are no geographically scenic areas and not really a lot of history in terms of castles and such as you find in other areas of Ukraine. The city is relatively young for this part of the world, founded in 1789 for the express purpose of establishing an inland seaport and shipmaking town, and it’s been that ever since. But if for some reason you find yourself in Mykolaiv and wondering what to do with your time, there are certainly things to do and see that are worth checking out.
(The Shipbuilding and Naval Museum)
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