h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Ukraine - A906815
Author: Atari - The great master of large inflated sporks and Thingite who owns the greater halls of castle splat - U211272

Have a look!

I could be wrong, but isn't it just 'Ukraine' rather than 'The Ukraine'?

We often get told in my office that's it's like saying 'The France' and Ukrainians really don't like it. Hopefully this is fact that than urban myth, and I'm not just chucking a spanner in your works...

Looks pretty good though.

When mentioning the revolt in 1905, might it be worth a reference to the fact it was immortalised on film (in a slightly fictionalised account) in Sergei Eisenstein's classic Soviet Realist film 'Battleship Potemkin'?

Spot the ex-film student - they make us all watch it...

Lots of "teh"s in there that need fixing.

teh's?

Typo's of the, not that I notice them but then again I am the scout who can't spell! try running it through a spell checker!

My Ukrainian friend doesn't object when I call it The Ukraine, anymore than I object when she says The UK. But she does call it Ukraine herself, and I believe that's its name.

Perhaps your first sentence should be "The Ukraine was part of the former Soviet Union", it's a European country now (from what my friend tells me). She also tells me that the currency is rubbish, there's no welfare system, and there's a lot of povety there.

The main language is Russian, although most people do speak Ukrainian as well, and apparently the government occasionally tries to insist that only Ukrainian is spoken there, although this would be a huge job to enforce, as most school text books etc are in Russian. I'll try to find out more about that if you like, although the entry doesn't miss it too much as it is.

What do you think otherwise?

Seems great to me, I did like the history section.

But I think htat the paragraph about internal transport comes across a bit snooty, ok the trains may not be of western standards but at least they exist! and night trains can be very useful if you don't want to waste a whole day of your precious holiday travelling. If this an entry about why you would want to travel to the Ukraine then maybe you should include a little more of hte advantages!

There's a lot of information there, it's very interesting.

One of my mates doesn't like flying, and he travelled by train to Kiev recently. The police didn't stamp his passport on the way in so that when he tried to go out again they threatened to arrest him because he'd entered the country illegally. He had to bribe them to let him go. Apparently it's a trick they use a lot to supplement their rubbish wages.

Still up to that are they.

I bet they want hard cash now and western cigarettes are not enough I reckon anymore gone are the days of cheap bribes from duty free.

That dashes all my holiday hopes...

Just make sure that you fly BA. Ukrainian airlines often overbook, and if all the pasengers turn up you might end up standing in the aisle.

OOoh but isn't that part of the joy of travelling roughing it a bit, travel would be very boring if everywhere was as effient as france getting around wise... or am I being an annoying backpacker type.

I'll get me coat.

Hi there,

This entry is good, but a bit patchy at the moment. The stuff on Odessa, for example, is very good, but the entry falls down in other places.

As you know, I'm a fussy old miss, so here are some aspects that struck me in particular:

I agree that the coutry should be referred to as "Ukraine" not "the Ukraine". Also, with regards to the language, Ukrainian is the official language of the state, although Russian is of course widely spoken.

>>became famous by the most spectacular accident in the history of peaceful use of nuclear force known as the Chernobyll disaster.

Became famous? That's a funny thing to say about such a large European country. Could you not say something like "hit the headlines in recent years" or "drew the world's attention"?

>>The country is quite big

Bit vague. It's actually the second largest country in Europe (after Russia).

>>In between there are lots of fields

The correct term is 'steppes' - vast fertile plains that constitute much of the landscape. You could even mention in this paragraph that Ukraine used to be known as "the bread-basket of Europe" as it produced so much grain.

>>but still made to work hard.

At what? In what sense?

>>Kiev the Capital

This reads a bit like a guidebook rather than a section about the city itself. I don't get much of a feel for the place. However, the reference to Babi Yar is very interesting - relating a monument in the city to an actual event. The section on Odessa is much more interesting because it talks less about tourist sites and more about the city itself.

Transport

I agree with the comments on the Transport paragraph: apart from the comment about the roads, which are indeed appalling, it's a pretty unfair assessment. Are you speaking from personal experience or from hearsay? The trains are rather slow, but are frequent and tend to run to schedule, which is more than they do in the UK.

There is also nothing mysterious about the origins of the hot tea. It comes out of a samovar from which you can help yourself, and it's free - again, that's more than you get on trains in the UK.

The story someone mentioned about a passport not being stamped is not a practice confined to Ukraine, but is common in the countries of the former Soviet Union. It therefore becomes your responsibility as a traveller to make sure that your documentation is in order. The last time I entered Russia my declaratsia was not stamped, so I had to go and find someone in authority and insist that they got it stamped for me. I agree with Z - do your research and enjoy the randomness!

>>by human error of plant faliure

What does this mean?

The entry ends rather suddenly with the Chernobyl disaster. You concentrate on the technical reasons for the initial failure but say nothing about subsequent events, the dangers to neighbouring countries, the efforts that were made to contain the problem, the issues that still exist today.

It might be worth saying something about the current political situation in Ukraine. The president, Leonid Kuchma, has been implicated in scandal after scandal - some of an extremely serious nature, such as the killing of the journalist Georgy Gongadze.

Alternatively, you could end on a positive note (!) and say something about Ukraine's future, political and economic reforms etc etc.

Gubernatrix

I'll try and change these things. Most of them were from the old entry which I got from FM and I need to edit!

And seeing I wrote both the Odessa and Kiev sections I'm a little upset that the comment about style of writing which is actually very similar in both.

My Ukrainian friend said that if you have the money, the trains are lovely. The crappy trains are the slow all stations one, while the fast trains are apparently really lovely.

She also said that there are a lot more cathedrals, about 20 I believe. I am trying to get her to either give me some information to pass on, or to sign up herself, but it's a bit difficult...