This is the city I lived in during Peace Corps. It is a mid-sized Ukrainian city (300,000), and regional seat of government. The city and region are known for their shipping industry, and even more for their agricultural industry.

Pictures from the Carpathian mountains and villages surrounding them.

Scenes from Slagtown

Pictures from Sevastopol, Bakhchisaray, Foros, Yalta, Sudak, Noviy Svit, Kara Dag and more.

Site of the most famous nuclear accident in world history. Pictures from the trip my wife and I took there with some friends on November 13, 2004. Read the story behind the pictures in "Traveling around Ukraine".

Andrew's Descent (named for the Church of St. Andrew's at the top). Kyiv's twisted little historical market street, now a good place to buy Oakland Raiders matrioshka dolls.

The Caves Monastery, built over nine hundred years ago.

A fabulous outdoor museum of Ukrainian architecture, located just south of Kyiv.

Perhaps the worst named children's museum ever. All in all, a lot of fun in an Exploratorium kind of way.

Zoos are always fun.

Some pictures of the people of Kyiv and the landmarks of their city.

Two attractive but run-down botanical gardens in Kyiv: the Universitet gardens in the center, and the Grishko botanical garden along the Dnipro in the Vidubichi district.

A sequence of pictures showcasing the common sites of central Kyiv.

Lesya and I saw the KVN Ukrainian National Quarter-Finals in Kyiv on April 14. Essentially KVN is contest/game that has been going on across the FSU since it was the SU. It involves groups of young college students competing in what is essentially an all comedy, song, and dance contest.

The majority of pictures are from Odesa's famous April 1st Celebration (2005). Here is the "Humor Capital of the FSU" on its big day, and a few relatively normal days.