The Dnipro's Break Through

Again football. Or - it is better to say - my nerves again. While testing them during the FC Dnipro games I used to establish a regrettable tradition as long as this team entered its streak of bad luck the year 2008.
It is always difficult to explain smbd why do you go on the stadium when the team's game worths virtually zilch. However, there is something in this sport you cannot explain. It happens when a set of the well-payed players becomes a part of your life, when a stadium transforms into the most visitable place in your city and the result of the game itself matters less then atmosphere on the arena. So, frankly speaking, I just felt - they will win this time.
How could they lose when at least a thousand of fans organized a spectacular procession along the central city streets? The march was planned beforehand, still, in a view of the current Dnipro's results it seemed as an expressive demonstration of the supporters' will to see their club's real strength. As a crowd approached a stadium shouting 'Dnipro' & 'Dnipropetrovsk', everybody undersood - It seemed to me - smth gonna happen.
Overtime. 90 + 1 min. Maksym Kalynychenko scores a goal with his head. Stadium roars.
Was that a Break Through we all waited for?

The Battle Ukraine has never seen before

It was literally historical evening. The two Ukrainian football teams competing in the 1/8 UEFA Cup final. The two antogonistic forces, the two unfriendly camps of the supporters - they all met that night in Kharkiv.
03/19/2009. 6 PM. An overcrowded 'Metalist' stadium. After a regrettable defeat to Dynamo in Kyiv, Metalist form Kharkiv was believed to tumble over itself to gain a desired win. The point is that this team have never achieved such results in its history. The real heyday came to Metalist last year, when a new football specialst - Myron Markevych - was appointed a head coach. The result came at once. This team started showing a game of a quite well level hereby becoming a kinda 'third force' in a domestic Championship (with Dynamo and Shakhtar, Donetsk). Though it was not enough time and possibilities to make the level of the team really competitive on a European football scene, Metalist hitched its wagon to a star. UEFA Cup's greenhorn, they was a bad surprise for the teams like Sampdoria and Beshiktash who undervalued them and were bitten.
Thousands of fans filled the stadium and saw a big show each time. And may be some of them really believed their favorite team is just invincible.
However, there were another thousands of fans. The Dynamo fans. A Ukrainian Premier League traditional leader, this team has the most urdent supporters in this country. By the way, did I say the both team fans hate each other?
Logically, when It came to the game with Metalist, the passion run high. When Dynamo won the first from the two games in Kyiv 1:0, it was the moment or truth for Metalist and almost a jackpot for Dynamo.
The Dynamo fans came to Kharkiv to see the victory while their opponents propelled the players not to give up. And they didn't. Though a win 3:2 was a Pyrrhic victory for Metalist, this night will enter the Ukrainian sports history for sure. Although Dynamo goes forward to the next level without Metalist, Ukraine still has its two representatives in the Cup (do you remember Shakhtar? They overcame Russian CSKA). And the highest UEFA index this year.

A gulp of optimism

It is ofthen connected with smth bad whan you watch the news from Ukraine now. For the ordinary citizens, it usually causes the two types of reaction. As the TV News dotrine doesn't recognize the positive signs, the first one leads to the nervous breakdown risk increasing. The second type of the people reaction is a gradual decline of the News watching and concentrating on a small but really positive moments in their life. Talking about my family, we are rather somewhere between the two of them. Having worked on TV for some time, I'm not so dramatized about what they are showing there. So, when a chance for us to abstract from the constant economical reports mastication happened, we didn't hesitate long. A 'TIK' band - on of my old passion - gave a concert in Dnipro. Very positive, folk and dancing, they always charge you with that everlasting energy coming from a nation that overcame so many evils in its history. How can you stay emotionlessly during the rousing songs devoted to ... an alcoholism, or a teacher from a remote village, or a police senior sergeant? Funny and very much senseless, they can do more for you mental health than the thousands of PM promises. ...Joyful and tired, we came back home at night, and when I fall asleep, the words for the song 'Sveta' were still spinning in my head.

The Olesky Sands

Ukraine. Open it! This is a motto of the project I'm currently working in and - I must say - the project I'm really enjoying. How amazingly It may sound for the Ukrainian natives, their country is much richer for the outstanding places and people they may imagine resting on their enslaved consciousness and washed memory. Traveling around this big European (underline!) country, my collegues and me, we had a lot of memorable moment that we try to deliver on our openit.com.ua site.
Here, I want to tell you about our trip that hadn't enriched the collection of the project site. Doubt that many of you know the place where the only real desert in Europe situated. This is a small village near Olesky city Kherson region, Ukraine.

Here you can see the map of the Sands location

Просмотреть увеличенную карту

On a sunrise, we started our way from Dnipro. It took us about 5 hours to get to the estimated destination point. However, the dunes didn't rise in front of our faces. In fact, the way to the factual 'sands' was the most complicated part of the trip. In spite of our expectations, the inhabitants of the Nova Mayachka village - the closest to the desert - are seemed not to be interested in it at all. Logically, they all pointed us the different directions and finally drove us into the complete end of civilization where the sands still appeared the same 'far away' place. Luckily, one guy from a roadside pull-in said we are actually here, and the desert is only separated by a forest belt planted to stop the sands spreading in the area.
Emmobilzed by a poachy sand, our car is left on a forest edge. While two of my collegues stay there to watch over, our group of three is aimed to a cutting. Without a map, a way in a forest is quite complicated - imagine a still air and a 2-hours walk over the sea-shore with a temperature of 37 degrees celcium. But a result was worh it...

Hello world! Dnipro calling...

Hi there guys! It is high time for me to start my own blog. At least, I think so. Hope, I have something to share with you.