I’ll offer you a little reportage about the town I live in and the town I’m content with. Perhaps, I will be successful at busting myths about Kherson.
I don’t want to dwell on art monuments, and don’t get me wrong; you can find a ton of them all over the city. I won’t talk about the history of our town either, although, I must say its history is truly great and interesting, but you can easily read about that in the history books or find this info on the Wikipedia. I’m not even going to mention the greatness of our river Dnipro. Instead, I would love to talk about current happenings in our town. Our town becomes more interesting and enlightening in a way. Now, our town offers more hangout spots for young people, and places they could personally grow and develop. The enterprises are springing up to fit different interests. I see this change as very important. A lot of very talented people started to proliferate in Kherson. These budding talents include artists (painters) who organize charitable events every week; photographers who make interesting photo reports about parties and concerts in town. Genuinely interesting places are opening up. Instead of having just live music like it was prevalent in Soviet eateries, now every pub has on offer local jazz and rock-n-roll music. In some clubs, Di Jays chill-out are playing, which creates the right atmosphere to meet up with old friends and just relax. There is the whole workshop with creative people where anyone can buy handmade merchandise, and all interested parties can take master classes in making toys out of wool yarn, making things out of polymer clay, embroidering, using decoupage, working with beads, and a lot more. Recently, “Anticafe” was opened in Kherson. In the “Anticafe” you pay for the time you spend there but not for the services. For instance, if you pay 30 hryvnas for one hour, you’re entitled to free wi-fi, laptop use, Plasma TV, playstation with a great selection of games, tea or coffee, whichever your prefer, fruits, different table games. In other words, this place has a home feel, and it is perfect to have fun together with your friends on a rainy day. On a sunny day, you’re welcome to rent a bike.
On top of that, a new shopping mall “Factory” is an additional bonus to all the shopaholics of Kherson. The name “Factory” is a relic from what has been left from textile factory, which was the biggest in the former Soviet Union. You can easily imagine the building that was initially specialized for the textile production: huge workshops and colossal spaces. Right now in the place of former Soviet production site are boutiques representing different brands, cafes, restaurants, ice skating rink, roller skating rink, huge swimming pool, a ride for snowboarders, and little theme parks with rides for little kids. This whirlpool of fast food places, apparel, jewelry and toys transports you in a different world.
Every weekend, the Factory hosts concerts, local comedy clubs and master classes. You can just unsuspectingly walk the quite street, but upon entering the Factory, you’ll get the impression that you were sucked in an extraterrestrial portal. Your surroundings will be so bright and festive. The people will appear active and happy. The ambience will pull you in. This shopping mall is a popular venue for birthday parties, dates, and fun hangouts on Fridays. Almost forgot to mention, the Factory has its own 3D movie theater with a few rooms and the popcorn is surprisingly delicious. After a long work day, my hubby and I feel obligated to attend some movie premier and enjoy ourselves.
To my pleasure, I spot a trend of following and respecting the traditions of our ancestors. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing bad about adopting certain influences from other cultures, but we do have our unique culture, which is not any less old or interesting. This year, for the first time, we celebrated the day of Makosha. Her day is Friday. The grain reaped first is devoted to Makosha. Ma-kosh-“the mother of a good harvest,” “mother of happiness.” Friday is rendered as a tall skinny woman with her long hair down. This holiday falls on about the same day with Halloween. The tradition is to carve out the pumpkin, place the candles inside, ask for a good harvest, and sing songs and dance.
Outside of town, in the forest, you can find an equestrian club, where you can ride a horse and arrange for a photoshoot. Also, you can buy yourself a pedigreed horse. Right next to the club, you will see a hutor (Ukrainian traditional village) which embodies Ukrainian culture. This hutor is replete with tourists from all over the world, who came to try an authentic borsch with sour cream and garlic, rye bread with salo (cured slabs of backfat with skin or without), and a real moonlight. On top of that, hutor offers very interesting master classes in weaving yarn, pottery, etc. In the blacksmith workshop, you’ll find all the tools to forge your very own horseshoe. Here, you’ll find all Ukrainian handicraft, and you can see how artisans work. The whole village helps you go back in time and experience the life in the olden times. You will spot traditionally painted houses with Ukrainian symbols, all the people wearing traditional attire-sharovary (traditional pants for men), vyshyvanka (embroidered shirts), and flower wreaths (for girls). Large parties of people arrive to hutor all the time to have fun the whole day. Conveniently, the hotel is offered for the visitors who decide to stay for the night, and also ban’ka (local type of sauna) is offered.
Last but not least, we have all the seasons of the year clearly manifested: hot summer, snowy winter, wonderful spring, and very beautiful autumn.
mandrivochka 