Wednesday 25 April 2007

Elizabeth in Ukraine


During April I attended a conference on children's literature in Ukraine. Initially, I flew to Krakow, in Poland, and stayed with my relatives until I was joined a few days later by some of the other delegates. We then caught the train to L'viv, crossing the border to Ukraine at Przemysl. In L'viv, some students have been translating the first few chapters of The Divide into Ukrainian - you can see them on the left. Everyone was very kind and helpful, and the food was wonderful! Although I don't remember much of the Russian I learned at school, it was a big help when I had to decipher street names written in Cyrillic... After the conference finished I took the train to Kyiv (formerly Kiev), which has some wonderful architecture - and the best Metro system I've ever encountered. Above is a photo of me in Maidan Nezalezhnosti, which means Independence Square. And Hello to Russell from Leicester, who owns the whole Divide trilogy and came onstage after my reading in the Palace of Arts in L'viv to introduce himself. How bizarre was that?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I think your Ukrainian bits and pieces are really good. Where are you going to go next?

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Hello from sunny Leicester - Yes this is Russell thanking you for your comment and if anyone is in any doubt, it was extremely bizarre. Even Bizarrer still to keep bumping into you in the hotel. Incedently i think the staff were really sorry to see us go - Not sure they had had such interesting guests before all at the same time - also i dont think they could work us all out :) We just didnt compute ----- When are you going back - maybe it will be warmer next time.....

Kate said...

Hello Elizabeth! This is Kate from Lviv! Hope you still remember me! I was EXTREMELY happy to see your Ukrainian bits!
I'm very sorry but somehow I've lost your e-mail... And i really want to send you my poems 'cause I need to know whether they are still weak or not........
My e-mail is: navriki@mail.ru. I've got an ICQ as well: 449-284-779.