Berlin.

I feel like such a jet setter (read: a bit of gap yah arsehole) for popping back to mainland Europe a mere week after I made my big return to England's green and pleasant land, but Berlin is a place that deserves to be talked about, as it is up their with Helsinki as being one of the best places I've had the pleasure of visiting. That is a bold statement considering I am such a Scandophile and would do many bad things to move to Stockholm, but Berlin is completely magical, full of history, art,fashion, beer and sausages - what more do you need?

The inevitable stress that comes with flying Ryanair (honestly, why can't they allocate seats like any other normal airline) meant that a trip to a beer garden was much needed. A bit of TripAdvisor research led us to Prater Garten in Prenzlauer Berg, which seats a good few hundred people, serves a good variety of beer and wine, as well as bratwurst, pretzels and anything else vaguely German. There were so many tourists there so it probably isn't the most authentic place going, but with my horrendous German 'skills', going somewhere properly German wouldn't have been the best idea.

Day two involved a trip to the Reichstag, which was again tourist central. I'm not sure why I enjoy whinging about tourists when I've spent the last year of my life being a kind of tourist, but hey. The queues seemed pretty large if you didn't book in advance, but it's worth going to because it's free and the views are pretty wicked.

 

The afternoon was spent walking to Checkpoint Charlie, and reading the stories of people who tried to get from one side to the other, which was bizarre and also quite frightening to think that such things were happening so recently. There was also a fair bit of Russian written around there, which I always get excited about, being the nerd that I am. We then walked back towards our apartment, stopping for a brief shop, which included trips to Monki and Weekday as well as a little look at the Barbie Dreamhouse, which was, even for a tomboy like my, was nice and girly, and a little exciting.

In the evening we trekked across to neukölln to go and see Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and they were bloody brilliant. They played a set which easily lasted 2 hours, and I felt thoroughly entertained throughout. The singer also sounded so much like Ryan Gosling it was surreal, yet very nice!

Wednesday was probably the most exciting day for 2 reasons: the zoo, the most amazing burgers EVER. In fact, the burgers were so good, I'll skip the zoo part and just talk about food for a little while. So, I can hardly admit that we stumbled upon this place by accident, it was number 20 or something on TripAdvisor, but it was pretty sweet nonetheless. Burgermeister is situated under the under the train lines next to Schlesisches Tor station, and is a renovated block of public toilets - don't let that put you off!

We had a burger each, some cheese fries to share and two beers, costing a measly 2 euros. It's a really chilled place - you just order your burger, take a drink from the fridge (all drinks were 1 euro 50) and then you wait for your number to pop up on the little screen. You then eat your food either sitting on an empty crate, or perched at a high table. I went for the BBQ burger, which involved bacon, cheese and bbq sauce, and it was so tasty! I would definitely recommend if you want good yet cheap food in a relaxed atmosphere. I could have eaten more than one quite easily.

The rest of the trip was spent in museums, as Alex and I are really quite nerdy - I prefer to think we're cultured, but that probably isn't true. Another large chunk of our remaining time was spent sampling beer. We paid a visit to Haus Der 100 Biere, which was incredible! They had beers from all over the world, and I rather boringly decided to order a Baltika, but they had everything you could wish for - even Strongbow!

Now, can somebody take me back to Europe again please?!

I'm back!

Thanks to my broken laptop which I could only get repaired in Ukraine for the princely sum of 3000 hryvnia (somewhere between £200-£300) and blogging from an iPhone being the biggest faff ever, it seems that I haven't bothered to write about my oh so interesting life in just over two months. I'm sure many of you have been left absolutely gutted about this, as I can imagine people enjoy reading about my life in Odessan student halls, hanging with the cockroaches as I'm washing my pants by hand when they want to feel better about their lives. So I thought I'd treat you and write a little bit abut my final few weeks in Odessa (miss you already, O).

Now it's come to this, I think I've forgotten everything that happened, or at least the interesting parts.

I spent a large proportion of my last month in Odessa teaching. English native speakers (especially British English it seems) were like gold dust out there, and I was like bloody hot property (exaggerating a little there). My job interview went a little like this though:

"Hi, you're English, yes?"

"Yes,"

"Have you taught before?"

"A little bit, nothing formal,"

"Here are the terms and conditions of your job."

The teaching work I did out there was so diverse, thus rather challenging at times. My students ranged from a diva of a 6 year old girl, who heard me speak Russian to here nanny and subsequently refused to speak any English to me, to a group of really serious, and initially quite intimidating, lawyers. It also brought on some slightly surreal moments, like singing Wham's Last Christmas with three generations of a rather affluent family in their living room, and showing a class videos about the Essex lion.

Teaching turned out to be a whole lot more fun than I thought, and my students all really inspired me, especially those of a similar age to me, as they could all speak three languages (Russian, Ukrainian and English) to such a ridiculously high level. I now just want to try to learn more and more languages so I can go somewhere and not have to do the super embarrassing 'sorry, do you speak English?' thing, which I really don't find too cool. So yes, I'm going to be multilingual in no time, of course.

Now, I'm going to be a typically British girl and talk about the weather, because we had a bloody hurricane, which was well exciting!! I absolutely love watching a dramatic storm from the comfort and dryness of my room, and this one was the best I've ever seen. The mess it left behind, however, was not so amazing. Pavements were coming up thanks to huge tree roots which had come up, and much of the town was without light or internet for a good few days after it happened. 

Me and my shocked face.

Surprisingly, I don't think anything too ridiculous happened during my last month in Odessa. The flush broke on the toilet, and nobody seemed to know how to fix it, which we were naturally all very pleased about. I was also expected to give the halls lady my bedding back 3 nights before I was due to leave, and she seemed quite shocked when I said I'd need them as I would like a sleep sometime in the 72 hours I had remaining in that hell hole.

Since being back in England I have missed Odessa loads, but it's been fun to see people who I went for months and months without seeing. Also, being the fat pig that I am it has been so good to eat and drink like a normal person again. 

I feel that at this point it would be very apt to write a list of foods I couldn't find/were simply too expensive to buy out in Odessa, so that anybody else who may go there (or anywhere in Russia/Ukraine) can take it with them, or just have a massive binge before they have to put up with borsht and meat of questionable origin...

- Gin
75cl of Bombay Sapphire cost around £20. You could try the cans of cheap gin and tonic that are available, but they are gross, and can apparently make your skin go yellow, mmm.

- Nutella
Again, depressingly expensive, with no great alternative. 

-Peanut butter

Never found any the whole time I was away.

- Sweet Potato
I eventually found some, they were stupidly expensive, and I didn't have the means to cook them properly. 

- Fresh fruit/veg
Generally very bloody terrible, unless you like mould. Not cheap either. Mushrooms and bananas were the only things I found in consistently good condition.

- Pesto
Unless you're prepared to spend a person's average weekly wage on it, just don't bother.

- Ready meals
Unfortunately these are non-existent. I didn't have a fridge or microwave anyway...

-Eggs

Of course, you can get eggs out there, but they were always covered in chicken poo, which put me off. (I'm aware you don't eat the shell, but still, poo = NO).

- Skimmed milk
Always a controversial subject as I regularly get lolled at for drinking 'white water', but the least fatty milk was 2.5%, which made it impossible to drink large quantities of.

-Hummus 

This is getting really specific now, as hummus is hardly a kitchen staple, but I missed it so much.

- BAKED BEANS (Heinz, ofc)

WHERE WERE THE HEINZ BAKED BEANS IN ODESSA?! I go to Nottingham University, we eat the most beans out of everyone ever*, but I could just never find these little babies :( :( I could talk about beans all day (protein, fibre, filling, low in fat etc), and being without them for nearly 5 months was just too much to handle.

So yes, if anyone's going to Odessa soon for their year abroad (everybody should do it, Odessa > Russia any day) there's a list of some of the things you may struggle to get hold of, at least at a reasonable price. Everybody studying Russian should go to Odessa for a bit though, because it's generally such a happy town, and it just has a certain charm to it, and a beach, and nice weather etc...

*I had to prove this to you all!

Beware of the dog.

I'm going to be lolling as I write this post, that's for certain. Around 10 years ago Jamelia was hailed as the UK's Beyonce, and I definitely own a copy of her album (i was such a cool 11 year old), but recently all she's really done is been on buzzcocks calling Javine a slag, and other panel shows.

I kind of forgot that Jamelia even existed, but the beauty of living in Eastern Europe is that most things are a little behind, and the big news on Friday was that Jamelia was in town!! How could I say no to Jamelia?!

As well as being my first experience of a Ukrainian club, it was also my first visit to Arkadia - a part of Odessa I'd heard so much about thanks to Vice. Arkadia did not disappoint. It was so bloody tacky (think Blackpool or Skeggy but Ukrainian).

The club, Ibiza, was just completely surreal. It was basically a posh Hidatsa resort passing itself off as a nightclub. It was full of middle aged people, or people who didn't seem to be there to have fun, and just looked to dressed up and not very happy. You had to pay to sit down, and the drinks were expensive - not cool. It seems to be fairly common that in these kinds of clubs people don't really go to have a laugh, which isn't really my idea of fun!

Despite the club being a little shit Jamelia did not disappoint and got all the hits out.  She also sang to Seb and later on tweeted him, which resulted in a rather excited reaction. Overall, the night was just jokes. I finished off the fun by doing some Russian posing in front of the dodgers.

Another update.

So, I've been absolutely rubbish at writing this over the past couple of weeks, but with very good reason... My laptop kind of broke, and after a long trek to the Samsung centre and a quote of 3000 hryvnia, I decided to see the last couple of months in Odessa out without a laptop! Thank god for iPhones.

So, what's been going on since I last posted? I turned 21, and had probably the most boring birthday of my life so far, and drank gin on my own! That's ok though, as it means I can have a ridiculous celebration when I'm back (I'm thinking gin, cake and friends).

Since my terrible birthday I have met some new people, and two guys from Nottingham have arrived, so I now have some sort of a social life!! I'm not sitting in watching Girls on repeat I my phone every night now, which, although I live Girls, can only be a good thing.

I'm still sharing my abode with too many cockroaches for my liking though, and I'd give anything to move out, but it just feels so nice having money in the bank that isn't going to get wasted on rent. Yesterday I encountered two within the first fifteen minutes of me being awake, sigh.

I don't think anything more interesting than that has happened, life is calm and steady, and minus living in this hole, I'm having a nice, busy time :)

Half Marathon

I've decided that as well as using this blog to document my time in Odessa, I may as well use it to document my half marathon training, as it might help me keep a little more motivated. I've been wanting to do a half marathon for some time now, but I couldn't do one last summer as the one in my hometown has stopped and I had left for Russia before the Robin Hood Marathon in Nottingham.

A couple of weeks ago I saw that the date for the Robin Hood Marathon in Nottingham had been announced and that it was open for entries, so I rather impulsively filled in the form and paid the fee without giving it a second thought. Ten minutes or so later it did dawn on me that I had now in fact signed up to run further than I've ever ran before, and I did ever so slightly fill up with terror! 13.1 miles is A BLOODY LONG WAY.

Since being in Odessa I have been running 3-4 times a week, but it has mainly been aimlessly plodding around the park, simply running to burn off a few of the extra chocolate bars I've eaten. I also forgot to bring my Nike+ sports band, so I wasn't sure how long or far I had been running for.

However, the addition of a new gadget in my life has changed all of this in the last fortnight. I was lucky enough to receive a Garmin Forerunner 410 as a birthday gift from my mum, and now I have got the serious running bug back, and am running thinking about the half marathon and getting faster/fitter.

The Garmin does EVERYTHING, it is an insane piece of kit. It has GPS which means it really accurately tracks your runs and a heart rate monitor, which often just scares me as I have a freakishly high working heart rate (often I'm running at 102% of my max, which probably means I should have collapsed). It is definitely making me more motivated, and doing runs and knowing how far and fast I'm going has made me realise I have a small way to go until I get times that I will be happy with as I go to do the half marathon.

My average 5km time currently lies between 25 and 26 minutes, and I'd like to get this down to somewhere between 23 and 24 and I managed to do 10km in 53 minutes this week, which isn't too terrible. I am desperate to run the half marathon in under 2 hours - 1 hour 50 minutes would be a dream. I am going to aim to do a weekly update on here - I think it may help me feel that little bit more determined to shave a few extra seconds off and just push myself that little bit further, we shall see!

'It's been switched off, obviously'

The last 24 hours have been quite unfortunate. Yesterday morning I tried to switch the hot top on to wash my face, and nothing came out. I kind of just passed it off as one of those things at the time, but as the day went on, nothing was coming out of any of the hot tops on my floor. This morning the same thing happened again.

On my way out of the building to get to class this morning, I asked the bab downstairs why we don't have any hot water. Her response 'It's been switched off, obviously', as though it was a really normal occurrence. She even kind of smiled when I asked her, as though I was stupid for asking such a question. I asked her to find out more about it and tell me more when I got back.

So, I got back and there she was with some bloody brilliant news, 'the water in the whole building has been switched off''. Ok, fair enough. 'Until when?' I asked. 'Oh, you know, maybe until October, the whole town has started turning the hot water off'. I thought she was having some sort of really unfunny joke with me, and stormed upstairs and bust into my room screaming 'WTF?! She said until October, what kind of a sick joke is this?' to my roommate. I'd be perfectly happy with it being switched off for a week, or maybe every other day, but the prospect of having no hot water for the rest of my stay here is actually haunting.

So, what does a girl do when the only thing that comes out of the shower is freezing cold water? Yes, that's right, she buys a purple tub with a picture of some fruit on the bottom.

So, after a terrible run in the pouring rain I got on with the tedious process of boiling water with the two kettles we own. I reckon it took around 6 or 7 goes to fill the tub up before I could finally attempt to get clean. I hope my repeated boiling of kettles makes the electricity bill for this place pathetically high, that would teach them!

In addition to this, two little visitors paid a visit to my room last night. Some cockroach-y things. Cue panic attack. I'm still not sure how the little buggers get to the 7th floor of a building, as I'm out of breath when I make it up here.

I know I pay bugger all to live here, but I think I'm entitled to have a hot shower. I'm actually really pissed off, even more so because the people who run this place don't actually seem to care when something like this happens, which is pretty crappy of them. The prospect of living here for the next two months is actually pretty grim now.

2.

Yesterday marked exactly 2 months since I arrived in Odessa, and something strange has come over me whereby I feel like I ought to take some time to reflect on the 60 something days that have passed. A really crazy old lecturer at university told me that I needed to use my time spent abroad to 'find myself'. I responded to him by awkwardly laughing as I didn't really know what to say in reply, and just thought he was talking his usual nonsense. I now realise that the old fella was actually giving me some sound advice, and that during these last two months in particular I have actually come a long way, and changed quite a lot as a person.

Firstly, I've realised that I can do things, and that I shouldn't talk myself out of doing things. I've managed to get to Odessa in one piece, sort all of the boring paperwork out upon my arrival and travel to Kiev by myself, all without any massive drama or major freak outs from me! It may seem really odd to some people that I'm proud of myself for travelling somewhere on my own, but I was initally pretty terrified by the prospect of it all. I'm also in such a position whereby I can't rely on anyone to do the talking for me, which means I am having to ask questions if I'm not sure of anything, and having to actively make conversations with people, which is something I hate doing when I'm speaking English, mind about Russian. Luckily, Ukrainians, as a rule, are generally a bit more friendly than Russians, which has made life a little easier.

Another thing I've learnt is that you don't need a huge group of friends to be happy. I've never been one of those people who has about 700 Facebook friends, and is acquainted with virtually everyone - that just isn't me. It has sometimes been really hard here, because I don't really know anyone apart from my roommate, my teacher (lol), and a few others. It seems really difficult to meet people, as everyone is kept so separate. It's a complete contrast to last semester, where I seemed to have plans every day and was often out from 11am until 11pm, which was completely exhausting. Conversely, I'm learning to enjoy my own company here, which isn't all that bad. It's really nice to have time to do things and be a little selfish. I'm reading for pleasure more than I have done since starting my degree, I'm learning Ukrainian, and I'm doing some seriously good running. I'm obviously not going to turn down making new friends here if the opportunity arises, but for now it's just really nice to be so relaxed and be getting so much done.

Since being here I've also realised that some people aren't as prepared to help you through the shitty times as others. Which I guess is fine, because some people don't want to have to listen to someone else's emotional baggage, but can also sometimes be a little deflating. I guess it's just surprised me at times, because I've found myself talking to people who I really wouldn't expect to be talking to about how I'm feeling when something Ukraine related has annoyed me, or when I'm feeling homesick. I guess it goes without saying though, that my parents have been just as good as ever at listening to my whinging and whining (poor sods).

Most of all, I think I've learnt how to feel content and happy since I came out here. It really hasn't always been easy, but I've managed to keep it together. It feels I've come a long long way recently, as over the past year or so I've had some really shitty times where I've not felt like getting out of bed, or doing anything constructive for days on end. Right now, it isn't like I'm on some massive life high or anything daft like that, things just feel really steady and normal, which is all I want really.

A proper trip to Kiev.

People here love to leave everything until the very last moment, which really doesn't suit me. I found out that I could definitely go to Kiev about 12 hours before I was due to get the train. The wait to find out whether or not I could go was terrible and certainly wasn't good for my stress levels. I am so glad I managed to go, because the week was crazy good. Here's what I did...

Friday 29th March
I found out I could definitely go (as I said above), realised I didn't have a bag big enough for a week's worth of packing, ran to the shop, bought one, packed.

I was really nervous about the overnight train, as I didn't want anyone smelly/scary/loud sleeping near me. It also took me a while to work out how to get up to my top bunk. The people in my little section were alright though, and it gave me a chance to practice a bit of my Russian. Managed to get some sleep, despite the slightly weird man breathing very heavily as he slept.

Saturday 30th March
Arrived in Kiev just after 8am, felt gross as the train was really warm and sticky, saw how heavily the snow was falling and freaked out a little. I got the Metro to Khreshatik (the main road in Kiev), found a McDonalds and had a coffee, went to another McDonalds and had a cup of tea. Still felt pretty groggy despite having consumed a fair amount of caffeine.

Found out I could drop my bags off at the apartment at 10am, and somehow I managed to quite easily find it, which was a shock considering how bad I am at directions and map reading. I had a couple of hours to kill before meeting Alex at the airport, and excitedly nipped to Topshop (yes, really). This excitement lead to chatting to the girls that worked there, impulse buying jeans and socks, and cheekily blagging some student discount.

Alex's flight got in at about half one, and we got a taxi to our place. Alex doesn't know any Russian and was looking quite lost and confused as I was chatting and laughing with the rather enthusiastic taxi driver, who asked if I was able to pay him '1 million pound sterling', umm no. Spent the rest of the day having a little wander, and ended it with pizza and beer (traditional Ukrainian cuisine, ofc).

Sunday 31st March
I forgot about the clocks changing, and woke up feeling far too confused for my own good. We went for a wander, and ended up at St Sofia's Cathedral, so we popped in for a look. It was very beautiful, but you aren't allowed to take pictures inside, boo :( We did get some from the outside and of the surrounding buildings though.

We walked back into town via a steep and icy street (I've forgotten the name of it), which it's fair to say wasn't my favourite. This street was, however, lined with souvenir stalls which are always fun to look at. I didn't buy anything, but Alex bought some fridge magnets - very exciting, eh?

Later on I excitedly dragged Alex to the SPB bar in Kiev, as I've had a fair few good times in the one in Petersburg. It's a very studenty place, with cheap beer and food, which is exactly what I want 99% of the time. I was very excited to discover that they had widened their range of fruit flavoured beers, which is basically cheap lager with a shot of syrup, and ended up with a nice luminous green pint. I also insisted that we ordered some of the nice breadstick things (forgotten their exact name), which seem to be a popular bar snack over here.

Monday 1st April
The day started with a search for a hedgehog. Yes, really. Said hedgehog is right up there on TripAdvisor's list of things to see in Kiev. The hedgehog was only a couple of minutes from our apartment, and didn't really seem like much of a tourist attraction, so I felt a little daft taking pictures. I'm not entirely sure why it's so highly up in the list of things to see, but I guess it was pretty cute.

On another TripAdvisor related note, sometimes the addresses they give for places aren't very accurate/correct. We found this out when searching for the micro-miniatures museum later on the Monday, and ended up walking up a really long street for no reason.

After the very unsuccessful search for the museum, we decided to go and look at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, where the Euro 2012 final was held. We couldn't see much of the stadium, but it was pretty impressive from the outside. Alex also paid a trip to the Dinamo Kiev shop to buy his brother a shirt. I turned into a proud (read: nerdy) Forest fan, when I found a section about them in a book about the Champions League in the shop.

Tuesday 2nd April
Tried to find Sculpture Alley, but it was far too well hidden! After a couple of hours of looking for it, which included a walk around a nice park, and a trip on the 'Funicular', we gave up and went for fajitas at Tequila House. Once again, we really excelled when it came to trying out traditional Ukrainian cuisine. The food was pretty good though when you consider that we were eating Mexican in Eastern Europe. It was even a bit spicy, which is pretty rare out here.

I'm not entirely sure what Alex was shocked about?

Wednesday 3rd April
We finally found Sculpture Alley thanks to a combination of more internet searches, and Alex's improved knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet, which allowed him to be in charge of directions. It is extremely tucked away, and probably impossible to find without prior research, but even in the melting snow it looked pretty impressive. I particularly liked how it was possible to sit or stand inside some of the sculptures, which provided me with a great opportunity to pretend to be a rabbit.

We then went to Pinchyuk, which is a modern art gallery. It's free to get in, and something I'd really recommend to anyone visiting Kiev. We saw works by the Chapman Brothers and Damien Hurst, and also went in a very odd room, which made us both feel like we were in an episode of Black Mirror.

After another brief trip to SPB for more fruity beers I decided to cook at home to save a bit of money, and we watched the first season of Girls, which is so damn good! I urge you to watch it if you haven't already.

Thursday 4th April (Alex's Birthday!!)
We spent the morning opening birthday cards and having creme eggs and milka for breakfast (chocolate for breakfast is perfectly acceptable on birthdays), and then went and finally found the micro-miniatures museum. It was so amazing to see something so tiny, yet so intricate - I was amazed by all of the pieces we saw. It only took about 20 minutes to get around, but it only cost about £1, including entry to the monastry grounds in which the museum is situated.

The evening was spent in TGI Fridays and the Irish Bar near our flat, pigging out on ribs, burgers, cocktails and beers. It was nice to celebrate with Alex, as I'll be spending my birthday here at the end of my month without my nearest and dearest. Alex brought my birthday presents from him and my parents over with him, and I got some absolutely top gifts, so I guess without meaning to steal his birthday, we kind of celebrated our birthdays together.

Friday 5th April
Our final full day in Kiev involved a trip to the Chernobyl museum in the morning. It was interesting, but we didn't get an audio guide, and none of the exhibits were explained very much in either Russian or English, which meant you kind of just ended up walking round looking at stuff, and not finding out that much about it. I'd still say it's worth going though, as we all know how much of a tragic event it was, and as with most museums in Kiev, entry was extremely cheap.

In the afternoon we went and bought vodka and other gifts for Alex to take home, before stopping for some tea. We then went home, packed and watched a film. It was nice to wind down after a fairly busy week exploring the city.

Saturday 6th April
Went to Borispol, and got all sad, and had to keep being reminded that it's only just over 2 months until I'll be coming home for good, and there won't be any more sad goodbyes. God, I sound so emo, but being really far away from home is pretty sad at times.

After killing several hours in Kiev doing barely anything I went and got my train back. I woke up this morning in Odessa unable to hear out of one ear, which has meant today has involved a trip to the chemist for some ear drops in the hope that soon I'll have my full hearing back. I had a really great week, and would do it all over again tomorrow if I could, but I'm here to hopefully get better at Russian (one can only dream).

Ukraine v Moldova

Having been unable to go and watch CSKA Moscow v Zenit St Petersburg when I was in Russia, as the match was played behind closed doors, when I found out the Ukrainian national team were playing a World Cup qualifier in Odessa I knew I needed to buy a ticket.

Luckily my roommate likes football, so I didn't need to convince her that it would be a good idea! We bought the second most expensive tickets, which cost 150 hryvnya (around the £12/£15 mark I think), which isn't too bad considering I often pay around £30 to watch Forest play when I'm at home (extortionate).

Of course, on Tuesday it decided to snow, which is unusual for Odessa at this time of year. Having paid a man for a lift to the park in which the football stadium is situated, we managed to reach the stadium having not slipped over. God knows how we managed that - the path was basically a sheet of ice and all the crazy Ukrainian men were sliding everywhere. It was also a really bloody hilly path, which made matters worse!

When we eventually got to the ground without any broken bones, getting in was actually really difficult and quite scary. In England there are lots of turnstiles for each area of the ground, which means you seldom have to queue, and there isn't any pushing. Here, it was just a free for all to get past a barrier, which the really unhelpful policemen were holding up. At one point I was getting squashed against this barrier, to the point where I felt like I couldn't breathe, which was absolutely terrifying. Fortunately, after about 5 minutes of this (it felt like a lifetime) the police decided to let all the women in, as you do. I also had to have my bag checked, which has only happened to me once at a football match in England (at Peterborough's ground of all places).

We eventually got to our seats about 5 minutes after the match had started (gutted to have missed the national anthems, sob). Despite the absolutely freezing temperatures, it was nice to finally relax, and when a man came round with beer it was hard to say no! I found it quite novel to be able to sit in the stands with an alcoholic drink, although I think if this was allowed in England I'd probably not remember any of the match.

The quality of the football was average at best. You could tell that Anatoliy Tymoshchuk plays for a decent team though, as he seemed to control everything that was going on. The first half finished 0-0, with Ukraine having had the better chances. The second half improved a little though and we saw 3 goals! I was left a little terrified after Ukraine scored, as the rowdy section of the crowd set off flares, which made a very loud bang. Later on in the game, this section decided it would be a laugh to take their tops off and chant too. I am really glad we didn't sit there.

Look how pink and cold I look!! Kudos to the nice lady who gave us a blanket at half time. I love you.

The match ended 2-1 to Ukraine, so everyone around us went home happy. We had to wait for ages until there was a trolleybus that wasn't completely rammed full, but after about half an hour we managed to get on one. The journey involved being given vodka by some very happy young men. We did a toast to Ukraine's success, and they practiced some (very) broken English on us. It was about midnight when we got home, but I don't think I properly warmed up until about midday on Wednesday.

I'm off to Kiev tonight, despite there being another ridiculous document related situation this week, which resulted in me spending most of yesterday being very dramatic and crying. I am very very fed up of paperwork, and I hope I don't have to sort anymore out because I'll probably end up going mad. I haven't even started my packing yet, I think I'm just going to put all of my jumpers in a bag and hope for the best.

An Update

It feels like a long time since I posted anything about my Odessan life here, so I thought I'd give anyone who might care a little update...

Luckily we've managed to avoid the снегопад (translation: a crap load of snow) which seems to have affected most other parts of Ukraine, which is pretty handy as I definitely didn't bring many snow friendly items of clothing with me. Saturday was ridiculously windy though, and a massive tree got blown over, so I'm glad I had a really lazy weekend.

I've started trying to learn Ukrainian properly, even though nobody in Odessa uses it in their every day life. It isn't too dissimilar to Russian - the vowels are different, and a few words aren't at all similar to their Russian equivalents. I'm debating going to classes at university so I pick it up a little faster. If it all goes well I fancy a trip to a Ukrainian speaking part of the country to test my skills!

Tomorrow I'm going to my first ever international football match, which should be an experience. I know very little about Ukraine's national team, and nothing about Moldova's, so I probably won't get as involved as I do when I go and watch (my beloved) Nottingham Forest play. Despite being really used to going to football matches, I'm a little scared about what the fans are going to be like, but I think this is the media's fault, and I'm sure everything will be fine. I'll probably devote a whole post to the game.

Finally, I am definitely going to Kiev on Friday, as I have my вид на жительство (resident's permit thing). The weather there is absolutely hideous at the moment, but hopefully I'll get to do a lot once I've arrived having survived the train journey.

I'm currently writing this in the dark as the bulbs in the main light, and our lamp have both decided to go. Our hob also broke (again) yesterday, but the man with the impressive moustache has been and mended it for us. My life out here is a little different to my life in England...

On Running: Why I put myself through such pain.

Earlier I watched this video and felt far too inspired. It resulted in me writing what I'm posting below. It's probably a load of rubbish, but maybe somebody will relate to it.

For some unknown reason, I seem to be feeling more motivated to put my leggings on, lace up my trainers and go for a long hard run than I have done in a long while. Maybe it’s due to the weather here currently being perfect – bright with a cool breeze – and the fact I have a great park on my doorstep. I’m not entirely sure. Nevertheless, it feels great to be so enthusiastic about something which, although makes you feel great afterwards, can be so painful at times.

I started running properly about two years ago now. I have been going to the gym since I was about 15, but I always seemed to shy away from the treadmill, sticking to spinning sessions and lengthy spells on the cross trainer, but one Sunday morning I was in the gym with my dad and the London Marathon was on, and I decided to give the treadmill a go. I haven’t really looked back since.

Running simply provides me the greatest feeling of freedom possible. I’m probably the biggest stresshead/worrier/pessimist you’ll ever have the misfortune of encountering, so to have found something which (at least temporarily) gets rid of any of the crap in my head is a godsend. There’s just something so liberating about going out into the fresh air, not having to think about anything other than putting one foot in front of the other and going for as long as possible.

Feeling good on the inside is definitely the main reason why I've kept going for so long, however I guess it does mean I’m not the porker that I probably should be. I've not actually lost any weight at all since I started running, which I guess on the whole I’m fine with as I’m technically a ‘healthy weight’, but my body has definitely changed. I used to dread going shopping for jeans (my mum also dreaded having to accompany me) as sometimes nothing in any size seemed to fit. That is now a thing of the past, and I somehow even manage to get my sturdy legs into Topshop's skinniest offerings. This has prevented many of those awful ‘coming out of the changing room feeling like you could cry’ scenarios from happening. I’ve also managed to achieve these results despite eating like a pig the majority of the time. I dread to think how super fit I could be if I bothered to eat like a normal human being, as opposed to living off chocolate.

It sounds almost daft to say this about something so simple, something which doesn’t cost a penny, and something which our bodies are naturally designed to do, but I’m not sure what I’d do if I wasn't able to run. 

I’m never going to be the best at it, and I’m not going to be the fittest girl in the world (one can only dream), but I sure hope that I can keep this habit up for as long as possible. My aim for this summer is to complete a half marathon, hopefully in less than 2 hours. After that? Who knows.

A good excuse to eat pancakes.

Maslenitsa (Масленица) is a religious and folk holiday in this part of the world, and marks the last week before the Great Lent (thanks Wikipedia). Traditionally, during Maslenitsa week meat is forbidden, and then after Maslenitsa milk, cheese, eggs and other dairy products aren't allowed - hence why the following week is called the Great Lent I guess.

I think I remember reading something at school about how Maslenitsa also marks the end of the winter, and blini, being 'round and golden' represent the sun which will soon be here to stay, I hope. I don't really think anyone ever needs much of an excuse to eat copious amounts of pancakes, but this week is Maslenitsa week, and practically every single restaurant here is advertising a special blini menu, so I decided to do the right thing and go and get some pancakes!

The restaurant of choice was a traditional Ukrainian restaurant. Offering the various soups and salads synonymous with Ukrainian/Russian cuisine, it seemed like a suitable place to engage with Slavic culture. I enjoyed the slightly over the top decor in the restaurant, and fell in love with the huge floral crowns that the girls working there were wearing.

The best cheeky picture I could get of the floral crowns, ahhh.

The blini menu was in Ukrainian (agh), but luckily it was all easy to understand (rayy!), and I opted for blinis with meat (vague) and mushroom sauce, and blinis with baked apple and ice cream for pudding. The mushroom sauce on the savoury blinis was particularly good - they do know what to do with their mushrooms over here. Sara ordered уха (a fish soup), which I thought was brave, as the last time I saw someone preparing it there was a fish head in the pan. Fortunately, Sara's soup was fish head free, and actually looked really good. It was served in quite a fancy way too!

I've just done a little bit of research, and have learnt that Russian Maslenitsa is celebrated in London. The event is free, and takes place this Saturday (16th March) in Trafalger Square. It involves Russian food, drink and music. The website is here - I suggest you go on it just for the lolz of hearing Boris Johnson attempting to speak some Russian. He makes my poor attempt at an accent sound practically native!

I have definitely refound my confidence when it comes to speaking Russian over the last few days. I found myself talking about gel nail varnish to a lady in a cosmetics shop today. I also bought a train ticket to Kiev, as it now seems very likely that I will be able to go there at the end of the month. I shan't hold my breath though, as things often seem to go wrong, but I have been reassured that everything should be fine. I've been in Odessa a month now, and although I do sometimes miss home, I feel pretty settled and happy. I can definitely think of worse places to be living!

Something a little different.

Today has been a non-event. I usually like lazy Sundays, but today has been a bit of a dodgy one. Seeing Facebook and Twitter full of people enjoying spending the day with their mums and grandmas made me really want to be at home, and the weather here has been horrible, meaning I couldn't really go out and distract myself. I then came across this and thought I'd give it a go, as I like nothing more than piecing together outfits and wishing I had the money to afford them.

The MoneySupermarket.com Passion for Fashion competition involves putting together 3 outfits based on the themes casual wear, party wear and holiday. The budget for each outfit is £200, which for a student like me is actually quite generous. I thought it would be fun to see what I could come up with, and I quickly discovered that £200 can go quite a way.

Blouse, £19.99 Pull & Bear
Cardigan, £42 Topshop
Loafers, £45 ASOS
Bag £35 ASOS
Jeans, £42 Topshop
Total - £183.99

I decided that a pair of black skinny jeans often work as a good base for an everyday casual look. These Topshop ones have a high wasited fit, which tends to be more flattering, and have slight stretch to them for added comfort. I love this blouse, and I think it makes a casual look that little bit smarter. I think it would look equally us good tucked in, or left to hang loosely. This cardigan just screams cosy, and can just be thrown. Burgundy is a favourite of mine, and I love the knit of this cardigan. These ASOS loafers are such a lovely colour and I do like a good patent finish on a shoe. Finally, this bag is just extremely cute, and big enough to fit in all the essentials.

Top, £22 Topshop
Sunglasses, £16 Urban Outfitters
Shorts, £54 American Apparel
Bag, £6 Monki
Belt, £4.99 New Look
Nail Varnish, £5 Models Own (Hedonist)
Shoes, £25 ASOS
Total - £132.99

My Holiday Wear outfit has quite a beach-y feel to it. However, I think that this could be thrown on on top of a bikini after a hard day's sunbathing to go straight for cocktails. Despite being the palest girl in the world, and only ever going red in the sun, I know that white and sun tans are a great match! This floral crochet vest from Topshop is that bit prettier than your bog standard white vest, and thus is worth its £22 price tag. If there's any time when you can get away with Hawaiian print, it's on holiday. These American Apparel shorts are a way of working this print into an outfit without looking like you've borrowed your dad/uncle's shirt. As with the Topshop jeans, they sit high on the waist. Sunglasses are the essential holiday accessory, and this Urban Outfitters pair took my fancy. Tote bags, like this Monki one are great for just shoving everything in. All of this finished off with tan sandals, a belt and a flash of Models Own Hedonist just screams holiday.

Crop Top, £22 Topshop
Clutch, £15 River Island
Skirt, £48 Sister Jane
Socks, £5 ASOS
Shoes, £69 Dune
Total - £159

Party wear definitely presented me with the most challenges, as I'm a pretty casual kind of girl. I think buying separates is a good way to do party wear, as I often find myself buying a nice dress with a fairly high price tag, and barely ever wearing it. This Sister Jane skirt is quite a statement piece, and I love the colours. I think you could even wear this in the day with a band tee and some flats as well as for a party. I think crop tops are an inexpensive way to transform your look, and the sheer top and sleeves on this give it a little bit more of an edge than the average jersey crop. The on trend striped bag from River Island provides us with a pattern to clash with the skirt, and has a handy chain strap for people like me who get sick of, well, clutching their clutch bag (it's hard to dance with a bag in your hand, ok?). These Dune flatforms are also very dance friendly, and I thought these glittery socks would make us all think about socks and sandals in a new light.

International Women's Day & Some Unwelcome Stress

Yesterday was quite exciting, as I got the day off! Despite only having just over two hours of classes a day anyway, I was pretty ecstatic when my teacher told me that Friday was a state holiday. In Britain we don't really celebrate International Women's Day at all, but here it seems like a big deal. The streets have been littered with people selling a variety of flowers, and people in the supermarkets seem to have been buying a lot of wine, vodka and cake.

It seemed apt to spend a (maybe not so well earned) day off doing something that I love, so my roommate and I decided to hit the shops. Riveria is a shopping centre situated about 30km to the north of the city centre, but the tatty little buses (маршрутки) go all the way there and only cost a mere 25p! So I'd already snapped up my first bargain of the day before the shopping had even started. True to form, the bus was disgustingly (perhaps dangerously) busy, and I decided to take a nice, blurry picture of it for you all to see.

Riviera wasn't bad at all, a particular highlight for me was probably Zara. it was much bigger than I imagined, and the prices weren't too much higher than in England. I remember once in Russia seeing a dress I had in the sale in Zara, but it still cost more than I bought it for at full price - ouch! I could have bought quite a lot, however I didn't feel like parting with an awful lot of money. I think the size of my shopping bag was a little deceptive. I only bought a really nicely cut plain white t-shirt, and much needed new handbag.

A very exciting purchase...

A cheeky selfy in Zara.

I am starting to regret not making two purchases now, however I probably would have felt guilty next week and would have ended up eating less instant noodles in order to save myself a bit more cash!

So, the Zara dress would have been met with much disapproval from everyone who knows how many striped items of clothing I own, so I had to say no to that. The blouse was from Pull&Bear, a shop which I've never been in before, but have read a fair bit about. Again, it's monochrome, just like most other things I wear. This was only £20 though, so I may have to go back and buy it at some point.  Furthermore, having just consulted ELLE Ukraine, perhaps I should have bought the dress, as it would have made me a bit of a модница (cool) over here...

I really don't know why fashion is written in Latin?! Ahh dear.

We had a much needed and deserved beer and pizza break half way through our little shopping session. Unfortunately they didn't have any BBQ left, so I went for Мафиоса (or something Mafia related). It was pretty good, even the Italian said it wasn't too bad - so all in all a pretty glowing review. As ever, the beer prices were ridiculously cheap. I think if I lived here permanently I'd have some kind of alcohol problem, that's for certain!

More English everywhere!

Cheap peeve - cheers!

Sara and I have been on a search for some kind of Ukrainian/Russian comparison book, or even Ukrainian/English, but this search has been somewhat unsuccessful thus far. Riviera had a massive book shop, complete with uncharacteristically helpful shop assistants, but no Ukrainian books. I did, however, come away with a Russian translation of Wuthering Heights, which only cost me a couple of quid. I can't promise to read it all, but I shall have a good go at it.

Aside from shopping, this week has been a bit of a grumpy one. I've chosen to stay in Ukraine for over 90 days, which means I need a visa, and the visa system here is perhaps a little daft. Applying for it back in England was a mega ordeal, involving translators and trips to a public notary person, and meant I had to be more like an adult than ever. Despite overcoming this hurdle I need to extend my visa over here and get myself a residency permit or something. All in all, it sorting out the documents for it all just involves a load of photocopying and getting a few passport photos taken (the man who took them thought I was Ukrainian and asked me if they were for a Shengen visa - win!). However, like with everything over here, it all seems to be quite last minute and rushed, and the lady helping me sort it warned me that I may not be able to go to Kiev at the end of the month as I may not have my passport. This resulted in me being extremely grumpy, as it's something I've been looking forward to for a while. I'm now playing a bit of a waiting game to wait for a document to come. If it arrives next week everything should be fine. Keep your fingers crossed for me please! I'm not very fun when I'm grumpy.