Dolphins in Kharkov

Several weeks ago a student passed along these buy-one-get-one tickets to Kharkov's dolphinarium. I'd never been to a dolphinarium before and it sounded like the perfect plan for a rainy Friday afternoon because seriously, is there anything cooler than dolphins and the Russian language? Ah, no. There's actually nothing cooler than this, especially when you add in loud techno music.



We got off at the wrong metro stop, which lead to a nice walk through the rain in the center of the city. Check out some of the amazing architecture in this part of town:

Dolphinarium Nemo is located inside Shevchenko Park, which was pretty cool to hurry through in the rain.

Мир дельфинариев Немо

I really enjoyed the show. It opened with the antics of some very energetic sea lions. The sea lions appeared to have only one oar in the water, haha, but they were sure excited to be there! Then came the dolphins. They were everything I had hoped for: sleek, fast, clever. There was lots of leaping about, balancing things, fetching, making dolphin sounds, and even a scene where one dolphin took a paint brush in his mouth and created a "picture" on a piece of paper. Here's a short video so you can see some of this for yourselves. This is the first time we've ever tried to edit together a video, so please bear with us... and keep the volume down on your computer. Anyways, the Kharkov Dolphinarium in under 3 minutes!:

Here's a higher quality video that someone else has posted on YouTube.

D looked suspiciously sleepy during the show. This was surprising because he loves dolphins. I kept asking him if he was okay and he kept slowly nodding yes. A couple days later we realized that instead of a vitamin, I'd given him a sleeping pill that morning. Oops! :p

Dolphinarium Nemo offers an oceanarium for an extra $5 each. The oceanarium doesn't seem like much at first. The top floor is filled with aquariums and a couple portholes into the depths of the dolphin tank. There is, however, a second and deeper floor. You access this level by descending down an Indiana-Jones-lost-temple staircase. I like the lower lever because it echoes a submarine's design. It's a chance to feel like Captain Nemo, except maybe younger and less moody : ) There's also a viewing area to watch nature films, a terrarium area (turtles, insects, etc.) and several small sharks.

Want to see it for yourself? The 50-minute day show is offered daily at 12 PM, 3 PM, and 6 PM for 80 grivna ($10). The 2-hour "romantic" night show happens every Saturday evening at 9 PM (120 gr/$15). The oceanarium is open from 10 AM to 8 PM most days. There are other options like swimming with the dolphins or posing for a photo with the dolphins for exorbitant prices. An Italian restaurant and the Hotel Nemo are also housed in the same building so you could really make a weekend of this by staying overnight. Have fun!