The best of Ukrainian summer

Kharkiv summers are everything a person could want from summer.

Flowers and sunshine.

Enough heat to force a person into the refuge of deliciously air-conditioned coffee shops or grab beer/kvass from street vendors under sun umbrellas.

Холодные напитки = cold drinks.

Afternoons with ominously low grey skies, only moments away from hail and thunderstorms.

Don't see the hailstorm video? Click here

Long picnics in the countryside with homemade salads, open-faced sandwiches, and watermelon.

Parks filled with swimmers and sunbathers and students.

Markets stuffed with everything fresh that you could ever want.

This was 150 uah... at the time, about $20 USD.

Tis the season of slightly-sketchy watermelon vendors.

Summer puts everyone into a good mood- even the scowling metro ladies tone it down a little during this season. (Hint: if you don't have an air conditioner, the metro is the best place to be during a hot day.) I absolutely loved summer in Kharkiv!

Here, from the archives, is a little taste of what Ukrainian summer is like. Enjoy!!

2012

June-

На кухне 5: Mealtime in our original Ukrainian kitchen. Oh, the heat!

River picnic: Our first time out in the countryside, complete with mud-scrubbing, Crimean wine, and the origins of Jabba the Hutt.

July-

Grigorovski forest: A short walk through the best forest ever.

Orange, orange, orange: Remember Euro2012?

August-

Independence!- for Kharkov, Ukraine, and Belgium: In which we miss a Verka Serduchka concert (noooo!!!) and see a swimming cat.

Guns, heat, and storms: On surviving a Kharkiv rainstorm.

2013

 

June- 

Summer approaches: Now is not the time to work ; )

July- 

Parks, apartments, go carts, and pho: Summertime apartment hunting and how to race a go-cart without a seatbelt.

Summer in the city: My favorite summer entry of them all! 

August-

Sasha. Aka "the giant wild pig in the driveway".

Playing tourist: Odin the reindeer herder visits us in Kharkiv.

Summer's last hurrah: Ukrainian Independence Day + Kharkiv City Day.

September-

На кухне: Summer Recipes: Summer soup and other goodies.

A summer's worth of street art: Ray Charles, Darth Vader, tanks of peace, and rabbits on drugs.

2014

May-

May flowers: Summer is already here!

July-

Picnic: In which we make porridge in a pot over the campfire and defy a swimming ban.

Snapshots of Ukrainian Life, Part 20: Written just a few weeks before we leave Ukraine.

If you've been through a Ukrainian summer or two, what was it like? Leave me a comment below with your best memories! : )