So I'm here in Odesa Mama a little bit hungover on a Sunday
Lisa: you're a native of Mykolayiv where I'm about to go to to sample
what do you think good idea or not? - You should try - How do you feel about Mykolayiv?
So today I'm in an intriguing city in the south of Ukraine called Mykolayiv
and the moniker of Mykolayiv is the 'city of brides' so that of course piqued my interest
Why is this city called the city of brides? Well we have to go back down
back in history to the foundation of the city by Grigory Potemkin very famous name Potemkin
you've probably heard of the name we normally call them Potemkin in English so the Potemkin steps in Odesa
also the Potemkin village and there is such a thing less known which is the Potemkin
wedding there had been a Greek settlement here called Olbia but basically the Russians founded a port
and a shipbuilding center here in the south of Ukraine and it is actually the third biggest
port at one stage in the Russian Empire just behind Odesa and Saint Petersburg but
that created a bit of a problem because a lot of unmarried men moved to Mykolayiv
and they needed obviously some wives and so what did Potemkin decide to do? Potemkin was a bit of I
guess an early tsar experience man reputed to be to have been the lover of Empress Catherine
the Great he decided that he was going to basically encourage all the local single ladies
from the villages and towns near to Mykolayiv to come here and then be basically paired off with
the eligible bachelors of the city who are working in the shipyards legend has it they
actually used to line up in the park in the center pair off and then walk down Admiralska
Street to the church a little bit similar to a bit of a shotgun wedding seems to me but I'm
not sure if that's exactly how it happened but that is the legend of what is a Potemkin wedding
They take the nickname of the city the city of brides so seriously
that they have actually built a statue to the Mykolayiv bride right here in the city center and
I want to see if some Mykolayiv model because this girl is at least six foot tall but when you need
182 centimeters whether a Mykolayiv model is going to be able to persuade me or up for persuading me
to take a stroll down Admiralska like so many Mykolayivians did in the past on their way
to the church and see if the city does live up to its name as the city of brides
Поехали!
I'm here with my friend Masha - Hi! - Who is a native born and bred I'm not sure about bred but
born in Mykolayiv and we're just walking along here to the park and we spotted
something from her childhood tell us a little bit about what's behind us
this place where it's like all the children goes for like dancing classes
and a lot of schools have like their like proms universities have their proms I also had
you know my university from there with all these hats and get my diplomas there so yeah some kind
of like culture - But it's like quite a it's like a Soviet house of culture right yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah - So Masha what is it like being from Mykolayiv how do you feel about the
city? - I love my hometown I'm very patriotic we can go and we can enter here it's like this just very
nice park where all the children come out so Mykolayiv is amazing city I love it with all my
heart I'm very happy to come back here like i was in different places in the world but actually
when I came back to my hometown I feel so much like inspiration so much I don't know I just love
everything about here people are so nice so calm not too much you know not too much people like
you know like this moves like like - It's quiet - Yeah it's quiet it's peaceful you can go for a walk no
one like touching you - Where you've been living for the last while because you were in a few exciting
places when you were modeling and stuff? - Oh I was living in Switzerland last time I was living yeah
in Switzerland mostly in Bangladesh - Bangladesh okay that's definitely an interesting location
in Bangladesh - Yeah yeah so now I'm coming back to Mykolayiv and actually best city ever
You know I was expecting that you will ask me something about Mykolayiv's stories and
so on and i was like oh shit - You thought it's gonna be history tour? Masha like you know
we're more interested in like where the best bars clubs nightlife and you told me the city
is quiet - I only know the cozy places nice places for coffees and desserts but I think that's the
kind of town that Mykolayiv is it's more a relaxed place it's not a place to come and party anyways
there's kind of a stereotype in I think in the West that Ukrainian girls
they're desperate to leave Ukraine and that they will just grab some kind of like foreign guy and
become what i call a green card girl which means that you see the guy green card America and they
just use them to get there but what do you think do you think that Ukrainian girls today they really
want to leave Ukraine - It depends in person it depends on person like come on I had like also
my I could say green card boy but like I'm still here like I really love my city it's so funny
because I watched with my mom lately actually is a video on youtube is it Mykolayiv city of like
brides - Yeah exactly that's what I'm gonna call this video - So we watched the video and it was
a hilarious video it was like 10 years ago filmed some of Ukrainian girls they find in some like you
know - You can be honest what kind of guys? - Yeah yeah yeah like old guys like American guys or something
and they come to Mykolayiv and they like so dress up on the high and so it just looks so hilarious I
actually I don't understand these people I think nowadays we have so much opportunities to travel
- Yeah - Especially Ukraine is like in kind of like in Europe Ukraine is Europe but not Europe
so we can easily come to different countries so I know it depends also on people
- Yeah I think for me I see a big change I would say that the American dream is not so attractive
to Ukrainians like it was seven eight years ago I came with an American friend here and
he was living in he was living in Texas at the time so the girls he used to say
"Я из Техаса." ["I'm from Texas"] And they'd be like: "Техас!" and they were so interested in him.
- "Техас!" Ouh! "Техас!"
- Well yeah that's basically the reaction I think he's a little bit upset about the change
because he used to be so relatively easy for these girls would be so interested in
America and now it's like America
In general here do people speak in Russian Ukrainian or both or just Russian? - Mostly Russian
in Mykolayiv everywhere Russian even in like you know people supposed to talk in
cafes and restaurants in Ukrainian but they even ask you can we talk with you in Russian
So what do you think of the architecture in Mykolayiv architecture? - Mykolayiv I as you know it
was built so Mykolayiv have 3 ship building yards as learning I remember I was learning in
school in like English text of like Mykolayiv city you know what you should tell so - So they already
teach you in school what to tell tourists no when they come to Mykolayiv? - Just to learn you know
to learn English and so on so we have like 3 ships building yards so all the streets they build like
perpendicular because before they was they need to bring all the details for like ship buildings
and so on so all the streets should be straight and nice that's why I really love it because we
have like you know very nice like planning of the city and as I know our city was built like
Saint Petersburg and some of architecture is kind of like like in Saint Petersburg - That's very cool
because I think in one of the other monologues I actually said this is a bit like St Petersburg
a small little mini St Petersburg in that sense without the canals obviously - Yeah this is typical
Mykolayiv like ... - architecture - Architecture, I like this building actually it's very
let me swivel around
let's give you a look up here that's a typical Mykolayiv building
- But I really don't like how you know this like shops and so on they're ruining all the
architecture I really hope one day people will understand it
because like look at this it's like all these advertisements and so on
such a nice building since they just like you know just like - Put all this crap on yeah yeah
- Are you dating that girl who's like black hair and like with eyes like? - You mean Asian
No no I don't know how to say like ... - The girl with the eyes yeah she has eyes she's not blind - No
- Yes that is true that's not exactly a secret to anyone who watches my videos has probably figured
that out yeah Anzehla - No because I was thinking before he was like friends now I feel like here is
- See how Ukrainian girls think yeah maybe friends maybe girlfriend let's see how long they're
hanging out together - Internet stalker -Well I'm not complaining about my internet stalker for
sure we are on Soborna which is kind of the main pedestrian street and you can get a bit of
the vibe here in Mykolayiv on a Wednesday evening end of autumn
So you were saying that things are changing quite a bit in Mykolayiv there's a lot more new things
do you think the people in general want the city to to change or is there a lot of
people who kind of have this ...? Young people young people of course they want to change because they
there's before actually there was nothing to do what people was doing is like renting
apartments and you know like in apartments or like going to some pubs now they start to do like
like now there's like for now I don't know what's happening right now because I'm like
out of all the Mykolayiv information because of study but I heard that there's like different
some literature nights like some exhibitions they do in summer time they start to do
like open theaters also outside and some like you know also hard to say like lectures like
some people like artsy people coming and they're giving like lectures
- Let's see I can see there's more things up above - The bakery where's like all the students coming
- All right so that's the tip where to meet all the student girls let's go to the bakery
never say I don't give you the inside scoop this is where this is where the student
hotties go they don't hang out in the center they go and get their coffee and their pastry
over there and they're not studying but good luck finding it where we are if you come here