Ukrainian Culture
Ukraine has its share of the thoroughly modern, but even the capital, Kiev, is replete with Gothic, Byzantine and Baroque architecture and art - reminders of the many foreign overlords who've left their mark on the country... Nearly every city and town has its centuries-old cathedral, and many have open-air museums of folk architecture, caves stuffed with mummified monks, and exquisite mosaics wherever you look... The food sticks to your ribs and the bandura tunes lodge themselves in your brain for weeks...
For more on pysanky, go to www.cs.unc.edu/~yakowenk/pysanky.
The national instrument of Ukraine is the bandura, a descendant of the lute. 
The bandura resembles its ancestor in general form, but is slightly asymmetrical, fretless, and is often as large as a small harp. The bandura comes in different sizes and styles,however, and the number of strings (which are plucked rather than strummed) varies from 20 to 65. The sound of the bandura most closely resembles that of the harpsichord. During the Soviet era the bandura was outlawed and its players persecuted--even executed--because its music aroused such strong nationalistic feeling.
For more on the bandura, go to www.bandura.org.
