Food, Glorious Food

There is no "dinner of the day" photo because I didn't have dinner tonight.  It takes a lot to make me want to give up a meal -- keeping this body in shape takes work, you know! -- but today seemed like one long feast, punctuated by naps, and by dinner time, even though one of my favorites -- chicken kiev -- was on the menu, I couldn't even think of food, and took a nap instead.

After breakfast this morning, we docked in the city of Zaporozhye, an industrial city, the sixth largest in Ukraine. It is also the site of a hydroelectric dam, completed in 1932, at the time the largest in the world, now woefully inadequate to supply enough energy for all of the current residents.

We had a brief tour of the main part of the town, rather mundane and kind of "tired" looking, though it did have a McDonald's.  

The bus stopped at a little park, with a lovely water fountain and a small group of artisans selling my kinda souvenirs--mostly junk, but some nicely done.  I picked up, for example, a painting of some violets that I bought to hang outside my mother's apartment, to distinguish it from all the other identical apartments.  We also got a couple of magnets and a couple of little toys for Brianna and Lacie.

(we didn't buy any of these, but I liked that the artist was
painting them right there at the table)

Then we drove to a museum which detailed the history of the Cossacks.  You can see how little attention is given to prettying things up.  The parking lot is a bit of a schlep to the museum, and no attempt had been made to make the walk to the museum at all interesting or attractive.  The museum, dating to the early days of the Cossacks, essentially Ukraine's mafia and Catherine the Great's hit men, was small, but interesting.  Outside on a tall hill sit the two symbols of Ukraine:  the flag, and the cross!

We went back to the bus and then on to the event I'd been most looking for--the Cossack horse show.  It did not disappoint.  What amazing horsemanship is displayed, and enough tomfoolery to please the most loyal Three Stooges fans.

I can hardly wait to get home and sort through the photos and post to Flickr.  I was very happy with lots of the shots that I got.

Of course, we sat there watching and sipping some Ukrainian beer.

After the show, we wandered around the complex, buying souvenirs and tasting a Cossack pork and rice dish (which was delicious) and drinking Cossack vodka, which was not nearly as strong as I expected it to be...of course, I only had a sip and perhaps if I had chugged it, as you are supposed to do, I would not have said that!

I bought a great little wall hanging of a horse, done with one of those wood burning tools, for myself and the artist signed it after I paid for it.

After our Cossack snack, we were back to the ship in time for lunch, during which we went through the deepest lock in Europe.

Following lunch I couldn't move so took a nap while Walt and Mike went up to the sky bar for a lesson in the Ukrainian language.  I woke up just in time to go to the Ukrainian tea party, where coffee, tea and an assortment of sweets were served by the serving girls dressed in native costumes.  These two are the ones who usually serve us.

this is just a fraction of the treats that were available.

I can't remember exactly what happened next, but I may have taken another nap.  I instructed Walt to wake me up so we could go to the exclusive cocktail party for returning Viking customers -- there are about 68 on this cruise, or slightly less than half the passengers!  It was a nice party, with champagne and hors d'oeuvres and toasts by the crew.

(And for those who have watched Orange is the New Black, the chef here is so "Red.")

The cocktail party was followed by a very short briefing on the activities of tomorrow and then dinner was announced.  I couldn't even think of eating, not even Chicken Kiev, so I watched another beautiful sunset and then went to the cabin and took another nap...

...until time for the evening's entertainment, a trio of musicians singing Ukrainian folk 

songs.  Char opted not to come, but Mike and Walt did and it was interesting sitting between the two of them, watching the entertainment.

This is the kind of stuff I come on these cruises for, a glimpse at the local culture, a sample of the local music, and just the schlockiness of these kinds of performances.  I love it and eat it up.  These shows are to me what military history museums are to Char!

Now it is midnight once again, everyone has left the library and the ship is mine alone once more.  I do love these late night trysts with my computer.  

Tomorrow appears to be a less stressful day (not as much eating, not as much touring, more sailing).  My main goal for tomorrow is to find some place that sells batteries because I didn't bring as many as I thought I had, and we are only on day 4 and I'm running very low.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(He didn't just sit on the horse, the Cossack lead the horse around so he could
actually ride it.  He said he felt like a little kid again!)

I Killed Harvey

When we got back from breakfast this morning, I found "Harvey" sitting on my bed.  The woman who makes up the room had fashioned him out of a towel, my sunglasses, and a grape off the fruit plate we found in our room when we arrived.  Such a cute idea!  What else could I name a big white visible rabbit but Harvey?

 Unfortunately, this was a "stay on the ship" day, as we sailed down the Dnieper River and I must have really needed to catch up on sleep because I seem to have slept most of the day.  After one of my hour-long naps (I think I took 3 of them), I discovered Harvey had been dis-membered by my foot movements during my nap and was a mere shadow of his former self.  Thank goodness I took pictures of him before I killed him.

When I looked out the window this morning, we seemed to be surrounded by water.  No shore in sight, so it was quite a surprise to see how many little fishing boats there were.  They all looked identical and as they would appear at what seemed like regular intervals, I had the feeling that I was sailing around in one big loop.

What I am noticing about this trip,  which is different from our other cruises, is that, for example, on the first cruise, there were two ship computers which people would line up to use.  In China, there were about 8 computers, but you could never get in, unless it was the middle of the night, because everyone wanted to send e-mail home (which is why I always bring my own computer). This cruise I am noticing that every other person, it seems, has an iPad or cell phone (or Kindle) that they are engrossed in and while there might be a person or two waiting to use the ship computers, more often than not there is no line, and often nobody is in the library wanting to use the computer. 

Today, after breakfast, the ship itself turned into a library, with all of the little alcoves filled with people reading on some sort of electronic gadget...

...well, except for Mike, of course.  Even in the library, except for the guy reading the ship's daily newspaper, everyone was using an e-reader of some sort.

In the middle of the morning we had the required emergency drill, which was a lecture in the Sky Bar (I'm coming to loathe the climb up to the top deck!...even Walt's knees are feeling creaky), followed by a life vest demonstration and explanation of how things would go in an emergency.

Unfortunately, the way things worked was that you met at your station (which happens to be right outside our room door) and then the staff person would lead you to where your life boat would be, in a real emergency, and explain what would happen next  But there were so many of us in the group that by the time the group got downstairs, only 1/3 heard her explanation and the rest of us were still coming down the stairs when she sent everyone back to their rooms with a thank you for participation, and people were already lining up for lunch.  I'm assuming that there will be no emergencies...and if there is an emergency, the "trained staff" will be able to help me figure it all out.

Another difference in this cruise is mealtime.  When we went to Russia, we always sat at a table for four and so didn't really meet a lot of people.  That we have stayed friends with Suellyn is due to the fact that we corresponded with each other on Facebook before the cruise.

When we went to China, we decided to choose a bigger table in the hopes of meeting more people, even tho the ship part of the vacation was very short.  And we did.  We met the football player from Texas (whose name I have forgotten) and his wife, who were friendly throughout the cruise, and Sharon and her husband, from England.  We never stayed connected to the Texas folks, but I still communicate with Sharon, who is on FaceBook, now and then.  I'm still going to get to England to see her some day!

On last year's Rhine/Danube cruise, we met Kitch and Joyce from Canada on the first day and agreed to share a table for the rest of the cruise.  Delightful people and Kitch and I still exchange photos or updates occasionally.

This time it's a mixture of big table/small table and we know more people because everyone is so much more friendly, for some reason, but we don't have "regulars" that we are eating with.  It seems that we eat with different couples every night, but everyone has been delightful.  Tonight we compared notes on 9/11 with folks who are from New York.  At lunch we sat with two women who were traveling to Russia and Ukraine to fulfill the lifelong dream of one of them, who has wanted to visit Russia since she was a history major in college and was so thrilled she was able to find a friend who was willing to travel with her.  We enjoyed getting to know each other as we watched the lock we were passing through.

Each meal it's a new introduction and sharing stories with new people, which is different, but very nice.

The rest of the afternoon, after lunch, is a real blur for me, as I went into sleep mode.  I decided to nap during the lecture about Ukrainian souvenirs.  I went to the one in Russia and found it really more for high-end shoppers, not junky souvenir shoppers like me, and figured this would be more of the same.  Apparently it was a little more complicated than that, but not much.  We are learning more about the economy of Ukraine.  This has only been an independent country, you know, since 1991, so they don't have a lot of the same kinds of attitudes that we are accustomed to.  Paying by credit card, for example, is really not the desired way to pay.  Vendors prefer cash, and, ideally, exact change.  It may be why Walt read somewhere that to list the number of ATM machines in Kiev would be as difficult as listing the number of fire hydrants.

And after China where our tour guide was willing to answer any question about her government, but only in the bus, where she could not be overheard, it's surprising how many people we have encountered who have been openly and blatantly critical of what they see is a corrupt government but take it for granted.  It's also been made abundantly clear by one of our guides that this is very definitely a country founded on religion.  In fact there is even a statue in Kiev to St. Olga whose baptism in the 9th century was the first and turned this into an Christian nation.

From Wikipedia:  The Drevlians wanted Olga to marry their Prince Mal, making him the ruler of Kievan Rus, but Olga was determined to remain in power and preserve it for her son.

The Drevlians sent twenty of their best men to persuade Olga to marry their Prince Mal and give up her rule of Kievan Rus. She had them buried alive. Then she sent word to Prince Mal that she accepted the proposal, but required their most distinguished men to accompany her on the journey in order for her people to accept the offer of marriage. The Drevlians sent their best men who governed their land. Upon their arrival, she offered them a warm welcome and an invitation to clean up after their long journey in a bathhouse. After they entered, she locked the doors and set fire to the building, burning them alive.

(We didn't get that much of the story on our tour!  This murderous gal was so bad you have to wonder how she got the title "saint," though they say it is for her efforts to convert so many to Christianity.  Apparently if they didn't she just killed them in horrific ways...but let it pass!)

Walt came back to say that he was going to the lecture on Ukrainian history, and I said that I was going to join him, but wanted just a little more sleep and missed the whole thing.  I did make it to Alyona's talk about how tomorrow was going to go, and that was good. 

I also got to sit by the window and watch the sun going down into the Dnieper.

Tonight's menu was not one that I was excited about.  Nothing looked particularly good, but I learned that this is when you can be very surprised.  The "Russian stuffed egg with salmon caviar" was incredible and the perch I ordered just because I've never had perch before was one of the best things yet.  It came with ratatouille, which I also don't think I'd had before.  That was a 4 star entree.  And in all honesty, I ordered the "yogurt citrus mousse" strictly because I thought it would make a nice picture for the Dinner of the Day and it was fabulous...much better than ice cream would have been!

Char and Walt ordered the cheese plate for dessert, which came with crackers in alphabet shapes (not cyrillic!).  Between them, Char and Mike managed to put together an appropriate word.

So tomorrow is the day I've been looking forward to most of all, when we visit the Cossack museum and see a horse show.  After that it's all downhill for me, but judging by how thing have gone so far, I'm much more excited about all the things to come than I ever thought I would be before we left home.

I heard from Ned today and he has been to visit my mother several times already, including taking his dog the other day.  He reports she's fine.  Having him there has made such a HUGE difference in my ability to just let go and trust that she will be just fine until we get back.  And thanks to my friend and Atria resident, Peggy, I was able to send her pictures today to go along with the letters I've been sending via the Atria manager.  It will be interesting to see how she is when I return!

DINNER OF THE DAY

Starter: some sort of juice with wine.  Tasted mostly like peaches
Ukrainian stuffed egg with salmon caviar on some potato salad
perch with ratatouille -- my favorite so far
Yogurt citrus mousse with a crumble topping

The Mystery is Solved

Well, Olivia found the answer on Google, but I asked our tour guide, Alla, what she knew about the mysterious leaf that seems to appear everywhere.  She said it was just coincidence.  However, I mushed on and asked the program director (I think her name is Alyona) and she says that the horse-chestnut leaf is the symbol of Kiev.  I checked out a page of images and found this one, which looks like the tree we found around the corner from the hotel. Mystery solved.

But I digress and there is so much to talk about today this is going to be a humongous entry.

First of all, we were all thrilled to wake up to a glorious sunrise and hardly a cloud in the sky. It gave promise of good weather for our travels.

After breakfast, we started out on our tour of Kiev, some of which I had seen the day before, most of which the others had seen the day before.  Today we were seeing it by bus, with stops at strategic places.

The first place we stopped was back at the Golden Gate and I took a picture I didn't get yesterday, surely a prime tourist attraction.

Isn't that cute?  It's a coffee cart right next to the famous Golden Gate.  I have other good pix of the GG, but I'll save those for Flickr when I get home 'cause there is so much other stuff.

After the Golden Gate, we went to St. Sophia's Cathedral, which is no longer a working church, but is a World Heritage site.  It was built in 1037 (not completed until 1299) by good ol' Yaroslav the Wise again (that was one busy dude!)

It's a magnificent building (but you can't take pictures inside), but in truth, I was more interested in the stuff outside in the courtyard.  Some sort of a display of folk art which may have been in a parade recently (I'm not really a very good historian!)

But we had to leave the chickens and go inside and it was a very good tour.  As I said, you can't take pictures, but the place was beautiful, with a sparkling gold and silver iconostasis (the door that separates the worshippers from the altar).  Not nearly as gaudy as Melk Abbey in Austria that made me so angry last year!

A cool thing inside the building was this sarcophagus they found.  I've forgotten the date now.  But they dug it up somewhere and when they opened it, they tried to determine who was inside.  Apparently not only was Yaroslav busy building half the known world, he was also a cripple and by examining the remains in the sarcophagus, they determined it was ol' Yaroslav himself, so he now rests inside St. Sophia, which I think is kinda cool.

After we left St. Sophia (through the "ubiquitous," as Walt and I have come to call gift shops!), we drove to Cave Monastery, which was founded in...surprise, surprise, the time of Yaroslav the Wise. This guy was a real over-achiever!  It is a small monastic city, an active monastery with priests and all that stuff, a museum on the history of the place, and some burial caves. The caves are quite extensive, but much of the area is not safe, so only a small part is open to public tours.  They are not recommended for *the physically unfit, *tall people, *people with claustrophobia, and *people with cardiac problems.  I knew instantly that I was not going to go on that part of the tour, not was Char, but Mike and Walt would go.

Well, when we got there it was indeed a little city, and the whole place was filled with the sound of that gorgeous Orthodox chanting.  

It reminded me of the days when we would go to San Francisco once a month, to the Orthodox church that was run out of a garage, with our friend Andrij.  I got to where I could sing the chants in Russian and it was so nice and familiar to hear it again. I couldn't get enough of it, but the tour leaders kept droning on about historical stuff and dates and sizes and battles and I don't know what all, completely ignoring all the glorious music filling the air. Just totally ignored the thing I most wanted to hear!

We went into the museum with the local guide, who was really not very good at all.  She had no idea how large her group was, jammed us all into a teeny room and pointed out things in cases at the front of the room (I was at the back).  When I saw that the next room was the same, I decided not to take the tour and to just sit outside and listening to the singing.  It was one of the best decisions I made.

I loved people watching and love this picture of the priests kibbitzing while the ceremony in the cathedral was finishing up.

And when all the priests had filed out of the church and the singing stopped, a guy started ringing a big bell.  A big bell and soon people were standing around and resting their hands on the bell.  It went on for at least half an hour and then all the bells in the complex started ringing too. When the tour guide came out of the museum and someone asked her what was going on, she shrugged and said she didn't know.  THAT is a bad tour guide!  But it was one of the most thrilling parts of the day for me, watching those people touching the bell and the guy who continued ringing it for at least half an hour. (Another tour guide later told me that people feel that touching the bell, and feeling the vibration is very restorative and if they have health problems, they touch the bell when it is being rung.)

(Not all listeners were music lovers, though)

This was also "register for school" day and everywhere we went, we saw people buying big bunches of flowers for their children, and then taking their pictures, all dressed up, ready for school to start tomorrow.

There was also a wedding party which processed in, looking like a paparazzi parade, with a whole camera crew in front of and following the bride and her family.

We returned to the ship and had about 10 minutes to rest before it was time for lunch.  Char opted out of lunch in favor of resting.  At 2 p.m., we got back on the buses and headed for Babi Yar, the mile and a half long deep ravine in the middle of the city, where, over two days in September, 1941, the Germans shot and killed at least 30,771 Jews, men, women and children.  The victims were told they were going to be relocated and asked to bring all of their belongings. And they showed up, afraid that if they did not, they would be shot.  They were asked to remove their jewelry, deposit their valuables, and ultimately strip naked, stand at the edge of the ravine and be shot, their bodies falling into the ravine.  Very efficient. The massacre was the largest single mass killing of the Nazi regime and is considered to be the "largest single massacre in the history of the Holocaust."

I don't know how the tour leader can lead these tours.  I don't know how long she has been doing it, but she still gets emotional as she shows the well worn pictures and tells the story and admits that nobody really knows the total body count because the Germans, realizing they were not going to win, tried to cover up by digging up the bodies and burning them in the concentration camp ovens.  I think she said that to date only 10% of the victims of this slaughter have been positively identified.

Today it is a peaceful place.  You walk up this long path to a giant menorah

(the menorah is at the far end of this long path)

You pay your respects and then kind of meander down through this lovely grassy glen until you realize that this was the spot.  Here and extending a mile and a half from here.

In your mind you hear the screams of the terrified women and children as they are pushed, naked, to the edge and the guns open fire. The tour guide, stifling emotion, passes around well worn pictures of the soldiers, the bodies, the clothing.  And when you turn to walk back to the bus, there is nothing to say. You are drained and shocked and so very, very sad.

The bus makes two mores stops at other memorials in this very beautiful park, where parents pick up leaves with their toddlers and dog walkers walk their dogs and lovers walk hand in hand and whisper sweet nothings to each other.  The one that gets you is the memorial to the children who were killed in the holocaust in Ukraine.  I believe she said over 10,000 ... but by now the numbers are too large to comprehend.

We ended our tour at the oldest synagogue in Kiev, the one that survived during the German occupation because, like St. Sophia, the Germans took control of the building to stable their horses in.  

The rabbi had a small underground congregation and opened a matzo bakery where local people could pick up their matzo for Passover.  The rabbi of today, a right jolly old elf, told us, through an interpreter, about the history of this place, where the money came from to rebuild, and build a school as well.  It's a beautiful building.

Our very busy day ended with vodka and tonic on the sun deck, watching the sun go down as the ship pulled away from the dock and headed down the Dneiper, under a canopy of gathering storm clouds.

Just as we were saying goodbye to Kiev, the skies opened up and it started to pour.  We were very lucky weatherwise today.

It was a very full day, but I am going to sleep tonight thinking of 33,771 men, women and children toppling into a ravine.  It's hard to wrap your head around.  Well, you can wrap your head around it, but you can never get the visuals out of your mind.  And that is the point of memorial parks like Babi Yar.  Never forget.

DINNER OF THE DAY

Starter: prawn in some sort of coconut sauce
Oxtail soup (never had it before; won't again)
Chateaubriand...yummy
Pot de creme, with minted pineapple chunks