I just spent two awesome weeks with El. On Saturday October 8 she flew into Simferopol Airport at 10:00pm. It was sort of funny that since there are so few flights landing at that hour, there are only essential personnel and almost everything is closed. All the restaurants, rental car counters, and even the arrival gates in the airport are closed. Right before 10:00 an announcement was made that the flight from Kiev had arrived. Minutes later a few military/police people walked through the terminal and all of the families waiting for the flight got up and followed them. I did too. We all stood outside in the cold for a few minutes and then the police opened a gate on the side of the airport building. All of the baggage from the plane was transported to the exit on a flatbed, so everyone just grabbed their bag and went through the iron gates to meet their rides. El walked through looking and feeling tired. We got in the taxi that I had arranged to bring us back to my apartment about 2 hours away. We spent the first week of her vacation in my town of Razdol’noye. I continued to work and El was able to come to work with me and we would go out during the day when we needed to go to the market or get something for lunch.
On Wednesday night El was the guest chef for a party that we threw along with my sitemate, Erin. I knew a lot of people in town were interested to meet El and we thought it would be fun to have an American food night. We invited about 40 people to the party that we held at Erin’s apartment, since mine is too small. About 25 showed up and everyone had at least one favorite. The menu included chili, mac-n-cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The party started at 5:30, people started to leave by 6:30, and the last people left around 9:00. The party was a success and lead to three other invitations for later in the week. We were busy before and afterwards.
The mayor invited us to his house on Saturday, as did Earvin. Sergey and Vika also invited us to their house on Saturday, but with no time commitment. On Thursday, I told Earvin that we would be going to the mayor’s house and that we would have to reschedule. On Friday, we learned that the mayor had cancelled his party, but that Sergey and Vika were still on. I contacted Earvin and told him we were back on, if he was OK with that, at which point he told us that he did not realize we might not be on and to come to his house at 6:30 on Saturday.
On Saturday morning, El and I met others at Sergey and Vika’s apartment at 1:00. I pushed for earlier, but they weren’t having
any of that, so we showed up and ate a ton of food. It was really great. Unfortunately, without knowing the menu for that night, we thought there was a possibility of plove, which is a pretty heavy meat and rice dish. Well, we thought, we don’t have to be there until 6:30, so we will have some time to digest our lunches. Sitting at home, we get a call at 5:30 asking where we are? It’s Earvin telling us that he said 6:30, but he meant 5:30 and that the whole family was waiting on us and that the food was getting cold. We hurried the best we could to get to his house and sit for dinner which included plove, cheberekie (fried dough stuffed with meat and veggies), assorted salads and vodka and cognac (of course). Besides being so overfull it was difficult to walk, the dinner was very lovely and the family meeting El and enjoying a meal together was really great.
On Sunday El and I took an overnight sleeper train from Djankoi to Kiev arriving in the afternoon. We are able to find and check into our hotel. At 4:00 take the walking tour from Maidan Square. (free, in English, every day at 12 and 4 from the globe next to the post office). On Tuesday, we head to Chernigov where we meet my host family. Lunch is just Tanya. And her friend Tanya. And a Peace Corps LCF named Natasha who does an excellent translation job for all of us. We eat borsch and golubsy which are both great.
Wednesday, we make dinner plans with Tanya and the whole family after El and I do all of our sightseeing in the city of Chernigov. We eat another excellent meal with Tanya and say our goodbyes as El and I return to Kiev on Thursday.
We leave on the noon bus from Chernigov to Kiev (the 2 hour ride costs us $5 US each). Not having much time left in the day, we decide to visit Babi Yar. Then we find a restaurant called Café Champagne. Afterwards, a bar called Post Floyd The Wall is where we stay for the evening.
Friday we go to the Lavra Caves and make plans to meet our friends Andrii and Olga for dinner at Pizza Napule. Great food, great conversation, great fun.
Saturday we eat breakfast in the hotel and run into another PCV who also has people in town doing touristy things. We make plans to meet for dinner and part ways. El and I go to Bassarabsky indoor market and head up to see St. Andrew’s (including St. Andrew’s descent- a steep interesting street with rich history and many street vendors), St. Michael’s, and St. Sophia’s. We meet Olga who shows us hidden park that reminds us of a Gaudi Park in Barcelona. Then we go to her English Club (for very advanced speakers). The club lasts 2 hours and is quite a bit different than ours, for obvious reasons (based on the level of English). After English club we meet our friends at Pervak, a restaurant with traditional Ukrainian food. It was tasty food, slow service, great company, and an overall great night. El leaves on Sunday morning at 6:25.
We are up talking and packing until after 2am. My train out of Kiev does not leave until 8pm. I got up with El and she was ready to go in no time. The last time we parted like this was the day that I left for the Peace Corps and it was a very difficult separation for the two of us for several reasons. This time, a simple hug and a kiss goodbye was all we needed. Last March there were so many unknowns surrounding our futures. When would we see each other again? Would I be able to communicate from Ukraine back home? Just how difficult was our extended time apart going to be? Well, now we know the answers to these questions and are already planning another meeting.
I just spent a great two weeks with El. It’s one of those situations where we always knew we travel well together and this was no different. I got to show off my home town and new friends in Razdol’noye. I got to introduce her to my host family and my training site of Chernigov- seeing it now as a tourist, not a resident- which are two, very different perspectives. And, I got to explore Kiev with her and saw it like I have never seen it before.
I still have 6 hours until my train leaves for home, so I will mill about the city of Kiev and make my way towards the train station. I still want to find out what “Foxy balls” are and there is a McFoxy’s across the street from the station.
By the way, I have been journaling our trip to Kiev and Chernigov, so look for updates to the Travel and Dine website, coming soon…I hope.
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