A couple of people have asked about the food here, so I thought I'd post about that today. I'll include some odd phonetic translations of things too just for fun.
They don't have any prepackaged foods here really, so we go to the store about every day and buy fresh or frozen things. The one prepackaged thing we do get is vyriniky (that's as close as I can translate it), but it's a lot like perogies. We enjoy the "meat" ones, but they also have cheese and potato types too. Yes, it is just "masa" meat, non specified as far as I know. I did hear someone say the word for pork one time though, so I think that batch was more like sausage.
A lot of the foods tend to be breaded or wrapped in a dumpling or pancake. Cheese and bread are at least as big here as they are in France. We identified one of the bread stands as being a better one by the number of people we see visiting it and have been buying our "bulka" white bread there. The "hkleb" dark bread is not bad, but the bulka is much better. You know the old saying, "it's the best thing since sliced bread?" We now understand that a bit better, you buy loaves or half or quarter loaves of the bread and slice it all yourself.
I'm happy to say they have Diet Coke here, but it is called Coca-Cola Light, just like it was in the rest of Europe. I bought one on the way in, "Skajeetsee pajaloosta, ya hachoo adeen coca-cola light, adeen liter." Excuse me please, I want a coca cola light, 1 liter. They always tell me the price to which I say "skolka?" How much? Because they always say numbers too fast. 1 liter of diet coke was about 65 cents in US dollars, things are very cheap here.
Yesterday, we went to lunch with our translater and I paid for all three of us. It was just under 50 hryvna, which translates to about 10 dollars american. That was for a lot of food too. The place we lunched was much like a cafeteria, you get a tray and select the dishes you want to eat then pay at a cashier on the way to the tables. Interestingly enough you pay for everything except the plates and silverware. If you want salt or a plastic cup to drink out of you pay for it. Once again, it is very inexpensive, but it is odd. I think it is their way of keeping people from walking off with extra salt, ketchup, etc..
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Telephone Number
Hi guys,
Just a short note today. We took some time to go play tourist with our translator Luba. We took public transportation down to see some churches in Kiev. St. Andrews, which I'd read about looked nice, but was closed. St. Sophia's was open and was really amazing. Following that we walked about 2000 miles to a restuarant and had a late lunch.
We are so whipped from walking that it isn't even funny. Both of us are exhausted and stopped by the internet cafe mainly to take a break in walking back to the apartment.
Here's the number to the phone in our apartment here in Kiev - 380-44-565-3906. The 380 is the country code, 44 is the city code and the rest is the actual local phone number. How you dial it from the US - well, if I were there to try it, I'd tell you.
Seriously - if you do feel like giving us a call, we'd appreciate it, but it is going to be fairly expensive, so we understand for anyone that doesn't. And for those of you that do, we understand that you need to keep it short. Please also keep in mind that we are 8 hours ahead of you right now. At I right this it is after 5pm here, but it is only 9 am in Indiana. Not that we'd not like to hear from you, but Pam is awfully grumpy when you wake her up at 2am.
That's going to be our phone number for at least another week and maybe we'll have the cell phone issue resolved before we move on to a region. We'll post more tomorrow.
Just a short note today. We took some time to go play tourist with our translator Luba. We took public transportation down to see some churches in Kiev. St. Andrews, which I'd read about looked nice, but was closed. St. Sophia's was open and was really amazing. Following that we walked about 2000 miles to a restuarant and had a late lunch.
We are so whipped from walking that it isn't even funny. Both of us are exhausted and stopped by the internet cafe mainly to take a break in walking back to the apartment.
Here's the number to the phone in our apartment here in Kiev - 380-44-565-3906. The 380 is the country code, 44 is the city code and the rest is the actual local phone number. How you dial it from the US - well, if I were there to try it, I'd tell you.
Seriously - if you do feel like giving us a call, we'd appreciate it, but it is going to be fairly expensive, so we understand for anyone that doesn't. And for those of you that do, we understand that you need to keep it short. Please also keep in mind that we are 8 hours ahead of you right now. At I right this it is after 5pm here, but it is only 9 am in Indiana. Not that we'd not like to hear from you, but Pam is awfully grumpy when you wake her up at 2am.
That's going to be our phone number for at least another week and maybe we'll have the cell phone issue resolved before we move on to a region. We'll post more tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Kiev so far
Kiev has been interesting. To start with, I understand more Russian than I thought I did. Even sitting here in the internet cafe, I can understand some of what is being said behind me at the counter. It's not a lot, but I'm picking up more all the time.
We were met at the Borispol airport by our posse. The posse is made up of Tatiana our facilitator who knows English about like I know Russian, Alexi (Tatiana's son in law), our driver who doesn't know a word of English and Sasha (Tatiana's son), a translator who speaks very good English. We were very late due to our plane being delayed and an hour not finding half of our luggage.
The apartment they took us to startled us because the buildings look like Cabrini Green in Chicago. AKA - the slums, but in reality the apartment itself is very nice and we feel very safe there.
Sasha took us down to the market across the street, which is a series of small buildings selling a variety of goods. We picked up some bread, cheese and sausage for dinner and some water too. We've been back to the market area a few times since - that's where we are now in the internet cafe.
I've had an interesting time making my needs known to people in my poor Russian. Sometimes I end up resorting to the point and grunt method, but I know enough to ask for most things. I just now went up and asked for another hour on the computers and had a heck of a time. I couldn't recall the word for hour and ended up pointing at my watch after saying something like, "two computer plus". It takes time, but I usually get my point across.
Our time at the NAC (National Adoption Center) did not go as well as hoped yesterday, but it is pretty much par for the course when dealing with the NAC from what we know. Sasha was not available, so Luba joined us as a translator. She isn't related to Tatiana, but is much like a daughter to her. Her English isn't quite as good as Sasha's, but good enough.
The office is at the top of six flights of stairs, which was quite the workout. We looked through profiles of children for over two hours with a lady named, Oxana. All of the children had some type of health issues and we finally left at Tatiana's suggestion. She has heard that more children will be added to the roster on the 15th. We wrote up a request for an appointment before leaving.
We had dinner with the posse at a nice cafeteria serving Ukrainian food after the appointment. I had some borsch and vyriniky (kind of like perogies) and a big bottle of beer. Ukrainian beer is pretty good, but not quite as good as the English beer so far.
After dinner we took a long walk with Luba around some of the squares downtown in Kiev. She showed us the sights and it was very interesting.
We rested all day Sunday and aside from shopping and internet are taking today easy too. Tomorrow we will do some more sightseeing with Luba, which should be interesting. We are kind of disappointed with our meeting at the NAC. We had hoped that they would show us a healthy child right from the start, but waiting another week is not so bad in the big scheme of things.
We were met at the Borispol airport by our posse. The posse is made up of Tatiana our facilitator who knows English about like I know Russian, Alexi (Tatiana's son in law), our driver who doesn't know a word of English and Sasha (Tatiana's son), a translator who speaks very good English. We were very late due to our plane being delayed and an hour not finding half of our luggage.
The apartment they took us to startled us because the buildings look like Cabrini Green in Chicago. AKA - the slums, but in reality the apartment itself is very nice and we feel very safe there.
Sasha took us down to the market across the street, which is a series of small buildings selling a variety of goods. We picked up some bread, cheese and sausage for dinner and some water too. We've been back to the market area a few times since - that's where we are now in the internet cafe.
I've had an interesting time making my needs known to people in my poor Russian. Sometimes I end up resorting to the point and grunt method, but I know enough to ask for most things. I just now went up and asked for another hour on the computers and had a heck of a time. I couldn't recall the word for hour and ended up pointing at my watch after saying something like, "two computer plus". It takes time, but I usually get my point across.
Our time at the NAC (National Adoption Center) did not go as well as hoped yesterday, but it is pretty much par for the course when dealing with the NAC from what we know. Sasha was not available, so Luba joined us as a translator. She isn't related to Tatiana, but is much like a daughter to her. Her English isn't quite as good as Sasha's, but good enough.
The office is at the top of six flights of stairs, which was quite the workout. We looked through profiles of children for over two hours with a lady named, Oxana. All of the children had some type of health issues and we finally left at Tatiana's suggestion. She has heard that more children will be added to the roster on the 15th. We wrote up a request for an appointment before leaving.
We had dinner with the posse at a nice cafeteria serving Ukrainian food after the appointment. I had some borsch and vyriniky (kind of like perogies) and a big bottle of beer. Ukrainian beer is pretty good, but not quite as good as the English beer so far.
After dinner we took a long walk with Luba around some of the squares downtown in Kiev. She showed us the sights and it was very interesting.
We rested all day Sunday and aside from shopping and internet are taking today easy too. Tomorrow we will do some more sightseeing with Luba, which should be interesting. We are kind of disappointed with our meeting at the NAC. We had hoped that they would show us a healthy child right from the start, but waiting another week is not so bad in the big scheme of things.
Paris
We are playing catch up on the blog. It's been a few days since we last posted. We didn't find any internet cafes in Paris and currently don't even have the GSM phone working, but that's one of my chores for today.
Paris was a beautiful city. We were very close to the Arc de Triumph at our hotel. The morning after we arrived we went out to catch a double decker tour that let us listen to commentary in English and get off and on the bus as we pleased. It rained off and on, but the weather wasn't unpleasant.
Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower where we rode up to the lowest level and looked around for a bit. I had a hot dog for lunch, which isn't as plain as it sounds. They stab a piece of french bread on a inch diameter metal prong that heats it from inside and then stick the sausage inside. It was very filling. I guess I'm not one for the fancy french food. The tower gave us a good view of the city and we moved on to the bus again.
We also visited Notre Dame Cathedral which was just amazing. The ceilings are a couple hundred feet up and the place is just huge. There was a lot of artwork and sculptures, but honestly none of it compared to the actual architecture. The arches and woodwork and stained glass windows were beyond words.
All in all, Paris was very nice. Pam was more enamoured of it than I was. Scotland is still leading in that respect for me.
Paris was a beautiful city. We were very close to the Arc de Triumph at our hotel. The morning after we arrived we went out to catch a double decker tour that let us listen to commentary in English and get off and on the bus as we pleased. It rained off and on, but the weather wasn't unpleasant.
Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower where we rode up to the lowest level and looked around for a bit. I had a hot dog for lunch, which isn't as plain as it sounds. They stab a piece of french bread on a inch diameter metal prong that heats it from inside and then stick the sausage inside. It was very filling. I guess I'm not one for the fancy french food. The tower gave us a good view of the city and we moved on to the bus again.
We also visited Notre Dame Cathedral which was just amazing. The ceilings are a couple hundred feet up and the place is just huge. There was a lot of artwork and sculptures, but honestly none of it compared to the actual architecture. The arches and woodwork and stained glass windows were beyond words.
All in all, Paris was very nice. Pam was more enamoured of it than I was. Scotland is still leading in that respect for me.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Leaving London
We had a good day of touring yesterday. We took the double decker down to the Tower of London and checked it out. That was the highlight of London for me. The armory was especially cool.
We then took a boat up the Thames to Westminster where we headed to Buckingham Palace. Pam loved that part, but I'm not into the overly ornate stuff, but the history and art were interesting.
We then had to take a trip to Harrod's. Again - not my cup of tea. We did pick up a copy of the new Harry Potter book (the British Version). We closed out the night sitting by the Thames and listening to Big Ben sound off.
Today we are headed to Paris. We'll be catching the Eurostar train in Waterloo and traveling thru the Chunnel to get there. We'll post more later.
We then took a boat up the Thames to Westminster where we headed to Buckingham Palace. Pam loved that part, but I'm not into the overly ornate stuff, but the history and art were interesting.
We then had to take a trip to Harrod's. Again - not my cup of tea. We did pick up a copy of the new Harry Potter book (the British Version). We closed out the night sitting by the Thames and listening to Big Ben sound off.
Today we are headed to Paris. We'll be catching the Eurostar train in Waterloo and traveling thru the Chunnel to get there. We'll post more later.
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Pam's Chocolate Tasting
For my part, the beer is ok, but I am working my way through all the wonderful chocolate over here! There are candy bars that I have never seen and so many kinds of Cadbury chocolates. Chocolate tasting is a serious job and I am up to the task! Cheers, Pam
Scotland is complete - on to London
I wrote this on the PDA a couple nights ago. We've checked out Edinborough Castle and flown to London and toured the city since writing this, but didn't have a chance til now to post it to the blog. All is going well so far. Here's the write up from the other night....
We just got back from a two day tour of the highlands of Scotland. The highlands were amazing. It was stunning scenery and the air was amazingly clean. Every Scot we've met has been exceedingly friendly. It's worth a trip if you ever have the chance.
Our driver/guide, George Shank was very good. He has the real Scottish brogue, a good sense of humor and lots of patience.
It was a very diverse group on the tour, besides us, we had two ladies from Idaho, two Chinese, one lady from Taiwan, a guy from South Korea, two Germans, two Australians, two Basque Spaniards and another two from Barcelona. Except for the Korean guy wandering away for shots of things like traffic, cattle and fence poles, everyone got along well.
George was an 'aggressive' driver and these were some winding roads. If not for some dramamine, I'd have likely joined the Chinese lady losing her lunch in a ditch. Pam is using a watch to stop motion sickness, but the turns today were even getting to her.
Let's see - scenery was good, people are nice... let's talk about the food. The short version is "good, but different." The long version is probably for another e-mail, but I'll give it the old college try.
Breakfast isn't too different aside from apparently always serving a half a cooked tomato unsliced, bacon that's closer to salty ham and sausage that has leeks in it.
For lunches we've had some interesting sandwiches. My favorite so far are the cheese and onion sandwiches- very tasty. I also have tried what they call a sausage roll, which is a bread shell shaped like a hot pocket, but filled with something like deviled ham. And being me, I ordered haggis at the first place I found it. I was a bit disappointed- it was kind of bland, though George said it usually has a good bite to it.
Strangely enough, three out of three dinners have been in pubs. Bar meals are a good deal and so far been very tasty. I've had the traditional British meals of fish & chips, steak pie and bangers and mash. With each meal I've sampled some very good brews. Barmen keep suggesting weaker lagers, but I've been sampling some fine ales and an occassional stout.
Not only have I sampled a number fine Scottish ales, but at our tour driver's suggestion, we stopped at a little distillery. I personally sampled about 10 different types of scotch. They were just tiny amounts, so it didn’t add up to more than a couple or three shots worth, but it was a good ride back to Edinburgh. I may have dozed off for a bit.
We just got back from a two day tour of the highlands of Scotland. The highlands were amazing. It was stunning scenery and the air was amazingly clean. Every Scot we've met has been exceedingly friendly. It's worth a trip if you ever have the chance.
Our driver/guide, George Shank was very good. He has the real Scottish brogue, a good sense of humor and lots of patience.
It was a very diverse group on the tour, besides us, we had two ladies from Idaho, two Chinese, one lady from Taiwan, a guy from South Korea, two Germans, two Australians, two Basque Spaniards and another two from Barcelona. Except for the Korean guy wandering away for shots of things like traffic, cattle and fence poles, everyone got along well.
George was an 'aggressive' driver and these were some winding roads. If not for some dramamine, I'd have likely joined the Chinese lady losing her lunch in a ditch. Pam is using a watch to stop motion sickness, but the turns today were even getting to her.
Let's see - scenery was good, people are nice... let's talk about the food. The short version is "good, but different." The long version is probably for another e-mail, but I'll give it the old college try.
Breakfast isn't too different aside from apparently always serving a half a cooked tomato unsliced, bacon that's closer to salty ham and sausage that has leeks in it.
For lunches we've had some interesting sandwiches. My favorite so far are the cheese and onion sandwiches- very tasty. I also have tried what they call a sausage roll, which is a bread shell shaped like a hot pocket, but filled with something like deviled ham. And being me, I ordered haggis at the first place I found it. I was a bit disappointed- it was kind of bland, though George said it usually has a good bite to it.
Strangely enough, three out of three dinners have been in pubs. Bar meals are a good deal and so far been very tasty. I've had the traditional British meals of fish & chips, steak pie and bangers and mash. With each meal I've sampled some very good brews. Barmen keep suggesting weaker lagers, but I've been sampling some fine ales and an occassional stout.
Not only have I sampled a number fine Scottish ales, but at our tour driver's suggestion, we stopped at a little distillery. I personally sampled about 10 different types of scotch. They were just tiny amounts, so it didn’t add up to more than a couple or three shots worth, but it was a good ride back to Edinburgh. I may have dozed off for a bit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
