W36 of Y5

Toscana

This week started out in beautiful Toscana for me 

West End Theater Camp

Whitney got to do a theater camp this week taught by West End performers that come from London to put on this camp.  

Ukraine

Jeremy and I snuck of for a post-Father's Day trip to Ukraine.  

Kiev, Independence Square.  Jeremy got us an amazing apartment right in the middle of the square.  

They were having a silent dance party.  They all have headphones on and are dancing to their own music. LOL!

We enjoyed a morning walk to check out Kiev a little more 

They just built this bridge a couple of months before we got here.  Apparently, there was damage already to the glass on the bottom so it was being repaired.  There was all kinds of controversy as to how the damage happened.  The word on the street is that it was gun shots by the Russians trying to stop progress in Ukraine. 

Food!  My favorite part of any new country is to try the local foods....

Salo - spreadable lard.  Basically, it is just left over bacon grease.  It was actually delicious!

Golubtsi.  Basically cabbage rolls in a tomato sauce with sour cream.  Pretty good.

Deruny.  Basically potato pancakes with sour cream.  These reminded me of growing up when my dad would make potato pancakes Saturday morning with leftover mashed potatoes.  Yummy!

Chicken Kiev.  We had to have this at least once!  Breaded chicken stuffed with garlic butter. 

City Beach

Well, not your typical tourist thing to do but....  it was a lot of fun! We decided to skip the museums and walking around and went to the top of a sky scraper to relax at this pool for the entire day. I think this was the best part of the entire trip.

A popular Ukrainian snack - pig ears.  The flavor was ok but they are served cold and the texture was too much for us to take.  Our waitress laughed at us!

Canadian guy serenaded us with Radiohead

Irish pub.... fish and chips!

The fountains at the square next to our house light up to music every night.  The square is full of people everywhere.  So much activity and beauty all around!

Chernobyl

Jeremy booked a full day-long tour for us to go to Chernobyl while we were here. 

We had to catch the bus early that morning in Kiev.  It was about a 2 hour bus ride to get to the Chernobyl area.

Our guide showed us videos on the way up to explain what happened in Cherbobyl and the surrounding towns. 

We had to sign our life away before we got there

The map of our tour for the day

A quick stop at the border to buy essentials... like full body suits for anyone who did not where the appropriate clothes - long sleeves, long pants, socks.

We got our geiger counters to keep track of how much radiation we were exposed to for the day

The first town.   It was weird to know that there were hundreds of thousands of people living in this area and they were all just asked to pack a small bag and leave, thinking they would be able to return in a few days.  I guess a families broke the rules and snuck back in after being evacuated and are still living here today. They would be in their 80's now. 

Low levels of radiation here

This was a picture of where we were standing just days before the accident

This was a community water fountain.  They could get water, sparkling water, or lemonade.  After they were done they turned the glass upside down on the right to be sanitized and then put it back for the next person!

The hospital

The street we were standing at

Their grocery store - she said it was kind of like a Wal-Mart

The fair was coming to down for a May Day celebration.  The accident happened 4 days before May Day though so no one ever rode on any of these rides. 

The highest I saw my geiger counter go all day

There were a lot of gas masks here that were never used.  They were always warned of possible attacks by America so they would do drills with them in case that ever happened.  No one even thought of worrying about the power plant or needing to wear them after the accident. 

After the reactor failed and they couldn't get it to shut off, they built this giant contraption about 100km away and then slide it over the reactor to contain the radioactivity. 

We ate lunch at a cafeteria in the power plant!  This cafeteria is for the workers who still work here today. (and tourists!)

Some of the locals feeding the fish

Duga Radar next to the Soldier barracks.  The radar was an elaborate early missile detection warning system because they were always afraid of America bombing them

The sign basically says Soldiers can only breath on their own.... for everything else they must rely of the Army and their Government

A statue outside the fire station honoring the firemen who were the first responders when the accident happened.

I got slightly more radiation than Jeremy did.  But both us of got about as much as you would get on a 1.5-2 hour flight.

Back to our square after a LONG day!  They shut the streets down and were having some kind of a fest!  

Chebureki - Crimean bread filled with meat and cheese.  SO GOOD!!

Jeremy's such a sucker!

Getting home was a challenge.  Our 11:20 flight didn't leave until 5:40pm! Not only that but we experienced, first hand, the corruption of this communist country!  

We made the best of our time being stuck at the airport though....

West End Performance

We missed the performance while we were gone but enjoyed the pics our friends sent us of their practices and a video of a couple of their songs!  

This was a great experience for Whitney.  I am so proud of her!