The adventures of DaddyBird and Kangayayaroo as they move from the United Arab Emirates to Shanghai, China, and venture to explore the Eastern hemisphere from there.
Friday morning, we got into a taxi and hurtled toward the airport. Neither of the taxis we rode in had functioning seat belts, which always makes me uncomfortable.
Back into an Air Arabia plane. Thankfully, this flight was also only about half full, so we had an extra seat between us.
They showed the same Bugs Bunny cartoon.
Many miles of white fluffy clouds.
One does not really realize how much of the desert is airborne until you see it from the top.
But, first, we went to the hydropark to see the miniature Kiev park. (You might remember our visit to Miniaturk in Instanbul – miniatures of key buildings of Turkey.) This is similar, although not quite as well developed or kept.
The hydropark is on an island in the middle of the Dnieper River. People come there to fish, swim, and bask on the beaches.
After this, we went by metro train and bus to the World War II memorial complex.
Mother of the Motherland stands on top of the museum. The museum is well worth a visit. All the displays are in Ukrainian or Russian, but there is an audio tour (which we used) and there are also printed explanations in multiple languages provided in each room. The displays were very well done and very personalized. Every display case had portraits of people involved – ordinary citizens, soldiers, and officers. The most powerful display, for me, was the bone grinder which was used to turn human bones into fertilizer. Mankind’s inhumanity is sometimes overwhelming.
The walking we did on Day Five very nearly did me in, therefore, Day Six became rest up day. We did nearly nothing other than eat and sleep.
The advantage of renting a studio apartment, having a vague itinerary, and travelling with my chef is the freshly made hot breakfasts.
We did venture out in the evening to meet our friend for dinner. Walking from the metro train station to the restaurant, we passed this apartment building that has a blacksmith shop in the ground floor. I suspect that they never lack for heat in this building.
Back to the neighborhood restaurant from Day Three, we had a lovely dinner with our friend Rupert.
Having ordered “white bread” this is what came. Rather healthy looking white bread.
This is my Greek salad.
DaddyBird’s pork entree.
My steak with wine sauce. (There were a couple of other pictures I was going to add, but I cannot seem to get them to load successfully.)
We had a pleasant, relaxing evening followed by a train ride and walk back to our apartment. However, upon arriving we discovered that the electricity was out in our building. It was just our building. DaddyBird had planned for such emergencies, so he had flashlights. The real problem was sleeping, since DaddyBird has sleep apnea and needs a CPAP device which requires electricity. It was a hot and restless night. We can say that we’ve had the complete Ukrainian experience.
The day began with a walk down to the neighborhood market.
The market area is quite large including many rows of metal sheds where people are selling EVERYTHING – shoes, clothes, purses, hair brushes, laundry detergent, etc.
At the center, is a building full of meat, fruit and vegetables.
Most of the museums are closed on Mondays, so we took a stroll through the historical heart of the city. Starting with a metro train ride. Then a downhill walk to the central area we had visited after dark before. Stopped into a phone store so that DaddyBird could get a local sim card. The challenge is finding a store where there is a clerk who speaks English. With that accomplished, it was time for lunch at a brew pub.
Another metro train ride to a stop near the funicular entrance and a ride up the funicular later, we were on the top of a hill. At the top of this hill is the St. Michael Cathedral. Quite amazing and beautiful. We continued our walk to St. Andrews Church. By this time for me, the thought of climbing the steps to St. Andrews was a no brainer. I had a seat on the bottom step and people watched while DaddyBird scaled the hill and checked it out.
We continued on down the hill gawking and taking pictures all the way. Once we reached flatland, it was time to catch a metro train back to our neighborhood and meet friends for drinks.
A rather low key day spent wondering about, looking at our surroundings. Most of the time spent sitting, eating, and talking.
To see all the pictures and commentary, click here.
Public transport is old, noisy, and bumpy, but it is reliable and cheap. You might want earplugs for riding on the subway train, but it will only cost 2 Hryvnia ($0.25 US or 0.90 AED) to ride to any destination on the three lines. To ride the trolley buses (electric) it will cost you a whopping 1.50 Hryvnia ($0.18 US or 0.67 AED) for a single ride for any distance. Both the trains and the buses run on frequent schedules. During peak times, the trains run at 3 minute intervals and off-peak 6 minutes, or so. (Back when I was travelling by public transit in Portland Oregon, the intervals were 10, 15, 20 minutes and more off-peak.)
One guess what this is. It’s not very attractive or promising, but it is serviceable.
After the rain storm, my shoes were quite soaked. Luckily, we happened to have a water heated towel rack that dried them effectively.
We spent most of the day light hours blogging and sleeping and more sleeping. In the evening, we headed out for a walk to the downtown area (approximately 2 miles). It was just a leisurely stroll, looking at the sights …
looking in store windows …
and counting the many sushi bar signs.
We stopped in here for dinner – Puzata Hata.
It turned out to be a cafeteria style restaurant where one gets a tray and goes down the line pointing to food desired.
Here is what we ended up with. Chicken, potatoes, salad, dumplings, and borsch. This spread cost us 124.55 Hryvnia ($15.27 US or 56 AED). When selecting the bottled water, I had compared the blue label and the green label to try to decipher what the difference was. I could not, so just went with the green label. Upon opening it and having it explode, I deduced that green label means sparkling water. Blue label, therefore, is probably still water. Live and learn.
We continued our walk downtown with my mood much improved with my hunger finally sated. The architecture is lovely and varied. It is refreshing to see an old, well established city with a clear identity.
We stopped into another Roshen candy shop. This one had a lovely candy making machine in the window to amaze children, young and old.
The sun went down and the lights came up. We stopped here for a while to sit on a park bench, rest my feet, and watch people go by.
The downtown area was full of people enjoying a pleasant summer’s evening. Due to the weekend the streets were closed to automobile traffic and pedestrians were free to wander where they would. Buskers and street performers were out and about.
In fact, here’s a little taste.
In the end, we took the metro train back to our neighborhood and called it a night.
We departed from the Sharjah Airport on Air Arabia. This was a new experience. We usually travel from the much, much larger Dubai airport. Sharjah airport is small and quite efficient.
This is my food court breakfast (freshly made mushroom and onion omelette), which I had to gobble down because the loud speaker started calling passengers for our flight. We arrived at the “gate” and were bussed to the plane.
Happily, the flight was only half full, so we had plenty of space and no one reclining the seats in front of us. Air Arabia was a pleasant experience. They are a low frills airline, similar to Southwest Airlines. The tickets are cheaper, but you pay fees for things like the weight of your bags (which is nice because you can pay less if you travel light or if you know you will have a heavy bag, you can pay for the weight you need). There is food on the plane, but you pay for that separately, too.
The safety video was the best I’ve seen because they cleverly cast only children. It was actually interesting to watch.
It was a bit hot, especially since we had been bussed out to the plane on the tarmac rather than walking through an air conditioned gangway. However, I always come prepared for these eventualities.
I was disappointed to find that I was not allowed to play with my remote control car. All that aisle space and I can’t race up and down it?
I never did figure out this illustration of something I am not supposed to do. My best guess is that when the plane crashes, before I exit, I am supposed to remove my shoes and leave my briefcase behind. I assure you, I will not be taking off my shoes during a crash. My bags are on their own, but until they provide ample leg space, my shoes are sticking with me.
There was entertainment provided, beginning with a Bugs Bunny cartoon. It was nice to see old Bugs. I haven’t seen him in ages. We were amused at how much kissing and groping there was in this little cartoon. I wouldn’t be allowed to have this cartoon in my library.
After a short flight (less than 5 hours), we arrived in the verdant Ukraine.
We ventured out in the evening just as a summer rainstorm let loose. We waited under a sheltered area until the worst was over. Thunder, lightning, rivers rushing down hill. All very exciting. Needless to say my shoes were soon soaked. I only brought one pair. 😦
Living the Travel Channel 