Memories of a wonderful cruise down the Dnieper River

[lovetosew]

It saddens me to watch the news because we had such a wonderful cruise down the Dnieper in 2009.  We landed in Odessa and saw places of which they speak such as Khearson and Kiev.  The highlight of our trip was being treated to an evening in a home of parents  an American neighbor of ours.  They had an apartment in Stavastopol.   Not much English but much home made wine and vodka and food. At the end of the evening we were piled into a Yugo like taxi, 6 of us to go back to the ship.  We made it safely.  We had the opportunity to entertain her parents in our home in North Carolina when they were allow to travel to the U.S. before Putin put the stop to that. It was the highlight of our trip.  It is a beautiful country and such  a shame.

[jpalbny]

Ukraine is indeed lovely. Chris and I spent a week there independently in 2019. I'm glad we got to go then, as who knows when/if we'll get to go back?

 

It's horrible to see what is happening now in these places that we visited. We passed through many of the Metro stations in Kyiv; I can't imaging being packed in there, using them as a makeshift bomb shelter.

[lovetosew]

It has been a number of years but Julia's parents apartment in Stavastapol was so small. But the welcome was so warm and wonderful.  They spoke a mix of Russian/Ukranian because Julia's parents worked at the Inkerman Winery close by.  Julia's mom was a chef there. It made me so nervous to serve her dinner in my home because I am not "from scratch" cook but no one noticed. They way I understand it, Stavastapol has changed hands many times; kind of like Alabama being part of the south, then the north and then the south and then the north again. But the population has a strong moral core despite attempts to eliminate the church. Let good prevail.

[PhD-iva]

I guess I never heard about Alabama ever being part of the “North”!

[lovetosew]

I did not mean to over simplify.   My heart goes out to all of them fleeing their homes.  Have a wonderful and safe Sunday.