Spring=Potatoes

And summer=potatoes, and fall=potatoes, and winter=potatoes – at least in Ukraine. In spring, the country is obsessed with planting potatoes. (In summer it’s weeding the garden, including the vast potato patch; in Autumn it’s harvesting potatoes, which is much harder work than planting them; and in winter it’s eating potatoes over and over and over). Igor was called home by his parents to help with the spring planting this past weekend. I meekly asked if I should help to, and didn’t ask twice after he told me no. Instead, I planned an outing with my colleague and friend Elena.

After our usual Saturday morning fitness class, we planned to go about 90 minutes north of Kyiv to Ivankiv to visit my friend Valentina and to see a couple of the youth centers in the area. Elena is from Bulgaria, and although she’s been in Ukraine almost 2 years, she has not had much opportunity to travel outside of Kyiv. She’s heard me talk a lot about the youth centers and has expressed interest in seeing one or two of them. Perfect outing for a spring Saturday. Unfortunately, my car didn’t seem to agree. The good thing was that the car decided to stage its rebellion while we were still in Kyiv. I don’t want to even think what a nightmare it would have been to deal with a broken down car 100 kilometers from home!

It was the weirdest thing – suddenly, pressing the gas pedal caused no reaction in the car at all. The engine was running, but I couldn’t accelerate. Fortunately, we were able to coast to the side of the street to a not-too-busy spot. I called my mechanic, who called a tow truck for me. By the way, a tow truck is called “evakuator”, which for some reason I think is kind of funny. Anyway, after about an hour the tow truck arrived, hoisted the car up, and we enjoyed a pleasant chat with the nice driver on the way to the mechanic’s. Elena loves talking to taxi drivers, and I always find it amusing and entertaining to ride with her as she never fails to get a driver chatting. It didn’t take much to get this driver talking. He was particularly interested to know how much gasoline costs in the US. The last I heard, I told him, was that it was about $3/gallon, but I can never remember how many liters are in a gallon. Not to worry – he knew exactly – 3.8. (I just heard today that it’s up to $4/gallon.) It’s up to 6 hrivna/liter in Kyiv, which is about $1.20/liter or $4.50/gallon. When Ukrainians complain to me that they pay higher prices than in the US, I usually tell them they are lucky they’re not paying western European prices (i.e. $2.40/liter or $9/gallon as it was in Netherlands in February). But still, the prices are painful.

After dropping the car off at the mechanic and relieving my wallet of 318 hrivna (about $63), Elena and I were getting went in search of lunch. We ended up at a nice little Armenian cafe where we both got “lavash pizza”. It was fabulous, and along with a beer was a perfect way to chill after the stress of the car adventure. We were nearby the Botanical Gardens, which Elena had never been to, so we walked over in hopes of seeing the magnolia trees in bloom.

The line was ridiculous. In true Ukrainian fashion, on one of the first beautiful spring Saturdays, only one ticket window was working. The line snaked around several times, spilling out into the street. Even more brilliantly, only one gate was open and it was being used both for entering and exiting the gardens. The crowds of people pushing against each other in attempt to get into and out of the place would have been amusing if I wasn’t waiting to participate in the mayhem myself.

Once we finally got inside, we followed the crowds to the magnolia garden. I really regret that I didn’t have my camera with me! The tulip beds were gorgeous – and so many different varieties! We enjoyed strolling under the big pink and white blooms of the magnolias, and then found a quiet spot in the shade of a tall tree covered in delicate white buds. I don’t know what kind of tree it was, but the aroma was just perfect – kind of like honeysuckle. We sat and talked, enjoying the sunshine and tree’s perfume.

Sunday was gray and rainy, but tons of people were out enjoying the warmer weather, despite the drizzle. Dems Abroad got together to watch a recording of the Clinton-Obama Pennsylvania debate. What a load of garbage that was. Most of us left after the first hour when not a single question of substance, like about their policies, was asked. A thoroughly disappointing debate, which provide any information that would actually help one to make an educated decision about a candidate. Hopefully this primary mess will be over in a day, and then we can get onto the mess of the actual presidential election.

And as for the car, I didn’t really understand what the mechanic said happened , but he only charged 30 hrivna ($6) to fix it! We have now spent about the same on the car as we actually paid for the car – a hundred something to register it, and nearly 900 in tune up and repairs. Still, I can’t complain! We certainly couldn’t find another decent car for $2000. We might be taking our first long car trip/vacation over the upcoming holidays – stay tuned!

Oh, and the upcoming holidays are: 27 April, Orthodox Easter; 1-2 May, International Labor Day; 9 May, Victory Day. Most of the country gets all of next week off (28 April – 2 May), although UN only officially takes 28 April (for Easter) and 1 May as holidays. And many people will add on another week of vacation through 9 May, so the country is, for all intents and purposes, closed for 2 weeks in May. Igor and I, of course, couldn’t manage to organize ourselves in time to take advantage of all the free days, but we’re looking to take a few days right after the “May holidays”, which I hope will actually be better for us – everyone else will be back at work and we can enjoy some quiet, relaxing travels together. Let’s hope it works out!