Mom Gogolin's Birthday and Traveling Night

I will no longer surmise the status of our jetlag or time-zone adjustment. Last night after a light dinner at the Ukrainian cafeteria on our corner, and an amazing brownie dessert and decaf cappuccinos at the Chocolate Café next door, John napped from 8 - 9, and from 9:30 - 10:30. Then we both got ready for bed (for real) and laid awake for more than an hour. So what to do after midnight in Ukraine? I taught John how to play cribbage, sans board, so no score-keeping, after a failed attempt at Wild Card (did think about calling Mom for the rules). After another hour or so we tried again. I listened to an hour of Tolstoy and other of Jim Brickman’s music on my iPod and finally succumbed. John was up again from 4:30 - 5:30, but I was out until the alarm at 8:30, and got John up at 8:50. We had requested 9:00 breakfast. That called for another nap after breakfast!

We picked up some groceries nearby, since Oksana assured us that not only do roads get closed in bad weather, but sometimes the trains get stuck, too, and we should have some food (cheese, extra water, etc.) with us. We also exchanged money and paid our bill here at the hotel. Then it was time to get packed up. Most of our clothes from my laundry stint last night have dried - my jeans will dry in use.

We have been able to call Nick and Dennis every day using Skype, and yesterday even saw each other with the webcam. Dennis wants us to call from the train tonight - we’ll give it a try. A good test of the broadband modem coverage. We waited until 7 AM home time today to wish Mom a happy birthday.


Oksana made crepes for us at her apartment this afternoon and brought them to our hotel. It is National Pancake (blini) Week here. Then she showed us where they ice skate at an outdoor rink in the center of a mall before taking us to a different restaurant for late lunch/early supper. We started out with our favorite borsh (found out what we make at home is more of a vegetable soup - need to add potatoes and red beans), the garlic rolls, grilled vegetables and tried a couple of new things we liked very much. Then we shared a blini with strawberries and ice cream.

Now (6:30 PM) we are just waiting to catch the 10:25 train to Kharkov. Wonder if we’ll sleep tonight.