The Kharkiv Zoo

Today, June 28, is Constitution Day in the Ukraine, an official holiday. (We see here the flowers laid at the foot of the Schevshenko Monument in honor of the battles fought by Ukrainians throughout the years to secure their freedom.) We thought we would take a chance and walk two blocks to the Craft Museum to see if it was open. It wasn't. Then we thought we'd take another chance and walk two additional blocks to see if the Art Museum was open. It wasn't. So we decided to go to Schevshenko Gardens and visit the Zoo. It was a perfect day for this excursion - it was hot, but not humid, and not as hot as it has been - so as long as we stayed in the shade it was really pleasant outside.


We stopped at a really beautiful "Apoteka" (Pharmacy) for some band aids and what I hope is Hydrogen Peroxide (the band aids cost a fortune - $5!!), and passed by the former KGB Building (now the Ministry of the Interior) and the famous statue of Shevskenko on the way there.






































The first really good thing that happened was that we spotted a vendor selling freshly popped popcorn just outside the zoo entrance!! Ed has been longing for popcorn, and I wish I could find some popping corn so that we could make some at home - but so far no luck. (I did find nice cheap vases yesterday though - they were $5 each and they look like they were made for our apartment. I also found paper towel and good TP, so no more trips to Target for me!) We bought a medium popcorn and it was great! It cost a lot ($2 each) to go to the Zoo - that's not a lot for us, but for the people who live here it would be quite an expenditure.

I never liked Zoos very much, except for the Children's Zoo and Petting Zoo in Central Park. I find them very sad places. I'll never forget watching the Polar Bear in the Berlin Zoo (when I was there with Donna in 1990) pace back and forth endlessly, pausing only to beat his head against the wall occasionally. Well, that scene was repeated here. I watched a poor fox, all alone in a very small cage, pacing back and forth.

The animals looked very down in the mouth in the heat (the polar bear had no shade at all, and only green scummy water to take a dip in), with flies buzzing all around, and things not smelling too good in many spots. They had a very good collection of birds but, again, the conditions were so appalling that we couldn't really enjoy or appreciate them.

The only animals that seemed at all happy were the paper-mache or topiary ones, like these panda bears!! There were lots of kids at the zoo though, and that was fun to see - especially in the petting zoo area. There also were all sorts of rides for kids in and around the zoo, as well as several poor guys dressed up in clown and cartoon character suits (e.g, Spider Man), with huge heads that they had to put on over their own heads. It must have been over 100 F inside those things, and we saw several with their "heads" off, drinking beer and trying to cool off! We opted for "morosivo" (ice cream) - a delicious vanilla bar covered in thick dark chocolate.





We made our way back home, stopping of course at our markets to stock up on our favorite cereal, bottled water, juice, borscht, perogies and fruit. Ed and Belle were exhausted and decided to take a little rest this afternoon in the cool of the air conditioned bedroom.
I'm working on the blog and soon will stop to get ready for our dinner at a restaurant we read about called "Melnitsa" (The Mill), which is in a mill on an island in the river at the edge of the old city and serves what is supposed to be excellent Ukrainian and Georgian food. This is the perfect weather to enjoy something like that. It took us forever to figure out how to ask "Is the restaurant open tonight?" and even longer to figure out how to dial the phone, and then get the right number when it became clear that the phone numbers in our guide book are outdated. But we finally got through and, I think, asked the right question. Anyway, someone answered the phone, and I'm pretty sure she said "Dah" when I asked (I think) "Is this Restaurant Melnitsa?" So, we're going. It involves a taxi ride - you can only get there by car - and it will be interesting to see how well we do in directing the taxi there and getting one to take us home!