the charms of Ukraine

I'm back in civilization again! We returned to Budapest last night after our time in Crazy Ukraine. I call it crazy because that's what it was--and that's what I love about Eastern Europe. The potholes in the roads are too big to even describe. Driving there is not exactly a relaxing affair. The joke is that if a person is driving straight on the road, he or she must be drunk. The only way to drive in a car without getting a jarring headache is to swerve all over the road in order to miss the potholes. I just can't describe it.

Of course, there was so much that went on that I don't even know where to begin, and I don't have much time this morning. But I'll give a quick snapshot of our last night in Ukraine. We went to visit an old man who lives in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains. He keeps bees up there, lives without electricity, and also has a vineyard. He grows 70 different varieties of grapes, breeds them, and makes wonderful wine. We built a fire up there, and the old man's son raises African catfish, so we had a fish fry up on the side of the mountain, overlooking the Ukrainian farmland and out into Romania. It was so peaceful. The old man was also quite.... amorous. :) He took quite a liking to me, told me I was beautiful, and asked if I would return next summer to live there with him on that mountain. He said we could watch the sun rise, and the stars at nigt, "just like a theatre." Quite amusing. He also gave me flowers--some peonies and irises. The first time I ever get flowers from a man, and it ends up being a 70 year old Ukrainian who speaks no English! The onlz reason I could understand all this is because he spoke Russian.... My Russian is quite rusty, but it did come in handy quite a bit in Ukraine since it' so similar to Ukrainian. I even single-handedly helped the whole group order a meal at a restaurant, and I had a lot of fun when we went to the market too.

Anywax, my time is up. I'd love to write more, but I need to meet up with the group and hit the sights of Budapest again!