Zaporosia

We drove to Zaporosia on Saturday or Zaporizhizhia - it's pronounced more like the first, but normally spelled with the extra z's in English. We live closer to Zaporosia than Dnepro, but it takes longer to drive downtown because you have to drive across the dam. The dam was built a long time ago, because it was rebuilt after WWII, it was sabotaged during the Nazi occupation. It is a long winding road over the dam toward the city's downtown. Right now the high side of the river is covered with ice, after all the cold weather we have had lately, here is the low side, a little hard to see through the railing. The dam was once considered one of the seven wonders of the modern world, the rapids protecting the Chorista Island were dangerous.

Zaporosia is famous for a number of things, it was the home of the Zaporosian cossacks, the same island in the river that was home to their sich, or fort,
was one of the first places settled by the German Mennonite in the time of Catherine the Great. In Soviet times it became a steel and manufacturing center, with a nearby nuclear plant. There are about as many people living there as in Winnipeg, maybe more- but they have less malls.













At the end of the main street of the city, overlooking the river is a large Lenin statue, I noticed this summer his upraised arm seems to point toward the dam.
Zaporosia has a beautiful wide main street, named Leninia of course, with some lovely buildings built at the height of Soviet decorative design, as you can see in the photos I took of the building we parked in front of. The store advertising van shoes is a bike shop- bicycle in Russian is "veloceped" so it's name is basically velo-city - remember what looks like a capital B is pronounced closer to an English V. Leninia is lined with stores, many with high-priced name brand clothing and restaurants, including the Chinese restaurant we discovered this fall.

















I did some people watching, there were a fair number of people going about their business on foot or on the buses and marshukas which were packed. Older women seem to prefer the really long fur coats, while a number of younger ladies seemed to be more concerned with fashion- I saw one holding hands with her guy, whose stacking-clad knees were peeking out between her tall boots and skirts.










I also spotted two older ladies who seemed to be outside for a smoke break, I assumed they worked inside the building, it seemed the door next to them was very busy with people coming and going. Many places allow smoking inside, but some do not. Since I am sensitive to cigarette smoke, it bothers me more than Garry. Reminds me of the old days when I used to make him shower as soon as he got home from working the Bingo in Zurich, Ontario for either the hockey or figure skating fundraiser, I couldn't stand to be in that room, it would even ooze off his hair when he got home.




The reason we went to Zaporosia was not just to go through the Mc Donalds drive thru for lunch (the inside tends to be really crowded in the winter) was to try and find a travel agency Garry remembered seeing there- and we did. There was a girl that was pretty good in English and we booked a two week trip to Sharm El Sheik Egypt on the Red Sea. We left a deposit and she photocopied our passports to start things off- she was worried that the price might be different for non-Ukrainians, but we have our temp resident stamps now, so no problems. Monday she called to confirm the price, and Garry drove in with the rest of the grivna to pay for it. Tuesday we can go back and get the tickets. We have to take the train to Kiev Saturday evening (flying out at 2 am) to get the plane- no tickets from Dnepro until almost the end of February!








Here's Garry with his new haircut for our trip (he got it cut today in the village) and the document he got at the travel place saying we have purchased an all- inclusive trip to Egypt. Tickets and vouchers tomorrow.