Kiev days

If you've been following my blog, you know how much I've been on the move.  The conference yesterday marked the end of my insane travel schedule and my body could finally let down.  This morning dawned beautiful and sunny and clear with low humidity and I just didn't want to drag my carcass out of bed.  I finally got up around nine but really still lay around in bed reading.  Rostek and Danny started stirring around 10.  We had coffee and set out for the city.  We had options:  we could go to a museum, we could go to a river beach or we could take a boat ride on the River Dnipro.  We decided on the boat ride.  We made a stop at McDonalds.  Rostek and Danny ate and I had a cappuccino.  It is a holiday weekend "Kiev Days" and people were out in a holiday spirit.  The boat ride was about an hour long up and down the river.  It kind of amazed me that people swam in the river at the many beaches because the river runs right through the center of the city and is rather filthy.  It looks blue in the pictures, but as you see it from the boat, it's kind of brown.  After the boat ride, we walked endlessly through crowds.  Danny (Denis) was in English vocabulary learning mode so I was teacher all day.  We stopped for lunch at a cafeteria and I just had a bowl of borsch, a rye roll and a big glass of Kvass.  When I got tired of walking around 5, I said "OK, boys, you can go wherever you want but I'm going home."  We all ended up coming come and I took a nap and Rostek cooked supper.   It featured cabbage salad with onions and dill.  Dill is an herb that is widely used in cooking here.  Salad typically does not have dressing.  I think Danny squeezed a little lemon juice but it got swallowed up by the dill.  It's about 10pm now and the boys are off seeing Johnny Depp and his latest Pirates movie.  I am going to sleep as soon as this is sent because I have to get up early tomorrow to go to the center to meet my friend Dmitri to go to church with him.  He is a featured singer in their choir.  So, good night.  Oh, here's the link to the photos from today:  https://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/20110528?authkey=Gv1sRgCMCT4cWD25ubUA#