Donetsk - Evening and 1st full day

Hi.  After a day sweltering in Kiev Thursday, I packed (dirty clothes) and walked to the bus stop for the bus that would take me to Borispil airport.  All domestic flights take off from Terminal A.  I was about two hours early for my flight, so I went to a local cafe and had a coke and a water and read for 45 minutes.  When I went back check-in was open and I checked my bag and got a boarding pass.  My flight left on time.  It was a Boeing 737, six seats in a row, three on each side.  The plane was full.  Even though it's only an hour's flight, there was beverage and snack service.  The snack was a meat-filled bread that was tasty.  Roman was waiting for me when I arrived and once again baggage was not off-loaded to a baggage carousel but driven up on the wagons while the mob rushed in seeking their own bags.  We drove right to my apartment.  Here's how it works:  sometimes people make extra money by moving out of their apartment for the days that they can rent it out.  One of Roman's friends, Alexander, moved out of this terrific little apartment.  It's small but has windows on two sides so there's a breeze.  It has a washing machine and A/C which is a luxury!  But I didn't need the A/C. It costs about $30/night.  So for five nights I will pay what one night would cost in a hotel.  Donetsk was several degrees cooler than Kiev on arrival.  I think it was 19 degrees when we arrived.

The owner was there when we arrived, as was Viktor, one of the young men I had baptized on my last trip.  When they left, Roman and I walked down to a supermarket to stock up on breakfast food - and laundry detergent, then Roman went home or to work, I'm not sure which.  I finally settled in and went to sleep around 11:30 or shortly thereafter.

This morning is cloudy and cool.  I can't tell you how happy I am to see a cloudy day!  Every day in Kiev has been full of sunshine and heat.  Today here is refreshing and I expect it will rain before the day is finished.  When I got up, I headed to the kitchen to start a load of wash and to make coffee.  While the wash was running, I caught up on email, had coffee and really dense dark bread with butter and sour cherry preserves.  Let me say a word about butter.  All I ever have in the States is sweet cream butter.  In the years when I milked cows and made butter, I often let the cream "ripen" before making butter so that it was sour cream butter.  This kind of butter is standard in Europe and has a richer flavor that I suspect most Americans wouldn't like, not because it isn't good, but because it's very different from what we're used to.  I don't know about you but I was raised to have an abhorrence of sour milk and anything made from it.

Roman will be here shortly.  He had to go to court at 9 for some traffic infraction that he was challenging.  He's quite a scrapper, our Roman.

Since my apartment is in the center of Donetsk, I will walk around later and take some pictures which I didn't have a chance to do on my last visit.  So, until later.
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OK, now it's later.  I feel like I walked 100 miles at a rapid pace.  Donetsk is really a lovely city.  In Soviet times, Donetsk was known as the City of Roses.  This is the perfect time to be here because there are beds of roses in full bloom everywhere, many of them old time roses full of beautiful scent that fills the air.  All along the main street there are areas of gardens and parks.  We stopped in the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel and for the first time in Ukraine, I took pictures inside the church.  Only two but I kept expecting to get thrown out.  We walked to where the owner of the apartment I'm renting was working renovating another apartment.  He came out covered in plaster dust and we walked down the street to get a coffee.  He's the third Sasha (Alexandr) I've met in Ukraine and I've liked all of them.  I've liked all the Sergeis and Andrey's also.  After we left Sasha, Roman and I walked to a restaurant and were there for a few hours.  I had a locally brewed beer, very cheap.  It wasn't the worst beer I ever had.  A half liter cost less than a buck.  We then both had grilled pork chops served with cabbage salad (sic!) and french fries, topped off with dessert.  Roman had tiramisu and I had apple pie with ice cream.  It really was apple pie but unsweetened with apples a bit crunchy.  What should I expect.  It's Donetsk, not New York!  The cappuccino was also not good.  So I shan't return there.

After lunch, it was 5pm so we walked back to the apartment and have been vegetating.  I took my second load of wash out of the machine and draped clothing over every surface.  Sasha hasn't gotten around to putting up lines yet since he just bought the machine second hand.

It's been a delightful day as Roman and I planned how best to conduct a wedding during worship service on Sunday as well as how to maximize my time.  The leader of the Mariupol group will come on Sunday.

Here's a link to some pics I took today.  https://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/20110610?authkey=Gv1sRgCMS48pHEu-60Gg