Cathedrals and Crows

Until today we'd always headed straight or turned left when leaving the apartment. So everything was new to me when we turned right and made our way to a bus stop. Snow was still thick on the ground, we tromped through banks of it to get across the street. And then happened on a cathedral less than a quarter of a mile from our digs. In the course of our 30 minute walk we passed another massive cathedral, a soviet monument that was under repair, and a busy market.





The thirty minute walk through snow and slush was required because none of the buses that we wanted to take stopped for us. Eventually Amy put together that these were on a Sunday schedule owing to a holiday. We found them all eventually, one stop up and in a queue. I haven't been able to determine if there's a color scheme for these buses that correlates to route numbers. I also haven't figured out why many buses and trolleys that have a route number like 1, 2, or 9 will also have a three digit series of numbers in their side windows.



In the afternoon we ventured out to the old central market area. We got there just as the crows were starting to do their thing. We'd seen this the day before and no one had commented on it. Even more crows than you see in this photo, Hitchcock levels of crow really, and no one looked up but us. Amy observed that the weird thing about was that they were crows and not some more common flocking bird. Our friend Brad over at Wild Boar Farms said he'd seen a National Geographic segment on the same phenomenon in Yuba City, CA.


The old part of town really is lovely. An elegant mix of run down and renovated, graffiti and gargoyles, shops and cafes. I say this not because it's surprising but because as an American you almost never hear about this city.



We stopped at a bank on the way home to pull out as many hryvnia as we could to pay for Amy's language tutoring. When possible we've tried to pay for our larger planned expenses in hryvnia. At the same time, the folks renting us the apartment and coordinating Amy's tutoring have a strong lean toward dollars. Still, we've exceeded our maximum withdrawal amount from the bank nearest our apartment. Not sure if the restriction has something to do with the current economic climate or is more general.