SIGHT-SEEING

Today we decided to take in a few sights of the Ukrainian countryside. First on our agenda was to visit an old Cossack fort. We're learning a lot about how this country works in the process though. Take for instance the taxi drivers. A few things to note: 1) The roads here are bad. They have many, many deep potholes. (Chicago would be envious). 2) The taxi drivers here are a lot like those in Chicago-they speed, all take different routes but get you to your destination, and all make you slightly nervous as they whip in and out of traffic, etc. 3) There are no real lanes in the streets either. This really makes it interesting as most people drive in the middle of the road (presumably to avoid the bad potholes) and have to move over, cross into oncoming traffic, etc. Yeeehaaaa! Giddyup cowboy. Another thing is that with limited communication skills between driver and passenger, there's always a little uncertainty about your destination. Take for example our trip to the fort. These three pictures show where we were dropped off. In language we barely understood, we were dropped at this T in the road and told to go "that way (pointing) to fort" and "that way (pointing in the opposite direction) museum". We nod our heads, exit the vehicle and start walking. After about 300 meters, we actually do find the fort (we also went in the other direction but the history museum was closed and some nice man in army fatigues didn't really seem like he wanted to discuss why, so we left that area).
Anyway, the fort was really cool. Logan loved it because he got to run around outside. (Being cooped up in the hotel room and orphanage is tough for a 6 year old, but he has been really good) So today the boy got to run around and stretch his legs. The fort has/is being rebuilt to show how what it would have looked like centuries ago. I'll let most of the pictures do the talking, but there was a cool church building that we got to go inside and see the beautiful wall tapestry. Enjoy the pictures. Also, Logan wants to say, "What's up" to all his classmates. He also says, "Thank you for the emails, he really appreciated them." He can't wait to return, tell you about his trip and he will also have a surprise for everyone in his class.
That's it for today, tomorrow we'll talk more about some of the fun things about being in a foreign land. Until then, peace fron the Webb's!