Monday, May 14, 2012

Peter & Luba's Dacha

Yesterday we spent the day with Peter and Luba, who are friends of Vera, at their Dacha, or cabin outside the city.  What a perfect day!  And yet a day full of surprises.  The Dacha was not at all what I expected.  It looked like an old water tank, but it was so cool inside.  Peter ordered this shelter while working in the military.  It was designed to house people in -50 degree C weather, and had a heater built into the floor--as well as electricity.



We brought Alex and his friend, Igor, as well as Malvina's friends, Kristina and Ivaness.  Ivaness is the boy who ordered Malvina the hand-painted scarf she was so excited to show me.  She was even more excited to introduce me to Ivaness.  He was trying to score points and told me I looked really good for my age------not sure that scored him anything.  He's 25 years old, from Armenia, and she knows him from ping pong.  They looked like really good friends.  The day couldn't have been more fun.

The girls prepared salads with veggies we picked from their garden.  Ivaness and Peter cooked the shashlik.  Alex and Igor went swimming and fishing in the big lake 50 feet from the Dacha.  We threw frisbees and swung in a hammock.  Alex and Igor had fun shooting each other with an air gun.

Ivaness and Malvina.

Fresh from the garden.

The separate kitchen of the Dacha.


The boys played crocodile.




Luba serving us shashlik.



Igor's cool, wet hair.


Using Google translate to say it was nice to meet me.




3 comments:

  1. Fun! Much prettier weather than when I was there. :)

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  2. All that yummy food's making miss Ukraine! What a fun day, with so many smiles. I love the 'bunker' retreat how. -50 degrees?? It reminds me of a fallout shelter. It's nice that he's fixed it up like that as a retreat.

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  3. It does look like a water tank but very cozy inside.
    How fun. Our best outing was to the village and going to the forest. We had meat on a stick too. Wish our weather was as nice as yours though. What a fun day!

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