MoldovAnn

We went to Korosten on the 22-23 September to celebrate Oksana and Nina’s birthdays (Igor’s sister and mother). Since the car registration is not moving along very quickly, we were back on the bus.

They’ve added a few new actual buses to the Kyiv-Korsoten route, in addition to the usual marshrutki (mini-buses). The new buses are quite comfortable, with a TV and DVD player. The driver showed “3000 Miles to Graceland“, a good movie but not exactly a “general audience” kind of film, I would say – it opens with a pretty graphic sex scene. But no one voiced any objections. The ride was comfortable and pleasant, with some actual air conditioning. The only downside of these new buses is that since they have twice the number of seats of the smaller marshrutki, and since they don’t run by schedule but rather they wait until they are full before departing, you could potentially be waiting a long time for the bus to fill up and depart.

We had invited Igor’s family to celebrate at a really great pizzeria in Korosten. His mom and sister always have so much work for any family celebration, and we wanted to do something special plus give them a break on their birthdays. So, we went straight to the pizzeria when we arrived in Korosten to finalize the order. We both were hungry, but I’m not sure that alone accounts for the absurd amount of food we ended up ordering. I think we temporarily lost of our minds. But in good Ukrainian tradition, the table should be overflowing, which it certainly was by the time Igor’s family arrived. And the food just kept coming and coming. We were there over 3 hours, and between the six of us, drank 3 bottles of champagne, a bottle of vodka, and two rounds of B-52s – cocktails made with kaluha, irish creme, and tequila, layered in a tall shot glass with the top layer of tequila set aflame. Igor had wanted to have something “exotic and fancy”, and the B-52s certainly were.

Oksana and her B-52

Igor’s plate: pizza, mushroom steak, salad, salo, mashed potatoes, cold cuts, bread, cheeses, and god knows what else.

The husbands (i.e., Oksana’s husband Vova and Igor’s dad Ivan) periodically commented how it’s better to celebrate at home. I think Ivan especially felt uncomfortable – they literally never go out to eat. It’s not only that he’s a homebody, but I know it’s also a financial issue. The fussed a bit throughout the dinner about how much it would cost us. Igor and I tried to focus on the fact that we wanted to do something special for the birthday girls, and we also assured them that compared to Kyiv prices, this feast seemed very affordable to us. Although Ivan never seemed quite convinced, Nina and Oksana both had a great time, and they both commented how fabulous it was that they didn’t have to do any work – no cooking, no cleaning, no mountain of dishes to wash when you are totally exhausted from the day. That, after all, was the point – that they should be able to relax and enjoy themselves at their own birthday party.

Happy Birthday Nina!

Happy Birthday Oksana!

Sunday they wanted to go “mushrooming” in the forest. I’m personally not a big fan of tromping around the woods looking for tiny fungi, but they love it so we headed out early in the morning. Since I’m seem to be best at finding the wrong kinds of mushrooms, I decided to focus on taking pretty pictures instead of pointing out every poisonous mushroom to Igor. Some samples below; full set on Flickr.