Vodka, Bears and Elephants: My Family and Other Animals

The big news this week was that Mum and Dad came to visit with David and Ola, my aunt and uncle, which has been just lovely. It’s been a great week; we’ve been to lots of places, eaten in many restaurants and had a fantastic time. We were joined for most of the week by Ola’s cousin Oleg and his wife and son and some of her other cousins from Kharkov – Garrick, Lyuda, their daughter and granddaughter.
I think that we have done every touristy thing that is possible in Kyiv (apart from eating chicken kievs!). Oleg arranged everything for us all week, and all our “new” cousins have been incredibly kind, generous and welcoming.
It was great to be able to show everyone the zoo, Steve and I arranged that everyone could pat the rhino if they wanted.
We have seen probably every church in Kyiv. Mum and Dad have visited a Dacha – Oleg took them to his one.
We’ve all bought tourist souvenirs, Mum and Dad had some space in their suitcase to fill on the way home as they brought almost a full suitcase of supplies for us (mostly marmite). This was all achieved with the aid of our cousins who negotiated prices so we didn’t have to pay rip-off tourist prices!
We’ve drunk a lot of vodka and toasted everything we can think of.
Steve saw his first ever female stag beetle at the folk architecture open air museum.
We’ve heard the Ukrainian Army practicing cannon fire for the Independence Day celebrations, rather too close to the hotel, and seen the Air-Force practicing their fly-past.
We’ve eaten a lot of Ukrainian food, Georgian food and Italian food in some wonderful restaurants with even better conversation.
We’ve listened to traditional music at the open air museum and in a restaurant, and have seen Larissa dancing to the music.
It’s all been excellent fun, but over far too quickly.
In other news:
We have a new baby zebra at the zoo that is about 2 weeks old now. It’s lovely with very long gangly legs and brown stripes – the stripes will darken as it gets older.
Steve and I have decided to adopt a kitten. There is a big problem in Kyiv with stray animals and there are so many kittens near the zoo. For several weeks Steve and I have passed by a particularly friendly black kitten that seems to have no family. We have been bringing her little bits of food and have made friends. I just don’t like the thought of her all on her own trying to survive a Ukrainian winter, so after much thought, we have brought her home. She’s a mad little thing, but very purry (or “murry” if you pronounce it the Ukrainian way). We have decided to call her жук which is Russian for Bug.
The zoo welders have made another fantastic item for the elephant – an automatic drinker from a design I made, so Boy can have fresh clean water whenever he wants it, rather than having to ask the keepers for a drink.
I have discovered this week that my MSc thesis on gorilla nutrition has made it into the Institute of Zoology library in London, so I’m quite pleased with that.
We’ve just seen two of the baby coatis out and about in their enclosure with their mum – gorgeous!
I’m sorry if the photos are in the wrong order, but I’m “borrowing” Mum and Dad’s photos as well as Steve’s.