Зелений гай and the ☭ metro stop

Church of the Holy Martyr Alexander, проспект Косиора. I guess any day that ends with a view like this can't be too bad!

Following up with the test, today I sat on the edge of our couch/bed, anxiously biting my nails for about 20 minutes, and then finally took action. The results remain to be seen... but I feel like a weight has lifted.

My friend Tanya invited me out to her side of town this afternoon. She lives near Proletarska, the final metro stop on one end of the red line. Tanya had a lot of warnings about her part of town... but I quite liked it, starting with the metro stop itself.

This is my new fav metro stop. It looks really serious and imposing, made of marble in rather somber shades. And it's got the ☭ everywhere, so cool! Obviously looking at USSR stuff never ever gets old.

Tanya and I wandered through зелений гай. Or rather, we walked for a while, then found a bench and started drinking beer.

Green Park (or possibly Green Grove? I think it's Ukrainian)

A nice day to be in the woods

Cheers!

Even though every other person in the park had a beer (or a baby stroller. or both.) we were super nervous about drinking in public. Like I mentioned before, it's technically against the law. And once upon a time my work colleagues and I were sharing a very grown-up meal of Thai takeout and a bottle of wine in a coastal park in Anchorage, Alaska and the bike cops busted us for the wine like we were on a King Kong drinking rampage of destruction, so I don't have good memories of parks and low-content alcoholic beverages. But Tanya and I were fine. There was one stomach-fluttering moment when some cops walked by, but nothing happened. We're probably the only people in Kharkov who freak out about this.

Since this park includes several amusement park rides, we paid 10 grivna ($1.25) to get a bird's eye view from an old Ferris wheel. The rest of the rides appeared to be for kids, although there was a tempting trampoline area.

The area around зелений гай park is full of nice residential neighborhoods. It was different than all other parts of Kharkov that I've seen. In fact, it almost seems American. I really enjoyed walking through this part of town.

Lots of homey brick buildings here

We ended our night with a meal at Tanya's apartment. Tanya is an English teacher. She has penpals all over the world and speaks amazing English. She's also a purveyor of secondhand shop books, a.k.a. a real lifesaver! While the Kindle courageously served its function through many trips and, uh, completely accidental drops, it recently suffered a fatal fall and has been laid to rest. Tanya's books now keep me going on those days when I crave a good read in my native tongue. She sent me home today with a new book; in the thirty odd minutes it took me to reach home I had already devoured forty pages!

All in all, a pretty wonderful afternoon. I hope that you, my dear readers, are having a fantastic weekend of your own!

PS: Click here to see Зелений гай in winter!