into the world: Fur and Ice

Hey everyone,

By the time you read this we will be in Ethiopia...far away from the cold and snow of the Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. The brief version of the story is this...we decided to fly past the Balkans to the former Soviet countries of Ukraine and Moldova. To get to these countries, we first had to go to Romania. Romania was cold, Moldova was cold and boring (boring is a compliment) and Ukraine was cold and amazing....and under a 2 inch sheet of ice. Ukraine had everything we were hoping Russia would have. To top it off, the food was great and not too expensive. A Ukrainian meal (picture comfort food but add a ton more butter) that fills you up all day is $3. For something similar in north Italy we would have to pay $25. Anyway...we enjoyed this very much.

So as the rest of the world's ice sheets are melting, one seems to have settled over Ukraine for the long haul. The streets, the sidewalks, windows, cars, roofs, everything is covered in 2 inches of ice. Its not like a brief ice storm, the city is covered in ice and has been for weeks apparently. Today it was -15, tomorrow we hear -25. Unlike Seattle, this seems to not faze these people at all. We were moving carefully along worried about breaking a hip being passed by 80 year old women who didn't seem to notice it. Even worse, the stairs of the city nearly all made of marble. So when there happens to be no ice on them, just snow, making it incredibly slick.

We are pretty worked right now: Italy, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine..then back through Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt and finally Ethiopia in 9 days. A lot of trains and a lot of buses. One of our legs on a bus was unforgetable: 18 hours from Bucharest to Chisinau. We have named this journey the "Halitosis Express". More on that later...

Thanks for checking in...

The mayo brat...