20 May 2017
We decided, since it was threatening rain, to explore our neighborhood. That way if it did start raining we would not have far to go to get home and dry. As always there was much to see. Lots of dead ends but that is partly because so much here is gated and if you don’t have access you cannot even walk into a gated area. Sometimes gates are open and anyone can walk in – sometimes that is not the case. Across Polia (our street) there is an apartment complex that is gated but the car entrance is never closed. Sometimes ours is open as well but not usually.
First we walked up Polia like going to work, but we turned left instead of right. We had not walked on this street before and it was interesting to see what was there. I didn’t take pictures as we are cautioned not to take pictures of government buildings and I was not sure what was and was not one – better safe than sorry. This street is actually quite short and ends on the major road that comes between our apartment and the river. There was obviously something going on as there were booths and stages and coverings set up on the river side and there were a lot of cars with bicycles and people dressed in serious biking gear. We decided not to walk into the crowds and turned around to walk back down the street.
We crossed the street and passed a building that we discovered (with our limited Russian) is a music academy and we could hear pianos and other instruments playing. We walked up the path and up some stairs in the back but ended in a dead end with a muddy walkway before us so we turned around and went down the stairs and back out to the street.
As we walked up the street we tried to find a way into as small community we have seen with some actual houses – not apartment buildings – we were not successful. We went down some more stairs and walked back a ways but ended up coming back the way we came and back up the stairs. Then we crossed the road (that we usually climb up to go to work) and started to explore that road. As we went along we saw some very interesting houses. Some very new. Also some other academies. There are lots of them here. Some are high schools and some are colleges. It seems children can specialize in high school. There is a planetarium on our road to work that seems to have high school children going in each day and it seems to have a tall building attached to it.
So here is some of what we saw.
I titled this a Domed Doma. We think the roof is very interesting and modern building.
You can see the synagogue we pass on our way to Church to the right of a tall building. It is called ??????? ????? ???? – the Steps Business Center. We noticed the clock and its closeness to the synagogue.
This is a sign you see everywhere – ??????? – Notary. There are so many of them how would you ever know which ones to choose?
Great house. We pass this house often and I have always liked it – it is neat and clean and well taken care of. The sign over the door says 1890. There are flower boxes on each upstairs window and they have lovely flowers in them.
This is a view into the back and garage of the same house.
And like often happens here – right next door is…
And across the street a dumpster. Interestingly these are all around. People just walk by and throw their trash bags in. When it gets to this stage a truck usually comes and empties it but often the mess around it stays until someone – not sure who – cleans it up.
The building with the interesting roof is called the Circus and it actually is a Circus – I understand with animals and acrobats and trapezes and all. There is always music coming from it as well.
This bowling alley is a short walk from our house and we passed it on our way home today.
Sitting in front of the bowling alley is a chair with pointy stick like nails on it and this bowling ball game.
Carl trying out the bowling ball game – these are actually bowling balls and heavy – but same idea.
As we neared the road to our apartment complex we noticed the road was blocked off with police cars at the end and blocking the side roads and rerouting people who came near. This picture shows a nice quiet road – not usually the case. Not sure how those cars are getting around but they are not there. This was about 2 or so and it may have been blocked for a while.
Why is this major road blocked off?
A few bikers on the road.
A couple more bikers. what is going on?
In our complex there are flowers planted in the tire planters and also around the playground area. Here is a picture of some of them. They are lovely.
The playground freshly painted and ready to use.
This is a picture that I probably should not have taken. This woman is sweeping her walkway with a little broom. The funny part is a big broom is sitting nearby but she prefers the small one that makes her bend way over. Makes no sense to us – traditions.
This is the entrance into our apartment building. You climb up the stairs you can see Elder Morgenegg’s head.
This is our address. It says St. Polia, 2 – which means 2 Polia Street.
This is right inside the gate at the top of the stairs going into our building. You have to punch in a code to get the gate to open.
These are the mailboxes in our apartment – there are no keys so you would probably not want your mail to come here – but our utility bills are delivered here so we check for those. Our box is on the top just to the left of the plant.
So here you see (from our stair balcony) the lopped off trees are growing.
This is an interesting thing. Our heat is steam (through radiators) and the steam comes through these pipes that are covered with what seems to be rags. They are all over, some on the ground and some up high.
So we are home and have been for a while. After we got home we saw that there were actually people swimming in the Dnepr River. I don’t know why anyone would do that. Then we saw runners on the walkway and more bikers that seemed to be dressed more seriously. So we googled it and we found that today and tomorrow are the annual Dnepropetrovsk Triathlon Fest. If you want to you can check it out at:
https://ukraine-kiev-tour.com/2017/dnipro-dnepr-triathlon-fest.html
It is now 6 and the road is still blocked. We still see bikers out and runners. We heard some excitement a little while ago and wondered if it was the winner finishing but it is still going on. It is so loud we can hear it without opening our windows and if we open our windows it is really loud. The center seems to be across the road from where we saw the bikers in the beginning of our walk. As we have read about it this is a huge thing and continues tomorrow. We don’t know how long the road will be closed or what happens tomorrow for sure but no doubt it is a party today and probably tonight as well. It seems we live in a very exciting city.
Hope you enjoyed going along and learning some more about this great city.