My Adventures Where in the world is ….

Well, we had enchiladas the week before and finished them up on Friday night so no Mexican food for us today.  We did however go on another walk and although I am posting this almost a week later it will give you some more flavor of what life is like here in DnepropetrovsFirst, a little history.  Elder Morgenegg and I celebrated our 20th anniversary with a trip to San Francisco and we included a trip down the Monterrey coast to San Jose.  There one of the things we saw was the Winchester House.  You may know the name Winchester as associated with rifle and guns but after he died his widow moved to San Jose and built a very interesting and very strange house.  It was there for the first time I saw a door that went nowhere.  It was an outside door and you would expect it would have a balcony or stairs outside but in this case there was nothing.  I believe it was on the second floor but it may have been higher.  Here is a picture I found on line.  I have wonderful pictures in storage but no access to them now.

Winchester House door to nowhere

Up the hill we walk every day there is a building with a similar door to nowhere.  They have recently dug up the ground beneath the door and poured concrete.  We are interested to see what happens next – assuming it is completed within the next five and a half months – you never know how long things will take here.

Door to nowhere

Like last year the tire planters here are now blooming.  What an ingenious way to use old tires!

Tire planters outside our apartment.

Next to our apartment building is a very nice nursery/kindergarten school.  There is an entrance from our parking into the school.  We often say we could cut some time and walking off our route if we could just walk through the school – but we never do.  Here is a picture of this back entrance.

Back entrance into school.

So last Saturday we took a walk to see a mall that Elder Morgenegg has been wanting to see.  It is called the Grand Plaza Mall and is next to the Dnepropetrovsk Grand Hotel.  Here is picture of the outside.

The Grand Plaza Hotel

Inside it is even more exclusive than the mall where Le Silpo (the upscale grocery store is.  Here are some pictures of the inside.

Trampolines in the playland at the Grand Plaza Mall

More of the playland

The second floor of the Grand Plaza Mall

There are three levels in the mall. In the basement is a great bookstore. Although all the titles are in Russian it was fun to look and to see familiar looking covers.

After leaving the Mall we took the tram down to the Renok where I wanted to see if they had currants yet.  We walked on the opposite side of the street from the Renok because it was a very warm day and that side was shady and so it was cooler.  We found an interesting alley to walk in.  It ended but it was interesting to see.

Nice looking alleyway.

We also saw a renok that had bedding plants and vegetables.  Lots of bedding plants and it was very busy with people buying vegetables, flowers and herbs.  Wish we had a place to plant something maybe we could try them out but alas we do not.  Sister Sullivan told me that she tried to grow tomatoes on the balcony at the office her first year here but it was not successful.  Perhaps someone with a green thumb would be able to as it seems a great place to grow things.

I took some pictures of the ATB, Eva (kind of like a Walgreens without the pharmacy), Central Renok, and the Priozerny Mall before we crossed the street to go to the Mall.

Priozerny Mall and the Central Renok

Center Renok and Eva

ATB – a grocery store that is kind of a low end cheaper store – it is where you can buy a packaged ice cream cone (with ice cream) for about 3 grivne about 10 cents

Then we went to another mall, the Priozerny Mall.  It is five stories high and has a gym on the top floor, a bowling alley and a butterfly museum on the forth floor, a children’s party and play land on the third floor and shopping on the other floors including a grocery store on the first floor.  It was interesting to see it all.  There is an escalator that goes up (but not down) as well as stairs.  We saw an elevator and used that but it only goes all the way to the first floor and doesn’t stop in between – there are buttons but it doesn’t stop.  Here are some pictures I took.

Bowling alley through the glass windows

Playland

More of Playland

This is harder to see as all my pictures were through the glass – if you can see the boy – he is on a zip line. There are trampolines in the back as well.

After the mall we went to the Renok and I bought a bag of red currants.  We also got two big boxes of strawberries and a piece of pumpkin.  I froze the currants.  We finished the strawberries with our breakfast this morning.  I cooked the pumpkin (in my crockpot – who knew you could do that.  Just put it in and walk away and the next day it was so easy to get off the skin) which I used to make pumpkin apple bread.

We had a good day and it was nice to get out and see some new things in places we had been before but had not stopped to look.

It is good to get to see so much of the wonderful city we live in.  There is much more to see – more than we will see I am certain.  What a great blessing to have time to do all we have done.

Last spring we were out and about a lot and saw a lot.  This year we have not done as much but this last Saturday I decided to take a vacation.  We had enough left overs to eat and we decided to buy bread so I didn’t have to bake and we decided to go exploring.  We walked the entire time.  We went to the mall where you can catch the tram up the hill or out to the branch and the train station but we kept walking across Yavornyskova Street and see what was there to be seen.  It was a little hill but not too bad.  At first it was not very exciting or different but we managed to see some interesting things and had a good walk.

Here are some things we saw.

You can see the domes of this Church from the mall and I have often wondered what Church it was. We found out it is this beautiful “Holy Trinity Cathedral.” An ornate Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

Here is a close up of some of the art work on the front. We did not go in but even if we had we would not have pictures of the inside.

On the corner of the street across from the Holy Trinity Church is this equally beautiful building which is headquarters in Dnipro of Eparchy of the Dnipro Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate

Close up of this building has the words “Christ is Risen.” A common greeting at Easter time in Ukraine – before during and after Easter.

This very interesting “statue” on top of this building is a black horse and chariot. No idea what it means and the building is not marked – not even sure it is in use.

This is farther away and yes that is a “Beer Bank” Bar and the next building is a Sports Center then the unknown building. Notice the cars – new and old cars here and not much in between.

We found an ATB store and went in for ice cream (small cones for just about 3 grivne (about 11 cents) – when we came out I took pictures of the building across the street – it looks like a studio front – you can see the sky behind it through the windows. At one time this was probably an amazing building but now it is falling down.

The other end of the building seems like it might still be in use.

We walked to a bridge that is over a gully where there are people living and old falling down buildings as well.

Beyond the gully you can see the tall apartment and business buildings that are newer in the city.

Some buildings are falling apart – literally.

Close up of one

Then we walked down the hill and went to the Cascade Plaza – buildings on both sides are part of this last mall. The balls on the wires overhead are lights and the wires have hoses that sprinkle mists on very hot days. The balls on the ground are concrete and you can sit on them. You can also see the carousel and the buildings in the center which are restaurants and bars. The upscale grocery (Le Silpo) that we sometimes go to for specialty things is on the second floor of the building on the right.

An interesting sculpure at the mall.

Elder Morgenegg with the statue man on the bench.

Sister Morgenegg with the statue man on the bench.

Since this is Saturday and it is near the synagogue we often see Jewish families walking home. The synagogue is actually in the stair step building on the right about a block from the mall.

A yellow marshrutka bus. We have only ridden a marshrutka twice. Once with Pavel on the way to his apartment to have dinner with him and his wife and once home from his apartment. We usually walk or ride the tram.

So that was our walk.  We sat at the mall for a while to rest and then we walked home – about a mile or so from here.  We walk past the synagogue and through a small park and then to our apartment complex.  It is the route we often take after Church on Sundays and other days.

There are still things to see here but this was mostly just a relaxing walk to see what there was to see.  Love you all.