Hydro Park Memories

End of Day 28

Vitals:  I have a friend who likes to note that on July 4, 1776, King George III wrote in his diary, “On this day, nothing happened of any particular importance.”  Obviously, George got it wrong, but when I write it, it’s accurate.

Meaningless Prattle:  So yesterday, Saturday, we spent the morning catching up on school and in the afternoon, we decided to go out.  Kiev is next to a pretty big river that sort of cuts the city in half.  The western side, where we are, is definitely the populated side.  The old churches, museums, capital building and universities are here.  We had heard about something called the Hydropark, that is on an island in the middle of the river.  So, we went to check it out.  It took a bit to figure out the metro lines, but we made it to the island.    As soon as we got off the metro, I recognized the place. 

I was in Kiev before, in the summer of 1988.  I was here with a student group as a summer missionary.  At the time, the Berlin wall was still up, Gorbachev’s policy of “glasnost” (openness) was just beginning and the place was basically poverty stricken.  It was my first taste of life under communist rule.  What a wreck of a country it was!  It’s amazing how different it is now.  It’s still not totally western, but it is like night and day, compared to what it was.  In 1988, there was NOTHING on the store shelves, the buildings were all similar, there were no advertisements and everything looked like it was about to fall over.  One of my most striking memories is talking to our tour guide about Stalin and he said, “We are now allowed to admit that Stalin was a bad leader.”    As though it was the most normal thing in the world for the government to monitor citizen’s speech and if the government “now allowed” it, then in must now be right to talk about it. 

Anyway, another striking memory is of a bridge here in Kiev.  After dinner one night, one of the guys in our group sat down next to me and mentioned that he saw some people jumping off a bridge into the Dnipro River.  Neither one of us said a word after that. We both just stood up, dumped the rest of our meals and went to get our suits. We met in the lobby of the dorm we were staying at and took the metro to the bridge.  We had plenty of time. I think the sun didn’t set until about 10pm because Kiev is so far north.  Looking back, I can’t believe I  was stupid enough to jump off a bridge into that river.  All the other people that were jumping were drunk out of their minds.  But, I had a great time and it is a great memory.  Anyway, I think we were at the same metro stop.  I didn’t put it all together until we got home, I just know I get a severe case of déjà vu as soon as we got off the metro and onto that platform.  I could hardly stop thinking about it.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t really anticipated that memory, so I didn’t look up the bridge until we got back home.  Therefore, we went south off the metro station and looking at a map, I think my bridge is north of the station.  South was interesting enough though.  I remembered to bring my camera, but I only got a few photos before I ran out of battery juice.  Just below the metro, there were a ton of vendors selling crawfish, shrimp, and dried fish.  I think the were steamed and they had them out in the open on top of some paper on their tables, right next to the postcards and hair ties.  There was a wide main path that we started walking down with a lot of other food vendors.  We eventually took a side path, because we wanted to get to the river and that’s when it got creepy.  Just off the main path was a whole TON of ruins. Empty, abandoned carnival rides that looked like they had just quit working and were left to rot years ago.  They were all over run with rust and weeds and trees growing right out of the machinery.  And, not just one ride like this, but TONS—fifteen or twenty at least.  There were no fences, no signs, no safety tape, no coverings, it was like walking through a movie set from one of those movies where everyone dies but a few famous, maladjusted movie stars and they have to reclaim the earth.  TOTALLY CREEPY. Then, it got even stranger, because we realized we were still on a main drag of the park.  The paths were crowded and woven in among the dead rides were other “attractions” that are still in use.  The first two photos are of a climbing area/ride.  I don't think it's a zip line, but the signs showed people in harnesses.  It was a playground especially designed for me and Paul. I plan to go back when it might be open.  If we miss it, I have the photos so we can re-create it at home.  There were also several restaurants (picture four is from the outdoor eating are of one of them and another one looked like a banquet hall for weddings) very obviously in use right across from a dead, overgrown paratrooper ride (picture three) and flanked by two abandoned buildings. 

We finally made it to the water.  We were at a little beach area right next to the metro bridge. This is where I got the last two pictures.  I couldn't get them to post side by side, but you should get the idea. The statue is huge by the way. The bridge in the last photo is the metro bridge and it goes right into the side of the cliff.  It's a really deep tunnel.  There was trash everywhere, so we didn’t stay long. We walked further down, past an enormous abandoned banquet hall and finally got to the main drag of the river.  This is when the camera died.  It’s probably a hoppin place in the summer.  There were lots of booths that probably sell food, a lot of tables by the river and a nice river walk about twenty feet in from the shore.  So, we walked along the river for a while, past quite a few small homes that look like they were inhabited by gypsies.  There’s definitely no zoning here.  Bill was just beside himself.  

Anyway, TODAY, Sunday, I had been thinking about checking out some local churches, but Bill didn’t feel too well, so he slept all morning. I got all the kids bathed, which is no small feat when you need about 45 minutes between showers, and we just lazed around, reading and goofing off until Bill started to perk up.  Then we went a local park so the kids could play and then went grocery shopping in the evening because Sunday evening is the ONLY time the stores are not PACKED to the gills.  I took a stand and spent about ten minutes in a spice aisle and I think I found oregano, chili powder and rosemary.  Plus, I got some olive oil.  Since we are going to be here a while, it was time.