Friday and Saturday in Chernivtsi

Friday, Mom decided she wanted to leave the flat for a few hours. She said she felt up to it as long as we proceeded very slowly. I thought we would be out for about 2 hours. Turns out we were out for 7! I was very proud of her. She enjoyed being out and seeing people. Chernivtsi was so empty when the crew was here around Easter so I was glad she can see it as it usually is.

She was able to walk down the stairs. I got a taxi to take us up to Olga. We went to have lunch at theVienna Cafe and I enjoyed it bc it has been a long time since I've had any chicken/meat and I was craving it. We split 2 chicken dishes. Over lunch we met a British man and so we talked with him for a while. There is always an interesting story behind why an American or British person is in Chernivtsi, so of course we exchanged that info.

After lunch we walked up and down Olga and into some of the shops and ended up buying two belts we liked. We stopped to get some juice and water at a cafe and I discovered that they had an English  menu...add one more to the list. Unfortunately the first two items on the menu I ordered weren't available...not atypical here in Ukraine. We were going to get pizza to take it back for dinner but they didn't have it. We ended up walking to another place, Pizza Park, where I was able to communicate well enought to place a seboyu/takeaway order. I was happy about this bc the first time I went into Pizza Park I ended up leaving bc I couldn't communicate well enough.

Mom did really well walking. As long as she keeps her leg stiff and out to the side she is OK. It was nice to get out with her for a few hours. Here she is in front of the main cathedral:

Before we went back we went to the minimarket on Olga. She wanted to make sure I have plenty of food before she leaves. We stocked up, bought a few things we were interested in trying, and got into a taxi to come home. The pizza was great, and we ended up having it for dinner on Friday and then having the leftovers for dinner on Saturday.

I finished the Iceland chapter in my The Geography of Bliss book...ironic, I know,  given recent circumstances. Evidently Icelanders are amongst the happiest people in the world. I'm sure they aren't right now, however, but hope they will return to that status soon. And for those of you who have called and emailed about being concerned about how this impacts the flights over here, all I can say is we'll just wait and see. My Mother is supposed to fly to the US the same day. Long time between now and Thursday. Such an odd thing... a volcano at the root of the worst travel disruption the world has ever seen. My Romanian friend Chip was driving 4 people from Romania to Bergamo, Italy today bc the flights were cancelled. Lilliana's daughter wasn't able to fly from Germany to NYC. British Airways has cancelled flights until Monday. I emailed Carpatair to see if the plane we were supposed to fly to Athens yesterday actually took off. If not that might be an alternative avenue to get some sort of refund for the tickets we purchased.

Getting back to my book...I fell asleep reading the chapter on Moldova, the country with the lowest rate of happiness in the world. Evidently the former Soviet republics rank lowest on the happiness scale, lower than most African and Asian countries. Halfway during the chapter I staretd to feel ill...not quite sure if it was the pizza (I ate it again tonight so we'll see) or the negative associations I have with anything Moldovan...I'm a big believer in the power of positive/negative thinking (my father is a clinical psychologist) and figured it was probably the latter.

Today, I woke up and immediately put on my gym clothes. Mom was up at the same time today. I went to a minimarket to check to see if they had the croissants I want her to try but they only had the ones with chocolate so I passed. I stopped in another market to buy toohtpaste ( I found Med-a-Dent--they have frequent commercials that have become somewhat of a joke between Mom and I.) and a few other things, all for under 8 USD. Unbelievable, considering that many of the other items I bought might have come close to or even exceeded 8USD on their own in the US. I then went into the apteka to see if they had contact lens solution. They didn't, but the lady understood what I wanted and wrote it on a card for me in Cryllic so hopefully I can go to another place more easily.

Then I worked out. I enjoyed seeing lots of children taking a group tennis lesson on a Saturday AM.

Here is my gym:

They just set up tables and chairs and an espresso machine outside since the weather is getting nicer (no one is sitting out yet, though... still too cold for that). This will be a nice place to chill after a workout in a few weeks, I hope.

I came back, had lunch with Mom, took a shower, and just relaxed some. It was great. I just asked Mom (for blog purposes) what she enjoyed most about the past 2 days and her answer was "seeing you relax." Sweet, and just like a Mom. Then we started packing some of the items I have obtained and the clothes I no longer need. Mom is going to take a big bag back with her. I am going to arrange for some wheelchar help for her for the ride back.

I packed a lot of stuff I had from winter that I don't need anymore, including the wooly mammoth fur coat.

Now we are just hanging out. We had our leftover pizza and cleaned the place a bit. Lilliana called bc she was concerned about the travel. We'll head to bed soon, where I will re-engage the Moldovan chapter. Hopefully this time I won't feel like I'm about to vomit.