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Journey to the Borderland

May 13

Posted by Lindsey Whissel on 05/15 at 10:37 AM

Happy Birthday Sergei!

We started the day visiting a horse barn. This was a really special excursion for Carrie because she loves animals (back in PA, she has 3 horse, 9 dogs and I forget how many cats and chickens:). At first we thought we were going riding, but we ended up just touring the facility and seeing the different breeds. If I understood correctly, we met the tallest horse in all of Europe. I forget his name, but he’s a beautiful white horse, though he doesn’t compete anymore due to a leg injury.

After the barn, we went to a hip, new café where there was a surprise waiting for one of our hosts- Sergei. Today was his birthday and as a present, his partner Helena arranged for an exhibit of his photographs at the café. He was excited and it was great for the rest of us to be able to see some of his work.

The rest of the day was spent celebrating his birthday back at my and Carrie’s hosts house. After a late lunch, we went for a walk, then more eating. Not sure what time the celebration ended, but I think it was late night.

Word of the day: ГpiЖГЖi ДЗeЗHДЗHe (grizh-ghzhee djhe-znd-znee) – I’ve been complimented on my Russian/ Ukrainian pronunciation by several people, so they gave me this word as a challenge and said it’s very difficult for non-native Slavic-speakers to pronounce (I’m happy to say I aced the test… or at least they told me I did:).