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Journey to the Borderland

May 8

Posted by Lindsey Whissel on 05/08 at 10:57 AM

Farewell Feodosia…

Our last day in Feodosia was wonderful. In the morning, we visited the clinic of Andreyev Vladimir Aleksandrovich. He specializes in treating drug and alcohol addication and was a student of Alexander Dovzhenko, the Ukrainian equivalent of Milton Erickson.

We were also able to visit a school/ community center. Today is Carrie’s birthday, so the children sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in perfect English and the teacher presented her with a picture on of the students made.

Our next excursion was one of my favorite things we’ve done so far. We visited the ancient site of Кафа (Kafa). It was once a fortified village and is home to some of the oldest churches in the world. We were given a tour by a man named Oleg Vladimirovich. He has worked hard to preserve and restore the site, all for no pay. He says it should be upheld for all the world to enjoy. The history is fascinating, but too detailed to write here.

After the tour was lunch at the house followed by a trip to the seaside. I was able collect some treasures and even went in the water up to my knees (it was pretty cold, so this was no easy challenge). Carrie amazed us all again by swimming for almost our entire stay at the beach. It cooled off quite a bit as the wind picked up, so we didn’t stay very long.

We just finished our final dinner in Feodosia and are waiting for the van that will take us back to Simferopol to catch the train to Dnipropetrovsk. I’m really going to miss Jane, our translator and new friend. She is from Feodosia, but now works in Kiev. She’s been so wonderful and is just about the friendliest, funniest person I’ve ever met. We’re trying to talk her into coming to visit us in the US:).

Word of the day: MyШЛi (moo-sh-lee) – seashells.