Are You Ready for Some Football?

Erik has been planning to take Carter on a boys' night out since our arrival, but the stars did not align until yesterday evening. Specifically, he has been planning to take Carter to a soccer game with the local team, Karpaty. Carter was excited about the event all day, saying that he was "going to soccer with daddy. " About an hour before game time, we bundled up for the wet and chilly 40 degree evening and hopped in a taxi to the stadium. While a marshrutka route goes to the stadium, we try to avoid this form of mass transit (especially with Carter on board).

We arrived at the stadium and got a $5 ticket (Carter was free as usual). Passing by vendors on the way to the entrance, we spied lots of seeds and other snacks that green-clad Karpaty fans were picking up to munch on during the game. Carter was upset that he did not wear his green shirt (of course, he was offered the green shirt and rejected a change into it prior to departure). So, we picked up a couple of green souvenirs, and Carter was mollified by having some green to join in the fun.

The stadium is an old, decaying bowl with a capacity of about 28,000. By the time the game started, maybe 2,000 fans were in their seats. The bad weather was probably not the reason for the miserable attendance, but rather Karpaty's horrible 3(W)-4(T)-7(L) record. Karpaty occupies second-to-last place in the league while yesterday's opponent Dnipro is in second place. Around 500 Dnipro fans were situated in one end of the stadium, the rest of the Karpaty fans were concentrated in a couple of sections.

Prior to the game's start, the stadium loudspeaker played a melange of soccer-themed songs and sports anthems. In addition to the obligatory Queen tune, we heard a Ramones-styled Karpaty song and a few British soccer songs. A few minutes before the start, the team and its lion mascot came on to the field to the strains of the official Karpaty theme song. Erik sung along with the fans; he did not know the official Karpaty lyrics but rather the original. The theme song follows the tune of "When the Saints Go Marching In."

Carter's attention was focused on the Karpaty lion. The mascot is unlikely to ever challenge Sparty the MSU Spartan in a tough-mascot competition, as it was an oversized, mangy lion head, with orange Raggedy-Ann-like dreadlocks on a man in a green track suit with foam paws and a sad orange tail.

The game started right on time. After the first ten minutes, Carter was "ready to go." Erik entertained him and watched the action for the first half. Of course, action is a relative term, especially when it comes to soccer. Our section had a large percentage of young hooligans, and they made the game interesting by shouting insults and leading various chants. In fact, the crowd was almost exclusively male. Both teams had a couple of scoring chances, but in true soccer form, players dove, feigning injury, to draw penalties all over the field. The first five minutes featured three Dnipro players on the ground, writhing in "pain." Either they were acting, or Karpaty really cheap-shots its opponents (who have miraculous healing abilities as the injured players were immediately back out on the pitch at full strength). The half ended with the FIFA-approved score of 0-0. With Carter "ready to go" we headed for home. For you interested Karpaty fans, the team lost 0-1.

Day of the Dead

Since yesterday was the Day of the Dead, we decided to go out in search of Mexican food. We recently learned that a place called Kartoplyana Khata (Potato House), with its cigar-store Indian logo, was supposedly a Mexican restaurant. Who knew? So, we decided to check it out. The restaurant's website explains that its food is Tex-Mex, adapted for local tastes. Ukrainian Tex-Mex is not the best fusion cuisine. Although we avoided anything with mayonnaise or dill, staples of the Ukrainian kitchen, there is little about this food that anyone would consider Mexican.

We saw this local chain many times during our walks about town; one of the storefronts is about three blocks away. Although it was decorated inside with Native American kitsch - more cigar-store Indians and many offensively stereotypical Native American pictures and menu items - Potato House unfortunately had nothing resembling an Indian taco (or for that matter, any sort of taco). No tacos, no enchiladas, no tamales, no nachos, no quesadillas, no botanas, no tostadas (need we go on?), and of course, no margaritas. One of the few items on the menu was burritos. Great! We would have those. No, they were out. So, we ordered the chili con carne and the "torba" steak with Mexican sauce. We also ordered some cream of mushroom soup (no, there was no menudo, either) and a bowl of fruit salad for Carter.

Of course, the mediocre mushroom soup had nothing to do with Mexico. What was called chili con carne bore no resemblance to anything Mexican whatsoever except that it contained kidney beans. It was a tomato and broth-based soup with two pieces of pork, beans, some red pepper, onions, and some inexplicable little flavorless white lines. The steak was actually a pork cutlet coated in some spices. It was tasty, although not the least bit Mexican. It was coated with flavorless little balls that looked like, but could not possibly be, mustard seed. Potato House recommends that you accompany steaks with sauce. Passing on such options as apricot, we chose the "Mexican" sauce. If you imagine ketchup, with a lot of sugar and some kidney beans, corn, and red peppers, that would be the sauce. It was barely edible. Of course, we could have ordered potatoes au gratin or one of the many blini served there, but we were trying to get something resembling Mexican. Potato House will make us appreciate Tortas Jalisco and El Mezcal that much more upon our return!

Happy Halloween!

Last night, we celebrated Halloween with our friends Phil, Jani, Thomas, and Sybil. While Halloween is infiltrating the dance club scene for young adults in L'viv, it has not penetrated the official 100+ Ukrainian holidays (of course, today is a holiday). We decided to introduce our traditions to Ukraine, including the sights, smells, and tastes of the season.

Erik worked with the boys to design and carve a jack- o'-lantern. Jani had reserved a pumpkin at the market (you generally buy pre-sliced pieces of pumpkin rather than a whole one). It was a great carving pumpkin - round and squat, with just the right thickness in the walls to make a sturdy pumpkin but not make carving too difficult. Thomas and Carter made a nice, scary, asymmetric design on the pumpkin, helped scoop out the seeds, and watched Erik work with the knife.

Lea, Jani, and Sybil cooked Halloween foods. The search for ingredients required some compromises - there are no caramels to make caramel apples, so the sugary coating had to be made by hand. But, we used more fresh goods which made our usual Halloween fare even better. The Bistak family traditional spinach soup was excellent this year, in large part due to fresh spinach, nice thick Ukrainian bacon, and whole milk (at home, we tend to do a healthier version and use frozen spinach with skim milk and lean bacon). Accompanied by Jani's fresh-baked bread and roasted pumpkin seeds, it was a perfect meal for a cold, autumn day. Sybil and Jani made a fantastic pumpkin pie for dessert; the crust was delicate and buttery and the filling (Lea's dad's recipe) was creamy and full-flavored. When we first saw that the pie had a crusty top, we were skeptical (thinking it would not cook properly since we have never seen a pumpkin pie with a top). But, we were quite wrong - it was perfectly baked and just fantastic! We'll have to add a top to our pumpkin pies back in the US!

After dinner, the boys played "ghost" with a sheet, although they did not formally dress up in any costumes. They had a great time being scary and had a fun Halloween.

[Some photos courtesy of Phil and Jani]

Cossack Attack!

On Tuesday, we accompanied Phil, Jani, Thomas, and Sybil (Phil's mother) to the Kuban Cossack Choir concert at the L'viv Opera House. Cossacks fit well with American mythology of the West - they were independent, rough, tough, horse-riding residents of the steppe. So, we felt right at home. The Kuban Cossack Choir is a Russian and Ukrainian venture, and has performed for almost two centuries.

The Opera House is an ornate beauty, with glistening gilded details and intricate carvings and paintings adorning every nook and cranny. We had first balcony seats that were tall, straight-backed, uncomfortable wooden thrones overlooking the stage.

The concert started almost on time, and Carter was enthralled. He sat on Erik and Lea's laps (children don't need tickets and don't get seats) staring intently at the stage and clapping vigorously after each song or dance routine. At least, he did so for the first 30 minutes. Carter was quite done after that, but was reasonably patient for the remaining hour and a half.

We agree in some ways with Carter's review. The choir and dancers were all fabulous professionals. The dance routines were well-choreographed (our sole major complaint is that the dancers used canned music), and the singers had strong, clear, beautiful voices. The choir's style was distinct - the singers cried out their tunes with great force and a touch of planned dissonance. But, the songs and dances were mostly arranged in a similar way. After a few numbers it was difficult to distinguish one song or dance from another, save for the different costumes. Two hours was plenty of Cossack fun for quite a while!

[Photos courtesy of Phil and Jani]

Castling

Several weeks ago, we received generous offers from Viktor and Walter for a ride to visit Olesko Castle, a gorgeous landmark in the "Golden Horseshoe" of castles around L'viv. The castle functioned from the 14th-19th centuries and was restored in the 20th century. Since the weather is turning from fall toward winter, and the castle is a fair distance away, this weekend was likely our last chance.

Walter picked us up for the trip and we headed out to Olesko. We traveled across the byways of rural Ukraine (largely due to construction closing the main road) and meandered through rutted, pot-hole-filled roads along with many 18-wheelers hauling supplies across the borders with Poland and Slovakia. On the left you can see Lea, Carter, and Walter with an autumn landscape at Olesko.

Olesko Castle was quite magnificent. While it had some of the hallmarks of a defensive fortress (narrow slits for archers, for example), it also felt like a large estate or mansion. Most of the interior rooms were set up like a museum, displaying icons and other religious artifacts from the monastery below, as well as furniture and objects from the castle itself. The castle's history reflected the changing fortunes of Western Ukraine; it was held by the Poles and Lithuanians, sacked several times by the Tatars, and occupied by the Nazis who turned the monastery into an internment camp for Jews. Finally, it was reconstructed in Soviet times. We strolled through the gardens outside the castle, and happened upon lion statues that Carter wanted to ride (see below). After our visit to the castle, we returned to L'viv, cold and hungry, for a spectacular meal prepared by Walter's wife: borshch, beet and cabbage salad, mushrooms in sour cream, beef Stroganoff, and potato latkes. It was a wonderful ending to a lovely Sunday drive.