Delayed as this report is, some things still haven’t changed. One of them is the war in Ukraine, which makes visiting my grandma a little more difficult than say, 5 years ago.
There are layers of complications, from the simple fact that none of the airports in the country are operational, to the nagging issue of drones and missiles coming indiscriminately from further east. Crossing the border requires lengthy overland travel by train or bus (likely multiple, if you’re aiming a little further in than a major city near a border, such as Lviv or Odesa).
After a short flight from Amsterdam to Chișinău, then an overnight bus, then another bus, and finally a short taxi ride, we knocked on my grandma’s door and were cheerfully greeted by her. She looked somewhat smaller and older since the last time we met in person, back before the pandemic. She was still up for making some delicious pyrijky. These are fried dumplings with meat, liver, potatoes or some other filling, best served with sour cream.
Going on a bit of a tangent, I need to note that these are quite distinct from what is more commonly known in the English speaking world as “pierogi”. The latter are the way Polish people refer to a dish known in Ukraine as “varenyky”. Which were on the menu too, just on a different day. They differ in 3 key ways:
- Cooking method. Varenyky/pierogi are boiled (some versions are steamed), pyrijky are fried or baked.
- Size. Varenyky are generally 1-2 bites, pyrijky are made bigger, 3-5 bites. Although if you’re very hungry it may be possible to finish one off in 2 bites. Or one bite, if you’re in a competition.
- Leavening. Pyrijky are usually slightly leavened, varenyky are not.
All of this info is very important and I’m sure will turn out to be very useful at some point. There should be a detailed guide somewhere to help distinguish the various ways people all over the world wrap edible things into dough before cooking it, and this is my small contribution to that.
There was a laundry list of small things to fix around the house while catching up and enjoying each other’s company with various home made and store bought delicacies. If you come at the right time to the farmers market, you can get delicious fresh cream. If you miss that, you have to make do with store bought. If you looked carefully, you could find fancy caviar. No, it did not require going to a dark basement, but a bright store on the main shopping street, helpfully named, Ocean. We visited a home goods store, under the pretense of looking for new couch cushions. Observed a lovely llama shaped door stopper. We frequented a nearby pastry shop. Observed a new line of highly patriotic cake and cookie decorations, in addition to the more typical fruity and floral kinds. It’s an easy place to visit from abroad, you could pay for almost everything with a credit card. Except the toilet at the bus terminal. That required 6 UAH in cash (~15 US cents).
There were rows and rows of Russian military vehicles on display next to a regional administration building (which was itself destroyed by a Russian missile). A sign asked people not to deface them. People read it and ignored it.
There was water in the tap, but it was not potable. This wouldn’t surprise people in many parts of the world, but for most of Ukraine’s recent history tap water was the drinking water, so having to carry large water jugs up the stairs is not something people are used to. My grandma was regretting that there was no elevator to her 3rd floor apartment.
That there was something coming out of the tap was already an improvement. Shortly after the full scale invasion started, a series of pipes providing water to the entire city were destroyed. The proximity to the front lines prevented the crews from fixing it, and the taps were dry for almost a year. Even water for flushing the toilet had to be brought in manually. Nowadays a completely different water supply system is used, built further away from military activities. The problem is that the water is taken from a source with a higher salinity, and it was not feasible to get it down to safe drinking levels. And so it goes.
There was a very visible presence of military personnel on the streets, in cafes, and on public transit. Generally people looked to be in an okay mood. The military inside the city was clearly in a more relaxed mode. It’s the ones going somewhere by intercity buses, those had more thoughtful looks. Looks that implied they were not going to buy milk and come right back.
During the days it was generally quiet. At night you could hear air raid sirens going off in the distance. Sometimes once for a few minutes, sometimes several times. It seemed being in the distance meant it was not something we should act on in any way. There are periods when they are closer. There are periods when burning things fall from the sky. But sometimes weeks go by and nothing falls from the sky over this city. My friend who lives in Kyiv shared her high rise office window view, with multiple buildings burning in the vicinity. Deadly things come from the sky all the time there.
When it was time to head back, we reversed our tracks. First on a mini bus to Odesa, stopping at a few checkpoints along the way. They were very quick, the driver didn’t have to show much in terms of papers, but did take time to give some care packages to the guys manning the checkpoints. Then the large cross border bus to Chișinău. The rivers, fields and hills passed by in the window, perfectly lit by the golden afternoon sun. We wouldn’t have seen them if we had flown in and out, like before.
