Briefly: On the Boat

We played a lot of cribbage in the green room


A lot of the scenery looked like this, dachas and sleepy fishing villages



But a lot looked like this, remnants of the Five Year Plans



The official highlight was passing through several locks: the boat enters a little manmade channel and the gates close behind it; water is drained (or raised) until it reaches the level on the other side of the dam; the forward gate is opened and we drive (drive?) away.



The only good food we got on the boat was the one day they actually served us Ukrainian cuisine. The rest of the time it was your standard fish/bifteck/kotelet with potatoes and overboiled vegetables. I don't take this to be a function of being in Eastern Europe, or of being on a boat, but of the need to cater to the lowest common denominator of 65-year-old.