Экскурсия (Excursion)

Yesterday was a long and busy day, but quite enjoyable.  Sasha said he wanted to take me on an "excursion," so we met in front of the city library at 3:00.  He then gave me a walking tour of the city "Center" or downtown.  We walked for several hours, and he showed me a fair number of sites.  He took me by the "Texas Saloon," and as the reader can probably guess, it's an American style steakhouse.  I guess it is quite popular.  We did not go in.  Other than McDonalds, this may the only American themed restaurant in Luhans'k.

At the Texas Saloon

He also took me to the Luhansk Museum to see a visiting exhibit which will be leaving very soon, I guess in just a couple of days.  It was a display of wax figures of individuals with unique physical traits.  Yes, I am using a euphemism; I don't know how else to put phrase it.  Personally, I question an exhibit of this type, but it is quite popular here, and Sasha really wanted to show it to me before it left town.  These figures are supposed to be accurate representations of actual people who lived at one time or are still living.  It's an interesting exhibit to say the least.  Here are some images.  Sasha likes to lift weights, so he was quite intrigued by the figure of the man who can lift 32 Kilogram weights with his ears.  Here is my friend Sasha and the man with ears of iron.

Sasha and the man with iron ears

I majored in history in college and have been a student of Russian history for many years, so I asked Sasha to take a picture of me with Peter the Great, who is known not just for his efforts to westernize Russia, but also his immense size.  He was an imposing Tsar, both physically and politically.

Me and Peter the Great

Following our visit to the museum, Sasha took me to a park, which had very recently been constructed.  In the park are two restored World War I British Mark V tanks. These two examples were captured by Red Army from the White Army.  Currently eleven are known to exist in the world, and Luhans'k has four of them!  There are two in the park and two in storage.  These pictures were taken at night, so they lack clarity, but I'll take and post others in the future.

World War I British Mark V male tank



World War I British Mark V female tank