Day 50 - Europas Parkas and dacha

In the morning on Sunday we drove over to Alicia's. We planned to drop off Dan's mom at Olshevsky's dacha and go to Europos parkas with Alicia's crew.

Olshevskys got a new dog - a 4 month old English Bulldog. It is adorable - weighs almost as much as Georgia and has a wrinkled old face, and baby teeth. It started to lick and chew on my hand (pictures on the right and on the bottom of the email are for comparison purposes).

On one hand this breed is kind of cute, but on another, it seems to have become perpetuated genetic mistake. These dogs are no longer born naturally - their head is so big that they are delivered by c-section. They are intense burpers, farters, and snorers. They suffer from nasal and ear problems from puppyhood. I wonder if they are born sicker every generation or it is just a local line. Carl Sagan seems to have suggested that the thing with big head is beginning to affect humans too.

We got to Europos Parkas early and stayed in the forest nearby waiting for the rest of the group to join. There is a great variety of plant life here: we got a few remaining wild strawberries, raspberries, about 7 kinds of wild flowers, there are mushrooms. We also saw two kinds of frogs, giant dragonflies, and crickets.

Entrance with dogs is not permitted here but Ekaterinburgians begged the ticket lady and she let them in. The fee is 23LT per person and while it is a pretty park with some interesting giant artworks it is not worth it unless you get discounted fee as a student or a child.

We stopped back at Olshevsky's and had a really great time there again. Vitalik's mom made cherry stuffed ravioli (delicious). Vitalik's dad offered to go down to the river. At first I decided to go but, seeing that Vitalik, and his sisters stayed at home, decided to stay too. It was a wise decision. Vitalik's dad decided to give his wife and Dan's mom a survival test and ran them both through the forest at full military training speed. Poor Dan's mom had to carry Georgia too. Between walking from the market and up the stairs with full bags, running with us to and from the parks, driving in non-air conditioned cars, and this - her stamina probably has increased 10-fold and she may choose to exercise it on Dan's dad when she is back.