Eastern European Food

cabbage soup with "mulled" red wine

Potato Dumplings w/ Bacon Garnish

Birch "Juice" w/ Eclairs 

Coffee w/ sugar, cinnamon, meringue

vodka before dinner

dumplings for lunch 

vodka before breakfast 

breakfast donuts with sour cream and jelly

fresh mushrooms

pork dinner

steak w/ mushroom side

chocolate w/ pepper and lemon 

Strategic Missile Forces Museum, Ukraine

The actual “launch” room of the USSR. It”s located 45 meters (135 feet) underground in a round 3.3 meter (12 foot) in diameter and 125 ton silo. We got to visit the actual control room were a nuclear weapon would have been launch against “The West” during the 1980’s.

The button I’m touching would have start the launch! But there’s a series of other security checks also required.

The silo consists of eleven compartments which house everything needed to keep the Unified Command Post running autonomously for up to 45 days in case of a nuclear war.

After the dissolution of the USSR, Ukraine held about one third of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, the third largest in the world at the time. After independence in 1991, Ukraine agreed to destroy the weapons.

Strategic Missile Forces Museum, Ukraine

Strategic Missile Forces Museum

Medium Range Missile

Nuclear War Head

These metal engines above have been exposed to the weather for 20+ years and still haven't rusted.

Group Picture

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

CHERNOBYL.. a disaster that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 nuclear reactor, near the city of Pripyat. It is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history. Reactor No. 4 subsequently was enclosed in a concrete and lead sarcophagus, then more recently by a large steel confinement shelter (behind me in pic #1). Pripyat was once home to 15000 people, now remains deserted. It is estimated that the area won't be safe for humans to live for at least 20,000 years.