After Friday morning sightseeing in and around Poltava, we drove north west for about 200 km along a two lane highway to Lubny, our Area of Observation on Election Day.
In Chisinau in February I averred that Englishmen, perhaps not women, prefer not to talk at breakfast. Rules are made to be broken. On Friday morning over scrambled eggs, ham and black coffee I found myself discussing the Battle of Poltava with a Spanish observer.
As a postscript to yesterday’s post, Pamela and Tatyana (by e mail) amplify by referring to Byron’s narrative poem, Mazeppa, which, as with Onegin, inspired Pushkin.
Yesterday evening about twenty of us took a train to Poltava. Not a place I’d heard of which exposes my ignorance. I hadn’t heard of Tchaikovsky’s opera Mazeppa either; there is a connection.
Yesterday’s treat was a morning walk terminating on a sunny terrace for a delicious lunch washed down with gallons of jammy rosé. There are sixteen of us and, remarkably, still a few spare bedrooms but only nine chose to walk. The others had tennis boot camp with Robert.
Flew to Toulouse yesterday; the thirteenth ‘plane I’ve been on so far this year. The trip is a belated birthday weekend staying with friends in the Gers.