As you will soon learn from Sasha’s report on the Day 3, on Wednesday we had two meetings with (rather) shy students of Zaporizhya. Right now we would like to let you know what we did once our opus dei had finished.
Together with our guide - a real Kozak, who as you can see on the picture below, had his hair styled in the traditional Kozak manner (Kozaks believe that it allows for them to connect with God), we explored ins and outs of the Kozak history. Did you know that Hortytsya is not only the Vodka brand we tried in Kiev but that it is also the name of a big island (apparently the biggest river island in Europe!) in the Dnepr?
But let's stick to the sequence of events. So at the beginning our guide gave us a very thorough overview of the Kozak history and later brought us to the legendary island of Hortytsya. We were immediately stunned by the rough beauty of the place and enchanted by the view over Zaporizhya, the Dnepr river, a huge dam and many factories and industrial sites in the background. All in all, maybe not the most harmonious picture but certainly a very impressive panorama! We took far too many pictures.. Just wait to see them on our Facebook profiles. ;)
Our guide also shared with us numerous stories and legends of the Hortytsya island. We learnt for example that Lord Potemkin had been offered the island as a gift from Empress Catherine the Great but he refused it having realized he could never truly own the freedom-loving (Kozak) place. Besides, we were outraged to learn that communists at one point wanted to install huge steel manufactures on the island. For sure it would have destroyed its unique nature! 'Those evil communists!, we chanted.
After a relaxing walk around Hortytsya our Kozak friend took us to see the famous Zaporizhya Oak and there -in front of a 700 year-old tree- he introduced us to the Kozaks’ martial art. We, the girls, were especially happy to learn a couple of very useful self-defense moves which we immediately tried on the boys: according to Kozaks the best way to defend yourself is to attack, so we can only hope that Sasha, Jakov and Darek have recovered from our attacks by now.
A+
Sarah and Magda
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