Kryvyi Rih

Kryvyi Rih (Krivoi Rog in Russian) is a city of some 700,000 people located about 35 km from Zhovti Vody. At least the northern most city limits are. The city itself is reported as varying from 114 to 140 km in length depending on whose version you get. It is touted as the longest city in Europe.

Kryvyi Rih is a huge iron mining and smelting centre with non-ferrous metals as well. If you want to see the extent of the mines, mills and smelters, Google Earth will give you an idea at Latitude 47°54'30.32"N; Longitude 33°24'24.32"E. Then kind of scroll around.

Saturday Andrei, Tanya and I drove to Kryvyi Rih to buy a deep freeze. Which is to say Andrei drove. KR is the most confusing city as it has only one street that runs the length of the city but it is not continuous. You have to know where the turns are and of course there are no street signs. The first stop was a wholesale store for shops and restaurants. They had several deep freezers but they were the sliding glass top kind for ice cream etc.

Then we went to several large stores which sold stoves, fridges, washers, etc. Only one stand alone freezer, a small upright with drawers and shelves. So we bought a paper and found another wholesale company that had several chest type freezers. But it was 2:00 pm and they were closed for the day. Come back Monday. So we did. Andrei and I drove back today, which is to say, I drove and he navigated. 2650 UAH for a 6 cu ft (215 litre) chest freezer. In Canadian dollars it was just over $600. Don’t tell me what it cost in Canada because I don’t want to know.