Russian Lesson
Never ask your wife what is the Russian word for “pumpkin” when she is wearing an orange house dress with green trim.
Ukrainian Roundabouts
I hate traffic circles or roundabouts. They scare me. I am never sure what to do as I am never sure what everyone else will do. Virtually every where in the world, anyone entering must give way to traffic already on the roundabout if there is a risk of collision. That maintains an uninterrupted flow of traffic as much as possible.
However, where people drive on the right-hand side of the road (i.e. normal places, not Great Britain, Australia, or Japan) people entering the roundabout are on the right and people in the roundabout are on the left. It is a universal driving rule that drivers on the left yield to drivers on the right at uncontrolled intersections. Unless there are yield signs at the entrance to the roundabout, it is a series of uncontrolled intersections and left hand yield rules. In Ukraine there are no yield signs, of course, so traffic in the circle must yield to incoming traffic. I am going to get killed.
Never ask your wife what is the Russian word for “pumpkin” when she is wearing an orange house dress with green trim.
Ukrainian Roundabouts
I hate traffic circles or roundabouts. They scare me. I am never sure what to do as I am never sure what everyone else will do. Virtually every where in the world, anyone entering must give way to traffic already on the roundabout if there is a risk of collision. That maintains an uninterrupted flow of traffic as much as possible.
However, where people drive on the right-hand side of the road (i.e. normal places, not Great Britain, Australia, or Japan) people entering the roundabout are on the right and people in the roundabout are on the left. It is a universal driving rule that drivers on the left yield to drivers on the right at uncontrolled intersections. Unless there are yield signs at the entrance to the roundabout, it is a series of uncontrolled intersections and left hand yield rules. In Ukraine there are no yield signs, of course, so traffic in the circle must yield to incoming traffic. I am going to get killed.
Russian Proverb (from Tanya)
A woman with a steering wheel is like a monkey with a hand grenade (i.e. you know what is going to happen, just not where or when). Personally, I fit that proverb too. Especially in Ukraine.
Pee Vine
At Shchorsk (be thankful you don’t have to say it too often) there is a serious railway crossing with manual gates. The rules say the gates must be closed when the train is within 3 km of the crossing. Of course, the train may stop to shuffle cars or creep along at 5 km per hour but the gates are CLOSED. Traffic on the highway backs up for some distance and the wait can be 30 minutes. It seemed like a good time to visit the trees on the other side of the ditch. The ditch is very steep, almost vertical and the vegetation is quite heavy especially with vines and such. My feet got tangled of course so I went head first into the ditch. Tanya laughed all the way home.
I hope Tanya gave you a good swat for the Pumpkin comment.
ReplyDeleteI hate roundabouts too. That's not entirely true; I like them in Victoria. But I HATED them in Ireland. It's a lot scarier on the other side of the road.