Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Cossacks







Woke up to see 2 Nucleur Reactors. Also many people fishing in small boats. Interesting going through the locks especially the one that was 37.4 metres.




Today we visited Zaporozhye, home of the Cossacks. Cossacks is derived from the Turkish language and describes an independent man, an adventurer and vagabond. When a new law intorduced the serfdom of peasants in 1647 many abandoned their land and became Cossacks. They founded their camp on the an island called Khortitsa in the middle of the Dnieper River. The Cossacks despised material goods, lived in simple soil cottages and only cared for the valuable weapons and horses.

The cruise has lectures on history, Ukranian language and cooking lessons. We have also been treated to traditional Ukranian music and dancing.
We are given a briefing the day before of the next port. Tomorrow is Dnepropetrovsk, try finding that on your map.









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