Sofievska Park - Uman

Day 3 of the 4 day weekend we went on a tour of the beautiful Sofievska Park, about two hours south of Kyiv, in a town called Uman, which is also well known for being the birthplace of a certain strain of Orthodox Judaism. The park was created on the basis of a particular horticultural style where manmade gardens are specifically designed to appear natural. The guide explained in detail how certain rock formations were meant to symbolize certain great literary works, like Homer's the Odyssey, or the formation of Greek isles.

The thrust of the park is that the owner, Count Potocki, fell in love with a Greek slave girl, married her and built her this enormous park in 1802 as a wedding gift. It is really lovely and surprisingly well-maintained. I've linked the wikipedia article to the title for more information.

After we finished the tour, we sat on the slope near the main house to have a picnic. There were about 50 people spread across the lawn. But as we finished, a very cranky guard came over and yelled at us - apparently we weren't allowed to picnic on the lawn. We feigned ignorance of Russian, but since we were done anyway we left shortly thereafter. I didn't envy him his job - there were no signs, it was a beautiful day and the lawn was around 2 acres of clear space. Perfect for a picnic!
And in this post we have the fantastic Aaron-as-post-Soviet-posing-woman photo, where he is standing in a burnt-out tree. We were a bit giddy and silly!