Food tour to South Ukraine

Dates 2022:TBC

8 Days  7 Nights

Cost:TBC- Fully inclusive, excluding flights to Ukraine ( single supplement £500)

CANCELLED DUE TO WAR IN UKRAINE

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Hello and welcome! Olia Hercules here, come and join me on an amazing trip to Western Ukraine, where we will basically have a fun holiday together, cook and eat loads of delicious food and learn a bunch of foodie things. My slightly mad descriptions of what we will be doing are below….enjoy and join us!

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Day 1 

We meet at the train station in Kyiv. We will board an old and soothingly rattling sleeper train to the steppes of southern Ukraine. On the train we will experience one of the best meals known to humanity - a cornucopia of seasonal fruits and vegetables, an array of ferments, local cheeses and cured pork (the famous ‘Salo’), freshly-baked Armenian lavash and more.

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Day 2 

When we arrive in Kherson, we will board our tour vehicle and set off for Kakhovka (my home town). We will stop in the pine forest half way and have a picnic including Kherson region’s famous watermelons (the best in the world and in their peak season in August) and tomatoes and cucumbers and other delights from Olia’s mum’s garden. In the afternoon, we will have a cooking workshop with Olia and relax for the rest of the day.

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Day 3 

We will go kayaking (for those who can) or boating (for those who prefer just to relax and not row) on river Dnieper and will stop in a beautiful jungly bit to have a picnic lunch and to do some wild swimming. In the evening we will all cook together and have a beautiful barbecue involving local fish and incredible vegetables.

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Day 4 

We will go to Askania Nova - a nature reserve an hour away from Kakhovka. We will see virgin land, ancient Scythian baba statues and will come very close indeed to zebras, Przhyvalsky horses and wildebeests!

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Day 5 

We will go to the market to check out beautiful local produce and will go visit the summer kitchen at Olia’s late grandma’s house - where her uncle Slava and aunt Lyuda live now. We will eat a local Ukrainian borsch (involving a whole rooster and a giant dumpling) and will go for a walk around the village, and enjoy the view of the picturesque, Gogolian bank of river Dnieper. We will set off for pink salt lakes by the Sea of Azov in the afternoon where we will float in the salted lakes, roll around in healing mud and catch a gorgeous sunset intensifying the natural pink hues of the lake.

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Day 6 

This is our last day in Kakhovka and time for our farewell dinner and party at Olia’s mum and dad’s house. We will visit a saffron farm in the morning and arrive at Olia’s parents in the evening! Expect Olia’s famous home-made noodles, duck (and mushrooms for the veggies), lots of salad using vegetables from the garden and… live local music and dancing in the evening!Day 6

 

Day 7 

We will depart for the beautiful Black Sea pearl that is Odesa! In Odesa, we will eat the famous Dacha restaurant and then will visit the gorgeous Great Gatsby inspired Zelda absinthe bar in the evening.

 

Day 8 

Our last last day, but it shall not be wasted! We will go on a walking tour around Odessa, swinging by the famous Privoz food market. We will have lunch at a really cool place called Tyulka. It has retro Soviet decor and serves excellent fish dishes. We will say our teary good byes and will swear to meet again on another tour in a different part of Eastern Europe (Nataliya and I are plotting to do more food tours in the future. Rural Moldova or Bulgaria anyone?!) What joy life can be. I cannot wait for this experience!