Touchdown in the Ukraine!

Hey everyone, sorry i haven't been keeping this updated. I don't have enough time and I definitely don't want to sit in the office all day writing. I have an article nearly completed about our last full day in London but it is on another computer so I will skip that day for the time being and post it when I can.

On May 24th we woke up at 6:30 am and threw all of our stuff in our suitcases and headed for the airport. We took the train from Greenwich to the London Bridge, switched to the underground to get to Paddington Station where there is an Express Train to the Heathrow airport. We got to the airport in good time so we sat and enjoyed one last cappuccino at Caffe Nero before our flight. As we got on the plane, I immediately noticed a difference with the people on the flight. Their clothing was very different and their faces and expressions were different. Their clothing was less business-like than what people wore in London but you can tell they still put a lot of effort into their appearance. Girls all wore makeup and high heels and clothes which did not look comfortable. I thought the clothes were a bit strange but they probably thought that about me too. To explain the most obvious difference though, I will use an analogy: imagine you are sitting in a café with a friend and a beautiful girl walks in and passes through the tables, you can see the guys at the tables turning to check her out but she avoids eye contact with any of them unless a particular guys catches her eye. When I was walking through the airplane, I felt like that girl. It is flattering but a bit uncomfortable. The experience did make me realize that Alex wasn’t lying about the female opportunities in the Ukraine.

When we landed in Kiev Alex called his cousin to alert him that we had landed. He said he was already at the airport and would be waiting for us at the departure gate. We first had to pass through security and get our luggage though. I got another taste of just how different the Ukraine is though at the security check. Ukrainian citizens had one line and all others had another line with only 2 people checking passports at each. I stood in my line for 5 minutes but it didn’t move and Alex was nearly at the front already. Alex realized it would take forever so he told me to try coming up with him. We walked up there together and passed right through. It was awesome and it never would have happened in the US. After that we went and got our luggage and headed for the gate. There were tons of people waiting but as we passed through the doors someone in the back yelled and waved his hands in the air. As we walked towards him people moved out of our way and turned to watch us. The man was making his way towards us as well. Finally we had a clear line of sight and could see Alex’s cousin Sergey, his friend Alexey, and 2 cute girls wearing some sort of old fashioned ceremonial Ukrainian clothes.  One of girls was holding a plate with a bottle of vodka and several shot glasses, the other was holding a large loaf of decorated bread. Alexey was holding a video camera which had the red light on indicating it was recording.  As we approached the girls shouted “Welcome to Ukraine!” at the same time. It was very cute. Sergey then explained that I should rip off a piece of bread and the girls would sprinkle some salt on it and then we would eat it. After eating the bread we should have a shot of vodka and a slice of lemon to chase it. Everyone at the departure gate was still watching as we performed this ritual. We were the star attraction!  It was absolutely incredible! Sergey then led us to a table he had reserved nearby so we could set our stuff down and talk a bit. As we talked and drank more vodka the girls tore the outer ring of bread off the main loaf and put it on a plate for us to eat more. Alexey and Sergey took turns recording us as we drank shots of vodka and flirted with the girls. Some table nearby started taking pictures of us so we asked them to take one using our camera. After enjoying ourselves for a little while we got our stuff together and headed to the car.

 

In the parking lot another fact became evident: people here either drive nice cars or piece of shit cars. There were Mercedes and BMWs and Porsches everywhere which were contrasted by Chinese crap cars and soviet era crap cars which I could not recognize. We made our way to Alexey’s car, a Toyota Prado (basically a Landcruiser). We loaded our stuff in the back and Alex and myself and the 2 girls sat on the back seat; the car was spacious enough and the girls cute enough that this was not a problem. Sergey explained that he would not be able to come to Dnepropetrovsk with us because he lived in Kiev and had to work this week so we dropped him and the girls off in Kiev and Alex, Alexey and Myself began our long journey to Dnepropetrovsk.

 

The roads were absolute shit the whole way but Alexey explained that this was the 2^nd best road in the Ukraine. There were no speed limit signs anywhere but people were going about 90km/hr but we constantly had to slow down because there were speed traps everywhere. The cops would put a 40km/hr sign wherever they wanted and sit there grabbing people. I assumed this was to collect bribes. At one point Alexey was going about 90 and we saw a cop car on the shoulder, he braked once he saw it but it was too late. Oddly, there was a cop standing in the center of the road who just pointed at us and waved us to the side of the road. We pulled over and Alexey hopped out of the car and went to talk with the cop. Alexey and the cop went to the cop car and another cop got out of the car to go stand in the center of the road to wave down the next speeder. Alexey and the cop were in there for about 10 minutes before he came back and explained that they couldn’t settle their differences in opinion (translation: this cop wouldn’t accept a bribe) and so Alexey got a ticket.

Ok that is all I have time for now. I will post again soon!

London: The first full day

Yanna and Yevginey’s apartment was quite awesome. The building was very modern and very secure. It was located in the Greenwich district which is where some of the Olympic events will take place in 2012 so currently they are doing some major upgrades to the area to accommodate that. Nearby is the Millennium Dome where they will host some events for the Olympics. The dome was originally built to celebrate the new millennium but is now used for all large events, for instance Michael Jackson will have a concert there in the coming months. Inside the dome there is a circular indoor city complete with building facades and windows looking out onto the walkway, reminiscent of The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, if you have ever been. The walkway circles around the interior concert hall and consists almost entirely of Café’s, Nightclubs, Bars, and Restaurants of all varieties. It’s basically a one-stop party spot. The nearby train station has trains that will take you into Central London every 5-15 minutes. Then you can get pretty much anywhere within Central London using the tube.

On May 22nd, Alex and I took the train into Central London to check out the touristy stuff. We got off at the Waterloo station and grabbed a cappuccino at Caffé Nero, a great inexpensive café. Cafés are quite popular in London and there are several large chains to choose from (including Starbucks) with locations everywhere. We hung out there for a little while and decided to go to see the Tower of London which we had seen from afar the day before but were too exhausted to investigate. However, as we crossed the Tower Bridge we got a phone call from Yevginey inviting us to have lunch with him near his office building. We were eager to see his office building because he works at UBS Bank which is a huge company so we expected it to be a very cool building. We made our way on foot through the London Financial District to Yevginey’s building. We took pictures along the way of buildings we thought were cool. We met with Yevginey and sure enough his office complex (building doesn’t do it justice) was quite neat. We walked through these large urban parks where thousands of business people in suits were eating outdoors. Everywhere we went was bustling. Café and restaurant patios were full of people eating lunch and drinking coffee and wine. All of the Café’s advertise organic food with free range meat and healthy ingredients. Even KFC attempts to appeal to the classy Londoner. It seems junk food just doesn’t exist here, at least not in that part of town. We stopped at some mostly-Asian ‘take away’ restaurant that served primarily Thai, Chinese and Indian dishes. It seems in London the foods are extremely integrated, for instance: you can order Tikka Masala in a pub. They simply don’t draw very much distinction as to where the food came from. They just eat what tastes good and is healthy. The portions are also much smaller, which was fine because I was still stuffed from my delicious brown rice and curry. After lunch we toured around for a bit with Yevginey who showed us through the maze of inter-connected open air office parks. We made one last stop at a Starbucks so we could get a pick-me-up before Yevginey went back to work. I concluded that Starbucks really does taste the same every where you go and I liked Caffe Nero more. After dropping off Yevginey at work, Alex and I headed to the tube to get back to Central London for some sight seeing.

We again got off at the waterloo station and at this point I desperately had to pee but toilets in London are hard to find during the day (at night is a different story, at least for guys). We went to Costa Coffee (another coffe shop) but it didn’t have a bathroom, they informed me that the neighboring Starbucks did though. I headed over but there were several people in line. I waited as person after person went in and came out until finally the girl ahead of me went in. 15 minutes passed and she still had not left, I began to have my doubts about whether or not I would make it. I joked with someone else who was waiting to try and take my mind off my bladder’s contractions. She was Portuguese but was staying in London for 2 months on a hospital internship. As cute as she was, it didn’t help enough and after another 5-10 minutes I said fuck it and left with Alex to find another option. We crossed the river Thames on a very bizarrely constructed footbridge and went into a museum to use their facilities. This isn’t relevant to this occasion but I would like to point out that in England they do one thing which I don’t know why they don’t do in the US. They actually put full walls and doors around the stalls! Not like most places in the US where they have those tiny 3 foot doors with cracks all around the door so you can see everything that is going on inside and you can see your neighbors’ feet when you’re sitting down. After being in London I don’t know if I will ever use a public bathroom in the US again, at least not for that purpose.

After finally relieving my bladder we walked down the Thames past the London Eye which is an extremely massive ferris wheel where each Gondola is a large egg shaped glass viewing room which holds 10-20 people. We wanted to go up but the queue was really long and it cost 18 quid per person which we thought was unreasonable (quid = pound = 1.6 US dollars). So instead, we strolled past and headed back across the river to see Big Ben. We wanted to get a picture with both of us and Big Ben in the background so we asked a passing tourist to take our picture. The guy was a total idiot though; at first he took a picture where his finger was covering the lens, and unlike camera’s with a viewing hole, this camera only had an LCD display, so he must have KNOWN that he wasn’t taking a picture of anything. We politely asked him to take another because his finger had blocked the shot so he took another, this time his finger wasn’t blocking the lens but he still took a terrible picture where nothing was straight or centered. Maybe he had never seen a camera before… We thanked him and found someone else to take the picture instead this time with great success. By this time it was already getting a bit late in the afternoon and we wanted to visit Sitecore UK before they closed and everyone headed home, since it was Friday we wouldn’t have another chance.

We hopped on the tube and headed to meet with Sitecore UK. After introducing ourselves and talking about work for a bit we decided it was time to hit the pub so a few of the Sitecore UK people and Alex, myself, and Yevginey headed to their favorite local pub appropriately named The Monument after The Monument to the Great Fire of London which is located directly outside the pub’s door. Laust, the CEO of Sitecore UK, bought us all pint after pint and as time went on more Brits began to get off work and head to the pub. Our Sitecore UK colleagues have quite the network of pubgoers so our table began to gather a crowd. One of the guys from Sitecore UK was banging one of the barmaids and was best friends with another guy who was banging another barmaid which meant our pints were now deeply discounted or free; I couldn’t tell which because Laust grabbed the tab. Around 9pm we finally realized that Yanna was waiting at home for us so we said our good byes and took the train home.
After we met up with Yanna we all headed over to the Millenium Dome where there are many nicer restaurants and bars. We ate at a Chinese restaurant which was quite fancy and modern. After dinner we were pretty full and tired so we headed back to the house to get a good nights sleep.

London: The Beginning

I just awoke to my first morning in London in Alex's friend Yevginey's apartment where we are staying during our visit. It has been a rough 40 hours or so of traveling and struggling to maintain consciousness to combat the time change. I am excited to get to the details about London but first I must complain about what everyone complains about: the airports and the flight over.

Actually, this time around I lucked out quite a bit. We flew Virgin Atlantic which is by far the best carrier I have ever flown on. From the moment we stepped in SFO i could tell a difference. It's like they treat you like a human being or something instead of a large bag of money. After checking in, we went through security and were scanned by a large machine which took naked pictures of me with my clothes on. Alex attempted to bring a bottle of tequila through security (not for the reason you're probable thinking though) but they caught it. We were forced to choose to leave the bottle behind or to pay a $25 fee to check an additional bag. Alex wanted to bring the bottle to a friend in The Ukraine so he headed back out to check it. VA shined a beacon of light on our travels by actually understanding Alex' situation and checking his bag for free (that's really all it takes to stand out in that industry). We got on the direct flight to London and I had the misfortune of sitting in the middle between Alex and a smelly Indian woman who spoke no English, treated me like her servant, and kept putting her bare feet on my stuff. The plus side? When the stewardess came by to give us drinks I ordered a beer and paid $0 for it. After dumping most of that first one the stewardess was still nearby so i asked for another and, sure enough, I got one. Again it was free. I found this Free idea to be a trend on the flight. I kept getting drinks but the polite, cute, quaintly accented stewardesses never charged me a penny or a pence. Also, the in-flight entertainment was incredible compared to American Airlines or United. Every seat came with it's own headphones and display which could play any of thousands of movies, television shows, video games, and music (again, free). I sat, I drank, I watched movies, I BSed with Alex, I did everything but sleep the whole way over there. The one time I actually fell asleep I was awoken by Mrs. Smelly Feat cause she had to use the bathroom. Her lack of English skills made everything she did come off as rude though I realize she didn't intend this. She would poke me and say 'Tea' and out of some sense of obligation I would press the Attendant Call button and request the Tea on her behalf. After 9.5 hours of this we arrived in London. Then we spent 30-40 minutes in line at customs while some drunk Israeli futilely attempted to convince us all to let him skip to the front of the line.

After we finally made it out of the airport it was on to my favorite part of London, the tube! (AKA the metro/subway). We easily, and inexpensively, made it from the Airport to Yevginey's wife Yanna's work which was very close by the London Bridge and the Tower of London. Though the tube in London is quick, efficient and functional, carrying several bags adds much effort which when combined with the lack of sleep and the fact that it was about 5 am according to our internal clock, was quite exhausting. The excitement of being in London and 2 cups of coffee counteracted this as we made our way through the city’s maze of underground tunnels. We met up with Yanna and decided we would wait for her to get off of work to show us the way to the house so we dropped off our luggage at her office and toured around for a bit. We finally were free of our luggage and we had some time to kill and we were both thirsty and starving so we headed down the river Thames towards the Tower Bridge (commonly known in America as the London Bridge even though it’s not the London Bridge) and stopped when we found a very nice Pub. We sat down to our first authentic Fish and Chips with a pint of Guiness. This hit the spot. Afterwards we were so exhausted we just laid on the grass in a park overlooking the London Tower and the Tower Bridge and we enjoyed the scenery and napped for a while. We did that and toured around the random side streets taking pictures until Yanna got off work at which point we met up with Yevginey and headed to the house. There was a neighborhood pub on the way which we stopped at to get a few more pints while Yanna went shopping for dinner. After getting to know Yevginey over a few pints we headed home, a bit drunk. Yanna cooked us a great dinner of: Ukrainian style salad, Jerk Turkey, and peppers and other little treats. It was quite nice and had a distinctively different style from the food we generally eat. We were already quite drunk from our time in the pub but we continue to consume alcohol with our dinner. Then, despite our exhaustion from traveling and the jet lag we continue to drink and bullshit until the wee hours of the morning.

Now, it is 10am on Friday, our first full day in London. Today Alex and I will explore the city some more by ourselves since Yevginey and Yanna both must work. At some point we will probably stop by the Sitecore UK office to say hello to our coworkers and maybe grab a pint if anyone is interested. Stay tuned, there are more stories to come!