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!