Bruce Lee's first trip report

[Bruce lee]

This is a retrospective TR - events starting from 2007 - written from memory a few years later! Ideally one day this will be complete with all trips accounted for.

I have no problems with comments negative or positive.

Trip 1 - Kiev/Dnipropetrovsk - Yuliya
 
I had previous to this spent a few years as a single man, doing exactly what I wanted to do completely without the hindrance of women, however in September 2007 this was about to change along with my dating habits for the rest of my life. Well, my life so far.

I had started working for a new company that year which consisted of 2 other guys in the sales office and 1 female Secretary, the secretary was a 28 year old Ukrainian women who for the sake of this we will refer to as V (you guys won't require many guesses to get the name correct). During the early months of my time working there we slowing built a friendship and shared conversations in the evening and emails out of work, usual friend stuff really! In September she suggested that I write to her newly single best friend from Ukraine, Yuliya (see also had a 7 year child, which we will come back to later)! At first I admit that I heavily resisted this idea for quite some time, until of course I saw the photos, which where simply unbelievable!! At that point we started corresponding at first maybe 3 times a week. One of the major restrictions of this correspondence was the lady in question had basically no English ability at all, which was obviously quite restrictive. In the early stages we found a very crude on-line translator to enable communication but this of course led to a few embarrassments and misunderstandings! Both parties were lucky that they had a mediator to help cover any misunderstandings, which helped a lot in the early stages.

I still even to this day can't remember what actually occurred to take a purely Internet based friendship (pen pals), to the point where I had booked tickets to visit for the new year and FSU Xmas period! What I learned in the early stages with this lady allowed me to learn a lot about this stage of communication and also later made me decide to only communicate with ladies with a better than basic level of English language understanding. From personal experience I know how difficult it is to try and communicate your exact feelings or meanings and seeing these lost in a mess of badly translated words. In truth this was a factor that V tired to convey on many occasions but of course at the time I knew better. Its worth noting ahead of time that although V supported me when I decided to travel, she was against the idea and suggested that I think very hard before getting on the plane.

October progressed with plenty of correspondence that continued to get longer and longer and in more depth, well as much depth as you can with an online translator. In November and December the communication became more and more and it was clear that her work was suffering as a consequence, as all off her Internet communication was done from work, unlike mine as I had Internet access form home. During this period we also had 3 way conversations with V acting as a translator, which where always fun and provided lots of laughs!

I booked my tickets from UK to Kiev in early December and everything was going perfectly! But of course there will always be problems in these kind of endeavors, which I know now, but was not prepared for then. To cut a long story short her company was losing money (It would later go under)  for a while and decided to stop using an Internet connection, so we were restricted to very short communications from Internet cafes etc, which was certainly not ideal in the weeks leading up to our first meeting.

We agreed that she would travel up by train to meet me at the airport which was arranged with a lot of gratitude on both sides by V and on the day before New years eve I left England for my first trip to FSU and my first experience in Ukraine!

[Bruce lee]

When I wake up in the morning it is approx 04.00am and my phone is showing that I have a text from Yuliya, it is actually the first time that she has sent me an SMS first without my initial prompt, its just a quick message to say she is leaving Dnepropetrovsk to travel to Kiev shortly! I always found the parallels quite amusing as she left her home to travel with minutes of me doing the same thing. Anyway I reach the airport within plenty of time, and boarding is also on schedule, however the take-off is delayed for 45 minutes which starts to worry me a little, as my connection from Amsterdam airport is only a short 90 minutes. Already the stress levels start to grow as this is the first time I have ever traveled aboard on my own, so I start reading the in-flight magazine to take my mind off the situation a little. Over the the last week and a half I had been suffering from  a cold/flu virus (another parallel as Yuliya had also been suffering with a similar illness that week), then as the plane touched down my head felt completely full with snot/mucus to the point that I felt like somebody had poured concrete into my head, not a pleasant feeling, coupled with the slight delay of the flight. Anyway, this unpleasantness aside, I reach the departure terminal with plenty of time to spare, and have a short rest before boarding the flight to Kiev. The most amusing thing about traveling with Ukrainian Airlines is the touch-down at Borispol Airport as, as soon as the plane hits the ground the vast majority of the passengers begin clapping, giving the un-educated (this being myself at the time) the impression that successful landings are pure luck and you should rejoice at successful ones!

On exiting the vehicle, we are sheapered over to passport control, where I decided to make one of those really costly mistakes, when I first get there the area is empty, but I make the decision to blow my nose and wash my face before going through passport control. BIG MISTAKE, when I come out of the toilet, the queue is now massive beyond belief. I am also introduced to an FSU queue for the first time, where it is perfectly acceptable to push your way through if others are weak enough to let you! Anyway, after what seams like days, which in-fact was closer to 90 minutes I exit passport control and retrieve my bag, which has been circuiting the baggage system for the same amount of time!

OK, so it is the big moment, time to walk through the doors and meet the lady for the first time, I pause for a moment to think about what may come, then walk through!

[Bruce lee]

As I walk through the doors into arrivals, it has the feeling of a movie premier and a red carpet walk (This is certainly much different to terminal 2 arrivals at Heathrow, however exactly the same as Heathrow's ethic terminal 3), with hundreds of people reaching over the barriers to get the first glimpse of the next face through the door, anyway I look around for a few seconds then I see her, at this exact this moment she is speaking to my friend on the phone and isn't looking at all, which I later discover is because she is getting stressed as I have'nt appeared yet, she has started to think that I didn't make the flight as it took me so long to appear!

She is an exact match to her photo, approx 5.3, slim but with muscular athletic legs, she is dressed in short dark winter jacket with a fir on the collar and cuffs and grey skin tight trousers with high heeled boots. She has immaculate short/medium black hair which lightly covers half her neck and has the same lovely blue eyes from the photos, no photo-shop touch-ups here! In a word perfect! I give her a big hug and greet in Russian, as I had been practicing for a while, of course my pronunciation is terrible, but at least i tired! We walk out of the airport into a taxi that she has ordered, the first point of call would be a money exchange as I have no local currency. After we travel for approx 20 minutes (this is an approx guess as I have forgotten the exact time frame, anyway it seamed a long while), and we reach the apartment where we would be spending a few days in prior to traveling down to Dnepropetrovsk later in the week! The apartment was located on the 7th floor which gave me some small level of exercise, as I was behaving every inch the gentlemen, I also carry her case up the stairs, by the 5th floor I was beginning to wish that I wasn't such a gentleman as my arms felt like they were going to fall off, and no this apartment didn't have the convenience of a lift!

As we walk into the apartment, It is quite basic but has essentially everything that is required after a journey, a bed, shower and a kettle etc, etc! After a short rest we visit the local shop, where she proceeds to suggest all the best local beers to try (she has no love for Vodka, and it is several days before we try some). I quickly learn that she is not the greatest cook in the world after eating what she prepares, but at this point I am hungry so Its not really an issue, I thank her for the food and offer to wash the dishes, surprisingly she accepts, and goes for a sit down. Oh well!

As I was fully aware of the language restrictions with this lady I packed my laptop and loaded a translation program in case it was required. Surprisingly in the initial stages of the meeting it provided quite a lot of fun, as when we wanted to say anything quite complicated we wrote on the laptop and it translated from Russian to English and vice-versa. During this evening we learnt a few more things about each other, watched a little TV and drank a lot of beer - the clock and my body tells me its time for sleep!

The room itself had one king size bed and a sofa bed in the corner, which she initially suggested that she would use for the first evening, I refused this idea and said that I would use it or if I promised to behave myself we would share the bed, as we are both adults and it was a large bed! When it was time for sleeping we kissed goodnight (just a short nervous peck) and that was the end of the first day, I lay awake for a while thinking about how this would progress but was always quietly confident that we would have a great time and have a chance to progress the relationship/friendship further.

[Bruce lee]

New years Eve 31.12.2007, this is my first full day in an FSU country I unlike the lady have woken quite early, I lay in bed silently for a while as I am not sure of the correct etiquette here, this women can clearly sleep for her country, and this is a world class performance, I am thinking if I didn't subtlety wake her, she would probably have slept until early afternoon.  We have breakfast and then she takes a shower then proceeds to spend an estimated 2 hours to get ready from finishing her breakfast, she spends ages in the shower, the same amount of time blow drying her hair, which admittedly looks fabulous when finished, then the remainder of the time applying make-up, when finished she could have easier been ready for a night out, however we are in-fact about to embark on a sight-seeing visit around Kiev, as this is also not her home city, she is also looking forward to seeing the sights, however not at the expense of looking fabulous! We leave the apartment!

Once we have exited the apartment I remembered needing a drink of water really, really badly, so we pop over to the nearest shop to buy that then walk along the road for a few minutes then hail a taxi for the trip into the city centre! The first point of call is the Saint Sophia Cathedral which is obviously a standard destination, this was also my first introduction to "Ye olde age difference", I remember like yesterday as we both watched in amazement as an Englishman approx 55 years old struggled to maintain the interest of a young women that couldn't have been much older than 25, and just can't help wondering "what was he thinking?". We were fortunate that Yuliya was 29 and I was 33 at the time so as a couple we looked quite a perfect match, well that's how I thought anyway! Obviously to local on-lookers I was just as foreign as the other guy, just younger and better dressed 

After visiting the cathedral we had a brief look around one of the shopping centres (name escapes me) and then visited one of those large food courts which seam to be very popular in Ukraine. I noticed that these places seam to be a very popular meeting place for young people of most ages however in the UK they tend only to be frequented by teenagers and families.

After this we have a long walk around the nearest park, it had been snowing previously so it was quite cold, after this we hailed another taxi and started to get ready for an evening out in the city! 

[Bruce lee]

When we get back to the apartment its late afternoon and there is plenty of time to get ready for the evening, so we have a little rest and then a chat using the laptop. I had decided a while back to buy a decent and lasting gift for her as she had been and exciting and interesting part of my life for several months now, so after she had showered and prepared her make-up I presented her with a New Years/Xmas gift, It was a reasonably expensive necklace that I had noticed in a shop in my local city and I thought it would suit her eyes and face perfectly, luckily for me she loved it! To my surprise she also presented me with a gift she had purchased before leaving her city, strangely it eclipsed my gesture as I knew as a single mother in Ukraine that buying this gift was a really big deal for her! She had purchased an expensive aftershave and had it specially gift wrapped in the shop as well, all told it was a very pleasant surprise. Before we left the apartment to get into the taxi i remember thinking that life probably wouldn't get much better than this, she was dressed in a shoulder-less blue dress with dark blue tights and black (I think) stilettos, at the time I was feeling quite a lucky guy!

The journey to the restaurant takes some time but eventually we reach it and at first glance it looks more like a Ukrainian museum, complete with all the traditional decor than a fully functional restaurant (sorry guys, I forget the name of this place). I would position this as an up-market version of the chain restaurants in Ukraine that specialize in Traditional food that work on a self service basis (again I forget the restaurant chains name, maybe someone else can help there). For the record the restaurant we were in this evening was not self service and service was exceptionally good.

Anyway we sit down and I order a beer for myself and the same for Yuliya, during the course of the evening we have a couple more before I stupidly move on to something stronger! I will move through the events inside the Restaurant pretty quickly as to be perfectly honest, I can't remember the names of exactly what I ate that evening as alcohol, my understanding of the menu and the occasion itself slightly spoil my memory! Eventually, we toast to New year in Moscow at 11.00pm then just before 12.00pm we go outside to watch the fireworks that are lighting up the sky, pretty much resembling a war zone over head! She holds my hands from behind and leans back to me and again gives me a small kiss (peck) and continues to watch the fireworks, when these and general noise has finished we rejoin the restaurant holding hands.

A little later, whatever it was that I have been drinking in addition to beer was beginning to take affect and after celebrating New year in England time too, we start to consider leaving to return to the apartment, I remember getting into the taxi, and climbing the stairs outside the apartment, then pretty the rest has gone from memory. I'm pretty safe to say that, I slept like a baby

[Bruce lee]

From this point of the TR I can reveal that intimacy happened from this morning (01/01/2008) onwards and regularly from this point onwards, out of respect for the lady and bearing in mind I am a married man (to a different lady), I will not go into any further details about this again in this TR, anyway - you guys get the point!

From this moment onwards everything feels completely different (that's not to mention the giant sized hangover I also have from last night), once we have woken and both take a shower and then I attempt to consume my breakfast with as much coffee as is possible to drink in one sitting, exactly the same as yesterday there is absolutely no drinking water in the apartment (this is an ongoing trend in both cities for us), whatever happens for the rest of the day I must take a trip down to the shop for water, my mouth is so dry it feels like its got camels grazing on it!

Its about lunch time and we don't have much in the apartment to eat as it wasn't worth buying much as we travel to Dnepropetrovsk the next day, so I suggest we go for a walk to find a restaurant close by, we walk for about 30 minutes (clearly not close by) and eventually find a Japanese restaurant, the place is quite nice and we manage to find a secluded place to sit, we both order a beer, with a side order of bottled water! I look through the menu, which is completely in Russian, however there are plenty of pictures, so I choose the dish that looks the safest, not easy as I can't stand fish, obviously she chooses sushi! After eating we walk back, check out a few sights along the way and return to the apartment late afternoon, time for a short rest before any consideration is placed on what to do this evening!

In the evening we decide that since we must catch the train at 6.00am in the morning we should have a restful evening, so we walk down to the shop for a few drinks then order a pizza from the apartment, we cannot decide which flavor to go for and decide that ordering 2 would be better! Of course we can't eat it all but cold pizza normally tastes just as great! We watch a little more TV have a chat on the laptop then get ready for bed, I know its an early start in the morning but we don't go straight to sleep!

The next couple of days from this point would be as good as it could possibly get!

[Bruce lee]

We wake early in the morning and a taxi has already been pre-booked for 5.30am , I can't remember the exact time we woke but I assume it must have been about 4.45am. We get out of bed and in good tradition of 2 fairly un-organised people our bags are not fully packed! I switch on the lights and BANG a light bulb blows, the trip-switch is employed and the entire apartment is in complete darkness. I look for the location of the trip switch and its too high to reach and there is only a small stool that can be used to reach the box. Next news, I can't open the box, I then have to use a knife to open the box (at this point I have visions of spending the rest of the trip in some horrible Eastern European hospital recovering from a massive electric shock) to my surprise I open it without further incident! The rest of the lights are now working in the apartment and I start to pack and get ready, before I have much time to think, the taxi arrives!

We get into the taxi for what seams an epic (maybe because it was so early?) journey to the train station, as we turn each corner of the road I expect the station to appear, yet it doesn't, twenty minutes later it does! Kiev train station is a pretty impressive sight for the first time from inside, however I have very little time to admire the view as our train leaves in approximately 5 minutes, time to move quickly! Anyway we reach the train on time and when you use a long distance train in Ukraine (the ones I used anyway) you realise how far superior they are than those that run in the UK. We have pre-booked a 3-seater compartment which is very comfortable, shortly after this the conductor brings over a coffee which is much appreciated! Once the journey has started cold pizza from last night is the breakfast of choice, as I'm really hungry by this point, its the best tasting pizza ever.

The journey is fairly long, about 6 hours 30 minutes if I am not mistaken, there are movies being played on the screen in front of us, but obviously they are in Russian, needless to say any humour in these movies was completely lost on this particular traveler. A few hours into the journey Yuliya fails asleep on my shoulder, and she now sleeps for the remainder of the journey, I am awake throughout, as I find it impossible to sleep on trains or buses! We eventually we reach our destination at about 12.30 the sun is shinning and it is time to enter a new city, Dnepropetrovsk!

[Bruce lee]

We get off the train and walk into the station, its nowhere near as impressive as Kiev station and is way to small for the volume of traffic in it at the time, everybody is trying to push other travelers along a little further and as a direct result nobody is really moving at all, eventually we get out into the street and manage to get a taxi! The taxi is by far the worst I have ever traveled in, there were 2 massive cracks on the windscreen and for the entire journey to the apartment I was expecting it to shatter at any moment! It didn't and we reached the apartment without anything terrible happening! When we reached our destination the apartment owner (landlady) wasn't there, Yuliya made a couple of phone calls and she arrived some minutes later, we begin to climb the stairs again, as we reached the 5th floor it was quite apparent that we were indeed going to be housed somewhere near the top, and guess what - we were!

The apartment was much more impressive than the first (It has a massive living room big enough to easily hold a party), in fact I probably would have swapped it for my house if it wasn't for the wretched view out the back window, anyway we have a good look around and I am suitably happy! Yuliya must now return to her home, firstly she wants to travel by bus and insists that she travel that way, I mange to convince her to take a taxi, eventually she agrees! She leaves for about 3 hours, when she arrives she has a much larger bag of clothes and has also been to the local supermarket, where she has brought plenty of food, its now early evening so we share a bottle of vodka, she clearly hates the stuff but agrees to drink it anyway!

Now, what happens this evening was even to this day one of the most impressive things I have seen in my short life thus far: I had know since initial correspondence with this lady that does "belly dancing" at competitions and events, from her list of achievements at this both myself and work colleague are aware that she can do this to an exceptional standard.

OK, she walks into the living room with a dressing grown on and puts a CD in the Hi-Fi system dims the lights and strategically lights a few candles around the room, she then leaves the room for a couple of minutes then comes back and preforms one of her belly dancing routines (She had promised to do this in email letters, however I wasn't sure if I was going to be that lucky), for anybody who has seen this (Belly dancing) live, it is a fabulous experience, even better for myself as its a one-on-one performance, if you wanted a definition of "the cat that got the cream" this was it! The lady has simply got the most perfect defined stomach and incredible stomach muscle control I have ever seen, simply put "WOW"! She leaves the room again, then comes back with the same dressing grown on, changes the CD, it starts to play and she throws off the dressing grown and has a completely different outfit on this time, now she performs to a track I know by Shakira (apparently popular in the those kind of dancing circles). Once she has finished dancing she leaves to get changed again! After a few minutes I decide to go see her, at this point the evening has pretty much finished, it couldn't get much better!

[Bruce lee]

I am going to change the structure of this TR a little from here as a lot of the time in Dnepropetrovsk was spent going from place-to-place and plenty of time spent in the apartment, IMHO this doesn't make for a appropriate or interesting TR for the readers, well those who are still interested anyway!

Firstly I would make the observation that (from this experience) when there is a massive language gap the relationship becomes very physical every action has a "touch" or a "feel" for example we are sitting in a cafe or restaurant, she is always holding my leg or shoulder, her face is always much closer to mine when we are silent! In such situations we probably could have just had one seat and not 2 as she always sat so close! When we are waiting for food or drink in cafes etc she is always cuddled up very close and shows obvious affection all the time, its although she knows she can't express how she feels in words and is doing it through actions only! Now believe me there is no better thing than having a stunningly beautiful women cuddled up to you but you can't help feeling frustrated that you can't make small talk! In such situations the non-important small talk that couples have is suddenly very much missed! At this point when we do chat on the laptop when we return to the apartment we tend to discuss more serious things and also make our arrangements for the rest of the day, needless to say the initial fun in these conversations has gone, they are merely a function to an end!

On the first full day in Dnepropetrovsk we have a walk around the main city centre and then walk towards the river, it was exceptionally cold that day and remember taking my gloves off to take a photo and at that point the gloves were off (about 15 seconds) they became so frozen that I felt they were going to fall off, Geez it was cold) at this point its back to a warm cafe and a very hot coffee, also I am really wishing that I had brought a hat! We go back to the apartment for a short rest then to get ready to visit her home as today is her sisters 21st birthday!

We leave the apartment and visit a florist to get some flowers to present to her sister and then go to wait for the bus, this is my first experience of an FSU minibus, its probably a 20 seater bus but soon starts filling up way beyond this, by the time it is ready to leave we are effectively "sardines" less the "brine"! After about 20 minutes we get close to were she lives and the bus stops, this area is real "Eastern block" its still to this day the worst area I have ever visited in FSU! But of course I didn't make any remarks and smiled at the right moments!

As we walk into her apartment I am greeted by her sister "Alla" a younger and fresher faced version of her sister, in truth! They are both categorised with the same beautiful blue eyes! We get there about 8.00pm have a nice meal and share plenty of Vodka (all good), at regular intervals Yuliya sits close to me and touches my leg and puts her arms around my neck to ask if I want anything else and if I am OK! During the evening she shows me lots of old photos, her wedding etc, they are all pleasant and she clearly feels comfortable to share these things with me so early! It is now getting late and at this point another girl appears, again attractive (Inna, not sure I have spelt that correctly), she is clearly interested in everything about me and can speak pretty good English, we chat for a little while, toast with a few more drinks, this girl was particularly impressed in my jacket and mentioned it was the main reason why everybody who saw me here, could tell I was foreigner straight away! She explained this in Russian too so there others could fully understand, they agreed!

At the end of the evening we get in a taxi and I also offer Inna a lift home, she accepts and we drop her near her home then return to the apartment! Taxi bill was still only Ł5, not bad!

[Bruce lee]

OK, after a short lay-off its time to continue this TR! Each days description is going to get a little shorter as in fairness we didn't travel very far and spent a lot of time in the apartment, and obviously I won't be describing that!

So this is the second full day in Dnepropetrovsk and the lady has started to get more and more familiar with me over the last few days and as a direct result of this wishes to spend more and more time sleeping, still to  this day I have never met a women that enjoyed and needed so much sleep! Anyway, by the time she had taken a shower and got ready it must have been 2.00pm or later by the time we left the apartment. We visited an Eastern style cafe which mainly specialised in sweets and cakes, my friend had already told me this was her favorite cafe to visit even since they were teenagers!

After this we had a walk around the city and had a brief look around a few shops, I must admit that looking around shops in foreign countries holds little to no interest form me, but for sake of the company, I endured! After this we took plenty of photos of the surrounding areas then walked around past the MOST centre and down to the riverside again, by this point it was beginning to get a little dark! On the way back to the apartment we stopped off at the nearest supermarket to get a few things for the evening, including water! Anybody who has ever visited FSU will agree this is one of the most annoying things, having to buy large bottles of drinking water, and you always seem to run out of water at the wrong times, in my case when I first wake up in the morning! We also buy plenty of alcohol including absinthe as we have invited her sister and her best friend over to the apartment for a small party!

This evening was probably the first point when I realised that the language gap was way too much, nothing really went wrong and there were no drastic misunderstandings its just the fact that I was almost the odd man out! I had already met her sister who tired to speak slowly and always looked at me when speaking however Yuliya had also invited another friend she hadn't seen for a long while, obviously they wanted to talk a little to, only problem being they were just talking amongst themselves and there was nobody there to translate or bring me into the conversation, the correct term for this feeling world be "spare part at a wedding"! Anyway, after a while things did improve, helped greatly by Vodka, beer then good ole full strength absinthe from this point onwards it turned into a great evening, even though it was a struggle to understand 3 very drunk FSU women all together, maybe a dream come true for some guys!

As with all alcohol filled evenings they eventually come to an end, the only problem being I still even now and at the time can't remember how it ended?

[Bruce lee]

The next morning (well entire day really) is somewhat hazy I must admit, I have woken up very late morning with the standard dry mouth/throat, my first point of call was the kitchen for 2 enormous glasses of water, it hasn't helped my headache but my throat is feeling a little better now. The lady is still fast asleep and it did require a quick check to make sure sure is still alive, fortunately she was! At this point I walk into the living room and I am quite surprised to see the distribution of clothes on the floor and sofa, very curious, literally no idea how or where or what in-fact! The approx 10 hours in-between shall remain a mystery as when she woke up she had absolutely no recollection as well, anyway that's what the electronic translator suggested anyway! Its possible that this could have been the site of an alien abduction, I would still be none the wiser!

After a titanic struggle we are eventually dressed and ready to go out for another afternoon, first point of call is to find somewhere to eat, I remember from yesterdays walk that there was a Japanese restaurant on the top floor of a shopping centre in the main square, we use the outside lift to enter the restaurant if my memory serves me correctly, can't remember what I eat but do remember whatever it was it was pretty tasty and the restaurant had a pretty cool view of the main city centre square!

As the previous evening was exceptionally heavy going we decided to visit the nearest DVD shop to get a movie for the evening and have an alcohol light (not free) evening, she choose a movie I had never heard of at the time let alone seen "9th Company" which to my joy didn't come complete with English subtitles, so the evenings plan was - watch a movie in complete Russian language, without English subtitles with a women who can't explain any aspect of the movie to me while we are watching it, luckily it was a war film and reasonably simple to understand, its only when I saw the movie again a year later with English subtitles did I start to appreciate the movie!

For the drinking game statistics, we only drank very light beer this evening, no spirits whatsoever! This also represented the earliest we went to bed/sleep so far

[Bruce lee]

OK, so this is the standard start of another day , however my lady has started to get a little depressed, particularly in the early morning as she hasn't seen her daughter for over a week now and the last conversation with her was somewhat distressing as her parents have told her how much her daughter is missing her in the village, this would be a reoccurring problem for the remainder of the trip. Anyway, at the start of the day she wishes to go home for a few hours to pick up some things from her home, I did offer to travel with her but she is visibly uneasy about this as she doesn't want me to see the apartments were she lives in the day time, I agree and wait in our apartment, she is only gone for about 3 hours and when she returns we get ready to leave the apartment for the rest of the day.

At this point we decided to visit the restaurant on the side of the river "The Golden Cockerel" (Zolotoy Petushok), it looks pretty cool from the photos, its somewhere I mentioned in email letters that I would like to visit. However, the lady is not so keen as she knows its expensive. Anyway we walk in and an attendant takes our coats I remember looking at all the cigars on view in glass cabinets, there was a pretty impressive selection to say the least!

One of the ladies most assuming moments came when she first opened the menu and briefly looked at the contents, let out a small gasp and quickly closed the menu, she knew the English for expensive just as I knew Russian for the same word! Anyway, after a few laughs I said "don't worry" and we ordered a bottle of wine and a few cakes and rested while enjoying the surroundings of the restaurant, as I predicted from the photos, yes this was a pretty cool place in Bruce's humble opinion!

On the way back to the apartment I remembered the location of the florist were we got flowers for her sister a few days ago and surprised her on the way back to the apartment with a nice bunch of flowers, she was suitably impressed, I think more for my memory of the shops location than the flowers, but never mind!

We watch a little native TV and chatted for a little while on the computer, and then decided to call it a night, another day in paradise with a fantastic lady comes to an end

[Bruce lee]

Well, today is where it all goes wrong, everything starts OK and we go out as normal and have a pleasant walk around the city checking out a few sites, then back into the city centre from some launch, it all goes horribly downhill after we get back to the apartment.

We have arranged for some of her friends to come over, have a small party then go into the city centre for the evening, its an OK plan! However the ladies that come cannot speak English, not a word in fact, you could argue that their English ability was less than zero as they didn't even bother trying! So for the first hour or so of the evening I am sitting like the proverbial "spare part", which in truth allows me to have a little rest and chill out so its not to bad, I leave the ladies to talk. After about another hour we decide to go to the MOST centre and try "ice skating" anyone who has ever been there will know that the ice rink is situated at the back of the centre once you walk past the fairly substantial food court area. So we enter the ice rink area and the place is absolutely  packed, quite possibly "food court" aside this is the most popular place for young people in the entire city! Anyway, we sit down, then they all go off to talk to the attendant (i assume to ask when we can use the rink) they come back we get up, get in the lift and go up to the roof (I'm puzzled now, I thought we were skating), we get some air on the roof then back in the lift and down to the ground floor, get a coffee downstairs then back into the shopping centre, up the escalators and through the food court again and back to the ice rink, sit down again, they leave, then come back, we get up and leave again! This process is repeated again, minus the roof visit and the coffee break and at that point my patience is up, so this time I sit at the food court and suggest we give up, since nobody in my party hardly understands a word I'm saying this is difficult! Bottom line, Bruce is tired, confused and pretty pissed off with the evening, time to call it quits!

The lady clearly doesn't feel my frustration and obviously sees it as normal to trail around a shopping mall like a bunch of teenagers, at this point I just want to leave, luckily we meet one of her English speaking friends who explains the situation (off the top of my head I can't remember now), anyway I've had enough and would prefer to go back to the apartment, she doesn't want to, but does! Communication via body language is not great during the walk back to the apartment, so I just keep quiet and look towards the front.

We get back to the apartment, she takes her jacket, boots off etc and opens the computer, taps a few words and passes me the computer, basically it reads "you have shown you have no patience, today I sleep early", once she is satisfied I've have read the words she snaps the laptop closed and goes to bed.

Paradise lost!

[Bruce lee]

So I have to admit that the previous night was somewhat of a disappointment to say the least and its safe to say that we both learnt some extra things about each other that neither party particularly liked! As normal I woke up first which pretty much coincided with the door bell ringing, she got about of bed and put her dressing grown on and went to answer the door, it was the guy to deliver my rail ticket for the following days journey to Kiev, this is also the moment where the very real notion hit me, that I would be traveling home tomorrow! In a pretty similar display to the previous evenings closing of the laptop, she almost through the ticket at me and went back to bed, needless to say, she had decided to continue the previous evenings bad mood into the next day, great joy!

So I have decided when she wakes up we will attempt to crank the laptop back up again and try and have a little chat about the events of the previous evening! Once she has woken up and I'm satisfied she isn't going to kill me for speaking, I pass her the laptop! She writes a few words and basically to provide summery "she writes about the responsibilities in her life and how her life is so important as a mother and she doesn't have time to waste on people who behave in such a manner and elaborates on this a bit further"! Possibly a little harsh I thought? Anyway, I do write a reply but to be perfectly honest I can't remember what it is exactly that I wrote, anyway the mood did calm down a little after that and we started to make arrangements for the rest of the day!

The plan is to visit the area where she works, we decided to get on the minibus she normally uses every day and after about 5 minutes we reach her workplace, which surprises me a little as the journey is really quick and I am curious why we took this method of transport, to be honest we could just as easily have walked this journey in about 15 minutes! I can see why she takes the bus from her home to the city centre and vice versa but the journey from the centre to her work just smacks of laziness, at this moment I am beginning to think, this is a pretty lazy bird, still beautiful and captivating but lazy none-the-less IMHOOK so we get to her place of work which is pretty cool in all fairness (she would actually lose this job in a couple of weeks time) so we have a little look around some of the other businesses in the building and then go upstairs to have a coffee in the cafe just outside her companies office! After coffee we walk into the street as it is beginning to get a little dark, so far despite a bad start we are having a good day, so far!

OK so we get to her place of work which is pretty cool in all fairness (she would actually lose this job in a couple of weeks time) so we have a little look around some of the other businesses in the building and then go upstairs to have a coffee in the cafe just outside her companies office! After coffee we walk into the street as it is beginning to get a little dark, so far despite a bad start we are having a good day, so far!

[Bruce lee]

OK, so we get into the street and instead of getting a minibus like last time we start to walk along the street and back towards what I would refer to as the city centre. We pass by a few shops and she finds one that she likes the look of and goes in, at this point she does something quite surprising and buys (with her own money) gifts for my parents (she knows I only have a small family, no brothers etc) The gift itself is a traditional Ukrainian design set of table cloth and place mats, in truth these are still used now, they are pretty cool! Nice gift!

We go into the nearest restaurant on the way and have a bite to eat and a beer, during the entire time there she is back to her old self and sitting very close with lots and lots of positive body language and touching, another quite surprising development considering the events of the previous evening! After this we continue our walk down to the city centre and it only takes about 10 minutes we pass by a church and take a few photos, they didn’t develop so well, but were fun to take at the time.

She has decided that since this is my last night in Ukraine she would like to make soup for us, when we get back to the apartment she is in-and-out of the kitchen for the best part of 2 hours before she produces the efforts of her labour, in truth it’s the best thing she as cooked (attempted) since I arrived, the lady is a stunner but no cook I’m afraid! After dinner we sit in the living room and open the laptop for a chat, its here where I do attempt to approach the idea of seeing her again, but the chance never really arises until later in the evening! So she finds a DVD of her belly dancing competition and we watch this for some time and have a few drinks, she later tells me that it was taken in April of the previous year, and says “she would like it if I could see it this April” OK so that sounded like an invitation to me, but was never mentioned again and in truth I was never sure when to start the conversation again, hey - I guess I will approach this when I get back to England! So we chat for a little longer and the very real notion that I must be awake in 6 hours arises, we decide to go to bed.

 

[Bruce lee]

So I am due to get out of bed between 4.30/5.00am as the taxi is booked for 5.30 to pick us up from the apartment, like any situation when you need to get out of bed early you find yourself wanting to just lay there and feel the seconds and minutes drifting away but to hold onto them a little longer, for those minutes (however many there were) I lay thinking about this trip and the massive highs and the lows! I lay thinking how does one go back to normal life, go to work, go to the supermarket spend time with my uninteresting friends and do all those other normal things after tasting something so unbelievably different? Did other guys feel this was after their first visits?

So bang on time the alarm goes off like an executioners axe (my time is up) as I must now get up, get dressed and get ready to leave, I take a quick shower and come back into the bedroom we have a small cuddle and she needs to get ready also, this is not the normal epic preparation time and she is ready! The ring on the door bell at about 5.15 is the landlady ready to take the keys and inspect the apartment, this was a real early bird landlady! Everything is OK and we walk down to the ground floor with our bags to await the taxi, like pretty much all taxi's I have used in FSU he is bang on time, unlike many UK taxi drivers!

It seems we reach the train station much quicker than the journey from the train station to the apartment a week ago, its still dark in the morning and its pretty freezing, it always helps to wake you and sober you up to the reality of life quicker when its really, really cold outside, in 20 minutes I will be leaving this lady behind! We sit down in the waiting area and switch on the laptop for the last time, I write a few pleasant words and she responds likewise. I also write that this is "goodbye" for now but not "forever" and at the time, I really meant it! Sadly these moments pass very quickly, so now I get on the train and put my bag in the overhead compartment and go back outside onto the platform for a final cuddle and kiss goodbye, the cuddle lasts about a minute but only feels like a brief second and I kiss her and she says "Get on train" as it will shorty leave, I do this and wave as she is walking away, my heart says I can't really be leaving this fabulous lady but my head says I need to return to normality again and return home!

Our meeting is a moment that's was anticipated for months but seemingly over in minutes and I'm thinking now - we all look forward to the high of being there without a vast consideration of the effects of parting! The first time this happened I admit to being unprepared!

I sit down on the train and within 2 minutes the train starts to move away towards Kiev, every second further and further away from this fantastic person I have only met in the flesh a week and a half ago! Although I try to be positive, something deep down tells me that, this will be the one and only time we meet!

[Bruce lee]

So I have now left Dnepropetrovsk train station and on my way to Kiev, my flight is scheduled for approx 5.30pm so I have plenty of time to spare in-between journeys. The train journey has to be one of the most depressing journeys I have under-taken in my life, I am leaving this lady behind, there is uncertainty that we will ever meet again, the weather is dull, the TV is showing Russian programs which I don't understand and I am sitting next to a gigantic Ukrainian man who clearly doesn't/or want to speak English, needless to say for me this is a very silent and somber train journey. In a direct switch from the last week and a half on this train I can feel ever second and minute of the 6 + hours 

When I reach the train station my first point of call is the taxi rank, I find the most bored looking driver, negotiate the fee and we are away, he tires a little English and I respond back with my limited English and again what seems like years we reach the airport, its about 1.30 so I have 4 hours to kill in possibly the most dingy and boring airports I have ever experienced (this was shortly beaten by Lviv airport), so as you can imagine, the hours just flew by! Shortly after I walk into the the airport I get a text from the lady asking if I am OK, I respond I am a little sad (understatement) but I am OK and the journey was fine (again stretching the truth, but nobody likes a complainer).

Surprisingly the time in the airport goes quite quickly (although not quick enough) and I progress through check-in and go up the escalator to departures, the departures area is an improvement, but still pretty boring, I find a place to sit and wait for the call to board! The flight is again pretty depressing for the same reasons highlighted before, again there is a stop-off in Amsterdam airport and I have a another text from my lady and again she is checking all is OK! I have about 1 and half hours until my connection so I respond to her text message and get myself a drink from the vending machine! I arrive in England just after 9.00pm and arrive home at about 10.00pm again I respond to her SMS on the way home and before sleeping send another! This adventure is over and I must now return to sending emails to this fantastic lady rather then the in-person bliss of the previous week and a half!

The next few months will teach me some valuable lessons in FSU dating

[RoboCop]

Nice! Keep up the good work, look forward to reading more about your story.

[RoboCop]

Just read the whole thing. Interesting to read such a detailed account of what happened.

Wish I had a FSU work colleague who set me up at the time when I was starting.

[Bruce lee]

Just read the whole thing. Interesting to read such a detailed account of what happened.

Cheers Robo - thanks for stopping by!

Wish I had a FSU work colleague who set me up at the time when I was starting.

Yeah, it was a good head start - to be honest if it wasn't for her I almost certainly would never have even thought of this FSU dating thing!

All subsequent visits were all my own work

[Anotherkiwi]

Great story!

I can empathise with your feelings on departure - I had exactly the same reaction, even though in my case we both knew that we would never meet again.  I think, though, that my first lady possibly spoke a bit more English than yours (not much, but still better than nothing).  I've always loved travelling, so the journey itself didn't worry me.  Also, although we had been corresponding for several months, her city wasn't the first port of call for me - I spent nearly two weeks sightseeing in Moscow and St Petersburg, getting used to the country and culture (her suggestion - we still "talked" nearly every day) before flying to Kazan to meet her.

[msmobyone]

Hi BL

as with all TRs - thanks for sharing - await where it all falls apart and you meet the future Mrs BL 

[2tallbill]

What a great story. 


Udachi!


Bill

[msmobyone]

@BL

reminder... await part ii 

[jone]

For the amount of money that it costs (negligible) to have a good interpreter present, it might have been a good investment (at least for social events).  However, I could not stomach the prep time this lady takes.  I don't know how she has a child as they will not permit you the protracted self indulgence.