My first trip to Ukraine

[brad5959]

so, this is a report of my first trip to Ukraine.  I had been dreaming about making this trip for many many years and finally decided to just go for it.  the love of my life was a lady from Odessa; a beautiful ballerina who captured my heart and imagination.  my original plans were to visit her, but as luck would have it she informed me she chose somebody else and was meeting them, so I never had a chance to meet her in person.  I am assuming she is married by now, as that was over two years ago.

I did not write to anyone for almost a year after that, as I was nursing a bruised ego.  so than after time to reflect got back on the saddle and started writing to several ladies.  at the start of this year (2010) I started writing to a lady in the Crimea.  we seemed to hit it off very well, and she was soon encouraging me to visit her in the middle of April as she had a 30 day vaction from middle of April to middle of May.  I had never had a passport, even though I had lived in West Germany from 1983 to 1986, and travelled all over europe with just a military id which was all that was required.  so I rushed to get a passport.  they returned my application about a week later because my birth certificate did not have a proper stamp on it.  so I rushed an application to LA county CA for a new one, which arrived about a week later.  I than sent it overnight delivery to the passport center.  my passport arrived about five days before my departure date of April 24th.  I had aborted prv departure date of April 15th because of delay caused by the non accepted birth cert.

anyways, on April 24th I left the west coast on a flight going directly to Paris France with Air France.  the food was excellent, the best food I have ever had on an airplane, not to mention free wine and even free cognac.  the flight attendants were also excellent--very friendly.  not stressed out like the american flight attendants I had on an Alaskan Airlines flight six months prior.  anyway, arrived at CDG airport about 9:00 in the morning.  CDG is very modern and was easy for me to find my way around.  my flight from Paris to Kiev was not leaving until 12:30,
so I tried to sleep in the lounge but could only nap for about 30 minutes.  once again the food was very good on the way to Kiev, but not as good as the overnight flight had been.  when we were getting ready to land I was very surprised to see that much of Ukraine is very flat--it reminds me of Kansas.  anyways, we landed, I got through customs, and than I made a VERY BIG rookie mistake.  I assumed my luggage would be transferred for me from plane to plane for my final destination.  so I walked out if the international portion of Kiev Borispol and over to the domestic portion of Kiev Borispol.  luckily when I went to check in for my final leg to Simferopol, the lady spoke english and asked me where my bag was.  I explained I thought it would be checked all the way to Sim by the airline, and she said no, you have to go get it.  well, time was running short.  I knew if I got in line to go back into the secure area the proper way, I might not make my flight from Kiev to Sim.  so I decided to just act like the stupid american.  I walked back up the exit from the secure area, and when the doors opened for somebody to come out, I quickly walked in.  only one lady stopped me, and I quickly told her I had forgotten to get my large checked bag.  she waved my on in, and there it was all by itself.  I grabbed it, went thru the x ray machine again (this time with both my carry on and my checked bag), and made it back to domestic flights just in time.  so I was onto Simferopol.  I arrived at about 8:30 pm on April 25th.  my english speaking taxi driver was waiting for me with my name on a sign.  I arranged this through Alex of Heidelberg house.  he has a website called Rural Tourism in Crimea--for any of you going there it is a wealth of information.  oh yeah, even though the lady I was writing to was with a major agency, which is not well thought of on this site, she was allowed to give me her phone number, and a few days later she gave me her address and invited me to stay with her in her flat.  she is not married and no children, much younger than me.  I was a little bit apprehensive but accepted her offer.  worst case scenario I would have to get a hotel.  the drivers price was supposed to be $70.00 from Simferopol to her city, but he said (after calling her for directions) that it would be $75.00 because she lived in a village outsite of the city I had told them.  I said fine, I was tired and just wanted to get there and get some sleep as I cannot sleep on airplanes rarely if ever, so I had not slept for two days, as I could also not sleep the night before I left on April 24th.  it was about a two hour drive to get there.  Elena met us at a nearby gas station to her flat.  I was very nervous but excited to see her.  she gave me a big hug and kiss and made me feel welcome.  we rode the short distance from the gas station to her flat.  I made the taxi driver carry my heavy suitcase up the five flights of stairs (well he did offer to help!!) and I gave him $80.00, so he got a $10 tip.  I also paid him $20 for a pre-arranged sim card with Alex.  I later learned the taxi should have been maybe $50 to $55, but I didn't care because Paul my taxi driver spoke fluent english, which made the two hour drive there much more pleasant.  we talked about everything, even politics!!  when we met Elena Paul the taxi driver asked me if I liked her and I said of course!!  her teeth were not perfect, but neither were mine when I was young.  she still had a nice smile, a beautiful face and a great body!!

upstairs at Elena's apartment she had a nice spread of food waiting for me.  I ate as much as I could, we had some wine, and said goodnight.  she had me in her main living room sleeping room which had an L shaped sofa with an ottoman shoved in to make a bed.  a little bit firm but quite comfortable, especially when you are exhausted.  in the middle of the night I had to use the restroom.  her toilet room was separate from the sink and bathtub room, and there was no running water at nighttime--only from 6 am to 8am, and sometimes in the afternoon.  she had a gigantic jug of water in the sink room with a kettle, so I was running back and forth in the middle of the night to fill the toilet with water so I could flush it!!  

after that I slept really great.  woke up about 6:30 am and went to Elenas bedroom.  we hugged and she got up and fixed some coffee and breakfast for me.  she said she did not like to eat breakfast until about 10 am.  after that I started to get up later and later to coincide with her.

[brad5959]

correction---I left the west coast on the 23rd of April, and arrived in Crimea Ukraine on the 24th of April.
continued...25th of April.  we are just hanging out at her flat.  I lay down to take a nap and she joins me in my room.  pretty soon there are clothes strewn about the floor...wham bam thank you sir!!  without a doubt if a RW is into you, they will let you know fairly quickly.  (I just don't understand these other TR's where the guy either spends a lot of money wining and dining, and/or speaks fluent russian, but cannot even get a kiss out of the lady)  from than on I refer to her as my "crazy nymphomanic" and we experience a mostly happy boyfriend/girlfriend relationship.

26th of April  we go into the larger city to meet with her interpreter.  I am surprised to learn that he is a man, as I was expecting a woman.  anyway, we have lunch at a nice cafe.  he recommends some black sea fish, which are awful little miserable little pathetic little fish.  at least the salad was excellent.  we discuss various topics and our plans for the next few days, with his assistance.  he only charges me 100 grivna for one hour of translating, and he only orders some tea while Elena and I have lunch.

afterwards Lena and I are alone together and she shows me around the city.  we go to an art museum which is very good.

27th of April  we plan to meet with her mother.  I am a little bit apprehensive.  prior to arriving at her moms flat we go to the city center and purchase her mom a large green plant.  when we got off of the bus I made the mistake of not helping Elena off the bus, and she swears at me as she is in high heels.  I don't make that mistake again!  I wanted to buy her mom flowers but Elena insists that her mom wants a green plant.  I also bring her mom a very good chardonay from California, which her mom likes very well.  her mom sets me at ease and begins to bring enormous amounts of food from the kitchen.  I do my best to eat as much as I can, but there is always more.  her mom is a large woman, I mean almost gigantic.  I think to myself, wow is that how her daughter will look in 30 years...oh well at least she is very nice.  she has a large white fluffy cat which is just insane.  the cat leaps wildly at her cat toys.  than she puts the poor cat in a bag and weighs him on a scale.  he is indeed a very well fed large fat cat.

that evening Lena rolls some dough and makes a pizza from scratch by hand and bakes it for our planned trip the next day.  I have never seen that done before and am very impressed with her industriousness.

28th of April.  we head from her city to our planned little three day vacation in Yalta.  her interpreter has a newer russian car and offers to drive us there for $80.00, a good price since the local Taxi company wanted $100.00, and his price also includes interpreting on the way there.  we stop at a little Tatar cafe and have some tea and the Pizza Lena had prepared the night before.  there is also a water pipe along the side of the road which has some mountain water coming out of it which is safe to drink and very refreshing--as good as any Evian I have ever had and ice cold.  we arrive at our hotel in Yalta after about 2 1/2 hours of total driving time.  the hotel I have chosen with Elena's input is the Yalta Intourist, a gigantic Soviet hotel with 1,149 rooms.  I paid for the hotel over the internet with Hotels.com  there is a fubar at reception as they say I only paid for 1 night, but we are staying 3 nights.  I finally agree to pay double and dispute it with Hotels.com.  but as soon as we arrive in our room and start getting settled in, there is a call from management that they found my payment, and offer to either refund it back to my credit card in two days or just give me cash right away.  I take the cash and am happy not to have to deal with it with hotels.com over the internet.  the room is very nice for the price, which included a breakfast buffet for free everyday.  we head out to the botanical gardens of Yalta.  I would say it is a good place to visit, but not great.  I let Lena negotiate all of the taxi prices in russian so that I don't get double charged.  she does a great job with that.  taxis within a city are really pretty cheap, and there is an abundance of them.  if one of them tries to charge you too much, another one pipes in that his price is less.
how did that guy from England get screwed so bad on taxi fees??
after the botanical gardens we go down to the city and walk around the boardwalk.  elena shows me a book of poetry at a bookstore and I think that might make a good birthday present as her birthday is the next day.  I want to get her several small presents.  that evening we go to the hair salon at the hotel as she says I need a haircut.  she also gets the price for a haircut for herself.  when I mention that I don't think she needs a haircut, she throws a fit and heads up to the room.  when I get back to the room she has her bags packed and says she is leaving.  I take control of the situation, grab her bags and unpack them and tells her she is not leaving--what is her problem.  I tell her if she wants a haircut that will be fine with me.  I didn't say no, I had just said that I didn't think she needed one.  she shows me the word in the dictionary "expenditure" and says that I am not providing her any money for expenditures.  I said no problem and gave her 500 grivnas.  I think she was only expecting 200 grivnas to pay for her haircut which was supposed to be 160 grivnas. so she is very happy for the moment.  but does she go and get a haircut after all of that conniption fit??  nope.  we head up to the 16th floor of the hotel to the restaurant Ai Petri.  the views are fantastic and the food is good enough.  the prices are surprisingly reasonable.  we are both happy again and all is well in the kingdom of love at the Yalta Intourist hotel.

[brad5959]

since I can't sleep I am going to work on finishing this trip report.

April 29th

it's Elena's birthday.  I am hoping to make it special for her.  I want to get her a book of poetry, a nice flower bouquet and a nice dinner with champagne.

we head out to the zoo park first.  the taxi driver says that the zoo in Yalta is the best in Ukraine.  I think it is a very good zoo.  lots of different types of tigers from all over the world.  overall I would highly recommend the zoo if you are in Yalta.  we eat lunch at the zoo cafe and than head back to Yalta via a bus.  when we get off the bus she heads straight for a jewelry store.  uh oh!!  I don't believe in buying jewelry unless there is more time in a relationship than a few days.  I had hoped I would be shopping for an engagement ring for her after we spent enough time together--maybe two or three months over the next visit to Ukraine or two.  I can tell she really wants a ring for her birthday.  not an engagement ring, just a nice gold ring with a unique design.  we leave there and walk for miles until we finally find the book store.  I show her the poetry book, and she asks "is that my birthday present?"  in a not very pleasant voice.  I say yes, it was going to be one of them.  she says "goodbye" and quickly walks away, leaving me speechless.  I decide to try to catch up with her and follow her, even though she's deliberately trying to lose me.  I finally catch up to her and explain I wanted to buy her several small presents.  she says no, she just wants one normal one.  I guess what is normal to her is more than I planned for, but I can tell there is going to be big trouble if I don't make her happy.  I am beginning to see a pattern with her throwing temper tantrums when she does not immediately get what she wants.  I would not mind it if she would be more patient and spend some time communicating her point of view in a thoughtful way.  but when she is pissed off she is just ready to dump me right away.  I have internally decided she is probably not the right candidate to think about an engagement ring with because she is so immature.  however I want her to be happy for this birthday as we may never be together again after this.  so I show her a jewelry store and ask her to come in with me.  she is still upset and walks away again.  I go to her and ask her to please settle down, please let's just look and see if she likes something.  she looks at many different rings but does not like any of them.  we go to another store, same results.  I mention a third store and she says they are too expensive, she does not want to even look there.  at least she wants me to get good value for my money.  I say lets catch a cab and go back to the original store which is miles away.  this makes her happy and we get in the cab again.  I again explain that I had wanted to get her several small presents, but that I will get her what she wants because I want her to be happy on her birthday.  we get back to the original store and she narrows it down and finally settles on one.  it was $155.00.  the price for dinner for some of the guys on the thread but for me a big purchase.  for some reason they give her a card so that she can get a discount if she makes further purchases at the same chain.

I had some champagne waiting for her at the hotel, but they do not have glasses and a bottle opener thru room service, so we decide to take it up to our fave restaurant.

she dressed up very very nice.  tight fitting but classy dress with some cleavage, beautiful two tone stockings and high heels.  I wear some black pants, my best black and white striped dress shirt and some black italian dress shoes.  I feel very blessed and happy to be with her.  the restaurant informs us there will be a corking fee for the champagne but that is completely normal.  dinner is very good and we head back to the room.  we're both happy and in a very romantic mood.  the night ends very well.  we have excellent physical chemistry and I am happy about it, although I also know there must be more to a relationship than that.  I hope she can become more mature over time, but a seed of doubt has been planted.  time will tell!!