My First Trip Report

[Hammer2722]

Great TR Hammer!
The pictures add a lot of "color" to the story.
I have a question though.
You are not planning on asking Olya to marry you (in Egypt) without meeting her family and son first?

GOB

Well, I have already met her son though not in person. We talk all the time on Skype. Olya sometimes gets upset with him because he wants to take up most of the time talking to me.

Olya and I have already been discussing spending our lives together in detail. She doesn't see it as a problem if I were to ask her first then ask her parents. She says they are not all that much on the old customs.

[tim 360]

Well, I have already met her son though not in person. We talk all the time on Skype. Olya sometimes gets upset with him because he wants to take up most of the time talking to me.

Olya and I have already been discussing spending our lives together in detail. She doesn't see it as a problem if I were to ask her first then ask her parents. She says they are not all that much on the old customs.

Hammer,  Thanks for a great trip report and follow-up.  Hope all goes well, let us know.

OlgaH, Thanks for the link to those recipes.  Brings back some good childhood memories when my Great Grandmother and Grandmother made some of those dishes.  In their version of the Chicken Cutlet they would include chives and garlic in with the cheese pocket.  Yum.  Maybe we should have a recipes subforum?

[Hammer2722]

  Maybe we should have a recipes subforum?

That is an excellent idea!!!! I would love to be able to read and try different FSU dishes!!!! 

[tim 360]

That is an excellent idea!!!! I would love to be able to read and try different FSU dishes!!!! 

Yeah just recipes and recipe links and ratings etc kinda like the Food Network.  I'm sure Dan could get some very good advertising deals from the food industry to more than pay for the site too.  I just posted the idea in "Married".

[Hammer2722]

22 August 2010:

We got up pretty early this time around 8 AM and met Jamie near his place outside. We all headed out to the beach and set up at our usual spot. The weather was as usual clear and hot. Jamie informs us he will have to head back and get ready for a date that he just set up yesterday with a lady from Odessa that he met on Ukraine-Date. That is how Jamie operates. He pretty much rolls into a city, gets an apt and starts to set up dates while he is there. I don't pass judgement myself. Its his thing and I respect it.

We spend the morning in and out of the water. Today its particularly warm and clear for the Black Sea. At about noon Jamie decides to head back and get ready for his date with a lady named Viki who he is supposed to meet on Derib. street.

Last night, Jamie had shown me this ladies profile on Ukraine -Date on his laptop. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw her. I instantly recognized her as a lady I had been chatting with many months prior. Only her profile name was Veronica!! Same pics though but different profile!!!! I told Jamie I suspect this lady is probably a pro-dater and not to let her take him to an expensive restaurant!!! He said he wasn't worried that he could handle it if she was. So, I left it that.

Olya and I decide to head back to our flat around 3pm as we were hungry and wanted to eat. By the time we were back, showered and changed, I got a call from Jamie asking me and Olga to come over and meet Viki, eat and have some beers.We headed over and while I went into the kitchen to get the leftover spaghetti ready, Olya went to the back yard and chat with Jamie and his new lady. Jamie came into the house and we discussed his lunch date. Apparently, she took him to a fancy Ukrainian restaurant for lunch. Since he was quite hungry he agreed. Well, he then told me about all the food this lady had ordered for herself. He said she ate all of it. it was more food than Olya and I could eat together!!! I just laughed and said he was exaggerating but he insisted. So I get the spaghetti ready and fill up 2 plates of leftovers for Olya and I to eat outside while Jamie and Viki chat. She speaks English fairly but does have some trouble with slang words and gets Olya to translate. I don't think she really recognized me as someone who has chatted with her and did not bring it up.

Olya tries the leftover pasta and agrees quite excitedly that the spaghetti is even better tasting the second time around. Its at this point that Viki says she would like to try some pasta. This is after she and Jamie ahd just had a big expensive lunch not more than an hour ago!!!!! I bring her out a great big platefull. I wanted to see how much she would eat to verify Jamie's claims about her bottomless gut. Olya and I could not believe it!!!! She ate it all and asked for seconds!!!!! I could not believe my eyes. I brought her out a second plate and she proceeded to polish it off with no help required!!!!
No this lady is by no means fat. She might be a few pounds overweight but actually looks attractive with a decent shape. A bottomless gut doesn't even come close to describing this woman and the night that poor old Jamie is going to be in for!!!!!

We sit in the garden for several hours chatting and making plans for the rest of the evening. I take all the dishes into the kitchen and wash them. When I get back outside its been decided that we are all going out. First, we'll catch a taxi to derib and take a stroll around the city center. Maybe stop in at a cafe for a few beers before heading to Arkadia to Itaka nightclub. Guess who's idea all of this was? Viki's of course.

Olya and I head back to our flat to change into some nicer clothes for the evening out. Olya then tells me she doesn't like Viki and thinks she is a fake!!! I tell her my suspicions about her being a pro-dater and how I think she'll start to show her colors when we get to the city center.

Up to this point, I have never seen my Olya dressed to the nines in high heels and dress so when I saw her putting makeup all dressed up I saw how hot she looked in her dress and heels!!! WOW!!! I told Olga how hot she looked and she started to get playful and go into some sexy poses! I grabbed my camera a took some shots!! Man, was I going to look good with this lady on my arm!!!.......

[Hammer2722]

22 August 2010 continued..:

We all meet up outside Jamie's place to meet the taxi which arrives promptly and drops us off at Derib. St near the McDonald's. We start walking towards the Irish Pub not quite sure yet where we want to go. As we pass the Europa Mall, Viki starts asking Jamie to go into the mall with her. She wants him to buy her a new hat. I start to think here we go.LOL. She is pulling Jamie by the hand wanting him to go in. He tells her he insn't here to start buying her things and that they have only just met. He tells her if they get to know each other a little better then maybe he will get her the hat.

After she finally accepts the fact that Jamie ain't budging, she relents and we start walking up Derib. towards the city center park and then back down the other side. Viki convinces Jamie to have us all stop in at the Love Cafe on one of the side streets of Derib. We all go in deciding to just have a drink and hang out for a while till we depart for Arkadia.

The Love Cafe is part cafe/restaurant and night club. We find a table near the back and sit down. The whole place is decorated in pink, hearts, angels and cherubs. Not my first choice to have a drink. Olya orders a beer as does Jamie. I decided I just wanted a cup of coffee. Viki of course orders an 8 dollar glass of red wine and asks for a menu. She then orders some kind of dessert which when it arrives is absolutely huge and is probably pretty expensive!!! This woman proceeds to eat the entire dessert! Never even offered Jamie a taste. All we could do was watch her down the entire thing in amazement. Viki then gets up to go to the restroom and Olya and I just look at each other wondering where the hell does this lady put all that food???? One would think she has gone the last couple of days without eating.

After about an or or so of sitting and watching Viki go through 3 glasses of red wine, we decided to take another short walk towards primorsky blvd before calling a taxi to go to Arkadia. We take the taxi and 15 minutes later we arrive at the entrance to Arkadia Beach. Now this is only my second time coming here. The first time was during my first trip to Odessa and it was in April. We storll along looking at all the sites and deciding which night club we wanted to go into. Viki keeps insisting we go to Itaka. I'm thinking if she is insisting, then it must be expensive!!! we wnet into Fanconi and found a table upstairs. After sitting there and waiting for almost 45 minutes with no waitress. We decided they this place wasn't interested in making money. Either that or their waiting staff was extremely lazy!!! A couple of ladies sitting across from our table had been waiting even longer. As we head back downstairs to the exit we spot several waitresses standing near the bar having a nice old conversation. Good think we didn't have to pay a cover to get in!!! I would be livid. After walking around Arkadia a bit we finally give to Viki's suggestions of Itaka.

The cover for Itaka was 80 Grivna for the woman and 120 for the men. We pay up, get our hands stamped and proceed inside. The Time is about 9:30 PM and the place is already pretty full. Viki suggests getting one on the booths near the dance floor. Jamie, Olga and I pretty much nix that idea when we find out you have to pay 1000 grivna to sit there. We decide to stand at the rails opposite the bar. We could have gone upstairs but Olya and I didn't fell like going up there. She wanted to be closer to the dance floor.

Now the cheapest beer in this place is Staroprammen for 54 grivna!!! Jamie and I decide to just get Heineken for just 6 grivna more. Olya orders a vodka and orange juice. Viki decides she wants to get a bottle of wine. After Jamie finds out what the pice is he tells her she is going to get a beer just like us. I did not even bother to ask how much the wine was. LOL. This is when Viki starts to shut down and act like a child. She turns in her stool away from us for the rest of the evening. Not before she orders her beer and when Jamie wasn't looking, she asked for a MENU!!!! Olya and I just decide to ignore Jamie and Viki because now we can tell the atmosphere between them is hostile. Olya and I head down to the dance floor to dance to a few songs. When we come back, we see that Viki has a large pizza sitting in front of her. She is eating it and facing away from us like some prison inmate protecting his food!! Jamie has this discusted look on his face and Olya is just smiling and shaking her head. We all decide to sit and watch her to see if she is really going to eat the whole pizza!!! Well, she does!!!! Completely wiped it out. I have never in my entire life seen a woman of average height weight put away so much food. Olya is completely shocked. She won't even look at us anymore and just sits on her stool looking the other way at the dance floor. Jamie won't even bother to talk to her anymore. After a while she tries to order something else and Jamie just completely cuts her off. Jamie Olya and I all head to the dance floor determined to just enjoy the evening ourselves. After dancing for what seemed like an hour, we head back to our stool to find Viki grabbing her purse to leave. She says bye to Olya and I and as she starts to walk away, Jamie taps her on the shoulder, when she turns to look at him, he flips her the bird right in her face and tells her to F- off!!! All I could do was laugh my ass off!!!

We spend the rest of the evening taking turns dancing with Olya. Olya and Jamie have pretty much polished off an entire bottle of Nemiroff Vodka. Jamie is completely smashed and making an ass of himself while Olya is drunk but feeling good. This woman can drink!!! Good thing I decide to just take it easy this evening and drink slowly. Jamie is now acting very obnoxious with some of the guys sitting around us and some women. Olya and I decide its time to get Jamie back home to bed. It's abot 1:30 AM and we head back to the Arkadia entrance. What I found so interensting is the the further you walk away from the Arkadia arch, the cheaper the taxi fares get. We walked 2 blocks and finally got a taxi to accept 45 Grivna to take us home. The highest fare was 100.00 grivna at the beach entrance.

So, we get back to our flats entrance, I make sure Jamie makes it into his house and locks his door before Olya and I head back to our place to shower, and cuddle up in bed for the night.

[ML]

Moral of the Viki tale for Jamie:  Best to be thought of as greedy earlier rather than later.

[facetrock]

  Your buddy Jamie is a disaster waiting to happen. Insulting a local woman like Jamie did might seem like the right thing to do at the time even if she does deserve it, but to flip a local girl off and then tell her to F..K off right to her face can be very dangerous. If by chance she is a favorite spoiled daughter, neice or sister to people who are well connected and sobbingly tells them how Jamie insulted her, Jamie could have a very serious problem.
  Hector what would you do to a foreign man if your sister told you how she was treated by Jamie? Remember, you would only here her side of the story. I know what I would do. Refusing to buy another pizza is one thing but the finger in the face and FO is a whole nother ball game. A game Jamie has no chance of winning.
  You also said Jamie got drunk and made an ass out of himself. Another reason the locals would love to sh!t kick him. You can hang out with whoever you please but when I am in the FSU guys like Jamie are the reason I try to avoid all expats.
  Hector you have no idea who this woman really is other than her name or for that matter Jamie. Tread carefully.
  Bad companions bring bad luck.

[Hammer2722]

facetrock, I am only reporting what occurred if you didn't notice. I in no way was defending either Jamie or Viki. Olya and I were totally disgusted with these two. I told Jamie the next day was a complete ass he had made of himself. I also told Olya that I would only go out to a nightclub with just her from now on.

BTW, the story of Jamie and Viki continues. She actually comes back a sleeps with him next day. No lie!!!! Stay tuned....

[Aloe]

Last night, Jamie had shown me this ladies profile on Ukraine -Date on his laptop. I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw her. I instantly recognized her as a lady I had been chatting with many months prior. Only her profile name was Veronica!! Same pics though but different profile!!!! I told Jamie I suspect this lady is probably a pro-dater and not to let her take him to an expensive restaurant!!! He said he wasn't worried that he could handle it if she was. So, I left it that.

Vika is short for Veronica, same as Vera, Nika, Viki (i guess she americanized russian Vika ). Vika is also short for Victoria

[Faux Pas]

I'm enjoying your TR Hammer. Please keep it coming 

[Hammer2722]

23 August 2010:

I wake early as usual and go through my morning routine of making coffee, reading and watching tv while waiting for my beautiful Olya to wake up. She finally wakes up around 10 AM and although she had drunk a fair amount of alcohol last night, she shows no sign of a hangover though she does want to stay in bed and snooze a little while longer. I make her some coffee and tell her I'm going over to see how Jamie has fared since last night.

I call Jamie first to see if he is a wake and find he has just woken up. I head over and we start to discuss last night events. He says he remembers telling Viki to F-off but after that, he just remembers dancing and drinking alot. I explained to him how he had made an ass of himself and how Olga and I were pretty discusted with Viki and his behaviors. He apologizes to me and says he will to Olya too later. We sit out side and drink coffee and talk. He has his laptop out and is chatting up some lady from Donetsk. Olya calls me after a while and wants me back there. I guess I am really starting to rub off on her. I tell jamie I'll call him with our plans after I talk to Olya.

I get back to the flat and Olya is in the shower. As she gets out, she asks what I want for breakfast. She oofers to make eggs and potatoes which I accept. While she dresses I peel the potatoes. She makes a nice scrambled egg mixed with veggies with fried potatoes. Very Tastey!! We discuss our plans for the day and decide to head to the beach for a few hours and then we come back and head to a restaurant near Arkadia she wants to try out. They serve authentic Uzbekistani dishes. We can then take a short walk over to Arkadia for a few hours and take some pics.

I call jamie to tell him our plans and he says he's going to sleep for a while longer but he will join us for dinner. We head out to our usual spot on the beach and enjoy the beach for a few hours drinking beer, sunning and playing backgammon. I can proudly say the by now, I have been beating Olya almost one out of every 3 games we play. She says she is very proud of me. She is a very good player!!! We head back to the flat about 3pm and shower and change. Jamie comes over while we are waiting for the taxi. He apologizes to Olya for his behavior last night and she accepts. As Olya is in the bedroom getting ready, Jamie tells me how he called Viki and told her off concerning her behavior and wanting this and that and ordering all that food. After all the crap of last night, you would think this guy would have written her off!!! Well, he somehow convinced her to spend this evening at his house. No restaurants, no shopping. Just the 2 of them spending the night in. This guy is a smooth talker and I'm still wondering how he convinced her to spend the night with him. lol. I tell its not a good idea for Olya to see her today so he makes sure she doesn't show up till after our dinner and picture taking.

We catch the taxi to the Uzbek restaurant. It seems like a really nice place. I can't for the life of me remember the name but it was right next door to the cultural Uzbek community center. It early evening and their are a few table occupied. I order the Shashlykk, Olga gets salmon and Jaimie orders some kind of local fish. It is small but quite tastey. Olga's Salmon is delish! We all order some Staropromman beer. I was very impressed with this place. The price was amazingly cheap for the amount of food and beer we had and our waitress was excellent. Always there when we needed her.

We pay the tab and start the short walk down to Arkadia. We stroll up and down the beach and find a nice elevated area with a view of the sea and beach to take some pics. We then find a small cafe where we spend drinking beer, chatting and just enjoying the view and weather. Eventually, Jamie says he needs to head back to meet Viki at his rental so we all walk back to the beach entrance and catch a taxi back home. We bid jamie good night and I wish him good luck with his evening with Viki. Olya head to our flat to spend a nice quiet and intimate evening together knowing that she will be leaving for home in 2 days time. I am starting to dread that fast approaching day!!!!

[Hammer2722]

24 August 2010:

Well, its Tuesday and the day before my beautiful Olya has to return home to run their family business. I wake up with the realization that this wonderful lady will be leaving me soon. It is a depressing thought. I decide to make this a memorable night for her and I want her to enjoy this last full day. We get up around 9 AM and head for the beach to our usual spot. The weather is beautiful as usual. I call Jamie and tell him of our plans. He says he will meet us at the beach. He is still in bed with Viki. He apparently did convince her to spend the night with him.

We get walk to the beach and find many more people there than usual so we get  a spot as close to the water and we resierve 2 extra spots for Jamie and his lady. After about an hour, Jamie shows up with Viki. We both decide to be nice to her while she is with us. Fortunately for us, she gets a pot on the far side with Jamie between Olya and her. Olya and I spent most of our time at the beach playing backgammon, drinking beer and occassionally wrestling and plying in the water.

Viki of course immediately has to order lots of food. Throughout most of our time at the beach Jamie has to constantly monitor what she is ording and approve of her orders. He occasionally will complain to me about how much food she is consuming. I decide to just smile and remain quiet. After a while Jamie has become fed up all of the money he has spent on food and drinks with her so he decides after they get back, he will put her in a taxi and send her home.

Olga gets a call from Yulia and wants us all to to meet at Top Sandwich in the evening for our final farewell dinner for Olya. Yulia and Olya grew up together in Kamianets-Podilsky and have been friends through college. Yulia now only gets to see Olya only when Olya is in Odessa which is very seldom. So we all agree to have dinner in Derib. then maybe go to arkadia later in the evening. I tell Olya I will tell Jamie of our plans after he sends Viki home.

We head back to the flat around 2PM, have a light snack and wait for Jamie to call. He finally calls and I explain that we are all meeting at Top Sandwich for dinner at Derib St. so, he gets ready and meets us at our flat. We catch a taxi to TS and find a nice big table out on the sidewalk. We orders beers and a small caraf of vodka to have while we await Yulia and her family. They all show up after about half an hour and we all put in our food orders. Jamie has the seafood pizza on my recommendation, I order the pelmini on Olya's suggestion. She orders Sushi with Yulia and Alex and Vadim share a pizza. We sit around drinking, making all kinds of toasts to new friends met. After we finish eating we decide to head out to arkadia to just stroll along and find a little cafe to have a beer. We find a small little cafe about to close so we order one beer and decide to head over to Jamie's place and drink some more and chat. By this time, its getting pretty late and I want to spend the rest of the night with my baby in a more intimate setting for ourselves so we excuse ourselves from the party. We say our goodnights. Everyone is planning on going with Olya and I to see her off at the train station tomorrow.

We gat back to the flat just get ready for bed. We chat for abit about our relationship and make plans to see each other again. The rest of the night si ours to treasure till we meet again.

[Hammer2722]

25 August 2010:

Well, today is the day Olya leaves back for home. Her train leaves at 1PM. As I lay awake in bed with this wonderful Ukrainian woman sleeping next to me, all I want is for this trip to never end. I really don't want to see her go. I fell like crap right now. She awakes  and looks into my eyes. All I can say is that I don't want her to go but I know she has to.

We get up shower and start to pack up our luggage. Yulia and her family will be coming along to the train station to see Olya off as well. Jamie and I will be leaving today as well at 10PM to Kiev since jamie has to leave on Friday while my flight does not leave till Sunday( or so I thought) so I will have a few days in Kiev alone.

We make coffee, finish up cooking the rest of the eggs into an omelet. I call Jamie and he is just getting up. He wants to see Olya off as well. Yulia show up about 11am and we sit aorund and chat. I head to jamie's to help him move out of his place. He needs to be out by 12. I help him get his bags over to our flat and stor them there till its our turn to leave. It all seems like a blur, the time between now and when we have to depart for the station. The taxi arrives about 1215 and we get to the station pretty fast. We decide to stop at a small cafe nearbye and drink some coffee. Soon we are heading into the station and looking for Olya's train. Her car is about halfway down the tarck. I help her take her bags to her place and I head outside to wait for her. We still have 15 minutes before the train leaves. Olya comes back out and tells me her roomies are a women and her young daughter and there is no one else with her. I feel a little better about this as the last time she traveled alone, a older man in his 60's was in room with her and he tried to jump in her bunk with her while she was sleeping and he was stark naked!!!

We spend our last 15 minutes holding, embracing, kissing and saying how much we love each other. Jamie is taking lots of very nice pics of this with his very nice camera.Finally, its time for Olya to board. We give each other one last kiss and she gets on boardturns around one last time and blows me a final farewell kiss. She turns back and she is gone. All I can do is follow the along as it leaves. I feel like a part of my heart has been taken away form me. She calls me on the cell and tells me she loves me very much. Its a good thing I had sunglasses on as I had tears in my eyes the whole time.

Yulia offers to cook us a nice meal so we all head across the street to the Privoz market and and watch as she picks all of the veggies and herbs. I had previously told Jamie about the great seafood dinner Yulia made us last week and he offered to pay for all the food if Yulia would make the same thing. So, we found mussels and shrimp. We could not find any crayfish this time though. We head back to my flat and while Yulia is cooking, Jamie and I head down the street to get some beer and stop at the grocery store to pick up some snacks for the train ride to Kiev. The meal was fantastic as usual and we have a great time chatting and drinking. Olya calls a few times. I can tell she really misses me as I can tell she was crying.

Finally, its time to check out of my flat and catch the taxi back to the train station. We bid Lyuba goodbye and thank her for such a great place she has and the wonderful time we had here. This lady is a class act. We arrive at the station and stop the the same cafe for a beer untill it's time to find out train. Apparently, our train is about the last car at the end of the station. We take out things in to our cabin and come back out to bid our farewells to Yulia, Alex and Vadim. These are really wonderful people and I have finally made some new friends that live in Odessa!!

Jamie and I had agreed to buy out the entire cabin for ourselves so we wouldn't have to put up with anyone else. Well, just as we are getting all settled in and I've made my bunk, a couple of babushkas, I think they were the cleaning ladies for the train walked by and noticed out 2 empty bunks. One of them started saying something in Russian. Now Jamie doesn't know a lick of Russian and starts being friendly with these ladies. He starts to say da,da even though he has no clue what they are saying. I figured out they were asking if they could use our top bunks when she said "moshna?" I told Jamie to shut up and close the door and lock it. Afetr explaining to him what they were asking, I told him if we didn't lock the door, we'd probably be getting other people walking by looking for an open spot. Many of these people come from the third and fourth class compartments looking for empty bunks after the train has departed the station.

After about  30 minutes of chatting with Jamie and watching him get drunk on vodka, I decide I'm tired enough now to go to sleep. I lay bake and slowly nod off while thinking of me beautiful baby Olya...

[kievstar]

Well written trip report.  Can you get Jamie to write a report?  I think it would be interesting to read. 

[Hammer2722]

To be honest, I don't think Jamie is really looking for a wife. I think he loves coming to Ukraine to meet women all over the country and sleep with them. I still consider him a friend even though I don't approve of his intentions.

[3T_Ventus]

Hammer2722!

Loved the TR! Great to see everything unfold in this way. And to think that the most romantic part is still approaching...Asking your girl on her birthday is just great! Your giving me an idea 

Great pictures and the food looks appetizing, just delicious! I live by the coast, near to a small harbor where fresh fish is the main course. If I happen to get the recipe I will prepare it myself too. The black and white pictures really stand out. Jamie captured the emotion very well.

Hammer, you have got there a great woman and I would want to wish you all the best for the future!

[facetrock]

  Kievstar your right. Reading a trip report from Jamie would be great entertainment.