Another adventure trip report

[felix8787]

Well folks,
That morning I had everything packed and rechecked everything to make sure that I didn't forget anything, time to go to Kiev. Wow, was I a happy person to finally be out of here for a couple of weeks to spend time in Kiev and finally meet my lady (for those that read my Another adventure topic, things have changed and not for the worst)

Got to MCO airport went thru that with no problems, got to Boston, hung out there for about 4 hrs I think, while going through security, the TSA guy noticed my National Guard backpack and ask if I was in the Guard and I said "yes", he shook my hand and thanked me for serving in the Guard. While hanging out there I decided to get some Hgrivna (if spelled correctly), that was a mistake, but I didn't know any better at that point in time, I got 7 hundred something worth of UA cash. Finally to time board and head to Paris. I must say that the only movie that they were showing on that flight for almost 8 hrs was "Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull" in French no less with no subtitles or options for English  oh well.

Next day, landed in Paris and had a 2 hr layover, plane arrives and off to Kiev, wow, now I am super excited, didn't have any jet lag what so ever, maybe because I slept pretty good on the flight to Paris, then again, I really don't get jet lagged.
Well I land in Kiev, FINALLY! All this anticipation for (drum roll please)...............................a hour an a half wait to get through customs. Apparently there was an influx of alot of religious folks coming into Ukraine, I believe they were Amish.

While standing in line, there wasn't really any structure or order as to who was going up to the counter to get checked, it was like every man for himself mentality to get thru customs, while some folks took a long time to get checked, locals went through pretty quickly. While waiting, I remembered what I read here about locals cutting in line and so forth and also how Ambach was trying to get scammed for some money to get through customs, finally the airport police to everyone to stand back and create some sort of line.

None of that happened, but I did see locals cutting in front of each other that were in front of me, hell I even cut in front of someone who should have gone to the counter before I did, snooze you lose. I got to the counter and I was through in less then 2 minutes, I see my bag there and I thought again to an article here about Ukrainian workers riffleling through suitcases and stealing stuff, good thing all of the important stuff, I had in my back pack.

Wow, as I am walking out and into the airport, I was so damn relieved to finally be here, I couldn't believe it...as I was walking past the large crowd of folks that were waiting for the other people in customs, I'm looking for my friend Sveta, she didn't know what terminal I was going to be at, so I am keeping an eye out for her.....then I hear my name and it's Sveta, she has a big ol smile on her face....holy crap, I give her a hug and said to her "finally glad to be here" she was happy also, after talking to her through skype and becoming good friends, it is nice to finally meet in person.

She tells me to follow her so that we can get out of here, this place is a freaking zoo, the parking lot was even worse  . I'm just thinking, wow, I'm in Kiev! I tell her that I need her to call the lady about the apartment that I rented, so that I can meet up with her to pay her. She calls and says that she will be there in about 40 mins and my lady will be there to show me the apartment to see if I like it. I say cool and we're off into Kiev, I sitting there in the passenger seat like an excited little kid going to Disney world taking pictures along the way.

[felix8787]

As we are getting into the city, she wants to take me to this place where alot of weddings pictures get taken, it was a park next to Dnipro river, we walked around a bit and I took some pictures and she took some picture of me and I of her.
As we were walking back, sure enough, a young couple that just got married are there getting their pictures taken, heading to the car another couple arrived and were going there to get their picture taken also  , she tells me it is a popular place for pictures of weddings.

Back on the road heading to the apartment, she didn't know exactly where this street was, so she asked some people and they pointed her in the right direction, on the way there, she tells me of a restaurant that we pass, that was fairly cheap and the food was real good, I said cool, when we got to block where my apt should be, we couldn't find the blding, then I remembered that the blding was in the middle of the other buildings (remembered from looking at a map of Kiev in yandex few days earlier). We park on the backside of the building and walked around........there she was with the apt ladys husband.......WOW......absolutely beautiful, way way better looking in person then in the photos that she sent me a while ago.

Long story short, we have been corresponding/talking for a year before I came to Kiev. Before I went to Kiev, I told her that I put her picture on my computer background (corny isn't it  ) she told me that when I see her, that I'll just think "Oh it's you".......so when I was walking up to her, she had this huge and beautiful smile on her, she took a little time off from work to meet me and she was looking so stunning I couldn't believe, when I walked up to her, I told her "Oh it's you" and we both laughed. She took me up to the 2nd fl apt and showed me the place, it was a 1 room apt that has been remodeled, the room had wood floors in a chevron pattern, the entry way and hall way into the kitchen was newly tiled and the bathroom was completely remodeled with new tile, toilet and sink and I think a shower, it was actually really nice. Black entertainment center with a 20" tv and crystal glasses and tea cups in there and a heating unit on the wall, the back balcony was completely redone also in wood, really nice.

Sveta introduces herself to my lady, Sveta was my interpeter for that moment. After paying the man, my lady tells me that she has to go back to work and that she will be back in about 3 1/2 hrs, cool, so me and Sveta get her car and pull it around to the front of the building, I get my luggage and take it up stairs, then off me and Sveta go around the area, we head to the metro square area and she took me to this place to grab a bite to eat, I don't remember the name of what I had but it was good, but I didn't want to ruin my appetite for dinner, as we walked around, I need to buy flowers, I find a flower boutique in the square and bought roses for my lady. Sveta tells me that she has to go soon, bc she is heading to Moscow for a business trip. Ok, back to the apartment, it was about 4:30 or 5pm, Sveta leaves and now I am waiting for my lady to get off of work.

At about 6:30pm, the doorbell rings and it's my lady, wow, I couldn't believe it, she comes in and we sit and talk, she's happy and I'm happy, she asked if I was hungry and wanted to go to the supermarket to get some grocery, sure let's go, so we went out and started walking, she really doesn't know the area well and we just walked around until she noticed where she was at and knew of a grocery store near by, we go in and I grab a cart, I start getting essentials, bottled water, coffee, tea, eggs, oj, bread, cheese, premade rice w/veggies, fish and more fish. We head down the chocolate candy isle and she wants some chocolates, she finds what she likes and grabs a box, she asked if I like beer and I say yes, cool, what about wine I ask? She said that she likes smooth white wine, so now we hunt for smooth white wine, after about 30 minutes, she finally finds a bottle. Get to the check out, paid for the food and off to the apt.

Back at the apt, I put everything away, grab 2 wine glasses and opened up the bottle of wine, we sat in the kitchen and just talked, she was telling me about her daughter and I was of mine. She was eating her coconut covered chocolate candy and I had a few and we drank and laughed for I don't know long and we toasted to me finally coming to her! After downing the bottle, we head over to the room and sat on the couch and talked some more, I broke out the gifts that I brought for her, I got her a book to learn English that was written in Russian that came with a cd both in wav form and mp3 (thanks Anastassia), then I gave her 2 disney story books for her daughter and a disney oven mitt, hand towel and towel with Mickey Mouse on it for her mother, then last and not least for now, I gave her a cd player and a pack of batteries for the English learning cd, she told me that she didn't have a cd player, so it is something that she would use. Boy time flies when your having a good time, she tells me that she has to go, her roommates b-day was today and she also had to get up and go to work early the next day, she called a taxi and we talk some more, when the taxi called and said he was there, she gave me this look like it was time to go but she didn't want to go, so I walked her down to the taxi and I gave her money for the taxi, kissed her on her cheek and off into the night she went.

My mind is full of thoughts and experiences of today that I was somewhat numb about the whole thing, I went back into the apt and heated up the rice and fish with bread and cheese, watched some tv and called it a night..

To be continued

felix8787

[docetae]

on which day were you in Borispol ? I was on a flight from Paris with a lot of hasidic jews (maybe 50% of the people were them on the flight) on friday 27th.

[felix8787]

I was at Borispol on the 24th, landed there at 11:45am and finally left there about 2pm.

[docetae]

I was at Borispol on the 24th, landed there at 11:45am and finally left there about 2pm.

same flight but two days after....

[kievstar]

I arrived at 11:30pm at night on the 26th.  Weather was very windy that day and caused many delays in arrivals.  When that happens the custom agents are not staffed at right level.  One customs agent for locals and one for foreigners when I arrived.  I was first in line and carried my bag - very lucky. Plane was 30 minutes late and two planes arrived at same time.

Many trips through Borispol in past 3 years has taught me the tricks. 

Little advise - position yourself to be first off the bus and if on large plane make sure your on first bus back to airport.  Than go quickly to customs booth.  Stand the last line near the locals.  The booth for the line is for foreigners but the sign above makes it looks like locals.  This line moves very fast as the experienced traveller usually takes this line and their paperwork is in order (even if no one is in the booth stand there as a custom agent will come within a few minutes as people line up behind you).  The farther to the left the slower it goes even if line looks shorter.  Airport is easy to navigate and quick if you know what your doing.  If you arrive and people are jammed out the door.  Go to the local customs area.  They will take you through after a minute.  Just act dumb.

First few trips I used to sit in the customs line forever. Now never more than 15 minutes even if jammed.  Also, keep your luggage to your side and elbow on other side out far to keep people from passing you.  But this is not even clsor to the top 10 worse airports I have been to. 

[felix8787]

On day 2
I was walking around kontractova ploshcha square, live a few minutes from there, I was checking out the scene and getting a feel of the place.
As I was walking about, I wanted to get a hair cut and just touch up the edges, I found a place so I went in and sat down and waited for the lady to call me up. When the lady point that she was ready, I pointed that I wanted an edge and she sat me down and proceded to edge, while I was getting edged, I get a call and it was my lady asking me what I was doing and I told her I was at the salon getting a hair cut, she asked if I would like to join her and her coworkers for dinner (meaning lunch). I said sure, that I will be done here in about 10 minutes and can meet you at the restaurant.

I when the lady was done, she charged me $20 Khrivna and I went to the restaurant to my my lady and her coworkers. When my lady arrived, it was her and 2 other coworkers, she introduced me to them and we all went up stairs to get our order. The place was a buffet style restaurant and my lady told me that she eats here quiet ofter as it is cheap and she is always on the go with her work. Which is nice, her friends had already got their food and my lady was showing me the different types of food there and I was pointing out at stuff and she told me what they were.

After we got our dinner we went and sat down with her coworkers and the grilling started  . They started asking me questions about me and America, that the company that they worked for is an American company and of course I had my own questions that I asked them also, it was a candid dinner, we all laughed and had a good time. Well after lunch, I walked her back to her work and she tells me that she will see me tonight.

After she went in to work her friends tell me of a music museum and other places of interest, so I walked up this street full of vendors and saw many interesting souvenirs and a whole bunch of people, when I got to the top of the street I went to a monastery there and checked out the place, very nice. On my way back down I checked out another church and checked out more of the scene there in the area.

As the evening was rolling in, I went back to my apartment and waited for my lady to arrive, when she arrived we just sat on the floor next to the bed and mess with the heating unit, once she got done messing with that we talk a little bit more in-depth and it was a very good conversation, minus what words she didn't know in English, she even brought a book but that helped only so much, so I said that the next day I will go to the book store and get a Russian to English book. The evening went very well and there was alot of things that we talked about, it was great. Well at the end of the evening she called a taxi and when the taxi arrived I was walking her to the taxi, I her that I wanted to give her money for taxi, she tells me no, I insisted and she got mad about me wanting to pay for the taxi, so I let it go and I walked her to the taxi and off she went.

[Pike]

That cafeteria style place was probably a Puzata Hata.  There are several of them in Kyiv.  Pretty good food for the price, but for some reason they can't keep the food warm.  Great for cold type of food though.

[felix8787]

Day 3
Well it's a Friday here in Kiev Sept 26, I get up and go walking out and about in the city waiting for my lady to get off from work. Nothing unusual happens during the day, but I get this crazy notion to get my lady a bracelet. So I go walking looking for a shop or a mall. I walk down this road didn't really find any shops that I found interesting, so I went to this very nice hotel there, I think it was Hotel Riviera on Sahaidachnoho Str. They tell me that a mall called Karavan is on the other side of the city, they wrote it down for me and I asked how much it was for a taxi. Of course being that it is a nice hotel, their taxi service is expensive, so I declined their service.

I went walking back up Sahaidachnoho Str back to Kontraktova Ploscha square. I walked up to this taxi driver and asked him to take me to Karavan, he tells me 60 hrv. I say ok that is a much better price then what the hotel has told me. So off to the mall we went. As we were driving, this taxi driver is a young guy, his name is Sergi, we bs all the way to the mall and when we get there he asked if I needed a ride back to the square or my apt, I asked what are you going to be doing? He tells me that he will wait. I just say to him, if you are going to wait, why don't you come inside with me? That way you are not bored. He agrees and calls his wife to tell her where he is going LOL.

We go inside and he asked me what am I here for and I tell him that I am looking for a gift for a lady. He asked me well, how much would you like to spend on this gift, I say, I don't know, it just depends. So we went to every shop in the mall. DAMN, I can't believe how expensive everything is, it was almost impossible to find something that was nice without it taking me to the bank. With the help of Sergi, he did all of the talking for me. Well I almost gave up until we came across a kiosk and saw a nice bracelet, I got the bracelet and headed back to my apartment. Sergi gave me his number and told me to call him if I needed a ride, I tell him ok, thanks and left.

Latter that evening when my lady gets off of work, I meet her at the front of the building of her work and we go to a cafe that is close by and meet up with her good friend and her fiance, while we are waiting for her good friend we order coffee and I tell her to close her eyes and I gave her, her gift. She was very surprised and told me how beautiful it was and just kept on looking at it telling me how beautiful. I admit I was a little nervous about it, because I didn't know if she would like it, but I am glad things turned out good. After a little while later her friend shows up, she is a very nice lady and her fiance is an older gentleman, we all talked for some time, my lady and her friend talked and me and her fiance talked. We talk about Kiev and he tells me about the woman there, the pro daters and life that goes on in Kiev, it was very very interesting and he goes on to tell me that his future wife knows "I" for a while and that she is a good woman, which I don't disagree with. After we all had our fill of coffee and tea, we leave the cafe and say our goodbyes, we part ways. She come's by my apartment and we sit down. We talk and she tells me that she doesn't know if she wants to go to Vinnitsa to go see her daughter because she wanted to stay here with me and spend time with me.

I just look into her eyes and without hesitation, I tell her "Go, don't worry about me, your daughter needs you, I will stay here and wait for your return." She replies "Really? Are you sure, I don't know, I want to stay here with you." I say, "Don't worry about me "I" I will be ok, you need to go to your daughter, I know you miss your daughter and she needs you." I see this sign of relief from her about her going, as if she felt good that I made this decision for her and I know that I made the right decision.

After talking she asked if I was going to go back with her to her apartment? I said sure, I don't mind taking you back home, so I went with her to her apartment, we took the metro to Obolon and I walked her back to her apartment, when we get there we hugged for a while and she calls a taxi for me, when the taxi arrived, we said our goodbye and I left, I asked the taxi driver to take me to the supermarket first so that I get some food and beer. Got my groceries and beer in hand. Today was a good day.

felix8787

[Sculpto]

The Hasidics were going to Uman for Rosh Hashona.. Uman is the birthplace of the Hasidic movement.  Funny you thought they were Amish.. LMFAO

[felix8787]

The Hasidics were going to Uman for Rosh Hashona.. Uman is the birthplace of the Hasidic movement.  Funny you thought they were Amish.. LMFAO

Yeah, I am not current on religious folks.....    

[Sculpto]

btw.. great TR so far.. I am looking forward to reading the rest..

[felix8787]

Sorry that I have been slacking with this trip report, I am trying to remember everything that happened on a day to day basis with this, I had every intention to write down my experiences but I never actually thought about doing it LOL. I will keep it coming here soon.

felix8787

[viking]

Does any of this look familiar?

[felix8787]

Does any of this look familiar?

Oh YEAH! Loved puzatahata, I thought the food was excellent!

[felix8787]

Before I left, I had posted somewhere on here about possibly meeting up with anyone that was going to be there when I was there, but unfortunately nobody responded. Oh well, it would of been cool to hang out for a bit and shoot the shiot.

I went here to have a drink at about 11am, nice place.
Those tall buildings in the back ground, that is the district of Obolon.
This cat on top of a hill was showing me some love 

[CaptB]

Hey!.........its been almost a month! When is the next installment of this report?

Thanks...in advance.

[felix8787]

Hey!.........its been almost a month! When is the next installment of this report?

LOL, sorry, I will try and post another day tonight.

[felix8787]

Ok sorry about the long delay folks, I have been distracted by some other importants things that have been going on here.

Day 4
It's Saturday and my lady was out of town visiting her daughter and mother, I really didn't know what I was going to do today. So I go walking about the usual place that I knew and did some exploring in the areas that I didn't go to on foot, as I was walking past this place that looks like a bar/restaurant late in the morning, I saw this man drinking coffee, so I walked up to him and asked him in Russian "vwe gavarichi panglisski" and he said "yes, how can I help you" I say great, I am looking for a book store so that I can get a Eng to Rus/Rus to Eng translation book. Well he goes on to give me very good directions and I say спасиво and off I went to the book store, I found the book store with no problems, I went inside and proceded with my search. Navigating through the book store was a little tough seeing that everything was in Russian, so I asked on of the clerks about the book that I needed, the clerk didn't speak that good in Eng but good enough for me to understand, he took me around to the other side of the store and showed me the selection of translation books, I went through most of them and finally picked one that I thought was good, walked back to the front, waited to pay and off exploring I went. As I was walking up and down Nyzhnii Val st/Verkhnii Val st hitting every store there, I came across this flea market building that on the very bottom floor had a meat market and on the 2nd floor had clothing mostly leather coats, shoes, pants, hats and womens apparel, it was a cool place, as I went outside, that is where they had vegetables, eggs, tools, plumbing and various other items that were for home improvement. As I was walking past this one vendor, I saw the coolest looking welding glasses, then I saw another pair that was different, but I just had to have the one with the leather, I asked the guy how much and he writes down, 15. I looked at him and said 15 hrv? And he says "da", hell yeah I thought and I gave the man 15 hrv with a smile and told him спасибо!
As I was walking back towards kontraktova ploscha, I hear my name being called out "mak...mak" without the r or the o lol. It was the taxi driver Sergi, I say "hey what's going on?" he tell's me "nothing, I just work today, how are you?", I was feeling up beat and asked him if he wanted to go and get a drink and he says that he can't he has to work, no problem I thought, so we walk over to where his car was parked and he asked if I wanted coffee, I say sure, we walk over to this kiosk and I buy him a cup of coffee and myself one to, I ran out of cigarettes and went to go and buy some but the lady couldn't break the large bill that I had so Sergi bought them for me. I asked how is business today and he says slow but ok. Oh man, we talked about everything from his car to my car, America, Ukraine, the women here, the women there, he asked if I do sport and I say yes and he tells me that he likes to box and we talk about boxing and the heavyweight champ Kletchko? Also talked about politics, George W, the cars passing by...holy shiot, I have never seen so many Range Rovers in my freaking life, I even saw a Mercedes McClaren SLR. He popped the hood of his car and showed me the engine bay, damn I forgot what kind of car he had, it was pretty nice for a taxi there, then he tells me about how there is only 50 mustangs in Ukraine, lol he pronounces it moostang....lol but I didn't care.
He asked me what kind of music I like, I tell him pretty much anything except country, so we sit inside his car and he turns on his radio and starts putting in some cd's, cool I though, the music is pretty good, I tell him that I like RnB and he puts this one cd in and asked if I like, I was listening to it and was getting into it and I say yeah this is good. So he pops the cd out and he gives it to me and he says to me "here, present from me and my family to you." He even tore a page from his note pad and made a wrapping out of it. Wow, this is so cool of him to do that, I didn't know what to do. So I ask him if he was hungry and he nods his head a little, yeah maybe, I say "come on, lets go and get lunch, I got ya." Puzatahata was right there and we go there for lunch, I order fish and potatoes and he orders the same thing but I had gotten some deserts also, we take a seat over by the window so that he can keep an eye out on his car, we eat lunch bs'ed some more and head back over to his car. As we were walking my friend Sveta calls me to see how I was doing, I tell her everything is going great, how was her trip to Moscow? As I was telling her about the cd the Sergi gave me, I realized that I didn't have it on me and I thought, shiot, I left it in the restaurant, I give my phone to Sergi and ask him to talk to Sveta and I haul a$$ back to the restaurant to get the cd, when I got there, where we were sitting at our plates were gone, shiot I thought, so I stopped the nearest waitress and asked who took the plates and asked her if she has seen a cd, she understood somewhat of what I was saying so she takes me to the manager and I tell him cd, he looks under this one register and he shows it to me and I say "da, spasiba" and run back to where Sergi was, I tell him thanks for talking to Sveta and explain to him that I forgot cd, that it was a gift from him that I didn't want to lose it. I talked with Sveta some more and she says that she wants to take me out and about on kreshatek st. Ok, so she tells me what time to meet her at my apartment and I hang up the phone. When we got back to Sergi's car my lady calls me, cool, I talk to her and she asked me what I did today and I tell her that I had walked around the area and that I had lunch with Sergi, she tells me that she is happy that I have a friend there, we talked some more about what she was did in her city, then after a little bit we got off the phone.
As I was sitting there talking with Sergi, Sergi turns to me and Say's "mak, I need your help." I'm thinking, "oh, no, he's about to ask me for some money now, shiot." But it turns out that he just asked to use my phone to call his wife, whew what a relief I'm thinking because I would of said no, I don't have money to give and walk away. After he got done using my phone, he tells me thanks and bs some more. After a while I noticed that he hasn't had one customer all day, damn I hope I wasn't ruining his business, he did have some people ask for rides but he turned them down saying that they were cheap. LOL.
I figure, well I want to help him out and I ask him where I could get laundry soap so that I can wash cloth, he pauses and thinks, he says "mak get in" I say ok, so I get in, as he was driving this songs comes on that he likes but couldn't remember the name of the singer, so I as sat there listening, I know this song and I can picture who is singing it, but I can't spit the name out of the singer, so I'm sitting there while he's driving and BAM! it hits me I say "Toni Braxton?" he Say's "yes, that's her, I like her music." LOL, cool. He takes me to this place that looks like a mall and we go inside and we look around and he points over to this clothing store, I'm thinking, I don't need a new shirt......damn he misunderstood me, so I try to explain it better and use hand gestures to better express what I needed to get and he slaps himself on the forehand...oh mak, I'm sorry, I know now what you mean, don't worry about paying me for this ride, it's my mistake. I tell him, don't worry about it lets go, as we were walking out, there was this car dealership literally right next door attached to this mall so we walk over to there and it was a Mazda dealership and we checked out the cars there and I must say that those Mazda's that I seen, I have never seen stateside, it was pretty cool. As were leaving, I put on the welding glasses and roll the window down and started staring at people as we drive by in the parking lot, Sergi was laughing at me telling me "you crazy", as I was laughing also, I say to him "yeah, I'm crazy alright." LOL. Driving back to the area of my apartment, he takes me to this grocery store that was twice the size of the one that I went to on the first night and I realized that it was the one that I was at just the night before, as he parked the car, this couple came up and asked if he was available and he told them no, I asked what they wanted and he says nothing, don't worry. We go inside we look around a bit looking for laundry soap, after finding what I needed, we walk back out and the same couple was still there and they asked him again, he talks to them and tells them that he's taking me somewhere. I ask what did they want? Sergi says that they need a ride home, I tell Sergi, it's ok take them, I live right over there not far from here, Sergi says to me, you don't mind if they ride in car? I say no I don't mind it's your job, don't mind me, I don't live far from here you can drop me off and then take them home. I say it's ok and off we all go, on the way to my apartment, small talk occurs and of course I get brought up as a conversation piece LOL, being American here in Ukraine LOL. As we pulled up to my building, I asked Sergi "how much?" as in the taxi ride, he say's nothing, it's ok....I say "Sergi, seriously, how much? I used your services and I want to pay you." he looks at me like why am I being an a$$ about paying him when he said no and he says "50" I say "ok" I gave him 50 hrv and he tells me to call him sometime. Cool, I tell him. He leaves with his clients and I'm walking up to the apartment to do start laundry before Sveta gets there.
Sveta arrives and she comes in and see's that I have made myself at home. This is a pretty nice apartment that my lady reserved for me, I like it. Sveta hears something in the bathroom and she goes in there and sees that the washing maching was going, she points at it and says "you know how to use machine and clean clothes?" I say yes, I had to figure out what those Russian words were though LOL. She smiles and laughs then says, "Habibi (Turkish), you know, Ukrainian men don't clean, woman clean for men, but you clean and you good man." I can only smile and agree with her, I then show her around the apartment and show her what I bought from the grocery store. Sveta, smiles gleefully and says "you have food, water and beer. I very happy for you."
So off we went to where ever she was taking me, she tells me that she wants to meet Sergi, so I showed her where to go to where he parks at, as we drove close to where he was, I saw him there and told her where to park, we walk over to him and he say's "mak", I tell him this is Sveta and they start talking 100mph, LOL, she tells me that he told her that I am good luck for his business, that after he dropped me off and took those other people home, that he has been busy taking people around and that he was making some money, I just laughed and said good, I am glad that I could help, we talked for a little bit more with Sergi and then she took me to the center of Kiev which I think is Kreshatek st. She took me to where she says the president lives and showed me his home, WOW, that is one cool looking mansion, she took a quite a few photos of me and was telling me that the president's wife was American, that he met her on a plane and they married. We walk around and she shows me this unique looking mall with glass windows making up the whole front of the place in front of this big tower that over looked this big intersection. We walk around some more and she shows me this place that was a theater and a bridge that goes across the intersection, but we couldn't stay long, she had to meet her mom at a certain time and she didn't want to be late. So as we get back to the car and head back to my apartment, I asked her to drop me off at the little grocery store at kontraktova ploscha sq so that I could get some more food, she looked at her clock and saw that she was about 20 minutes late but she didn't show that she was to much in a hurry and asked if I was going to be ok walking back to the apartment, I tell her that I will be ok and that she needs to get going to her mom. We say our goodbyes and I head to the grocery store to pick up some food, as usual I get rice and fish...damn how I love the fish LOL.
Anyway, walking back to the apartment, I noticed nothing out of the ordinary, it was about 10pm I think and everyone had a bottle of piva in hand having a good time hanging out, I casually made my way through the area, I see that Sergi had left for the evening as I walk pass where he is normally at, as I got back into the apartment, I heated up some rice and fish, popped open a bottle of corona and relaxed and watched tv. It was around 11:30pm and my lady calls me to see how I am doing, I tell her that I am good, told her how my day went, she is happy that everything went fine and that she will be coming back sunday morning instead of sunday night like normal, I said great, we talked some more, I told her goodnight and see you tomorrow, I watched some more tv and off to la la land I went, as I went to sleep, I thought, today was a good day................My phone rings about 12:30am or so and it's Anastasia calling me to see how everything is going, LOL, she asked if she had woke me up, I said not really, we spoke for a while and then after we got off the phone, then I passed out LOL.

Sorry about some of the picture quality.
The 3rd picture is pretty cool, because it looks like a ghostly person is there but it was really just someone walking by as I took the picture.

[felix8787]

Pic's to go along with day 4, by the way I look like a dork. 

[felix8787]

more pic's

[CaptB]

Hey.......a week between trip report installments is "barely" tollerable. But lets not go another "month" between installments. 

[SANDRO43]

She smiles and laughs then says, "Habibi (Turkish)

Actually it's Arabic, and means My love .

[felix8787]

Hey.......a week between trip report installments is "barely" tollerable. But lets not go another "month" between installments. 

Sorry Capt,
I will try to get in another installment soon, I hope that you are enjoying my nonsexual innuendo's.


Sandro,
LOL, yeah that's what it is. She is learning Arabic because her boyfriend is from turkey and I guess that is what he speaks.

[2tallbill]

Ok sorry about the long delay folks, I have been distracted by some other importants things that have been going on here.

Day 4
It's Saturday and my lady was out of town visiting her daughter and mother, I really didn't know what I was going to do today. So I go walking about the usual place that I knew and did some exploring in the areas that I didn't go to on foot, as I was walking past this place that looks like a bar/restaurant late in the morning, I saw this man drinking coffee, so I walked up to him and asked him in Russian "vwe gavarichi panglisski" and he said "yes, how can I help you" I say great,

I am looking for a book store so that I can get a Eng to Rus/Rus to Eng translation book. Well he goes on to give me very good directions and I say спасиво and off I went to the book store, I found the book store with no problems, I went inside and proceded with my search. Navigating through the book store was a little tough seeing that everything was in Russian, so I asked on of the clerks about the book that

I needed, the clerk didn't speak that good in Eng but good enough for me to understand, he took me around to the other side of the store and showed me the selection of translation books, I went through most of them and finally picked one that I thought was good, walked back to the front, waited to pay and off exploring I went.

As I was walking up and down Nyzhnii Val st/Verkhnii Val st hitting every store there, I came across this flea market building that on the very bottom floor had a meat market and on the 2nd floor had clothing mostly leather coats, shoes, pants, hats and womens apparel, it was a cool place, as I went outside, that is where they had vegetables, eggs, tools, plumbing and various other items that were for home improvement.

As I was walking past this one vendor, I saw the coolest looking welding glasses, then I saw another pair that was different, but I just had to have the one with the leather, I asked the guy how much and he writes down, 15. I looked at him and said 15 hrv? And he says "da", hell yeah I thought and I gave the man 15 hrv with a smile and told him спасибо!

As I was walking back towards kontraktova ploscha, I hear my name being called out "mak...mak" without the r or the o lol. It was the taxi driver Sergi, I say "hey what's going on?" he tell's me "nothing, I just work today, how are you?", I was feeling up beat and asked him if he wanted to go and get a drink and he says that he can't he has to work,

no problem I thought, so we walk over to where his car was parked and he asked if I wanted coffee, I say sure, we walk over to this kiosk and I buy him a cup of coffee and myself one to, I ran out of cigarettes and went to go and buy some but the lady couldn't break the large bill that I had so Sergi bought them for me.

I asked how is business today and he says slow but ok. Oh man, we talked about everything from his car to my car, America, Ukraine, the women here, the women there, he asked if I do sport and I say yes and he tells me that he likes to box and we talk about boxing and the heavyweight champ Kletchko? Also talked about politics, George W, the cars passing by...holy shiot,

I have never seen so many Range Rovers in my freaking life, I even saw a Mercedes McClaren SLR. He popped the hood of his car and showed me the engine bay, damn I forgot what kind of car he had, it was pretty nice for a taxi there, then he tells me about how there is only 50 mustangs in Ukraine, lol he pronounces it moostang....lol but I didn't care.

He asked me what kind of music I like, I tell him pretty much anything except country, so we sit inside his car and he turns on his radio and starts putting in some cd's, cool I though, the music is pretty good, I tell him that I like RnB and he puts this one cd in and asked if I like, I was listening to it and was getting into it and I say yeah this is good.

So he pops the cd out and he gives it to me and he says to me "here, present from me and my family to you." He even tore a page from his note pad and made a wrapping out of it. Wow, this is so cool of him to do that, I didn't know what to do. So I ask him if he was hungry and he nods his head a little, yeah maybe, I say "come on, lets go and get lunch, I got ya." Puzatahata was right there and we go there for lunch,

I order fish and potatoes and he orders the same thing but I had gotten some deserts also, we take a seat over by the window so that he can keep an eye out on his car, we eat lunch bs'ed some more and head back over to his car. As we were walking my friend Sveta calls me to see how I was doing,

I tell her everything is going great, how was her trip to Moscow? As I was telling her about the cd the Sergi gave me, I realized that I didn't have it on me and I thought, shiot, I left it in the restaurant, I give my phone to Sergi and ask him to talk to Sveta and I haul a$$ back to the restaurant to get the cd, when I got there, where we were sitting at our plates were gone, shiot I thought, so I stopped the nearest waitress

and asked who took the plates and asked her if she has seen a cd, she understood somewhat of what I was saying so she takes me to the manager and I tell him cd, he looks under this one register and he shows it to me and I say "da, spasiba" and run back to where Sergi was, I tell him thanks for talking to Sveta and explain to him that I forgot cd, that it was a gift from him that I didn't want to lose it.

I talked with Sveta some more and she says that she wants to take me out and about on kreshatek st. Ok, so she tells me what time to meet her at my apartment and I hang up the phone. When we got back to Sergi's car my lady calls me, cool, I talk to her and she asked me what I did today and I tell her that I had walked around the area and that I had lunch with Sergi, she tells me that she is happy that I have a friend there,

we talked some more about what she was did in her city, then after a little bit we got off the phone.
As I was sitting there talking with Sergi, Sergi turns to me and Say's "mak, I need your help." I'm thinking, "oh, no, he's about to ask me for some money now, shiot." But it turns out that he just asked to use my phone to call his wife, whew what a relief I'm thinking because I would of said no,

I don't have money to give and walk away. After he got done using my phone, he tells me thanks and bs some more. After a while I noticed that he hasn't had one customer all day, damn I hope I wasn't ruining his business, he did have some people ask for rides but he turned them down saying that they were cheap. LOL.

I figure, well I want to help him out and I ask him where I could get laundry soap so that I can wash cloth, he pauses and thinks, he says "mak get in" I say ok, so I get in, as he was driving this songs comes on that he likes but couldn't remember the name of the singer, so I as sat there listening, I know this song and I can picture who is singing it, but I can't spit the name out of the singer, so I'm sitting there while he's driving and BAM! it hits me I say "Toni Braxton?"

he Say's "yes, that's her, I like her music." LOL, cool. He takes me to this place that looks like a mall and we go inside and we look around and he points over to this clothing store, I'm thinking, I don't need a new shirt......damn he misunderstood me, so I try to explain it better and use hand gestures to better express what I needed to get and he slaps himself on the forehand...oh mak, I'm sorry,

I know now what you mean, don't worry about paying me for this ride, it's my mistake. I tell him, don't worry about it lets go, as we were walking out, there was this car dealership literally right next door attached to this mall so we walk over to there and it was a Mazda dealership and we checked out the cars there and I must say that those Mazda's that I seen, I have never seen stateside, it was pretty cool.

As were leaving, I put on the welding glasses and roll the window down and started staring at people as we drive by in the parking lot, Sergi was laughing at me telling me "you crazy", as I was laughing also, I say to him "yeah, I'm crazy alright." LOL.

Driving back to the area of my apartment, he takes me to this grocery store that was twice the size of the one that I went to on the first night and I realized that it was the one that I was at just the night before, as he parked the car, this couple came up and asked if he was available and he told them no, I asked what they wanted and he says nothing, don't worry. We go inside we look around a bit looking for laundry soap,

after finding what I needed, we walk back out and the same couple was still there and they asked him again, he talks to them and tells them that he's taking me somewhere. I ask what did they want? Sergi says that they need a ride home, I tell Sergi, it's ok take them,

I live right over there not far from here, Sergi says to me, you don't mind if they ride in car? I say no I don't mind it's your job, don't mind me, I don't live far from here you can drop me off and then take them home. I say it's ok and off we all go, on the way to my apartment, small talk occurs and of course I get brought up as a conversation piece LOL, being American here in Ukraine LOL.

As we pulled up to my building, I asked Sergi "how much?" as in the taxi ride, he say's nothing, it's ok....I say "Sergi, seriously, how much? I used your services and I want to pay you." he looks at me like why am I being an a$$ about paying him when he said no and he says "50" I say "ok" I gave him 50 hrv and he tells me to call him sometime.

Cool, I tell him. He leaves with his clients and I'm walking up to the apartment to do start laundry before Sveta gets there.

Sveta arrives and she comes in and see's that I have made myself at home. This is a pretty nice apartment that my lady reserved for me, I like it. Sveta hears something in the bathroom and she goes in there and sees that the washing maching was going, she points at it and says "you know how to use machine and clean clothes?"

I say yes, I had to figure out what those Russian words were though LOL. She smiles and laughs then says, "Habibi (Turkish), you know, Ukrainian men don't clean, woman clean for men, but you clean and you good man." I can only smile and agree with her, I then show her around the apartment and show her what

I bought from the grocery store. Sveta, smiles gleefully and says "you have food, water and beer. I very happy for you."

So off we went to where ever she was taking me, she tells me that she wants to meet Sergi, so I showed her where to go to where he parks at, as we drove close to where he was, I saw him there and told her where to park, we walk over to him and he say's "mak",

I tell him this is Sveta and they start talking 100mph, LOL, she tells me that he told her that I am good luck for his business, that after he dropped me off and took those other people home, that he has been busy taking people around and that he was making some money, I just laughed and said good,

I am glad that I could help, we talked for a little bit more with Sergi and then she took me to the center of Kiev which I think is Kreshatek st. She took me to where she says the president lives and showed me his home, WOW, that is one cool looking mansion, she took a quite a few photos of me and was telling me that the president's wife was American, that he met her on a plane and they married.

We walk around and she shows me this unique looking mall with glass windows making up the whole front of the place in front of this big tower that over looked this big intersection. We walk around some more and she shows me this place that was a theater and a bridge that goes across the intersection, but we couldn't stay long, she had to meet her mom at a certain time and she didn't want to be late.

So as we get back to the car and head back to my apartment, I asked her to drop me off at the little grocery store at kontraktova ploscha sq so that I could get some more food, she looked at her clock and saw that she was about 20 minutes late but she didn't show that she was to much in a hurry and asked if I was going to be ok walking back to the apartment,

I tell her that I will be ok and that she needs to get going to her mom. We say our goodbyes and I head to the grocery store to pick up some food, as usual I get rice and fish...damn how I love the fish LOL.

Anyway, walking back to the apartment, I noticed nothing out of the ordinary, it was about 10pm I think and everyone had a bottle of piva in hand having a good time hanging out, I casually made my way through the area, I see that Sergi had left for the evening as I walk pass where he is normally at, as I got back into the apartment,

I heated up some rice and fish, popped open a bottle of corona and relaxed and watched tv. It was around 11:30pm and my lady calls me to see how I am doing, I tell her that I am good, told her how my day went, she is happy that everything went fine and that she will be coming back sunday morning instead of sunday night like normal, I said great, we talked some more, I told her goodnight and see you tomorrow,

I watched some more tv and off to la la land I went, as I went to sleep, I thought, today was a good day................My phone rings about 12:30am or so and it's Anastasia calling me to see how everything is going, LOL, she asked if she had woke me up, I said not really, we spoke for a while and then after we got off the phone, then I passed out LOL.

Sorry about some of the picture quality.
The 3rd picture is pretty cool, because it looks like a ghostly person is there but it was really just someone walking by as I took the picture.

Felix, Great Trip Report, One thing however if you put an empty line every three to five lines even if there is no grammatical reason for doing so it makes your post much easier to read.

You can see that I did this in the your quote above.
Like others I am waiting for your next installment.
Udachi !

Bill