Trip to Kiev

Before I could depart from Ukraine, I was required to sign some legal documents at the US Embassy in Kiev. Since the Embassy is only open on weekdays, I had to go on Thursday. It was not a difficult trip, just taxing.

I was up at 5am (not too bad) and took a taxi to the bus station. Here, a bus to Kiev is basically an airport shuttle bus vehicle. Mine was a big Mercedes with 21 seats. With that many seats, there was no knee room! The bus was just warm enough to not require gloves and hat, so I was thankful. There were only 7 passengers on the bus and each paid 50 ghryna ($6 and change) for the trip. That is amazing to me. If I take a van taxi to Kiev, I will pay 1100 ghryna; a car taxi costs 700 ghryna (and remember, a taxi is cheap here - usually $2.50 for a ride in town).

The shuttle bus is basically a delivery truck with a van body, that is, it is built for heavy loads. With only 8 people total, there was no bounce in the springs. That, along with the poor road quality made me feel like I was riding an old wooden roller coaster for the first 2 hours. No way I was going to try to read. The last hour of road was much better.

In Kiev, Viktors friend, Jenya, who is a taxi driver, picked me up at the terminal end of the bus ride (the main train station). He got me to the Embassy where I walked straight past about 30 Ukrainian citizens that were in line and went right to the door! (Americans have first priority at US Embassies.) Inside, I had to leave everything at the security check point. Then I went directly to the visa area and talked to the Embassy Consul about what papers I had to sign. All, in all, I was in the Embassy for about 60-90 minutes.

Jenya and I went to McDonalds (the drive-thru) on our way back to the train station. Jenya was a great guy. He worked hard to talk to me in Englo-Ukraini-Russkian, or whatever it was. We got along well. I liked him.

The ride back was better. The VW shuttle van only crammed 15 seats into the same shuttle body. I had leg-room!!!! If only the roads had improved during my absence! :-)

The evening was a celebration of the Peters success in court during the afternoon.

This tired puppy went to bed as soon after he got home as possible.

The picture is from our celebration. We got fondue!