Kiev's infrastructure isn't all that it could be, which while not overly surprising could be an issue in two years when Ukraine co-hosts the Euro Football Championships. The metro system is fine once you're on it but absolute chaos to try to get into and buy a token for while the airport is very provincial, quite out of place in a major European capital. It is also still very insular - exceedingly few people speak anything that isn't Ukranian or some variant of it, meaning even fewer in the rest of the country do. I imagine this will be a particular problem for the England team, who can barely speak English let alone a language with an entirely different alphabet. Then again, they probably won't qualify.
I know what you're all asking - this is supposed to be a predominantly overland trip, so how do they know what Kiev airport is like? Well, dear friends, the answer to this question is Bela-sodding-rus. A visa is required for Belarus, even if you're just transiting through it, and we didn't get one due to time constraints, and the fact that we had the foolproof plan of going to to Russia via Ukraine, thus avoiding Belarus totally. All well and good, until we rock up at Kiev train station with our ticket to St Petersburg (via Moscow, we were reliably informed) only to be asked for our transit visas for Belarus. Why the sodding train had to go that way I don't know, but I was then treated to a friendly local telling me that it was "impossible" to get to Russia from Kiev by train without going through Belarus. He even crafted a crude map that showed Belarus directly in the middle of Ukraine and Russia with no way around, which is just a lie. I wanted to tell him such but decided, wisely in my opinion, that giving a geography lesson to a local wasn't going to improve my situation in the slightest. In times past I would have given him charts, border crossings, mercator projections, the lot - I've clearly grown as a person. Or maybe it was just Jen dragging me away and telling me to let it go. Probably a bit of both to be honest. But that's why we had to go to the airport to get a flight into Russia.
Anyway, handing over to my lovely other half...
Jennie's bit: Things Jennie will Remember:
- The sound of clicking heels on the pavements (so many stilletoes)
- Tango dancers and a rock n' roll dancing session in the park
- Padlocks and ribbons on the bridge, being hacked off by council workers
- Puzatahata.kiev.ua - kinda like the Golf Club meal in Newcastle Australia (for Sean's mum and dad). Loads of different food on display that you can point and and nod approval to (useful when you don't know the alphabet being used and so can't read anything). We ate there (with beers) for the equivalent of 3 pounds each - hooray!
- The massive rain storms to break up the crazy heat at 6pm each day and the nice friendly security guard who let us into the building reception to avoid one!
- Cars that think they are people and drive on the pavements.
- Zac's quote to me on our first Skype chat. When asked where we were we replied 'on holiday'. Zac's statement was "You're not on holiday, you're in my house!" :)
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