Monday June 5 - Our First Real Day In The Ukraine
Thursday, June 8
We didn’t wake up until about 10:30 – too late for the breakfast that came with the room, but I was pretty sure that this was no great loss. Ed took Belle for her morning constitutional, while I tried to get myself out of bed. Ed found a spot with grass (nothing but the best for our princess) – it involves walking through a long underground passage to cross Kreshchatek (one of the biggest streets in Kyiv) to what appears to be a little park around a monument. Belle took to it instantly – she likes her bathroom in Kyiv (much more than we like ours, for the time being anyway!). We finally got ourselves cleaned up and organized and ended up in the café next door to the hotel, where we tried to get porridge, with no success, and ended up with some toast (delicious) and butter and tea with milk (they put the teabag, the milk and the hot water in the cup all at the same time – not the best cup of tea I’ve ever had). Belle was a huge hit – she’s a great way to get to talk to people a little.
In the daylight I could see that Kyiv has real potential. The scale is much grander than I had expected - I suppose I thought it would be more like Prague, which is beautiful, but like most old European cities has small cobble stoned streets and alleyways that are charming and fun to explore. The scale of Kyiv is more like Paris - really big buildings (not necessarily tall - just big) and broad streets that require underground passages to cross.
We called Mike Willard, Terry’s friend who has been living in Kyiv for 11 years, and arranged to have dinner with him and his girlfriend that evening. That was about it for the day. I promptly got back in bed and slept until 4 that afternoon. It turned out that there was a business center in the hotel where I was told I could hook up my computer to their Ethernet cable and connect to the internet. A glimmer of hope at last! The "business center" consisted a locked room (you have to get the key from reception) with one computer, one printer, one telephone, and joy of joys, an Ethernet cable!!! I spent an hour trying to get on-line on my computer with no luck – I have to change the settings of my IP address to get their server to work on my computer, I think, and I couldn't find the right IP address, so I finally gave up, got my email on their computer and sent out a few emails myself. By then it was time to get ready for dinner.
Mike had called while I was in the business center to tell us that his girlfriend couldn’t make it and that he and his driver would pick us up at the curb at 7 p.m. We went out (so far no change of clothes since we left LA, but at least we had had them laundererd!). Mike took us to a great Ukrainian restaurant past the Rada Building (quite beautiful) and Maryinski Palace and park (also quite beautiful). We had a really good meal – borscht for both Ed and me, followed by Chicken Kiev for Ed and goose for me, and really good beer (but it was Czech, not Ukrainian). We ended the evening with a pot of tea made with loose tea, and the milk served separately - delicious! Mike insisted on treating us, so I don’t know exactly what the meal cost – but I think by U.S. standards, especially LA standards, this was quite a bargain.
Mike is such an interesting guy – he’s had the most varied and interesting career, starting out as a reporter, becoming Bureau Chief of UPI in West Virginia, then press secretary or chief of staff for Senator Robert Byrd, then for Jay Rockefeller, then moving to Moscow and finally to Kyiv to work, and eventually forming his own company, The Willard Group, in public relations and marketing (he has offices in Moscow, Kyiv and Istanbul). We talked about housing in Kyiv, and it sounded as if we could actually find something reasonable with all the amenities in a good neighborhood when we finally locate here. We also told him about our “luggage problem” and how we were worried about whether there would be a baggage car on the train to Kharkiv. (I don't want to overstate the problem, but honestly, the luggage was a HUGE problem - it made it impossible to do anything in a reasonable amount of time, and it also meant that we were essentially hostage to all the porters, taxi drivers, etc. when negotiating the price of getting anywhere. And, of course, I felt so guilty since Ed had brought one large suitcase, one small carry-on and one briefcase. Everything else was mine (although, in fairness, much of it was for both of us - bedding, towels, Belle's food, electronic stuff, Rx supplies, drugstore supplies and the like - but it cannot be denied that I brought 10 times as much clothes as I will need; moreover, since Ed doesn't care about any of the other stuff - like nice sheets and good towels - it really was all for me, and the burden was being borne mostly by Ed since he had to do the lion's share of the schlepping.) Mike suggested we consider hiring a minivan to drive us and all our bags to Kharkiv – he told us to call him the next day at about 11 a.m. and he would see if his assistant could arrange something for us. We went to bed that night at about 11 p.m. feeling a whole lot better. I was really beginning to like Kyiv and was looking forward to living there.
We didn’t wake up until about 10:30 – too late for the breakfast that came with the room, but I was pretty sure that this was no great loss. Ed took Belle for her morning constitutional, while I tried to get myself out of bed. Ed found a spot with grass (nothing but the best for our princess) – it involves walking through a long underground passage to cross Kreshchatek (one of the biggest streets in Kyiv) to what appears to be a little park around a monument. Belle took to it instantly – she likes her bathroom in Kyiv (much more than we like ours, for the time being anyway!). We finally got ourselves cleaned up and organized and ended up in the café next door to the hotel, where we tried to get porridge, with no success, and ended up with some toast (delicious) and butter and tea with milk (they put the teabag, the milk and the hot water in the cup all at the same time – not the best cup of tea I’ve ever had). Belle was a huge hit – she’s a great way to get to talk to people a little.
In the daylight I could see that Kyiv has real potential. The scale is much grander than I had expected - I suppose I thought it would be more like Prague, which is beautiful, but like most old European cities has small cobble stoned streets and alleyways that are charming and fun to explore. The scale of Kyiv is more like Paris - really big buildings (not necessarily tall - just big) and broad streets that require underground passages to cross.
We called Mike Willard, Terry’s friend who has been living in Kyiv for 11 years, and arranged to have dinner with him and his girlfriend that evening. That was about it for the day. I promptly got back in bed and slept until 4 that afternoon. It turned out that there was a business center in the hotel where I was told I could hook up my computer to their Ethernet cable and connect to the internet. A glimmer of hope at last! The "business center" consisted a locked room (you have to get the key from reception) with one computer, one printer, one telephone, and joy of joys, an Ethernet cable!!! I spent an hour trying to get on-line on my computer with no luck – I have to change the settings of my IP address to get their server to work on my computer, I think, and I couldn't find the right IP address, so I finally gave up, got my email on their computer and sent out a few emails myself. By then it was time to get ready for dinner.
Mike had called while I was in the business center to tell us that his girlfriend couldn’t make it and that he and his driver would pick us up at the curb at 7 p.m. We went out (so far no change of clothes since we left LA, but at least we had had them laundererd!). Mike took us to a great Ukrainian restaurant past the Rada Building (quite beautiful) and Maryinski Palace and park (also quite beautiful). We had a really good meal – borscht for both Ed and me, followed by Chicken Kiev for Ed and goose for me, and really good beer (but it was Czech, not Ukrainian). We ended the evening with a pot of tea made with loose tea, and the milk served separately - delicious! Mike insisted on treating us, so I don’t know exactly what the meal cost – but I think by U.S. standards, especially LA standards, this was quite a bargain.
Mike is such an interesting guy – he’s had the most varied and interesting career, starting out as a reporter, becoming Bureau Chief of UPI in West Virginia, then press secretary or chief of staff for Senator Robert Byrd, then for Jay Rockefeller, then moving to Moscow and finally to Kyiv to work, and eventually forming his own company, The Willard Group, in public relations and marketing (he has offices in Moscow, Kyiv and Istanbul). We talked about housing in Kyiv, and it sounded as if we could actually find something reasonable with all the amenities in a good neighborhood when we finally locate here. We also told him about our “luggage problem” and how we were worried about whether there would be a baggage car on the train to Kharkiv. (I don't want to overstate the problem, but honestly, the luggage was a HUGE problem - it made it impossible to do anything in a reasonable amount of time, and it also meant that we were essentially hostage to all the porters, taxi drivers, etc. when negotiating the price of getting anywhere. And, of course, I felt so guilty since Ed had brought one large suitcase, one small carry-on and one briefcase. Everything else was mine (although, in fairness, much of it was for both of us - bedding, towels, Belle's food, electronic stuff, Rx supplies, drugstore supplies and the like - but it cannot be denied that I brought 10 times as much clothes as I will need; moreover, since Ed doesn't care about any of the other stuff - like nice sheets and good towels - it really was all for me, and the burden was being borne mostly by Ed since he had to do the lion's share of the schlepping.) Mike suggested we consider hiring a minivan to drive us and all our bags to Kharkiv – he told us to call him the next day at about 11 a.m. and he would see if his assistant could arrange something for us. We went to bed that night at about 11 p.m. feeling a whole lot better. I was really beginning to like Kyiv and was looking forward to living there.
posted by Susan Spivak at 12:57 PM
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