Kiev (Day 1)
Kiev (Київ in Ukrainian and Киев in Russian) is a very nice, fairly small city. It is the capital of the Ukraine and while everyone there speaks Russian (but not English) all the signs are in Ukrainian. I had hired a driver to pick my sister, mom and me up at the airport and bring us to the apartment. I had rented through a company (KievLet.) I was told that the driver would speak English and give us a tour of the city on the 40 minute drive from the airport. Our guy didn’t speak a word of English, didn’t say anything to us on the 40 minute ride into the city and when I told him at the airport that we needed an ATM (I even said it in Russian) he didn’t understand and I had to repeat myself several times before we got on and took out the local money (Hryvnia in English, Гривня in Ukrainian and Гривна in Russian.) Just for reference 5 Hryvnias = $1 US.
The apartment that was chosen for us by KievLet (after the one I had chosen was “under repair”) was on Red Army Square. We were met there by a guy (named Sergei - even though all my e-mails were with a woman named Anna.) At least he spoke English. From the outside it looked like it was in the projects on the Bronx and when we went inside (we had to use a code to open the main apartment building door - like in Russia) it was worse. The place was very Soviet and probably built in the 1950s after the war had destroyed most of the city. The small elevator to the 5th floor would close whenever it wanted to and I was always worried that it would break down. The hallways had no light during the day so you couldn’t see where to put the key. Sergei and the owner of the house showed us around. It had 2 bedrooms with a bed in each, a small hallway, a bathroom with a small tube and sink, a WC with a small toliet (you couldn’t keep the door shut and use it), a kitchen with a refrigerator and a microwave, a living room with “satelite TV” (although we could only get Cartoon Network, ESPEN and the Hallmark Channel in English.) It was supposed to have Internet, but didn’t and Sergei didn’t even seem to care after I told him that the other apartment we were supposed to gotten had it and that we use it to e-mail and IM my dad and brother who are both in Iraq (he could have at least given us a discount on the apartment.) Before Sergei and the owner left we paid the balance for the apartment in Hryvnias (he had a piece of paper with the amounts in Euros, Dollars and Hryvnias and looked upset when we paid him in the local currency.)
It was around 4 pm and we went on to the street to see what was around. I hadn’t really used my Russian in over 3 years and so had to quickly refresh myself. I do have to say that every person we met in Kiev was very nice and helpful. I had to ask many people on the streets for directions, etc (in Russian) and they spoke slowly and waited to see if I understood. I never had that kind of help in Russia (except from my friends and their relatives - never from strangers.) We found an outdoor market - mostly clothes - and got some drinks, etc to take back home. There were no real supermarkets near our apartment. Just small stores with mostly vodka and chips and cookies. I also didn’t see many kiosks where you could buy snacks. They had kiosks, but they all sold either bread or newspapers. We were hungry and so went to a cafe called “Tavern.” It was a small bar and I asked the hostress if they served food (she didn’t understand when I used the Russian for food and so I said “Meat, chicken.”) Our waiter was good. He waited while I translated the menu - which was in Russian cursive and I have always had problems reading Russian cursive. Most of the menu was either fish or had mushrooms (which my family doesn’t eat.) I ordered a salad for my sister, some chicken soup for both my mom and me and some vegetable shish-kabab. It was pretty good and cheap. After we ate we went back to the apartment and watched one of the numerous movies with Kelly Martin on the Hallmark Channel.