Friday, April 11, 2014

TravelTalk - First 6 hours in Kiev, Ukraine

OMG... You're going to Ukraine?
OMG... You're going to Ukraine?
OMG... You're going to Ukraine?

Yes... not only am I going, but I am already in Ukraine.



My first 6 hours here has been quite amazing.  I landed, was greeted with weather that is similar to Galician winter (without the rain), had no issues with customs (the only thing that was kinda funny was he showed my passport photo to the guy next to him, as kinda of a joke if it was me... yes, my hair is quite different) nor with finding the skybus (which is what you will need to go into the city), once you leave the terminal (D), its right outside.

On the bus, a guy sat down next to me and started talking to me in English - super cool guy, he's Ukrainian and just came from Denmark - he let me use his phone and also showed me on my metro map (which I printed before coming) where to go... and he even gave me money - hahaha... yes... I didn't have any local currency so he gave me 10 hryvnia (about $0.90) which was enough for 5 one way trips on the subway.  =D Thanks to him... I talked to my host and changed my metro stop...

My host is super cool... he doesn't speak a lot of English, but he's learning and he's super friendly... he even has a twin, but besides physical features, they're two completely different people. 


After getting settled in... I had some homemade Ukrainian food... Yup... really good... that salo.. #nomnomnom  ha ha ha.


Well, then off to the pub.. which had live music where the 3rd runner up of Ukraine's Got Talent was playing.  After a couple of beers, shots of tequila, a couple of cigarettes, made a new friend (whose name was also Max - kinda random... ha ha ha), it was one of his friend's birthday - so free Vodka shots!!!



It was a pretty cool night.  There was one run in with a bunch of guys, while I don't want to label them as extremist, this group of guys were wearing masks and walking down the street, and one shoved me... (which wasn't a big deal), thanks to everyone else around of me who surrounded me... 

While there is tension in Ukraine, its not going to stop me from getting to know this city and its people.

If you live your life in fear...

CHECK OUT MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS HERE: 
http://www.youtube.com/user/hawaiiinsomniac/videos 
Mahalo for reading. Until next time.

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