Heart Desires

Originally Posted by Raspberry

So far, so good. I had written to another Sumy girl about a year ago. She did not answer back for a while. The agency called her mother and she said the girl was out of town. Finally, the girl had removed herself from the site, and I got recredited by the agency.

The letter forwarding rates are really reasonable, especially since you don't have to pay for the return letter. This one I am corresponding with now is a bit younger than what I normally go for, but on the other hand, we have similar interests, and she understands English well. In fact on the third letter, I got her phone number without asking for it!

We'll see what happens here. I may meet her in Sumy, but she said she wanted to meet in Kiev. Which actually sounds better, if she wants to do that. Sumy is a bit out of the way from the other places I need to visit.

Originally Posted by Chillidog

There is a woman I am very interested in (and of course writing) that lives in Mariupol, but my two previous trips I travelled to meet only 1 woman and so this time I would like to meet a couple of woman and Sumy is not that far away from Mariupol, so I hope things do turn out good with this woman and this agency.

Originally Posted by Raspberry

Kind of ironic that you mention Sumy and Mariupol in the same sentence. I have narrowed my basic choices down to three----one that I met in Zaporozhye, and two others(one in Mariupol and the other in Sumy).

Yes, Mariupol and Sumy are about same area as far as East-West goes. But they are at totally opposite ends, when it comes to North-South. I am trying to figure out my game plan. The girl in Mariupol would like to go to Kiev or Crimea to meet, and does not want to meet in her home city. And the Sumy girl says Kiev or Sumy is fine. But I also need to stop at least one day in Mariupol to do other things. So, I am scratching my head.......

Originally Posted by Raspberry

For all practical purposes, it's best to fly into Donetsk, to get to Mariupol.
These are on Lufthansa from Munich, and Austrian from Vienna. It's slightly less than two hours by bus to Mariupol, from Donetsk.

There are flights from Kiev, but they fly out of the cross-town airport of Zhulhany....so you have to clear customs, and then cut across town to the other airport.

Additionally, Ilyich Air flies two days a week out of Athens, Greece to Mariupol. Plus Ilyich also flies out of another Greek airport, Thessaloniki(Salonika/SKG), as well. Essentially, these are corporate planes owned by Mariupol-based Ilyich steel company, which evolved into an airline. Similar situation as Kimberly-Clark(makers of Kleenex) having their corporate planes involved into an actual airline(Midwest Express).

As for Sumy, they do have an airport, but a similar type of situation, with the cross-town thing. And the only direct flight from Europe is Austrian out of Vienna.....but does not operate every day, unlike the Donetsk service.