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The Russian Meeting Place: A place to meet people and talk about all things Russian...
International Discussions about Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Travel, Music, Russian News, Ukrainian culture, Belarusian Dating, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kiev and other intelligent topics about life in the former Soviet Union. |
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Originally Posted by royalpalace774
Hey Chris,
I guess the next time you read this you will be in the Ukraine. Good luck to you and have fun there. We are all rootin for ya all over the world on RMP. Can't wait to hear about your trip! |
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Originally Posted by Chrismc
Thanks Azamunar
and RP I wish I was there, not leaving yet for a few days |
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Originally Posted by Chrismc
I hear from my lady tonight that Yanukovich seems to be winning, that is bad news if he does. They will know for sure tomorrow. He is backed by Russia and Putin.....bad news as you say Mike.
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Originally Posted by vic2012
Hi Chris,
I saw your comments on the election. Anyway with 98.5% of the vote counted, the left can't win (unless the socialists get a remarkable 10% of the remaining votes (they're currently on 2.9%). So the orange alliance will be back with a small majority. This time the alliance will have to stay together. Interestingly, Yushchenko (got less than 15% of the vote) andTymoshenko (got over 30%) |
(If I remember correctly!)|
Originally Posted by firemansam
Hiya Chris, you must be on your count down now
(If I remember correctly!)Hope you have a nice trip mate!!! Sam. |
but things are fantastic just now.|
Originally Posted by Chrismc
Well guys, just got back from Ukraine late last night had a fantastic time in Kiev and Chernivsti mainly, but also visited Khotyn and Kamyanets Podilskuy, and will get round to posting some news sometime soon, suffice to say, this trip was my best ever, mainly because I spent the whole time with one amazing and wonderful lady and her family and I am going back for Christmas and New Year, I will be booking flights in a week or two Wink early plans are for her to come here sometime next summer after her daughter finishes her school year. I hope to report more when I have time.
but things are fantastic just now.Chris |
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Originally Posted by martin3030
Good to see you back Chris and of course news like this makes everything worthwhile.
Your wild searchin days look to be over......... Like they say tho.....we never know the real one until they come along. You have got some writing to do ......was told it can help to put some Sudocream on ur typing fingers lol !! |
I wondered if it would ever happen, but this time I struck gold! 
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Originally Posted by royalpalace774
Hi Chris,
Good news. I'm glad to hear your trip was great. I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip and how things went. |
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Originally Posted by AkMike
Great! Now start getting ready to fill the stockings on the mantle with care!
Twice.. |
I was talking to my lady for a couple of hours this afternoon and I have just got off the phone with her now and she was telling me all the plans for our Christmas - New Year - and her Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, she is planning on something special for my Christmas too so it will feel like I am at home. She is a real treasure
so both KLM and Air France who are both the same company in effect have lost my luggage now 
so when she got home she complained, well the outcome was strange to say the least, the bus company got fined a whopping 16 Grivnas (yes a whole £1.60 or $3.00) but did ‘I’ get this as she was the one who suffered, no, this being Ukraine the fine/compensation went to the Government so not only did she not get what she paid for, but when she complained she didn’t even get any compo for her troubles. ??? well it is the FSU, it is normal! so to receive a few things from England was quite a pleasant shock for her. and later she was to tell me it is not the presents that so delighted her, but the care I showed to her in actually going to the trouble of sending something to her so far away. and she wouldn’t hear about me sending her the money to reimburse her, she had actually paid over half a months wages to buy two flights for someone she had never met before, this lady is very special, so next we needed a hotel in Kiev, she sent me a list of hotels that she thought were appropriate and this time I booked it and paid for it direct. Then we needed an apartment in Chernivsti, so the next day she went on a tour of 3 or 4 apartments checking them all to see what they were like, she found one she liked, quite modern and close to the city centre for about $60 a night, which was pretty good for her city and for a modern place with all mod cons. So I ask her to book it and if they need a deposit to let me know, no need came back the reply, I will book it and pay the deposit this lady is unbelievable, and again she wouldn’t wear me sending her the money for it, in fact when I pushed the issue she told me, ‘darling I know you have more money than me, but I can afford such things! Well that shut me up and I never asked her again if she needed me to send her anything.
these women certainly know how to calm you down. Well we take off and fly to Paris, I see on the information boards I need to get to Terminal ‘F’ but the good news is my connection is also delayed, so I might make it after all, I run down the walkways and corridors and get to the shuttle bus, its sods law that terminal ‘F’ is the last stop on the bus route, so 20 minutes or so later I arrive and run through the terminal to the departure gate, just as boarding has started, I send an SMS to ‘I’ and tell her the good news. We start to taxi and then the plane comes to a dead stop! Nearly two hours later again, we are still sat on the tarmac, I don’t believe this, so a few SMS messages backwards and forwards to ‘I’ calms me down again. Usually I fly via Amsterdam, and the whole point of flying via Paris is that the plane is meant to get in over two hours earlier than the Amsterdam flight, that was my first mistake now we are going to be about four hours late or more. It was just my luck that a plane from Russia had landed just before us and the Russians were all causing problems a the six Immigration gates, So after a lot of toeing and fro wing with these pesky Russians and the Ukrainians I was near the head of the queue, it had taken about 40 minutes to get through the line and I receive an SMS from ‘I’ asking where I was, I replied saying I will be with you soon, that was my second mistake just as I get to second place in the queue the lady Immi Officer says she is closing this line, everyone join the end of the other lines, WHAT! You must be joking, 40 minutes standing in line just to go to the back of the queue, no way, but she and her minder, some guy with a Kalashnikov was not having any of it, instead I decided to try my arm and joined the queue for Ukrainian Nationals which had only 5 or 6 people in it as opposed to maybe 20 or 30 in all the others, this turns out to be a good move, as surprisingly they actually stamped my form and passport and waved me through, note for my Christmas trip pretend to be a Ukrainian next time I thought that there is no way my luggage has made it, I asked a nearby attendant if anymore was due in but he just stared at me in disgust as though I had just dropped in from the planet Zog! 
she hands me the obligatory forms, four of them in total all asking the same questions, and all need filling in DUH! vill in pleeze! As I start to complete the forms I receive another SMS from ‘I’ ‘Dear are you here?’ I reply sorry dear, they have now lost my luggage, I will see you as soon as I can, by this time she has been waiting at the airport for me for nearly 9 hours. So I swiftly fill in the forms choose a picture from their nice brochure telling them what my case looked like and she gives, me a slip of paper with a reference number on it and a phone number and tells me someone will call me, yes sure that is what they told me last time, oh forget it I will call you at this stage I was totally p*&%$d off, I ask if I can go now, forget my luggage I just don’t care anymore, I just want to get to ‘I’ 
a sobering thought but I didn’t care so I follow her to the customs officer, he stamps my forms, checks my passport again for the umpteenth time and stares at me again, I say WHAT! What do you want now, he says ‘you can go now’ fantastic I am now only a few yards away from the doors out into the arrivals hall, so off I go, by now the whole area air side is empty, most people had gone long ago, I open the doors and what’s seems like hundreds of taxi drivers suddenly pounce on me, I fight them off Nyet, nyet, nyet and a few words of Ukrainian thrown in for good luck Ni Dyakuyu Ni Dyakuyu Ni Ni Ni and a few yards later I hear ‘Chreez’ and this beautiful lady runs towards me and flings her arms around my neck. I kiss her on the cheek and we fight off the last remaining taxi drivers to get to a place where we can speak in relative peace and quiet. 
She tells me we have to go and get her bags, she had stored them instead of having them with her all day, so we go and get her bags and then walk out into the arrivals hall again, again two or three bloodsucking taxi drivers approach us, but ‘I’ has them all sussed out, she tells me she has already got one arranged for us, and negotiated a good price, she grabs my hand and leads me to our man! and we both laugh out loud!
so we set off and all the time we are holding hands and giving each other hugs in the taxi, there is no awkwardness at all and we are both very relaxed and very happy. never trust them to give out impartial advice DUH! we are told of a nice Italian restaurant not too far away, so we head off for that. We find the restaurant and are shown to a nice table, and decide just to order something simple a couple of salads and some wine, we have our meal and chat the whole time through it, I tell ‘I’ her spoken English is very good and she is surprised how easy it is for her to speak constantly in English, (talking on the phone is sometimes a lot different to talking in real life) she has not used spoken English since she left University nearly 14 years previous, throughout our whole trip I am constantly and pleasantly surprised by this ladies ease at which she can communicate with me and more so of her care towards me. |
Originally Posted by Chrismc
We decide to go for our first meal together, we go down to reception and ask the older reception lady for a nice restaurant close by that was not too expensive, that was my fourth mistake
never trust them to give out impartial advice DUH! |
, I don’t have to wait long, she tells me ‘today darlink, we shall go for a short walk’ I agree, but little do I know her short walks are extremely looong walks for a car dominated Westerner during our communications, I had sent her a list of places I wished to visit if we had time in Kiev, she had brought this list with her and had a route march planned to take in everything I asked for so we spend the next few hours visiting the Chimera House, Independence Square, the City Parks and the Lavra we visit the Lavra and she asks me if I want to join a party tour or go on our own, I say better on our own as I cannot understand what they say anyway, she tells me she will translate for me, I tell her no need dear, lets go on our own and see how things go. Inside the Lavra we get accosted by a lady who wants us to use her as a guide, I ask how much and ‘I’ tells me her price, after a bit of a scrum down a new price is agreed and I say why not, lets have the personal tour so off we go, with our new guide speaking in probably worse English than ‘I’ would have done, but no matter it gives ‘I’ a rest from speaking English all the time OK so it cost us 30Grivnas but she saved 15 Grivnas about £1.50 ($3.00) and made her happy so I didn’t argue She now tells me we are going back to the hotel after our short walk, short walk, jeepers I’d hate to see a long walk, by this time we had been walking maybe 3 or 4 hours with a few little rests for drinks etc these women can certainly walk we get back to the hotel and she immediately starts calling the airport, it seems they hope to have my case by about 5pm call back then. he finally hands over the luggage. I tell her I am ok to walk again, so we go to visit the Cathedral of St Sophia (pictures here) we spend an hour or so looking around the place, for those who don’t know it is acknowledged to be the oldest Cathedral in Europe dating back well over 800 years. ) we arrive at St Vladmirs Cathedral where a Sunday morning service is taking place, this is quite interesting, but it is very busy as you can imagine. We don’t stay too long as it is nearly time to met up with my friends from the UK, so we head off back to Independence Square this time by taxi 
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Originally Posted by GoeastLJ
Excellent report Chrismc! Things are looking up. Yes, those walks - painfully enjoyable and I have learned not to leave my walking shoes behind. You have captured the heart of Kiev and I think you should buy shares in 'Kiev Leisure Industry'!
The very best to you both. It looks you just found the one. |
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Originally Posted by bushman
Chris
Good to hear things are going so well for you, long may it continue. Also seeing your photos reminds me what a special place Kiev is, I will have to pay another visit one day soon. John |
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Originally Posted by TheWongs
Great story so far Chris! I like your style!
By the way... You never mentioned if the driver was happy with your inside leg measurement? I take it he was, or you wouldn't have got your case back! |
It is now our time to get the shuttle bus and this takes us out to a moth eaten plane sitting on the tarmac, I have been on these types of planes before, and I am prepared for it, the elastic bands driving the props are tightened, the loft ladder style access stairs are raised and the internal caravan doors are slammed shut and we are ready for take off the plane comes to a halt and we are al told to depart, we are not allowed to leave the perimeter of the plane and have to line up like a party of school children until she tells us we can march on to the terminal building. 
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Originally Posted by martin3030
Good report Chris as always attention to detail
I heard that the BBC are making cuts....2000 jobs going of course we know not enough interesting programmes....maybe you could put your nane forward for one of the proposed new 1000 jobs.....I mean on a freelance version Chris the Ukraine reporter.........has a nice ring to it. You could follow John and Svet for 3 months..... Naa..You have no time to do it and neither has John........over to ADE.... sorry I had to edit Chris.....the bloody Russian Standard has a lot to answer for lol |
she tells me she will get it us a cab for around 20 Grivnas, I just stand in the middle of the road with the bags and let her go to work she waves me over, 18 Grivnas was agreed, little does he know he has just been done, she wants him to call at a number of stops on the way into the city we get in the taxi and call the apartment owner, after quite a long conversation she tells me it is bad news, the owner had been calling her for the last few days and could not get her, apparently the apartment she had taken all the trouble of booking was without water for 4 days, but the owner says she has booked us into a hotel instead. then ‘I’ astounds me, she says she has a plan, she instructs the taxi driver to go to another destination, she wants to look at another hotel inn the city she knows, she gets out of the car and goes into to inspect the facilities, but it is no good as they only have a few nights free, so se comes back to the car and asks him to go set off again, I ask her are we going to the hotel the apartment owner booked now, she replies ’no dear, somewhere else’ well I don’t argue, afterall I have no idea where we are anyway we pull up at another hotel, she gets out and goes in again, bad news again they are full, but, they have another place nearer the city centre, so we are off to there now, the poor taxi driver has been royally shafted, but he is a nice guy and puts up with it, we arrive a few minutes later and she goes into the reception, just as she opens the door she bumps into a friend coming the other way oh dear, she didn’t want everyone to know she was back in her city otherwise work would start to call her and want her to do things for them, anyway after a quick chat she goes inside and asks what the rates are and can we have a look at the apartment. I paid the taxi man and off he went relatively happy, I then paid for the apartment and we went to settle in, with my cases this time , but in actual fact it is all split up into seperate self contained apartments, ours is just across the courtyard which was great as we were on our own away from the main building.
and the questions would start not that she didn’t want people to know about us, but she was happy for family to know about me but wanted to keep her work colleagues out of her private life. she had taped choral music and the sound really made the atmosphere of the place. She explained in Russian all about the history of the place ‘I’ translated it all for me. The lady was amazed to hear ‘I’ used to play in this church as a child while her father worked on his computer programming. , we go into their office and ‘I’ introduces me to them, I have been practising my Ukrainian a little (only a little mind you) and after saying hello I ask her sister ‘Yak Spravy’ she is shocked and tells me I said it like a native Ukrainian well that is nice to hear for me, it is just a pity I know a lot less than she probably thinks and cannot expand too much on that statement, luckily the sister speaks some English, not as good as ‘I’ but enough certainly to get by and get a conversation going the BIL however does not speak any English so we communicate with hand signals and ‘I’ translates for me. but soon I understand why, they want us to go into their house and be more comfortable, but they have a big black labrador called ‘Limer’ (notice I have given you her name, I don’t think she will worry too much about it ) Limer has been on her own all day and is a big softy and first thing she does is jump up and start licking everyone, the cat looks on in disgust and only a cat can it gives that sort of luck that seems to say, ‘you silly dog, grow up pleeeeze’ after the dog has settled down a little ‘I’s’ sister asks if I want coffee I say yes and she goes off to the kitchen to make us all one, ‘I’s’ BIL has a different option and gets out the beers and offers me one of those too, needless to say the coffee when it arrived was surplus to requirements we agree that I will be back for them in 2 days and carry out all the paperwork then. The gallery take a small deposit and we say goodbye.
not a little bus as we have started calling taxis, but a big bus I much prefer little buses but ‘I’ is having none of that so we wait patiently at a stop and board the bus, we get off a few stops later after bumping along all the cobbled roads that Chernivsti has everywhere, in fact the roads are some of the worse I have seen anywhere for a city centre, but ‘I’ tells me I have seen nothing yet some are far worse than these, well I am not in that much of a hurry to see them so maybe another time. and it is interesting to see the place, we spend maybe 45 minutes here that is all, because our main excursion is to Khotyn where unbeknown to me a treat has been planned.
phew that's a relief, so onwards and upwards
she gives me this as a little joke, it is a lovely old place on the banks of the river. On our walk down to the Fortress we pass another building which I am told is an old Ukrainian restaurant and they have already planned a traditional Ukrainian banquet for us all, ‘I’ and her family really are wonderful people and think of everything to make my visit entertaining and memorable. 
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Originally Posted by 3times_2UA
Great report Chris !!!
MAAAAAAAAN !!!! does this bring back memories for me. For those of you that have not been to Chernovtsy, Kamenets Podolskiy or Hotin. These photos are a very accurate account of the sights one could see in the course of a day. It also is very fun to visit the Carpathian mountains and the small surrounding towns. Very easily done by taxi or by bus. Sorry Chris for hijacking your thread.......This region of the Ukraine does have a special place in my heart !!! Great story !! |
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Originally Posted by TheWongs
Tease you? We would NEVER do a thing like that Chris!
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I know you are only joking, aren't you 
and already knew what we were going to do! Just as long as we could get back to her parents in case they needed her or the meal was on. I have been on trolley buses before, but I don’t remember any quite as old and decrepit as this one. No wonder the fare was only 60 Kopecs it was certainly a lot different to what I am used to, we only stayed on this mode of transport for 2 or 3 stops and got off at a stop opposite one of ‘I’s’ favourite restaurants for lunch. It was the same restaurant we had visited a few days before and although it wasn’t too warm we sat outside to eat in the fresh air. (taxi) back to the city centre and called in at the art gallery just to make sure things were progressing nicely with the paintings, of course not much was required but I did need to take some photographs of them to comply with the regulations, ‘I’s’ sister had lent us a good camera so I could take them and we would go and see them later to print the pictures off. We decided to do a little shopping before going back to the apartment so ‘I’ could go back and visit her mother. for him and me and ‘I’ has a glass of wine. We order our meal and then start on the vodka, we are getting on quite well considering he cannot speak any English except for ‘yes, no, elephant, dog and cat’ which he still hasn’t managed to get into the conversation yet and my Ukrainian is limited to ‘How are you’ and a few other short phrases that get a little tiresome if you keep repeating them, afterall there are only so many times you can ask how someone is in the space of an hour or so
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Originally Posted by AkMike
Is that old fort on the Denieper River? I guess I really should look it up in the atlas...
Great Pics! We're leading a tour back there next April and that looks like a must see stop over! It's amazing how much history there is compared to what we're used to here in N. America. Thanks Chris! |
but even short walks for her are like route marches for me we get up late and have breakfast and my main task for today is to go and sort out the paintings and any paperwork that needs doing. they want to put figures on that is below the export regulations threshold just in case I am stopped at the airport, I don’t have any plans to do anything dodgy and plan on getting all the correct approvals etc, but In see their point it is another safeguard just in case. The gallery instructs us to walk up the street to the Cultural Inspectorate Office, we enter and greet the same ladies who saw us two days before, one of the older ladies asks ‘I’ to sit down and beckons for me to go and sit by her, the reason soon becomes clear She needed some advice she has a long lost cousin who lived in London and was trying to reach her by phone she showed me the phone number she had and I immediately saw she had the old dialling code written down for outer London, so I wrote her the correct code and gave it back to her, then she asked ‘I’ if I could call the number for her when I got back home, I said sure but what do you want me to tell them? ‘I’ translates, she wants you to tell her cousin that her aunt had died a few weeks ago GULP! Well I couldn’t really refuse and wrote down all the details, address, names of all the family and what relation they were to the poor deceased and finally I had enough information to fill a book and she was happy. By the way Ryptic, if you are reading this I have called a number of times but no answer, I will keep trying for you dear! first they gave us a little receipt, we needed to walk back down the street and go to a bank to pay for all the paperwork, a whole 15 Grivnas, we queued in the bank and eventually got the necessary stamp again, the counter clerk gave us a little piece of paper then it was another walk back up the street to the Cultural office again. Tak! I said and off we went back down the street once more to the gallery. during the course of last week after I had got back home ‘I’ has already met with the artist direct and is agreeing some commissions for him. He is happy, ‘I’ is happy I am happy, the gallery, well lets just say they don’t need to know
after the third day when this happened her daughter was getting used to the situation and asked ’are you going to stay with your friend again tonight mummy’ of course she told her the truth, but us trying to hide things from her daughter didn’t work at all 
her daughter walks in slowly holding her mums hand and I say hello to her and again use my limited Ukrainian vocabulary ‘Yak Pravy – ‘N’ she replies in this sweet little quiet voice I am fine thankyou then ask her to come and sit beside me and I hand her a bag with 4 gifts in it, all specially wrapped up in shiny gold paper that I had bought in England. Her big blue eyes get even bigger and open wide when she sees these presents are for her. She starts to open the first one and see it is some of her favourite sweets, she was shocked as I had sent her some of these already a few weeks earlier from England but we had not told her who they were from, when she saw they were the same, the message got through and she was full of smiles. She then opened the other presents and one was a toy that I had bought for her, a wooden giraffe that moves when you press the base, she loves animals like most kids so this was a hit with her , she started to play with it and I have since heard she now takes this to school with her. We put all the presents back into the carrier bag and tell her we are going for a pizza, her favourite meal, although she doesn’t have it very often. Her eyes light up again .gif){kind=small}
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