Welcome to Ukraine!

I made it! Did you ever doubt me? ... Yeah, me too. But I'm here, alive and kicking and very weirded out that I'm in Eastern Europe. I'm now in the internet cafe in a swanky post office in the heart of Kiev. My boss, Kate, has left me to fend for myself for a while as she and her ex-boyfriend from Moscow hang out together. I'm supposed to find some ancient monasteries by myself and then find my way back to our hotel. Yeah, right. We'll just see how that goes. On the plus side, I'm remembering more Russian than I anticipated. I guess it was all there, milling about in my mind waiting for the opportunity to be used again.

So quickly: I got to Warsaw just fine. Darren's brother-in-law was kind enough to give me a lift in his car so that I didn't have to hassle with public transportation. Thanks Rabah!!!!!!! I had to repack and take out more things from my overstuffed luggage and left them with friends all over London (well just Darren and Emma but still...) Got on board the plane and it only took two hours to get to Poland. Not bad. Got my gear together and found the right bus to take me to the train station to catch the overnight to Kiev. Luckily on the bus there was a lady sitting next to me with her boyfriend and another guy friend and when I asked her if the next stop was the Central Bus Station she not only answered affirmatively but said her fellows would help me off the bus with my stuff. I expected they'd just dump the suitcases off on the corner but no! They helped me all the way to the very platform my train was to leave from, how nice is that?! I think Conrad the taller of the two men, not the lady's boyfriend, may have fancied me. He kept looking at me and smiling and trying to make jokes using body language and pigeon English. He was quite funny considering.

As for the train ride itself I will now quote you from my journal (because I'm too lazy to be original):
"I'm now sitting on the top right-hand berth (looking in from the hallway) with a woman named Lena opposite me, Irina (Ira) below her and a girl named Julia below me. [Note: It was rather like the three fates of Greek mythology - Irina as the crone, the older woman who has seen the world in all it's beauty and ugliness; Lena, the woman who is in the prime of life, experienced but not fully wise yet; and Julia, the maiden, still fresh and naive, looking at the world as from the beginning of a book. I don't know if these three woman really suit the analogy in their personal lives as I believe Julia was my age and has a child already but still, nice to imagine.] Anyways I chatted with Ira for a while, showed her and Lena my pictures from Cornwall and I did it almost all in Russian! Woohoo, boy am I rusty! Well I will work on that later. I'm fairly surprised I understood as much as I did. But now everyone is either sleeping or readying for it so... I'll be back, still have another 15 + hours to go.

2:20am - Passport Check
Good times to be woken up by big burly men in dark grey-green uniforms who talk loudly while they take your passport away behind the open sliding door where you can't see them and finally return with your passport with an extra little stamp.

3:30am - Woken up by big burly woman, nice change up. Didn't get new stamp in passport. Got a customs declaration form from a fairly cute man in camouflage wear and storm boots with extraordinarily light blue eyes. I forgot to buy/bring any food or drink for my 17 hour journey... man I'm dehydrated. All I have in the way of food are the chocolate chip cookies Darren bought me before I left. For now I'm going to try and get some more sleep.

P.S. Welcome to Ukraine!"

End of quotation. Stayed tuned for the rest of my journey and arrival in Kiev. Now I'm off to find me a monastery and hopefully some water. Still a bit dehydrated.