Monday: Kiev and Poltava

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A day in Kiev

Weather: beautiful! The sun is shining, very warm out. No jacket required :o)

Woke up about 10 minutes before alarm went off!

Updated facebook, sent a few emails.
Brought luggage down to reception to hold until 14:00. Checked out of apartment.

Walked the streets of Kiev for a bit. Found a cute little Italian restaurant. Went in and ordered pizza for lunch. The guy sitting at the next table, turned to talk to me (in English) and asked if I was American or Canadian. I answered "Canadian".
He said he has a few friends in Canada. All the Canadians he's met are incredibly nice. We chatted for a bit, and he offered to be my tour guide for the city for the next couple hours.
I brought me around to the best place (best exchange rates) to buy Hryvnia. I exchanged $100US for 790 rph.
Went back, paid the restaurant for lunch.
Igor, my travel guide, hailed a cab and took me to the Chernobyl Museum. That was quite something!! Very eye-opening to the degree of devastation that did actually cause. Walls upon walls of photographs of the children that died.
Igor hailed a cab, and he dropped me off at the apartment to meet my driver for the railway station at 13:55. I offered him a tip for his time. I would have wandered the streets for a couple hours aimlessly if I hadn't met him. He gave me his phone number and email address for any future trips I make. I will also pass this information on to anyone else I know that is going to Kiev. Super nice guy, very knowledgeable about the area.

Driver was waiting at reception for me. Hopped in his car, and he drove me to the rail station.
Buying a ticket was quite the experience!! I did have the receptionist write down what ticket I wanted in Russian before I left though. That helped, but it was still a bit difficult.
Bought my rail ticket (54.52 rph).
Then wandered around trying to figure out what track, where I was supposed to be, etc. Luckily, I had plenty of time for mistakes. Finally figured out the signs, figured out what track, and walked all the way down to the end of the walkway to find the platform. It does seem that every place I want to be is "at the end" of the list!! LOL
Found the platform. found the rail car (which, of course, was the first car, so I had to walk to the end again! LOL). Settled in for a four and a half hour train ride. Not the most comfortable travel, but it's efficient and cheap.

Quite the scenery along the way!! Such a beautiful countryside.

Arrive in Poltava, Ukraine

Arrived in Poltava about 20:25. As soon as I stepped out of the rail car, I recognized Svetlana immediately! Such a beautiful lady, and a beaming smile!
She had a cab waiting, so we hopped in the cab and proceeded to look for accommodations. She explained that she had been around to a few of the apartments in town, but she didn't like them, or she had a bad feeling about the people, so didn't book anything.
We stopped at one hotel, the place was ok .. but again, she didn't like the feel of it. We ended up at Hotel Kiev. Checked out the room at 21:30 .. it's nice and does include breakfast. I only had enough hryvnia on me to pay for one night (they don't accept credit cards), so I paid one night and will exchange more money in the morning to pay for the rest of the time there.
Went up to the room to settle in. Svetlana and I talked a bit about our plans for the next few days.
She left around 22:15.
22:30 - I'm settling in for the night.

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