Ninth Entry: Kiev-A Short, Memorable Visit

We arrived in Kiev from our night of rest in our sleeper car, exchanged some money, and caught a taxi to our 'apartment.'  The driver turned into the alley, but there were no signs. We all got out of the taxi and started looking. The driver asked me for the phone number which we had. He called, we piled back into the taxi, and he drove down another alley. After a couple of calls and talking with a couple of people in the area, we went into a building and down some stairs. The door's sign to the entrance stated, "Dating Service." We went in and waited. From where I sat, hanging strings of plastic beads revealed a room with a wall covered by girls' pictures and information. Since it wasn't check in time, we left the luggage and went out to get a bite to eat. Upon our return, the clerk insisted that we pay for our guide's room and take the keys as, "This is not a hotel. It's apartments. We don't have people on duty all night."

We paid for both rooms and followed her as she showed us the two apartments in two separate buildings on two separate streets. No signs of any kind. Now I had copied bits and pieces of info about our trip, and I had copied the driver/guide's phone number. I could not get a connection. We went into a building with a room of phones where one buys time. I did manage to get Flint who was just about to go the airport enroute home. He would try to call when he got home. I continued to call, but to no avail. I tried sending messages from the WiFi at McDonald's to Andriy and our Romanian guide's boss, but no luck. My dear Flint came through! When he got home, he managed to connect with our guide. As the guide was still a distance from Kiev, he would call Flint when he was closer to establish a meeting plan. In the meantime, JP and I roamed around our area. This is a great location for many of the sights of Kiev.

St. Sophia

Atop a wedding car

Looking to St. Cyril's

The Bell Tower

 JP and I strolled around the area, ate a bite, and waited. Flint finally called, and we established that O'Brien's Pub in the area would be the best place to meet. Flint called again when our guide arrived (9:00 p.m. or so), we walked down the street, met him, took him to his apartment with a plan to meet at 8:00 a.m. in the morning for our trip to Romania.

It may have been this day that JP said, "Aunt Jan, you're not as relaxed traveling as you used to be."

Part of JP's and my apartment. Newly refurbished, very clean, and three doors to unlock to get in....the building, a hallway door that opened into a small storage hallway, then the apartment door.