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Saturday, December 9, 2006

Long day...long blog post

This wasn't really a new day since I had yet to go to bed. I was actually watching a movie at 5:00 am (German time). We arrived at Munich at 9:30 am. The things that I'll remember about the airport there was that it was pouring rain, the terminal was great, but it was filled with smokers. While having lunch I noticed a couple from Winnipeg. I asked them where they were going and they said Kiev. I asked them if they knew Darla and they said they did. That's how we met B and L. The flight from Munich to Kiev took two hours. I was fortunate to sit by a gentleman from the Donetsk region of Ukraine. I struck up a conversation and discovered that he was a seaman by trade. Although only 34, he had travelled the world many times over. Everything was going great until we went to pick up our luggage. My bag was fine but Candace's did not make it. It took about an hour for us to sort it out. We were called later to be told the missing bag would come tomorrow. We were picked up at the airport by E and L2. We learned quickly that drivers over here are maniacs...and that our driver, L2, was excellent at avoiding the maniacs. About ten minutes from the airport we went to a mall. After exchanging some currency we went to the grocery store. We spent about 200 hyivnya (approx. $40 USD) on groceries, plus a bottle of wine, a quart of vodka, and four beer. Quite the deal. After shopping,we dropped off the other couple at their apartment. Their location freaked me out a bit. It was right down town amidst what could bestbe described as sheer chaos (people, cars, and buildings everywhere). I was so excited when we arrived at our apartment. It was in a quiet neighbourhood and it was spotless, tastefully decorated, and everything in it was new. We even had cable...albeit 40 stations in Ukrainian. A few of them had sports which works in any language. I think it was karma making up for the lost luggage. We settled in quickly and unpacked our stuff before splitting a Ukrainian beer. Candace was asleep by 8:00 pm and I made it about an hour later. I was tired...about 5 hours sleep in the last 32 or so.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow. That is awesome. I didn't know that you were adopting. Congratulations and good luck for everthing. Gill