Public transportation

It’s hard to imagine that we’ve already been living in Kyiv for well over a month now. We’re learning how to do things in a style somewhat similar to what many Ukrainians do as second nature…ride public transportation, go grocery shopping every couple of days, hold our breath as we go through congested areas (either because of smoke or body odor!) Life is definitely different; we find it really weird not to be able to just “jump in the car” and head somewhere; now we have to plan on 30-60 minutes of travel time to where ever we want to go. Besides the handy dandy metro, there’s a trolley bus and the medium sized buses are called marshukas. It only costs about 15 cents (1.5 hgrivnas) a ride, so if we do have to take a taxi we’re often reluctant to pay 50 hgrivnas (roughly $6). I, Alyssa, am starting to look like I’m carrying a huge watermelon around my waist and am always grateful when people let me have their seat on the "public".
And now for one of my favorite afternoons... Speaking of pregnancy, we’ve been to the doctor a couple of times. There’s an American Medical Center here that is taking care of all the prenatal care. They’ve been great! Last week we had another check up and the Skousens offered to take us (they bought a car.) Ken and I thought for sure that we knew how to get to the AMC because you only have to take two major streets. Tricky thing is that there aren’t really any street signs, anywhere. All of the landmarks looked familiar, so that wasn't helpful. My favorite landmark was when Elysa remembered an inflatable meat grinder right before a bend in the road--sure enough, we came across that on our first attempt to find the AMC. Notice that I said the first time, so needless to say we had to turn around and go back to the major Avenue.--All the while I've failed to mention one of the reasons that people use the public is because the driving is so CRAZY here...ever thought that Mexico was rough? Chump change in comparison, so Jacob's sweating bullets trying to whiz in and out and Ken's yelling "GO GO GO" when it's clear--We backtracked and tried the big street before the one that we had previously taken, went past some fake palm trees, recognized a WWII memorial from one of our first tours of the city, asked a guy for "Quadrot" (which we were told by the AMC to find) he pointed and let us cut in front of him, we drove and drove, tried asking more people for help but they just started speaking a lot of Russian or scowled, and finally tried calling the AMC again. As I was on the phone trying to describe what I saw around me, Ken shouted, "There's the McDonald's!" Thank goodness for the guiding golden arches. It just so happens that there is a metro stop, a huge bus stop, and a Mickey D's right next to the AMC--ah what relief! This outing proved one thing yet again--I REALLY NEED TO LEARN THE RUSSIAN ALPHABET! (I know that there was a huge run-on sentence in there...but that's exactly how we felt!)

Odessa by Train--a true adventure!

Off work at 4:00; pack and walk to the metro by 5:00, oops 5:30; catch the metro three stops to the train station; we still haven't eaten dinner; 10 minutes until the train leaves...Ken runs to McDonald's; Adam, Kris, and Alyssa run to the train platform and somehow stumble across the correct car; where's Ken? the train leaves in five minutes; there he is--all aboard! That was the beginning of our quick weekend trip to Odessa. After the second week of school, we boarded an overnight train to Odessa on the Black Sea. With the help of a Ukrainian speaking friend the boys bought tickets. We didn't know quite what we were going to do when we got there, but that was okay.

It's most likely that one would not call these overnight trains "Bullet Trains" by any stretch of the imagination. They meander along at a pace all of their own showing off the beautiful Ukrainian countryside--a welcome relief from the concrete and noise of the city. And the clickity-clackity of the rails almost lulls you to sleep, that is unless you're pregnant and have to get up every hour or so to use the restroom. Unfortunately one of us falls under the latter category. Needless to say, our arrival at 5:45 am was well-welcomed by Alyssa. Can you guess what the only restaurant open at that time of morning was? Ding, ding, ding--Micky D's again. So with the help of the overhead picture menus we were able to order Egg McMuffins and OJ with only minor problems. Once our bellies were full we were ready to find the Black Sea. We set out to find a marshuka (bus) that would drop us off at the correct place (near downtown) or how to walk the 15 minutes from the train station. But without a map or dictionary, our hand motions weren't really cutting it. It is SO difficult when you can't even read the signs because they're in Cyrillic. Finally a younger guy thought that he knew what we wanted so he led us to a marshuka and explained our situation to the guy driving. As luck would have it, once we got on, there was a woman who spoke a little English on the bus. We ended up driving some 60 Kilometers to a little beach town and decided to discover what we could. We ate brunch and found some lounge chairs. Alyssa ended up napping for a couple hours and Ken and our friends relaxed and enjoyed the sun, sand, and a little water action.

After several hours at our mystery beach we decided to see what Odessa had to offer. We had heard tale that there was the second largest outdoor market in Europe, the longest balcony in Europe, and perhaps the longest flight of stairs in Europe. We walked a lot, found a good spot for dinner (with an English speaking waitress) and tried to find the market. Although we never found the market, we eventually found the Opera House--which by the way is magnificent. The architecture never ceases to amaze me. Swan Lake was the ballet on the docket for that night and we were able to get some last minute tickets for around $3 a piece. Just like in the States, bottled water had an exorbitant mark up and was twice that price. Being the frugal spirits we are, Ken and I declined on the water. It was just after ten when the ballet finished and our train didn't leave until two o'clock (in the am). What else did we have to do except go visit the stair step entrance to Odessa and all of its 192 steps. Ken and Adam raced up while Kris and Lyss decided their tuckered out bodies would be content with a stroll. Once that was accomplished, we stumbled upon a Mexican restaurant; the likes of which we hadn't seen in what seemed like months to four Mexican food loving friends. But surprise, surprise, it was smoky and none of us were hungry. Bummer! To wait out the end of our journey, we ended up choosing a coffee shop/sushi joint/hookah bar (we stayed in the first part of the odd establishment). When we tried pulling out cards, a waitress came and told us that playing cards in public was against the law because it resembled gambling. So any ol' person can walk down the street, take the subway, or be a minor with beer in hand, but you can't play an innocent game of cards--go figure! The train ride back was a little less eventful... Ken DID upgrade our tickets from third class to second which was a welcome to relief to all of us weary travelers. Alyssa included, we all slept soundly on the way home. Arriving around noon, we still had most of Sunday to do what we needed before the work week began.