Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Ukraine Adventure

Wow, what an amazing adventure!
I'll try to make it short and sweet, but no guarantees...haha!

We left on Monday, April 20th and traveled to Chicago then Munich then Kiev and then arrived in Donetsk Ukraine on Tuesday the 21st at 10:20 pm. I only had time to send a quick email before we left to Angelina in hopes she would get our date changes, flight information and our need for reservations on a place to stay. I did receive an email before we had to shut our phones off that said she would be there at 10:20 to pick us up. (Relief!)

When we arrived in Kiev Ukraine we had a few hours of layover and first thing we were told was all our luggage was send to the wrong place and it would arrive in Kiev (1) hour after our flight to Donetsk (OH GREAT!) So we got it worked out that it would be shipped to Donetsk and they 'hoped' by the next day. To top it off it was freezing cold and all our warm clothes were in the luggage, of coarse. So we snuggled up on the chairs, drank hot coffee and waited. James began visiting with some fellow Americans (the only other ones) and the mother gave us a blank after learning about our lost luggage. 

Finally, we got to Donetsk airport and before we knew it we were the only ones left standing as we were waiting for Angelina. A taxi driver tried to communicate with us that he would take us to a hotel and we begin to realize no one around spoke any English and my Russian is still very elementary. We told him we'll wait a little while longer. As we headed outside and he began to load our luggage in his taxi, Angelina arrived. Thank God, because we had no clue where to go, nor any source of communication. (WHOO that was a close one!)

What a beginning to a great adventure!
(More to come soon!)

1 comment:

  1. Loved all the pictures! So many familiar places I can't wait to see again. Looked like you had a good time. I'll bet it was hard to say goodbye. I copied your pictures from the McDonald's menu to give to friends leaving in a week or so. I'm going to show them how to read the menu. They have a SDA appointment on May 14.

    I picked up our I-171h yesterday and sent it off to Austin to be apostilled. Our whole dossier should be in Ukraine this next week!

    Best wishes,
    June

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