I had one last Italian coffee this late morning, jumped into my ride, and headed back to Malpensa airport in Milan. I ended up having to be another overage fee for the folders/pens/brochures I've been carrying (and maybe a couple of new items), but work will pay for that. Italian airports are not like US. I got into the Ukrainian Airlines line and got checked in but then had to hussle to the other side of the airport to pay the fee; then return to get my boarding pass; then hike back and wait in a HUGE line to get through security/passport control. You don't have to take shoes off, but ALL technology has to go through scanners. I got to the terminal and there wasn't anyone there...and it was less than 2 hrs ahead. Finally, folks started showing, but it was not a full flight. They did all the instructions in Ukrainian and English. I had a window seat. We flew over the Alps for a long time; all still snowcapped. gorgeous. I think we were in Slovakian, German, and Polish airspace for short times. Ukraine is soooo green and vibrant, but then when you see the buildings, they are all Soviet-era concrete blocks (many painted bright colors). Lots of Orthodox churches here too (I think I'll be able to get a painted Easter egg). It is much colder than I had expected (it's farther north than I realized) and it was drizzly today. I had a personal driver here too holding a card with my name on it. so fancy. The city is over 1,500 years old. Kyiv is very spread out across a river; I'm on the right (vs left, not vs wrong) side. I saw lots of Soviet-era statues that the driver said they leave up because it is there history. There's one here that is their Statue of Liberty, who has a sword and shield held high and you can climb up inside. There was one in honor of Kie, for whom Kyiv is named (he had 2 brothers; not sure what happened to them), who was standing on what looked like a Norsk ship. The people, in the city especially, have started speaking only Ukrainian (talk about national pride) within the past 2-3 months, and not preferring Russian, so I'm in biiiig trouble. There's very little English written or spoken here.
There are lots of advertisements along the highway. One was 3 men in fatigues -- turns out it's the Radical Party leader promising to return Crimea to Ukraine if elected! He's gay, so apparently he doesn't have a good chance of winning here. The other one was an ad full of tea light candles that turned out to be a memorial to the "Heavenly 100" who died in the Maidan protests. Pretty powerful stuff. I'm going to tour Maidan on the 18th. I definitely don't see anything resembling what's on the news about the eastern region; Kyiv looks like a normally functioning European city so far. Will have a better sense tomorrow.
The RadissonBlu is amazing. It's beautiful and could easily be in any US city. I was met at the lobby and went out for a cafeteria-style dinner. I had all sorts of Ukrainian cuisine. It's all delicious. Apparently, dill is THE spice here; it's in everything. I had borsht, cuke salad, paella, chicken (that tasted more like sausage, but ?), a honey cake, and a $1.50 unfiltered beer (Heifeweitzen-style). We chatted for about 2 hrs!
No comments:
Post a Comment