Going to Kiev in 7 days, any tips?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Have it engraved in English lettering! It seems everything has more status if it is not cyrillic alphabet. I had a tough time finding printed tee shirts with anything in cyrillic. Everybody that wears that sort of thing buys stuff with English on them. Sometimes what they said didn't make much sense but they didn't care, it was being in English that seemed to matter.

True. Our son stocks up on funny/stupid T-shirts every summer before going back to Moscow for school and is always a hit. I bought him one of those camoflage baseball caps with lights built into the brim for the very practical purpose of reading in a shared room. His roommates love it and demand he bring them some hats!

As for flowers, the Amsterdam airport (one of the best in the world IMO) has tons of flowers for sale and I bought Alla a huge bunch of Holland Tulips there that were a big hit.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Well...I'm all packed and heading out 2pm tomorrow. I have 17 hrs of travel time, here to Memphis then Amsterdam then Kiev. Will be in Kiev around 5pm Friday.

I got a long padlock and did our names with a sharpie permanent marker. I got an extra padlock if we can find someone out there to engrave something in Russian on it.

Got some Jadore perfume, seems to be popular with most of younger lady friends I know.

Got her a few shirts. I got a nice black studded blouse and then I have her a t-shirt from my last rock band called Dirty Doggz. Our female fans were called Love Puppies and we had t-shirts made for the girls that said Love Puppy on the front and Dirty Doggz on the back. Shirts are black with red letters in Chiller font. Typically during a show, the girls that wanted shirts had to earn them by dancing and showing off their "puppies" to the crowd while we played our song called Love Puppy. We had the local radio DJs in Anchorage (Bob & Mark) at Blues Central every Sat night for a month giving out shirts to Love Puppies. It was a cool gimmick. Sooooo I have one left that I'm bring to Kiev

yep..packed lots of dark clothes.

Will grab a rose on the way to airport tomorrow.

Had a good diet going for 3 weeks and fit well into all my clothes, then today somebody at work decided to treat everyone to fried chicken day.....our snack table is right next to my office..been battling to stay away from donuts and king cakes every morning but I lost that battle today ...who can turn down free chicken??

You guys have fun here in RUB VJ land...don't be too popular..it drives the other groups crazy...

Good luck and have fun Johnny !!!

*Don't forget to bring a little something (gift) for the roommate.

Edited March 24, 2011 by Why_Me

[Captain Hammer 113]

Good luck Johnny, hope you have a safe and successful trip!

[baron555 934]

The kids will also love T-shirts of the local sports team.

[LvivLovers 39]

Go, Johnny, Go! Hope you have a great trip and it turns into everything you want it to be!

[~Johnny~ 27]

In Kiev now, my girl is coming over in a bit and we're going to go shop for groceries so she can cook dinner tonight.

Flights..well they are what they are.,,,ZERO problems at KBP. They don't even have you fill out any forms. I was through customs in 5 minutes, bags took a while but still no problems. Apartment, I guess as good as it gets for Kiev. I'm right across from Kiev Theater and next to a McDs on Kreshatyck (sp?). Seems to be a popular spot. I walked around today, was snowing pretty heavy and still girls are hopping around on high heels..

My girl is nothing short of awesome! She's an extremely beautiful woman even more so in person! She loves to read literature and for the life of me I couldn't remember one American author to suggest to her last night. She has an accounting degree but works as Customer Service rep for Viola cable. Long hours for little pay. Apparently that's the only job she could find and sounds like her boss is an A-hole. So far I think we are doing good, I told the agency to forget about the other meetings. We had a pretty spendy dinner last night at some Arabic restaurant but we were there for 4 hours and put down a few alcoholic beverages...and ohhhh the belly dancers kept coming to the table and it was the hardest thing I've ever done to not stare at the hot dancer doing her thing inches away from me with my girl sitting next to me. It was like a Ukraine Torture Test. My girl and the interpreter had their eyes glued to the dancer like they were in a trance. Not sure what it is but seems RUB girls really get into watching belly dancers. My girl asked why I keep looking at her and not at the belly dancer when she comes to the table ... I said, coz I only have eyes for you my dear ...

The biggest hang up we have so far is a communication problem. Her English is basic (we usually chat with Skype and Google translate) and my Russian is even worse. The few phone calls we had were short and I noticed that her English was not very good. We manage but she will start taking English classes soon. The beat up rose carried all the way from New Orleans was a huge hit. Thanks Barron! She was almost in tears when I told her how I carried it by hand all the way 18hrs from USA just for her.

Kiev is alright. Old buildings everywhere, seems a bit run down in areas but seems like a good place. I've been to much worse places in Southeast Asia. Well...my girl is on her way, I think she's cooking her favorite Borscht recipe tonight. Yum Yum.... Later guys

Edited March 26, 2011 by ~Johnny~

[1HappyGuy 45]

It sounds like your girl and her interpreter are wondering if you don't like to see near-naked women.

You made a great response. Too bad for the snow as it doesn't make walking through Kiev that enjoyable. Have a great time, work on the communications and listen carefully. You may be pleasantly surprised in the eventual outcome.

Have a great time. :dance:

[baron555 934]

I said, coz I only have eyes for you my dear ...

Good answer.

The biggest hang up we have so far is a communication problem.

Go slow and easy and it can be fun being together and communicating. These mutual challenges will be similar to those you two (may/will) encounter as you move forward, hopefully together.

She was almost in tears when I told her how I carried it by hand all the way 18hrs from USA just for her.

Told you so!!! It is because you did this for her. They like that.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Fill us in on the roommate Johnny. A pic or two would be nice

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Fill us in on the roommate Johnny. A pic or two would be nice

Sounds like all is going well. Alla is more interested in hot women than I am, and will often point one out to me, just remember, she is "attractive" not "beautiful" They say women dress for other women. I believe it.

Kiev is nicer more modern and better maintained than most Ukrainian cities. It is the capital so they give it extra attention. It is typical for the downtown area to be quite nice, and the rest of the city to be like a ghetto. even Donetsk, a grim city of coal miners and steel mills that looks like Dante's inferno from the air, has a really nice downtown area with wide walking avenues, fountains, benches, etc. Really nice. And it is the social gathering place. You walk there in the evening and see all your friends and chat. There are tables where people are always playing chess, drinking vodka and solving all the problems of the world. Great stuff.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Fill us in on the roommate Johnny. A pic or two would be nice

You are incorrigible! Would Kira just kill you or what?

Alla has a friend here, Anya 2 (to differentiate her from Anya 1) that is a gorgeous blonde Russian woman 2 meters tall, no kidding. She is 6 foot 6 if she is an inch. 4 ft of it is legs and she wears Daisy Duke shorts in the summer!

so one amourous night I was particularly ...well, Alla says "you are going to wear me out with that thing and we will have to take you to the hospital" I said "Just call in Anya 2 to relieve you" Oh Gospity!, wrong thing to say!

Be very careful around the roommate Johnny!

Anya 2 is "Anya 2" because she is married to Anya 1's ex-husband. Anya 1 is Alla's hairdresser, Anya 2 is a student at Alla's school. At least the guy doesn't have to worry out crying out the wrong name in bed. Anya 2 is 27 (maybe 28 now) and her husband is 57 or 58.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

You are incorrigible! Would Kira just kill you or what?

Alla has a friend here, Anya 2 (to differentiate her from Anya 1) that is a gorgeous blonde Russian woman 2 meters tall, no kidding. She is 6 foot 6 if she is an inch. 4 ft of it is legs and she wears Daisy Duke shorts in the summer!

so one amourous night I was particularly ...well, Alla says "you are going to wear me out with that thing and we will have to take you to the hospital" I said "Just call in Anya 2 to relieve you" Oh Gospity!, wrong thing to say!

Be very careful around the roommate Johnny!

Anya 2 is "Anya 2" because she is married to Anya 1's ex-husband. Anya 1 is Alla's hairdresser, Anya 2 is a student at Alla's school. At least the guy doesn't have to worry out crying out the wrong name in bed. Anya 2 is 27 (maybe 28 now) and her husband is 57 or 58.

LMAO! Allah sounds a lot like Kira. Kira said to me once after knocking boots...maybe I should call mama in to see if she can help. She was looking straight into my eyes when she said that to see if I would f'k up and give the wrong reaction. Of course I acted shocked and asked her how she could say such a thing. In my fantasy world though both her mum and sister help out.

But ya I understand about women checking other women out. That's why Kira always chooses our dancers for us at the strip clubs. Her taste is similar to mine, and her eye sight is definitely better than mine.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

LMAO! Allah sounds a lot like Kira. Kira said to me once after knocking boots...maybe I should call mama in to see if she can help. She was looking straight into my eyes when she said that to see if I would f'k up and give the wrong reaction. Of course I acted shocked and asked her how she could say such a thing. In my fantasy world though both her mum and sister help out.

But ya I understand about women checking other women out. That's why Kira always chooses our dancers for us at the strip clubs. Her taste is similar to mine, and her eye sight is definitely better than mine.

I just have to be careful. She doesn't want me looking at women and then we go to the club in Donetsk with topless go-go dancers and she says "Oh look at the wonderful girls dancing" I just let her lead.

BTW Alla has no brothers or sisters and her mom could be my mom so, NO!!!!!!!!!!!! I love my MIL though and she was a smokinhotnikova when I was a child.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I just have to be careful. She doesn't want me looking at women and then we go to the club in Donetsk with topless go-go dancers and she says "Oh look at the wonderful girls dancing" I just let her lead.

BTW Alla has no brothers or sisters and her mom could be my mom so, NO!!!!!!!!!!!! I love my MIL though and she was a smokinhotnikova when I was a child.

ok, I know this has probably happened to you also. But did you ever get your ####### grabbed on the way to the rest room in a club ? It happened to me twice on one trip at a joint in Minsk called the "Madison Club". At first I was like ...'wth'..but on the way back I was like "ya baby". I swear to god, I must have made a dozen trips to the head that night just to get my ####### grabbed by hot chicks. I love Minsk.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

ok, I know this has probably happened to you also. But did you ever get your ####### grabbed on the way to the rest room in a club ? It happened to me twice on one trip at a joint in Minsk called the "Madison Club". At first I was like ...'wth'..but on the way back I was like "ya baby". I swear to god, I must have made a dozen trips to the head that night just to get my ####### grabbed by hot chicks. I love Minsk.

No comment. I love Odessa.