Enjoy it now!

As I mentioned on my last post, our travel experience so far has been downright pleasant.  We keep reminding ourselves to enjoy it now because if we find a child in a more remote area of Ukraine, all luxuries will be out the window!  No one will speak English (although we'll be traveling with an interpretor, thank Heavens!) and there aren't even normal toilets in public facilities - we will be provided with a simple hole in the ground, and may even have to pay for it.  So, we are living the high life while we can!

Because of my travel benefits, Blake and I flew to London in first class and were so excited to see one of our very dear friends as our flight attendant!  Then I realized that I knew practically the whole crew.  Most of them had bid that line because they will be laying over in London for William and Kate's wedding.  How fun is that?!  It was really a treat to catch up with my f/a buddies who I don't get to see very often!  So, Blake and I were wined and dined and then had a nice sleep on our special "turn into a bed" pod seats.  Enjoy it now!!

We had no problems with our connection in Heathrow and then had an easy, uneventful flight here to Kiev.  We were pleasantly surprised with how easy customs was at the airport.  Very small airport, by the way.  We didn't have to fill out landing cards, the lines were very manageable, the customs agent didn't ask us any questions and waved us right through, where we exited straight out the door.  So easy!  Our driver was waiting right there for us with our name sign and escorted us out to his car - a minivan.  He drove us to our hotel and even stopped at a bank for us to exchange some cash beforehand.  Piece of cake.  Enjoy it now!!

We're staying at the Kiev Grand Hyatt because Blake has so many points with Hyatt that we could stay here for free for quite a while if we wanted or needed.  Very nice hotel.  A little western cocoon where everyone speaks English and they love providing service.  We went to work out at their fitness center (which is beautiful, by the way) and had three people coming in and out to be sure that we had everything we needed.  They wouldn't even let me wipe down my own machines.  Enjoy it now!!

We are going to go to one of the restaurants at the hotel for dinner.  We ventured out today and quickly realized that very few people speak English here, even at tourist locations.  Our hotel is right by St. Sophia's Cathedral, which is considered a big tourist site here, and the workers did not speak English there.  We tried to communicate, but it was clear we were not really welcome as they were certainly not very friendly.  We couldn't go into the church because we needed a special ticket for that and the ticket worker would only sell us a ticket to see the grounds.  We tried to get the special church ticket to no avail.  Not a nice experience.  So we walked around a little more and found another, smaller church where we could just go right in; so we lit a few candles and crossed ourselves with holy water.  It was a lovely church.  We then walked through the neighborhood, which is charming, and walked through a small park right before reaching our hotel again.  Enough venturing out for us for today.  Tomorrow we will try to hire an English-speaking tour guide to show us the sights!

We're about to leave for dinner but I'll write more before bed.  Tomorrow is a very crucial day for us.  For now, we'll go and enjoy a lovely dinner here at the top-floor restaurant where they have all our favorite western fare and they speak English and at least appear to like us!  Enjoy it now!!  For sure, we will enjoy it now!!

xoxo