We are flying a small Ukrainian airline to Sharm El Sheik UT air I think, and I was not hoping to see this- we were thinking when we arrived at 12:15 we'd be heading through check-in soon.
We left home at 3 pm with Maxim, our suitcases, all the church milk for Sunday morning, and a guy from the village who had asked Max for a ride to Dnepro. Max handed Kolia a breathmint when he got into the front seat- Max and I were sitting the back with a crate of smetana and the carry-on wedged between us. It didn't help the alcohol-cigarette breath, but he was happy for a ride and chatted for a while.
We dropped off Kolia at the outskirts of the city and brought the milk, cheese and smetana at Victor's house where the guys unloaded it- milk will easily stay cold until morning in this weather. Unfortunately Victor's German shepherd escaped from the yard and Garry and Max had to help Dan catch her before we left. We still got to the train station with time to spare.
We left Dnepro at 5:11 on schedule and Garry remarked as the train got going that it felt like we had a flat tire. Normally the train has a rocking sensation as it goes down the track, we were pretty tired of the shake and rattle by the time we got to Kiev at 11pm. Around six a mother and grandmother got on with a 3 year old and sat behind us- that child sang loudly until 9:30 with a few breaks for air. No one seemed upset about it. Garry got hungry - I had packed some brownies, since we were in the dining car (back half of our car)he bought a sandwich and chips and brought me a warm Coke.
Ukrainians would never drink cold pop in the winter- you would be sure to get sick. Ice cream will give you a sore throat in winter also. At the Metro grocery store last summer they put in little coolers by the checkouts. I bought one a couple weeks ago and realized they had turned them off - who'd buy cold drinks in the winter? last week I discovered one of ten was still turned on and got a cold drink.
Many people slept or watched the old Soviet movies they show on the televisions - they got the one working facing us around the time the little kid got on- one movie seemed to have the Russian Julie Andrews in, it had a big musical number with whistling truck drivers, and she was either in overalls - I think she pumped gas or a fancy dress going down the stairs in Odessa at the end, I think.
We pulled the luggage over to McDonalds from the train station - which was colder than normal inside- had some burgers and cold french fries and then pulled them back through the train station, down the stairs- escalator wasn't working and found a van to the airport for 30 grivna a person, he was full at 10 before 12 and took 25 minutes to get here, only stopped for 2 maybe three lights. Went through some yellow ones fast. Seats are packed - Garry is reading a book across from me and people are getting their luggage encased in plastic for 30 grivna. It's very popular for flying here- maybe no one will open your luggage?...
The people flying the other airline to Sharm El Sheik who were supposed to leave after us are going through check in now...nothing to do but wait and hope we get there sometime on Sunday morning.
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