Ukraine Day 1

To pick up where I left off, I walked into the arrival hall at the airport, not knowing how I would recognize Rostek, a Greek Catholic seminarian.  (We call them Ukranian Catholic in Rochester).  I waded through a throng of people waiting, and taxi drivers, and finally recognized Rostek from a picture I had seen.  His first words to me were "no English."  Somehow in few words and lots of pantomime, I got money at an ATM (called Bancomat here) and we got a bus for the 40 long minute ride to Kiev.  Then we took the metro for three stops and met a friend of Rostek's, Constantin, who speaks English fairly well.  After a coffee (cappucino, of course) they accompanied me to the hotel and got me checked in.  I did have a reservation but it wasn't paid for as I thought it would be.  My room is on the fifth (top) floor at the end of the hall.  There is no A/C but I don't need it.  The windows open and it's a pleasant mid-60's time of year.

After a shower and a two hour nap, I was up again and raring to go.  My old friend, Nataly, had arrived from Moldova and together we waited for Rostek.  We walked all over the city and saw two incredible churches built in the 10th Century and the original city gate, called the Golden Gate, from the 9th century.  I'll get photos today.  We stopped into the local equivalent of McDonalds (yes there are McDonalds here).  I say local equivalent because it's a typical Ukrainian restaurant with only favorite Ukrainian foods.  I had borscht and varenichki which are the Ukrainian equivalent of pierogis which are like raviolis but stuffed with various things:  I had potato and cheese varenichki.  Filling and tasty.  Came back to the hotel and crashed.  Now I'm going to hit the shower and go down for breakfast.  Talk later.