Eurotrip 2012 - Day 7 (6/21) - To Helsinki

We woke up a little earlier because we wanted to hit up a couple of sites before catching the train to Helsinki. We were just about ready to head out when they brought in breakfast a little after 9. This time they gave us a small pancake stuffed with jam, a peach, yogurt, and a flan-like (only not as disgusting) thing with cream that I couldn't identify. After eating, checking out, and stowing our big bags, we left the hotel around 9:45, about 15 minutes later than planned.

We took the metro to Gorkovskaya and walked to the nearby Peter and Paul Fortress. The fortress is apparently free to roam about, but we bought tickets for the SS Peter and Paul Cathedral and the Trubetskoy Bastion prison. We first headed to the cathedral, but we found the entry queue too long for our liking so we walked over to the prison instead. After touring the mostly unimpressive prison (except perhaps for the exit door that I couldn't figure out how to open because I temporarily forgot how to read signs), we headed back to the cathedral and joined the long line. We eventually went through and took some pictures, then headed to the Neva Curtain Wall. We noticed that there were a lot of people on top of and around the wall looking at, and even filming, something to the west, but we didn't know what was going on. We climbed the stairs to the top of the wall, but didn't go through the turnstile since we chose not to buy tickets for the walk around the curtain wall. We were just hanging out up top when we noticed that some music that had been playing stopped. Then suddenly there was a super-loud boom - they had just fired a blank round from one of the big artillery guns on top of the wall. We were slightly stunned, as we were not expecting that at all. When the church bells began ringing a few seconds later, we reasoned that this was something that was done daily at noon. After sufficiently recovering our senses, we headed over to and through the Neva Gate to check out the river below. This was the last thing we did before leaving the fortress.

After the fortress we trekked across the Neva River, through Marsovo Pole (the Field of Mars), and to the Church on Spilled Blood. Though impressed, Joe still maintained that St. Basil's Cathedral was better (mostly because it was on the Tetris cover). We then walked down to Nevskiy Prospekt and found a restaurant near the metro station to have lunch. The place was classier (and more expensive) than we had been frequenting on the trip, and the food was good (though the portions may have been a bit small). I has some beef stroganoff and mashed potatoes while Joe had the hot borscht with sour cream. After eating we took the metro back to the hotel, arriving a little after 2:15. We immediately gathered our bags and headed back to the metro station to go to the Finlyandskiy train station. There, we boarded the 3:25 train to Helsinki.

Both the Russian and Finnish border patrol didn't let me slip through very easily. The Russian officer kept looking at my passport picture, and at me, and even had another officer check it out. Both of the Finnish patrolmen asked extensively about my/our travel itinerary, but Joe was able to placate the first one by asking about the Chicago Blackhawks tattoo on his arm. The train ride took about 3.5 hours, putting us in Helsinki around 6 PM (since they are one hour behind SPb).

When we arrived in Helsinki we walked from the train station to our hostel, the Domus Academica, which took about 20 minutes. We checked into our private room, and then went searching for dinner. We found a kebab restaurant, where Joe and I each had a huge kebab meal (though I had garlic potatoes as my side dish while he had rice). We then walked to a frozen yogurt shop, making it 2 minutes before they closed at 9. I had €3.35 worth (not that much, really) of frozen yogurt, even though I was stuffed from the kebab that I didn't even finish. We walked over to Temppeliaukion Church (the "Rock Church") just to scope the outside, knowing full well that it would be closed. On the walk back to the hostel we stopped at a small grocery store across the street to pick up some cereal, milk, and juice for breakfast the next couple of days (instead of each paying the hostel €7 each day). After putting the stuff away we went downstairs and eventually found a couple of seats in front of their tiny CRT TV in the lounge to watch Cristiano Ronaldo go beast mode again on the Czech Republic in the Euro 2012 quarterfinal game. After that we went up to the room and went to bed.

Observation of the day: This is nothing unexpected but...Helsinki has a totally different (and way more Western) feel to it than the Russian cities. There was a lot more change going the shorter distance from SPb to Helsinki than from Moscow to SPb. This is totally understandable, but for some reason was a bit jarring (not in a bad way) for me - I had become used to being a complete foreigner after 6 days in Russia.

Eurotrip 2012 - Day 6 (6/20) - Peterhof

Our hotel stay included breakfast, and it was served with a personal touch - which is easy to do when you only have 5 rooms. We made arrangements the night before to have it served around 10 AM. Our host brought in the tray to our room at about 10:15. On it were two identical meals that each consisted of 2 small pancakes (i.e., thick pancakes, not crepes) with cream, a berry pastry, a tiny wedge of cheese, and a cup of yogurt. We had already finished getting dressed, so we ate and then were soon on our way. That day was the first pants day of the trip, as the temperature was a bit cooler - around 60 °F.

Our plan for the day was to see the Peterhof palace estate in Petergof, which is about 20 miles west of the city center. We had read that a fun way to get there was by hydrofoil boat, which departed from the river dock by the Hermitage and the Winter Palace. We took the metro down there, and after a quick stop at the Admiralty Gardens to admire the bears some more, we found where the hydrofoils normally left. However, the boats were not operating that day because it was too windy and the water was too choppy. We initially contemplated trying a different boat company, but returned to ask one of the girls out front how to get to Petergof by train. She told us to take the metro to Avtovo. When we got to the metro station and looked at the map, we noticed that there was no train station at the Avtovo stop, though there was one a couple of stops away from there. We asked one of the policemen on duty, and he also directed us to Avtovo and said that we could take a bus from there to Petergof. Since their stories seemed to match up, we hopped on the metro and headed over.

Once we reached Avtovo, though, we were completely clueless what to do next. We weren't quite expecting a big bus terminal with flashing signs for Peterhof (in English), but since that wasn't the case we didn't know what to do. There was indeed a bus stop there (with both regular and mini buses stopping fairly frequently) but we saw no signage (that we could read, at least) for Peterhof. We spent the next 20 minutes aimlessly circling between the metro and bus stop, silently hoping that someone would help us out. I finally went inside one of the cafes (from the Teaspoon chain, which we had dined at the night before) and asked one of the servers how to get there. She told me to cross the street and take a bus on the other side. Sure enough, pretty soon after we emerged from the tunnel which crossed under the street there were people selling rides to Peterhof. We hopped on the first minibus that offered a ride, and then rode about 20 minutes to the palace entrance.

After arriving at the palace grounds, we crossed through the upper garden to the ticket counter. We couldn't get there without a picture request, though - I forgot to expect this when visiting tourist attractions where people are walking around with cameras. We bought tickets and then entered to explore the lower garden (which extends out to the bay) for a while. We also had some more "Russian pancakes" for lunch - this time going with the savory (chicken, cheese, and bacon) and sweet (chocolate and banana) combination suggested by Joe and a Mirinda (which is starting to rival Fanta as my favorite travel soda). We then went in search of the Pyramid Fountain, which Joe found, and then headed up to buy tickets for the Grand Palace. The palace was pretty impressive, though the (unguided) tour seemed a bit short. We also could not take pictures or videos, and had to wear slippers over our shoes.

After the tour we headed back toward the street and took a minibus on the other side back to Avtovo, and then the metro back toward the hotel. On the walk back to the hotel we stopped at a Pizza Hut to pick up a couple of small pizzas for carry-out. We took them back to the hotel where Joe immediately at his while I saved mine for a bit since I wasn't hungry - it was about 6 PM at this time. I eventually ate half of mine about an hour later, then we went out in search of some ice cream around 7:30. We couldn't find a proper creamery (though Joe thought he had seen one), so we settled for some pre-wrapped ice cream instead. After this, Joe went back to the hotel room while I took a stroll around the area. I walked through the neighborhood and stopped by a small park where there were some good pick up soccer games being played, in addition to some basketball, gymnastics, working out, and boxing/martial arts. I then walked down to Nevskiy Prospekt, headed west, and then cut back up and around to the hotel. I got back around 10, lounged around, finished my pizza, then went to bed at midnight.

Observation of the day: Sunrise in St. Petersburg on this day was officially at 4:36 AM and sunset was at 11:27 PM, yielding 18 hours and 51 minutes of daylight. There was still some light out at midnight, though.

Bonus observation: In general we've been able to get by alright without speaking a word of Russian. Most people who you deal regularly with tourists (e.g., at ticket counters or in restaurants) know enough English to fulfill our requests or help us out. Some are even apologetic when they don't speak English. It's a little more hit or miss with police officers, and then the general population mostly seems to not speak any English.

Eurotrip 2012 - Day 5 (6/19) - St. Petersburg

Our train arrived in St. Petersburg right on time at 8:35 AM. Our first task was then to find the 5-Rooms Hotel (so named for its total of 5 available rooms). We took the metro one stop to the nearest station to the hotel, then got a little turned around, but we eventually found the hotel by about 9:30. Unfortunately, we could not check in at the time, and were asked to return at 11, which was still 2 hours before normal check-in. Joe and I stowed our big bags, and headed out to cross off some sights in the meantime.

Our first stop was the Russian Museum, which we almost confused with the Russian Ethnography Museum (housed in the east wing of the former), but it was closed - Tuesday is its day off. So we instead headed to the Hermitage, a huge museum in the style of the Louvre. Along the way we stopped at Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan and strolled through Palace Square and by the Alexander Column (apparently the world's largest freestanding monument). We also ran into the mother/daughter pair from the train on the way over - they were at Kazan and were also headed to the Hermitage. The line at the Hermitage was ridiculous, and took about an hour to get through. When we finally did, we wandered semi-aimlessly through the bottom 2 floors for another hour or so before tiring out. After leaving, we headed to the first food provider that we saw, which happened to be a (light meat) gyro place.

After satisfying our hunger, we wandered toward St. Isaac's Cathedral, but were distracted by a small park that had a bunch of bears arranged around the central fountain (I later found out that this was the traveling United Buddy Bears exhibit). We found out that each bear represented a country, so we had to get pictures with certain "meaningful" ones. Once that was accomplished, we rejoined our path to St. Isaac's. At the cathedral, we bought tickets for both the museum (i.e., general entry) and the collonade (a trek to the outer balcony of the top dome, which offered some nice views of the city). After finishing both of those activities we walked back over to Nevskiy Prospekt and took the metro back toward the hotel. It was also on Nevskiy that I got my first picture request in St. Petersburg - according to Joe this young lady had been following us/me for a few blocks before finally gathering up the courage to ask for the picture when we stepped aside to look at a map.

When we arrived at the hotel a bit after 4, we were pleasantly surprised to find that they had started the check-in process for us and moved our bags to our room. We finished up checking in and settled in for a bit. We then decided that we had done enough exploring for the day, so our only venture out for the rest of the evening was a brief walk down the street to find some dinner around 6:30. We eventually settled on a cafe that served crepes (I went with minced meat this time), where I also tried out (and enjoyed) some hot borsch. The rest of the evening was spent lounging lazily in the room, and resting my weary feet.

Observation of the day: The metro system in St. Petersburg is just as great as the one in Moscow. Although it doesn't have the same extensive coverage (I suspect due to the smaller population), it went everywhere we needed it to, and was just as timely, if not more so. And the stations are just as beautiful. One definite improvement over Moscow is that the signage includes the English spellings in addition to the Cyrillic lettering. The cost of a single trip is 27 rubles in St. Pete, as opposed to 29 in Moscow. I also noticed (and later confirmed via the Internet) that the stations are even deeper in St. Pete, thus making for longer escalators (3 minutes to ride).

Bonus observation: Russians call crepes pancakes. They must not have the thicker variety of real pancakes over here.

Eurotrip 2012 - Day 4 (6/18) - Last Day in Moscow

We were up around 9:30, and lounged around until I realized that breakfast ended at 10 on weekdays. I made this realization at 9:57, and we rushed up to the 8th floor, scarfed down some food, and were back in the room at 10:11. We then got dressed and lounged around a bit before checking out 15 minutes before the noon deadline. We were able to stow our big bags there and head out for a day of activities - our train didn't leave until 11:40 that night.

Our original plan for the day involved a couple of museums, but it turns out that there are no museums open on Mondays in Moscow...FAIL. So we decided to try to go to the Kremlin Armoury for real. We took the metro down there and were at the ticket counter around 12:45. The lady said that there were currently no tickets and to return at 1:45 when the next batch of tickets (for the 2:30 entrance) would go on sale. A bit annoyed, we needed to find a way to kill an hour. We strolled over to GUM, then by St. Basil's, and then the Kremlin tombs, before heading back to the ticket building. There was a long line this time (almost as long as the day before), and we joined the end around 1:40. It took us about 20 or 25 minutes to get through the line, and when we got up to the counter the lady informed us yet again that there were no more tickets for the Armoury. This being the third strike, we gave up on trying to get in there...more FAIL.

After a bit of discussion and indecision, we eventually settled on checking out the All-Russian Exhibition Centre (VVTs). We took the metro up there (the VDNKh stop) and walked over to the VVTs. It was kind of like a toned down theme park, but you didn't have to pay to get into the main section, where there weren't really any rides - though I'm not sure if you had to pay for the other sections. We also got some crepes (I had 1 ham & cheese and 1 chicken & gravy) for late lunch, which I followed with an ice cream cone. After about an hour, we headed back toward the metro, with a stop at the Memorial Museum of Astronautics (which was closed) for some pictures outside of the Monument to the Conquerors of Space.

We took the metro down to Kitay Gorod and walked through the area toward Red Square. We stopped in at GUM yet again in search of milkshakes, but were unsuccessful in our quest. Next we walked to the Bolshoy Theater and took a couple of pictures. Then we walked back to the square, where Joe and I parted ways for a bit. He took the metro back to the hotel to rest his feet, while I decided to walk the scenic route back and meet him there in a couple of hours (around 8).

I first crossed the bridge over the Moskva River, where I got a few good shots of the Kremlin. I next swung by the Tretyakov Gallery just to check out the building (since it was closed), but finding it uninspiring from the back I abandoned that plan and instead walked the opposite direction along the river toward the Monument to Peter I (Peter the Great). After snapping a few pics, I crossed into the Socialist Sculpture Park (a collection of abandoned statues) to take some more. From there I walked by the New Tretyakov Gallery and toward Gorky Park, then cut across down the street to the hotel, where I beat the meeting time by a few minutes, but with aching feet.

After lounging in the hotel lobby for a little over an hour, we left around 9:15 for the train station. We were at the station before 10, and stopped in a cafe to have some pierogies for dinner. After eating we made our way to the train, mostly due to Joe asking people for directions, and boarded about 15 minutes before the train departed at 11:40. Joe and I shared a 4-bed compartment with a Russian mother and daughter; although we communicated with them very little, they seemed pretty nice. Unfortunately, none of us except Joe (who brought earplugs) was able to get great sleep during the 9 hour ride to St. Petersburg because of some loud rattling going on in our compartment.

Observation of the day: Muscovites apparently really enjoy roller blading. I saw more rollerbladers there (especially at the park) than any other place I had been.

Bonus observation: The metro system in Moscow is pretty great, for several reasons. The trains come every 2 minutes. There are some really beautiful stations. There are some really long escalators (that take 2 minutes to ride) - though this ends up being not necessarily a great thing after a while. And the tunnels double as methods of crossing their really wide (and busy streets).

Bonus observation #2: Joe is a gentlemanly fella. For example, he helped some lady carry her bag up the stairs while walking in the metro tunnels today. He does this kind of stuff fairly frequently.

Eurotrip 2012 - Day 3 (6/17) - Red Square

I woke up around 8:45, and didn't really feel like going back to sleep (though I certainly could have), so I took some time to post to this blog and do a little reading until Joe's alarm woke him up at 10:15. We then headed up to the top floor for breakfast (which was included with our room). They had a pretty decent spread, and I partook of some bread, salami, cheese, rice, crepes, and juice (both orange and apple). They also had eggs, sausages (more like hot dogs), yogurt, granola, and some other things I didn't recognize. After eating we returned to the room to lounge around a bit before getting ready to head out.

We left the hotel around 12 and took the metro down to Red Square - a total of 4 stops on 2 trains. Our first destination was St. Basil's Cathedral, known to Joe for being on the cover of Tetris. On the way through the square I was stopped a couple of times by other tourists who wanted to take their picture with me. I didn't realize what was going on the first time this happened, so I declined and kept walking (I now feel really bad about this), but I obliged when I was asked every time after that. We wandered around its various mini-churches for a while before heading out.

As we exited the cathedral, I realized that I couldn't get back to the makeshift souvenir shop just inside the entrance (I wanted a figurine to add to my collection) so I headed back to the entrance with the hope that they would let me in again with my spent ticket, even though I had no way of communicating this. And that was when the picture madness started. A group of middle-school-aged girls came up and asked for some pictures - I really don't know if this is simply because I look so different or if they think I might be somebody famous. Since I couldn't understand what they were saying I thought it was only going to be one or two pictures with the group. Instead, it turned out that each one wanted an individual picture with me. One even pulled out her brush to fix up her hair for the picture! After about 6 or 7 pictures, the scene attracted a bit of attention and other people started showing up. Soon I was taking pictures with people from multiple groups, males and females from young to old. It was getting a bit ridiculous, but I tried to oblige every request. In all, I probably posed for about 15 to 20 pictures before I was eventually able to slip away to the cathedral entrance, where they thankfully let me in again.

After St. Basil's we headed across to the Kremlin. We couldn't see an entrance so we walked halfway around it (probably a mile or so) to find one, and then got in line for tickets. When we reached the front of the line the lady told us that there were no more tickets for the Armoury, the main attraction we wanted to see, at the time, and that we would have to come back at 3:45 - in about an hour. We accidentally elected to go with the cathedral ticket instead, which at least got us in the gates. We walked over to the entrance and went through security, then wandered around for a while. We went into a couple of the churches, including the Annunciation Cathedral (though the Assumption Cathedral was closed), and took pictures by the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bell. We then headed back toward the Armoury to see if we could get in. A guard let us in the side door and pointed us toward the ticket counter. We then bought tickets for 500 RUB (~$17) each then went downstairs to stow the stuff that we couldn't bring in the cloak room. When we went back up they were letting the 4:00 group in, so we went along. When we entered, we realized that we were in the wrong place - we had bought tickets to the Diamond Fund instead of the Armoury proper. The exhibit had a few cool jewels, but it wasn't nearly worth what we paid to get in (to me at least), and I was very disappointed to have missed out on the real Armoury.

Next we left the Kremlin and walked to Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. We arrived a few minutes before it was scheduled to close at 5, but we were not allowed in because we were wearing shorts. So we headed back toward Red Square to find some food in GUM (the State Department Store that had since been privatized into a glitzy mall). We had dinner in an upscale cafeteria-style restaurant on the top floor (I had champignon cream soup, rice, bread, meatballs, a kebab (on stick), a fruit medley, some water, and an apricot drink - my eyes were hungrier than my stomach. After dinner we took one last stroll by the "Tetris building" before taking the metro back to the hotel, where we arrived around 7:15.

We relaxed in the room for the rest of the night, turning in after Christiano Ronaldo's masterful performance over the Netherlands (though Joe was asleep a little after halftime).

Observation of the day: Sunrise on this day in Moscow was officially 4:45 AM and sunset was officially 10:18 PM, yielding 17 hours and 33 minutes of daylight. I feel like there was light from the sun up until almost 11 PM, though.

Eurotrip 2012 - Day 2 (6/16) - Moscow, Finally

We were able to lie down across some seats and catch a few winks when the airport departures area cleared out a bit around 1 in the morning. By 3:30 or so, though, I couldn't really sleep any more and instead did some reading. Check-in for our flight began a little after 5, after which we breezed through security. We again took the bus to the plane (the last jet bridge we had used was back when we arrived in Warsaw) then boarded the tiny plane a bit behind schedule, around 7:15. The flight to Moscow (Sheremetyevo - SVO) was thankfully uneventful (no clapping in Russia upon landing, though) and we were able to get through immigration without too many issues (though we did have a little trouble filling out the form - we left the invitation organization portion blank).

We took the Aeroexpress train into town to the Belorussky train station. After some searching and asking a police officer, we found the adjoining metro station. As Joe had previously heard, the signage in the metro system was all in Russian, so we had a rough time finding the correct train - the brown circle line (it runs in a circle around the city center, and connects the three rail terminals with train connections to the three airports) . We eventually found the circle line, and took it 4 stops to Oktyabraskaya. When we got out to the street, I tried to use my phone to navigate to the hotel (Warsaw Hotel) but my phone battery died on me. Joe's phone was also on the verge of running out, but we found the hotel after getting turned around a couple of times - it was in the back of the building where we exited from the metro.

We checked into the hotel around 12:30 and went up to the room, where we both passed out. We initially only intended to power nap for a couple of hours, but we ended up sleeping until almost 5. We then cleaned up and then headed out to Gorky Park, which is literally right down the street from the hotel, around 7. We walked through the park for a while, half crossed a pedestrian bridge over the Moskva River, walked back beside the river to the main street, then down to the corner where our hotel was located. We were back around 8:15, but immediately headed down to a restaurant in the building where the hotel offered a discounted dinner - 350 rubles (about $11 USD) for 3 courses and tea. The meal consisted of a salad w/ bread, a burger-like meat ball (w/o bread) and fries, and semisweet fried pierogis for dessert. It was not amazing, but was still pretty solid, especially for the price.

After eating we walked down the other street a short way just to check it out before heading up to the room around 9:30. There we killed a little time (including watching the end of the third Star Wars prequel with a Russian voiceover dub - you can probably imagine that no Russian voice can come close to adequately replacing Samuel L. Jackson's) before the Euro games started at 10:45. It wasn't until around that time that it really started getting dark outside. We watched Greece beat Russia and then turned in for the night.

Observation of the day: Unlike in the States, Russian faucets have cold water on the left and hot water on the right. UPDATE: This appears to have been the case only in our hotel.

Eurotrip 2012 - Days 0-1 (6/14-15) - Airports

The trip did not get off to a good, or even decent start. You know things are bad when there are events related to the flight...

I made it from STL to Chicago OK, but was annoyed at having to exit security to get to the international terminal, and go through security again. Joe caught up to me while I waited at the gate for the flight to Warsaw. When I went to board the plane, I was told that I had to go back to the ticket agent to get a stamp. They had apparently been announcing my name (among others) over the PA system - I had suspected that the "O" name I had been hearing was mine, but the PA system sucked and the pronunciation wasn't anywhere near correct. When I went back through the boarding line, a plane-side agent asked to check my big backpack since the plane was full. I was hesitant at first, but acquiesced when she assured me that it would be checked all the way to Donetsk. This seemed like an even better idea when I boarded the plan (as one of the last ones on) and saw how much people were struggling to fit their carry-ons.

The flight itself was less than ideal, mostly due to the lack of a decent entertainment system. LOT's ancient 767 had one screen in coach, and was based on cassette tapes.  I didn't even bother trying to watch the crappy programming they had on. Also, they did not have electrical outlets at the seats, so I couldn't use my phone, which had a dying battery. At least they gave us 2 meals, though they didn't compare to the Qantas meals (but, to be fair, nothing does).

The worst came when we landed in Warsaw and arrived at the gate at 10:35, 40 minutes late. Coincidentally, 10:35 was the departure time for our connecting flight to Donetsk. So...we missed our plane.  And the soonest they could get us there was 9:00 PM, so there was no way to make the 6:00 soccer game. Needless to say, we were not very pleased. We considered changing to fly straight to Moscow (instead of flying to Donetsk only to fly to Moscow 10 hours later), but eventually elected to continue to Donetsk via Kiev since we weren't sure where my bag was. We then had to go through passport control to go get my bag...which didn't show up at the baggage claim. There was another guy from our flight, Anthony, who was in a similar situation (missed the flight to Donetsk and bag didn't show up) so he tagged along with us in our search. We went to the baggage lost & found and they directed us to the baggage services office next door. The baggage services people were able to locate our bags and have them sent to a nearby conveyor. Anthony's bag showed up in the first batch, but mine did not. We went back to the office and they directed us to wait a little longer. My bag thankfully showed up in the second batch.

After exiting customs (where nobody was checking anything) we went looking for the appropriate place to check in. We eventually found it around 12:15 (with some help from the info desk) but would not be able to check in until 1:20, two hours before the flight. So we walked to a Marriott Courtyard across the street to lounge in the lobby for a while.

We headed back to the airport around 1, and waited in line for check-in to start. When they finally started, Joe and I went up to the counter to check in together. The lady seemed to find my info pretty easily, but had some trouble finding Joe in the system. She eventually did, and sent us on our way. But after walking a few steps I realized that she had given me the wrong boarding pass - mine belonged to a Johan O-something-not-my-name. Thankfully I noticed this before going to security, and was able to get it corrected easily and quickly.

We eventually caught up to Anthony on the other side of security, and the rest of the trip to Kiev was mostly uneventful. Kiev did happen to be the site of the other game that night (England vs. Sweden), and seeing fans headed to that game on board the plane made me a bit depressed to be missing the France v. Ukraine game). As we had heard, the airport in Kiev was a bit chaotic, especially for its small size, but we got in and out OK. Anthony did not have any more problems checking his bag, and I made sure not to check mine.

We continued to hang with Anthony after the flight to Donetsk, where we arrived around 9 PM. He needed to get to Lugansk, a 2 hour drive from Donetsk, while we decided to try to use the beds we already paid for at Hostel SK Dax. A taxi driver approached us as we exited the airport and convinced us that he could take us to those places for a reasonable price, so we all hopped into his "taxi" - really an unmarked car for hire. This was the first of a string of questionable decisions on our part.  When he took us to where he the hostel was, we were on kind of a shady looking back road, with no clearly marked hostel anywhere in sight. So we freaked out a bit and asked him to take us back to the airport, where we would spend the night. There was a lot more traffic on the way back (due to the game, which had completed soon after we landed), so the going was very slow. The driver called up another guy to come pick up Anthony to take him to Lugansk - we pulled over for a few minutes while waiting for him. Then the driver became fed up with the traffic and decided that he wanted to be a movie stunt driver for the rest of the drive - instead of just weaving in and out of cars, he now started driving on the opposite side of the road for clear stretches and then cutting back into traffic when oncoming cars approached. It was a bit exciting at first, but then I became a little scared for my life. In any case, we made it back to the airport, and we paid him in US dollars - $20 for each direction, and $10 for his troubles. We arrived around 11:30 and our flight was due to depart at 7:10. So we made ourselves as comfortable as we could for the next few hours.

Observation of the day: Eastern Europeans love clapping when the plane touches down - they apparently are super glad to survive every flight.