Schlepping

I set the alarm for 9:30, but didn't get up for a little while after that. We had a 12:31 train to catch, so we had a little time.

Spent a while packing, then checked out (i.e. handed in the key and said "dasvedanya" to the front desk). We loaded our luggage into the rental car (we had a full day rental so we kept it overnight) and headed out.

By now, I know the streets well enough,  or at least the streets we've frequented, to drive to the Crown Plaza without a map. And I did.

There was nobody at the rental car desk. We called them, and a guy who spoke English incredibly well (first person in Belarus since Катя to speak any English of note) picked up the phone. He told me he would be there in 10.

Jonas and I had drinks at the bar while we waited. When the rental car guy showed up, we returned the car. I got my $100 deposit back, he checked us for damages, and we were on our way.

Before I left, he asked me where in the US I was from. I told him the New York area and he responded he had spent 8 summers in Ohio. 8! I have friends in Ohio who complained of going to school there for 4 years... Imagine 8! But I was floored because it is the first hint I've seen so far that Belarus is trying to connect with the outside world. He and a group of Belorussians lived there, while a bunch of students in Ohio spent a summer in Minsk, studying Russian. It is comforting to know that the country isn't being quite as isolationist as we once thought.

We had a little confusion getting to the train, but we made it with 10 minutes to spare, having walked from the Crown Plaza to the station.

We took our beds, one top and one bottom (though I traded my bottom with one of my cabin mates for the other top bunk). Our cabin mates were two Belorussian, maybe Russian, guys about our ages, who started watching a Soviet propaganda film as soon as we were all settled.

We were the only people in the train car. There were about 8 empty cabins.

Jonas and I passed out in our respective bunks approximately 37 seconds after the train began moving. I woke up about 5 hours later.

We hit the border of Belarus and Ukraine around 5:50. No one gave us a hard time, except that the official on the Ukrainian side of the border wasn't sure if I needed a visa as an American. He looked it up though, and we were fine.

It took a little shy of 3 hours to get through both border checkpoints. By 8:30, we were back on the road (rails?).

Then we passed out again. I woke up at 11:30. The train pulled into Kiev at 1, 40 minutes late.

The directions on Hostelworld for the hostel we booked told us to find Marshrutkas, i.e. minivans, outside the train station. These vans are privately owned cars that pick a route, go to the train station or airport, fill up the cars, and drive the route. It's a great way to get around.

Unfortunately for us, we arrived at 1am, and these marshrutkas don't operate that late, since they won't fill up their seats with each run. So we found wifi leaning outside the McDonald's and walked. 

It was snowing. It was cold. I had one glove, having lost my other in the Metro in Minsk. But the walk was only 2.1km, so I figured, Why Not?

An excellent question. It was snowing. It was cold. And I had one glove, having lost my other in the Minsk Metro. Oh, and by this time it was 2am.

Why not was an excellent question to ask, as we arrived about 2:30 at the Why Not Hostel Kiev. We entered the code they'd given us to get into the first door at Саксаганского 30, then the second door code, then knocked on the door to the hostel at the bottom of the stairs. 

The exterior is depressing, run down, and cold. But inside Why Not reminds me a lot of Jimmy Jumps in Vilnius. There's a communal kitchen, a smoking area, a common room, and a very friendly staff. Everyone speaks English, and there are a few regulars who've been here for months. One of them, Amelia, is from the US, and has been teaching English for €10/hr under the table for 5 months, which is an incredible wage here, equaling about 80 Hryvnia, and no, that's not a typo. The exchange rate is almost exactly 8 Hryvnia to $1. I think it's 8.005.

We checked in and got our four bedroom dorm to ourselves, again. This is the slow season, after all.

At 3:30 Jonas needed food, so we went to a 24-hr pizza place across the street.

It was a stoners paradise. We were sat in a booth, complete with curtains to cut us off from the world. All they serve is pizza, sushi, and beer. And there's a tv in every booth with repeating footage of epic ocean life and sea creatures interactions in the Galapagos. We enjoyed it immensely, stone cold sober.

My small pizza and Jonas' medium, plus two beers ended up costing about $21 (167UAH). It was hardly cheap, but stoners wouldn't care, would they? Kiev is, according to our hosts, an expensive city by Ukrainian standards.. We'll see about Western standards.

I spent a little time catching up on this blog. Tomorrow we're just going to relax. We need a break from our vacation. And we slept about 8 hours on the train, so we weren't that tired. I'm writing this at 5am and I feel fine.