Detour – 2009 World Tour Progress Report

[Original post by Elliot Mogerman – Transferred from yahoogroups.com]

We woke up in the morning and went for our boat journey. The ride was an hour and a half. There was a group of old women (we have great pics-will post in the next week) and they pulled out dill weed, food for sandwiches, and two bottles of vodka. The bottles were empty within 20 minutes. And other groups of friends were doing the same and drinking the stuff like water. We then went for a wonderful lunch back at the spot we drank at and ditched the boat the prior day. They stuck us out of the way in a very interesting eclectic room of antiques. It was funny they stuck us out of the way because we are tourists but we enjoyed the room. The food was phenominal. Nearing night after a few drinks we were going to say goodbye to our british friends and they convinced us to travel with them to lvuv by train. So after a little thought we ended up in first class 10 hours on a night train to lvuv. Now we are in a hostel there, and will be returning back to kiev monday. The waiters in ukraine, and i hear in russia, do not have the same service mentality we are used to. Its your fault for bugging them to work when they could be just standing around. No 1 hour lunches, sorry for people on lunch breaks. You have to make a day out of a meal here. The funny thing is we jumped on a tram to the center of town right off the train with our luggage and little old ladies were arguing with us. We didn’t know why until a younger man came over and spoke to them and they pissed off soon after. We were supposed to pay extra ticket on the tram if we have large luggage. And this guy basically told them we are tourists, and what kind of impression are you giving them the first few minutes into our town. Can’t expect a better economy if you scare or piss off the people that bring us money, etc. Russian influence is still predomenent but the ukrainians here have made an effort to delete russian ties on the street names, etc. We have been learning some interesting facts about russia and some propaganda. But that’s another story.