Day 1

Rolan:
The adventure started the night before. A raccoon came back to our house, climbed on the roof, and started digging at the wood shingles. This is not the first time. I got out a long pole I used to paint the house, attached a roller frame, climbed a ladder to the roof of the house, and started poking this raccoon, to make him move. I had to chase him all around the roof, until he finally climbed into a tree that brushes the house. That's all the further he went. I checked out the damage, and found that he had already dug through the wood shingles. One web site suggests using wolf urine to keep him away.

After 24 hours of travel, we are now in our apartment in downtown Kiev. Our flight had two layovers, each lasting 3 hours. A little long, but it let us leave Denver in the morning, and arrive in Kiev in the afternoon. Lufthansa rocks! They served good food, with alcoholic beverage. Trying to sleep while sitting up in a narrow plane seat does not rock. I had ear plugs. As they expanded in my ears, the noise of the jets became less and less, until it was a faint noise. Then the child in the cabin started screaming. If jet engines are 180 db, then this child must be 240 db.

Eileen:
We got our leg room for the overseas flight by getting bulkhead seats but we were right under the movie monitor and next to the bathroom. The former provided an unwelcome bright white light, the later saw almost continuous use during the night. Just a heads up for fellow travelers. I was surprised by the brief night. Yeah, I knew it was going to be short but I didn't know it would be that short. We left Chicago at 4:30 pm and arrived in Germany about midnight, Chicago time. Maybe 1 hour 30 minutes sleep by that point. It was 7:00 am Dusseldorf tme. One would sort of expect some trace of sunlight but I could have sworn someone was playing a joke on us and it was midnight in Dusseldorf too. They wanted us to go to security. Never done that before between flights. I sort of woke up at one point when a female security gaurd started patting me down. I wasn't even awake enough to say, "Hey!"

Rolan:
What we saw of Dusseldorf airport felt like a video game. Many of the walls were glass framed in shiny steel. Lots of halogen lights. There were stairs going down, unreachable behind glass walls. How do you get to them? The only water I could find was from the restroom sink. As Americans going to Ukraine, we were turned away from the boarding gate. "You must have a green stamp on your boarding pass. Downstairs." OK. Once we got someone to look at our passports and boarding passes, we got a green stamp. Back upstairs, everything is ok.

Eileen:
Heidi and Felix let us use their phone. It gave us a security blanket to have a number to call (already in the phone) when we arrived and didn't see our facilitator, Olga. Thanks guys! It was great to go to a grocery store right away and get a bunch of food and pay for it with grivnas. (Thanks Heidi and Felix and Kari!) The bread here is terrific and the butter and we found a good salami to have for dinner. I bought eggs and cheese and chicken too so we don't have to use up our emergency food supply of instant oatmeal and soups. We went to test the gas stove and thought for sure the gas war with Russia was finally taking its toll. Couldn't get the thing to light. Found out there is a valve you have to turn behind the stove (kinda like your gas grill). Managed to light it so we can have cooked eggs in the morning. Our apartment is kind of sparse but has a dynamite view of the square which is lit quite nicely and has special looking buildings downtown. It'll do.

Message to Kari: One extra roll.

Rolan:
Getting through customs in Kiev was no problem. Our driver is Sasha. He drives fast. The speed limit says 90 km/hr, he goes 140.