Привет!
I just come back home from my Ukrainian trip, which was really nice, sometimes a bit adventurous, but with really no big problems. Yes, Asick was right, speaking was really hard since almost no one know English, even in Kiev. It was much better in Odessa and Lviv from that point of view. We had a lot of problems with transportation... First the plane from Milan to Kyiv wasn't at the airport!
So we took the Alitalia one who left Milan 8 hours later... after a technical problem! In Kyiv no problems and great 15 hours train to Simferopol where we cound rent a Hyundai Accent with automatic gearbox which was the slowest car I ever drove (and Russian/Ukraianian drivers are totally crazy). Then big troubles started once again: no train to Simferopol to Odessa, so we took a 12 hours bus. During the nights we stopped at a bus station where there was a tank parked in front of a bar with the owners drinking vodka! Andrea called me in that right moment, he can confirm!
Then in Odessa the transportation situation was even worse: no trains, no buses, no car to hire, no aeroplanes! I was thinking to go to Transdnestr and Moldova, but had no visa, when at last we found a night bus to Kyiv (my plans were to go to Lviv). We arrived in the capital at 4am, it was f**ing cold and I didn't sleep a single minute. At 9 we succeeded in renting the very last car available with Sixt (Hertz and Europcar were already fully booked) and I drove to Lviv (more than 500Km). We spent there a couple of days and yesterday I drove back to Kyiv and on the motorway from Zhytomir to Kyiv there were cows along the road, as well as bicycles, horsetrucks and old ladies selling any kind of goods!
An exciting experience in another former Soviet country. I took some pics of Lenin's statues for Asick!
Surely I have to visit St.Petersburg soon, I promised it, and I want to go there.
P.S. Girls in Ukraine are unbelievable... no words!