It’s Monday, September 28th. The 52 of us have to pack up our tents and all of our belongings and get ready to leave Romania and head to the Ukraine.
We all left on a bus at 4pm. We took a 10hr ride to Moldova. I didn’t even know Moldova was a country. Shows my knowledge of geography! We arrive in a parking lot by the train station in Moldova around 2am. All of us team leaders got together and tried to figure out how to get to the Ukraine. 3 teams were needing to head to Lughansk. 1 team was heading to Oddessy and the other 4 teams (mine included) heading to Kiev (the capitol of Ukraine).
After a lot of language barriers, desolate, empty dark streets and no people around, we came up with a plan. The 1 team needed to somehow get to a bus station and head to Oddessy the following morning. The 3 teams heading to Lughansk needed to get on the 11:50am train the next morning. And the rest of us (4 teams) needed to get on the 8pm train the next evening heading to Kiev. So most of us got back on the bus and slept until 9am the following morning. Some of the guys stayed up all night talking and hanging out outside the bus.
We got all of our luggage and transferred it from the bus to the inside of the train station at 9am the following morning. The 3 teams took a short nap and then departed at 11:50am. The rest of us had all day to hang out. So I went with a few people and walked about 2 miles downtown to a McDonalds for lunch and free wifi to check emails. The whole time walking there I was laughing because never do I eat at McDonalds when I am in the states. It is my least favorite fast food and here I am finding myself walking 2 miles exuberantly to this McDonalds. Funny what this year has done to me.
After napping, eating and wandering downtown, we all finally get on our 8pm sleeper train. Yay! My first sleeper train ride! I was so excited to finally be on a train for a good solid 15hrs. Well, boy were my expectations high. lol. Whew! This was quite an interesting ride let me tell you. First of all there are about 26 of us total. We were randomly dispersed and split up amongst the train. There were 3 GWs in carriage 13 and the rest of us in carriages 18 and 19. I was in the caboose (19) with some teammates and random people from Team Manna and Tikvah. It was quite interesting. Jenn Myers and I were in bunks right across from each other. There were men all over in this carriage and a few couples and then us Americans. It was quite interesting.
Jenn and I went to the very back to where most of Team Tikvah was staying and we played cards (rummy) with Chris (team leader from Tikvah). We stayed up pretty late and then decided to get some sleep. So Jenn and I went to our bunks and fell asleep as soon as we hit the pillow. We woke up at 3am to these people yelling at us in Russian. We were quite distraught and disturbed. After a whole lot of confusion, frustration, language barriers and miscommunication we realized we were in the wrong bunks. We were supposed to be sleeping in the fold out bunks above the beds we were in. So we had to re-shuffle all of our belongings, climb up into these small tiny little bunks and go back to sleep while the couple that just got on the train could sleep in their designated seats that we accidentally slept in. After all of that, we kind of laughed and instantly fell back asleep.
I was then woke back up at 5am with this guy shaking my feet that were dangling in the isle asking for my passport. I somehow managed to find my passport and give it to the guy. We were now at the border leaving Moldova and heading into the Ukraine. Again I instantly fell back asleep. Again, I was woken up at 5:45am to hand over my arrival form for the Ukraine. After I handed that over, I again fell back to sleep.
I was then woken up by my teammate, Kim, at 9am. She was asking what time we were supposed to arrive in Kiev. I told her 1:30pm and then couldn’t fall back asleep. So Jenn and I decided to awkwardly try to sit up (which was nearly impossible) and eat some breakfast. We didn’t want to get down off of our bunks because they were such a pain to climb in to. We hung out for about an hour and then both went back to sleep. We woke up around 12:15pm and decided to hop down and walk down to the back of the train to see if anyone else was awake. I saw Chris down from his bunk eating and mingling with some foreign guys. So I joined them and they offered me all kinds of pastries, bread, veggies and meat. It was great! They didn’t speak an ounce of English and we didn’t know any Russian so we all played charades. It was actually really fun.
I forgot to mention the lovely metal type squatty toilets at the back of the train as well. Those were interesting to say the least!
We finally arrived in Kiev at 1:30pm. The 26 of us quickly got all of our luggage and piled off the train. We left the train station and met up with Clinton (a previous world racer who has become a very very helpful contact here for us). He told us the plan for the day. We were all going to take several different metros with all of our luggage on us (oh boy!!!) and then a marshrootka (bus) to this retreat center 20 minutes outside of town. He said it would be insane for us to try to take the metro with all of our belongings but that it was pretty much the only option so we were just going to have to keep smiles on our faces and grin and bear it!
So that is what we did. We all carried our own luggage which was heavier than heavy and headed down to the metro. We got on in small groups of 3 and 4 and would meet up at the platform of the next stop. We did this several times and then eventually took several busses to this retreat center. It was an insane adventure but we definitely made it. This was the farthest I have ever had to carry all of my belongings and I quickly realized that I have way too much stuff (as always)! I’ve decided I definitely need to drop weight from my pack.
So we all settled in to this nice retreat place for 2 nights. Chris, Blair and I (3 team leaders) went back into town that night to go grocery shopping for everyone. We went to this grocery store and bought all of us dinner for that evening and also breakfast and lunch for the following day. It was quite the adventure with the 3 of us. We never get to hang out because we are all on different teams so it was really fun to just chill together. It was really interesting to see that there were 5 isles solely dedicated to beer and alcohol alone at this grocery store.
Anyways… after 2 days of living at this retreat center together, we all again dispersed and moved into the city…
Read my next blog “Livin` Life in the Capitol City – Kiev, Ukraine!!!” for updates on where we are now!!
