Hard, yes. Impossible? No. You don't have Google Translate? This even works on the original Android Phone (G1/Dream) I have. Ovi/Nokia Maps should work as well for everything including buses.emh wrote:Now that I've been here for a few days, I thought I'd share some random observations.
1) Not knowing the language makes things really hard. I'm definitely a lot less independent here than I normally am. And it also limits what I can do socially. I see posters for concerts and other things but have no idea where or when they are.
Glad to know Couchsurfing works, been a member for a few months but haven't really used it yet.2) I've found some really helpful people. One guy helped me on the bus, showing me where I needed to get off. Another guy let me borrow his cell phone when I couldn't find the place I was supposed to be staying (I offered to give him some money and he refused). I was having problems finding the bus station so I could go to Kiev. So I posted a message on couchsurfing. Someone responded and this morning before he went to work, he walked me 30 minutes to the bus station, helped me buy my ticket and then walked me back. And now that I'm going to Kiev, I need help with getting to my hotel. (since I don't speak Russian, I can't tell the taxi driver where to take me). So far, via couchsurfing, I have one guy who offered to pick me up at the bus station, another person has offered to call a taxi for me (I can't get my cell phone to work here), and another person helped translate some directions for me. All in all, I'm impressed with how much people have gone out of their way to help me.
They should be everywhere, that said unless I was setup with a USB Flash Drive that had my "Life" on it, I would still opt for a laptop for entertainment reasons. If you want to know how to basically have everything you need on just a flash drive, ask. Leaves no information on the host computer either.3) Bring a laptop if you come here. As I mentioned, I'm pretty well traveled in developing countries and I've never seen a place with so few internet cafes.
There should be some pre-paid Kiosk, these are popular in FSU. I just went to a local cellphone store, the person I had with me spoke Russian.4) Places to buy a sim card for your cell phone are also much harder to find than in other developing countries.
Is there someplace where facial hair is liked? I find it very rare that women don't like clean shaven men and rather have the Grizzly Adam's look on their man.5) Facial hair is definitely not popular here so you will definitely stand out if you have a beard like me.
That maybe so, but people in Ukraine generally don't drive that well and speed...6) Drivers are generally courteous towards pedestrians. Yesterday I had a taxi driver honk at me for not crossing the street in front of him. I'm used to Latin America where no one in their right mind would ever step out in front of a taxi or other car.
Dispatch in Kiev had an English Speaking person and I was able to find a Taxi fairly easy.7) Overall it's hard to find a taxi here. Unlike other countries where it's easy to pick one up of the street, here it's best to call one.
Where did you get the impression it would be a land of giants? Its Ukraine not The Netherlands.... That said, most women in Latin America are under 5'5. The ratio of women over 5'7 to 6'0 tall is much higher in FSU than in Mediterranean or Latin American countries. Perhaps I am looking for tall women being 6'1 myself... The majority of FSU female athletes are quite tall (5'9 or more)8 ) People are much shorter than I expected. As someone who's about 5'6 or 5'7, I thought I was headed to the land of the giants. Not so. There are plenty of guys my height or shorter. I'd say most guys are 1-3 inches taller than me. But that's it. As for the women, there's no way that the heights you see listed on dating sites are accurate. There are a few tall women but not many. So women are either 1) lying about their height, 2) have no idea how tall they are and are just making something up, 3) listing how tall they are in their high heels.
Did you really expect this to happen??? Give me a month in Kiev I would have had a GF, no question. You sort of have to go to bars to be accosted by a prostitute, but even then that won't happen. They'll be about as aggressive as Western Girl is when she decides she needs to be (Brush against you, bump you, etc)9) No woman has come running up to me and proposed marriage. Quite strange.Heck I haven't even been propositioned by a prostitute.
Places to live I would suggest where Ladislav has said. Not often traveled by Westerners. Most Newbies are scared to venture far from Kiev. You don't have to focus on women, get settled first, they aren't going anywhere.10) Since I'm here to check out cities as possible places to live, I haven't been focusing on meeting women. I did hang out with a woman I met from couchsurfing and we had the following conversation:
Her: So what do you think of Ukranian women?
Me: I've only been here for one day so I don't know. And I'm not really into striking up conversations with strangers.
Her: Yeah, people would think you're really weird if you do that. We really don't do that here. When people are standing on the corner or anywhere else, no one talks to each other.
Anyway, that's what she reported to me re: approaching women in the street.
"city is dirty, ugly, run-down, etc."
