We expereinced no night for the full 9 hours of the flight because we were flying in the direction time is moving forward and flying at the same rate time is changing, but it was a beautiful view to see a sunset for four hours. Thus, when we arrived in Ukraine it was Sunday 10am the day of the big game England vs Italy and I only slept for 2 hours out of the 24 hours.
We neede to find the place we were staying at first so we can put our luggage away and get some rest, but we could not find help. Various men tried taking my luggage and giving me a ride, but luckily I read the fan guide on the plan that specificly said that on game days their is free public transportation on trains and bus and not to trust strangers incisting on giving rides. There was also a EURO 2012 booth in the airport that helped tourist, so I basicly came up to them and pleaded for help. Before I was leaving one of the girls told me to be careful because their are reports of human trafficking. So then I read the guide to make sure I was not forgetting anything and I saw the page that said the DO's and DONT's in Ukraine.
"Welcome to Ukraine"
DO's While in Ukraine
- Always keep your passport or ID with you; only acceptable document to show police; if stopped.
- Ask police to present their ID because it might be a scam.
- Know the phone number of your national embassy.
- Becareful when using your credit card their is widespread ATM frauds.
- Pickpocketting is common, keep valuable's safe.
- Do not drink in outdoor public places.
- Don't go shopping in unlicienced outlets where you might get counterfeit or pirated goods. They may be illegal to transport across the border.
- Don't pick up a dropped wallet. This is often a scam to make you look like you stole it.
- Trafficking in human beings: or conducting other illegal agreement with a person as an object, as well as recruitment, transportation of a person for the purpose of exploitation are punishable by a prison sentence.
- Human trafficking may take in many forms, including trafficking in the sex industry, into forced labour in restraunts, hotels, factories or agriculture work, into criminal activity (pickpocketing, fraud, begging, drug trafficking), into domestic servitude or tafficking for organs.
I figured out that the only people I can trust are the ones that wear green shirts and say volunteer on the back. I believe these type of people are the only hope Ukraine has for it to become a successful nation. A group of smart vibrant youth who volunteer to stand near transportation stations and tourist attractions to help foreigners. They are the ones who helped me find the place I am satying at and the stadium. They are the only postive thing I saw in Ukraine unitill now.
The place I am satying at is an extremely rural area, their are no street lights, very few light poles, broken glass everywhere, and the buildings are fourty plus years old. My host is a very nice lady she has a small place; a two bedroom apartment probably less than 900 square feet. But the most important thing is that it has a bathroom, running water, and a roof over my head.
It was time to head off to the game, I got their usign the metro station and then a fifteen walk through the center of the city. Transporation costs between 25 and 50 cents. The metro is really nice because the railway is above ground instead of under like in New York. So I got to see most of the city. The city is huge I think it is bigger than New York in area because everything is so spread out unlike the dense clustered New York. Everything is spread out into different sections by social class. I heard it takes about two hours to reach the opposite side of the city. In my view I think it is healthy to have a compacted city because that way less ecosystems and forests are destroyed, so organism can have more space to live, and people can walk to place instead of drive. However, if the city is clustered together it creates an urban heat island where the temperature is higher that it is suppose to be, but that is caused by black roofs and carbon emmisions. Honestly though I do not think it would make a difference in Kiev because it so polluted.
The stadium was amazing there was about 65 thousand people at the game. And outside the stadium it was even better because people were dancing and singing. The atmosphere was just amazing, unbelievable to actually be at the EURO 2012 and be surrounded by crazy english fans. It could not have gotten any better when I saw the players step out Allesandro Pirlo, Gigi Buffon, Ashley Cole, Steven Gerrard, and John Terry. These are some of the world class players millions of people look up to and they were only a few meters from me. While others view John Terry as another proffesional footballer, he was my hero growing up and playign football and I still view him as one of the best central defenders in the world. It was really great people were dressed up and cheering their teams. There were a lot of ukrainian people who supported Italy because England knocked Ukraine out. However, the ukrainian were just embarssing they were all drunk and out of control they started chanting Ukriane during the game when they were already knocked out and same with the Russian supporters. The english fans were simply class they were standing during the whole game, did not stop beating the drum, and did not stop singing. I was so glad that I ended up near the English section. After the game it was already 1 am and only slept six hours out of the 36 hours sinse I left Ithaca.
