Most common car, with one "r" in Ukraine
Apartment Keys. One on left is to steel outside door. One on the right is to our apartment. It is kind of like an old jail key and just about as big.
Apartment Double doors
Ann, Ruslan, and Jeff at dinner at a local restaurant
Well, here we are still working through the process. We ran around today with Natasha doing paperwork for most of the day. A couple of observations. A lot of doorways here in Ukraine have a threshold. Some of the thresholds look like a 2 x 4 across the bottom of the doorway. Trying to wheel luggage over them was a challenge. Additionally, many doors are smaller so it is kind of like moving through a submarine door. One last comment on doors. Sometimes there are two doors together within a couple feet of each other. Heaven help you if you are claustrophobic and get caught between the doors when they close! We included a picture of our apartment door which has a double set so you can see what we are talking about. Very interesting. Notice the lock, we feel like we are sleeping inside Fort Knox! And the keys are huge and look like an old jail key.
An observation about traffic here. The traffic lights here are interesting. After the light is red and before it turns green, the yellow light appears with the red light to signal drivers to prepare to move through the intersection. And do they get ready. Some of our taxi drivers are halfway through the intersection before it actually turns green. The other light has turned red prior to getting a yellow so everything is usually okay, but it is a different to start through the intersection when the light is still red! We probably have mentioned about the competitive nature of driving here. Every trip is like the Grand Prix. A couple of times we have required two taxis, and it sures seems they race to the destination. As Natasha says, there are two kinds of pedestrians here in Ukraine, the quick and the dead.
One last observation about the cars here. There are about every brand you can image, but the one that seems to be most popular, and certainly looks the oldest is Lada. They look like an old Datsun or Toyota from the 1970's, very boxy in style but our understanding is they are very good cars. All of the cars are manual transmissions which adds to the flavor of Formula One driving through the streets of Poltava.
Well, that is enough for now.
6 comments:
love the look of the keys
Yeah I loved putting those keys in my pockets. "Is that a ginormous key in your pocket, or.....". Good times.
Lots of interesting observations: cars, doors, traffic, keys, traffic lights, thresholds. The blog is excellent thanks for all the details and pictures. Looks like everything is proceeding nicely (slow but nicely).
-David & Eldie Howick
Once more I will try. I miss you and will be so happy when you get home. If you don't get this I will send an e-mail.
Love Mom
Prepare yourselves now for the second coming. In the bible the verse states "Verna Richardson will successfully post a comment on a blog and then the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes."
Don't ignore the signs.
Just wanted to let you know that we made it safe and sound. The timing was tight in Denver,but we made it. Glad Jeff got pictures of the doors, Ray meant to do that. We will keep you close in our thoughts and prayers.
-Louise and Ray
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