Back from Crimea

Hi,

We are back and in one piece (explain later)!! Yalta is a beautiful area/city and we along with Olga enjoyed ourselves. More on the trip a bit later.

Today is Saturday and we went back to the O to see the boys for the first time since Monday afternoon. We didn't know what type of reception we would receive but to say the boys were giddy to see us would be an understatement!! They were in a "playpen" with all of their classmates and when they caught sight of us they both started jumping up and down and calling out "Momma & Pappa". It was cute and encouraging for sure. We wish we had the video camera to catch their excitement but it will just have to remain fresh in our memories.

After the morning visit we stopped by the toy store and picked up the strollers we have been eyeing for the past four weeks. These will help us to get around the airports and Kiev as well. We are going to be running around like mad on Monday and Tuesday anyway in hopes of still getting everything done so we can leave this week. We are skeptical but hopeful. We also have gotten the boys a couple of outfits to wear home. We still need shoes and another shirt or two but we are pretty close to being ready - at least we think!!!! :-)

As for Monday here is what needs to "break" just right for us. Monday at 8:30 we go to court to pick up the decree - this is about the only easy thing for Monday. We should have it in hand and be out the door in minutes. After this we head to the registrars office to get their birth certificates re-written essentially to show us as the parents. This can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours. Olga has been in contact with the woman at that office and as usual she has been greasing the wheels beforehand. This part of the process should go off without a hitch the question is how long will it take. The next step is heading to a notary office to get the petition for the passport notarized. We tried to get this done today but were unsuccessful. This is the wildcard - flashback to our first week here and how we described our first "notary" experience - not pretty. Once this is done we are off to the passport office; they are expecting us due to Olga's prep work once again. If we are able to get this done quickly (which we have been told is possible) we are off to Dnipropetrovsk (40 minute drive) to get the birth certificates certified - confused yet??

So...best case scenario. All of this gets done by 5PM after which we run back to pack our gear, pick up the boys from the Orphanage (sure to be an emotional time for you know who!!) and jump a night train to Kiev. We are exhausted just thinking about this but we are prepared to do what needs to be done so we can head home. Tuesday morning would be spent at the US Embassy and getting physicals for the boys - required by the USA. IF all of this was to get completed we should have the boy's visas Wednesday morning and we could theoretically make our original flight on the 27th. As you can see a lot of "if's" and a lot of things that need to go perfectly. We are still preparing ourselves to fly out Monday July 2nd. Stay tuned.

Ok back to our excursion to Yalta. Andrea and I are not really world travelers so keep this in mind as we pass along a few thoughts on travelling within Ukraine.

The first thought that comes to mind is how insanely dangerous their roads and drivers are. When I think back to my teen years I can remember some of the dangerous and utterly stupid things we did on the road. That is everyday travel here and then some. We drove some 300 miles (give or take) to Yalta and during this stretch of road we saw at least 30 to 40 memorials of where people died. It is probably safe to assume that is just a fraction of the actual number people that have perished - unbelievable. Our driver gave us fits a couple times - we had a couple near head on collisions with semis and he was constantly taking corners at 80+. Mind you these are two lane roads that are falling apart. I was amazed that the car held together on some of the bumps we hit. It was a BMW 5 series - probably anything less of a car and it wouldn't have held together. Anyway - you get the point. We would highly recommend taking trains and or planes rather than driving in this country.

Yalta is a beautiful hillside city on the edge of the Black Sea. The water was green much like you would see in the Caribbean. It is a growing city - several new hotels and high-rise apartment buildings are being constructed. I have never been to anyplace like it but if I were to compare it to a place that I have seen pictures of it would be the Greek Isles.

We took a boat tour and an aerial tram tour on separate days. The boat tour was nice as it took us along the coast line of the peninsula. The tram ride itself was great but the tour was a waste of time and money. The tram rose up from almost the sea shore to the top of the highest peak on Crimea (some 1400 meters). It was amazing how high above the ground the tram was on the ascent.

The beaches were very rocky - no sand whatsoever. The attire was interesting - shall we say very European. I think I was the only man not wearing a Speedo. The theme here is less is more - which is as we expected it would be.

Olga told us to expect poor service in Yalta and in fact they (the resorts and businesses themselves) publicly recognize that very fact. Everyone was right - the restaurant service was absolutely dreadful. We did have a very nice apartment. The owner was a very nice woman and she was very intent on ensuring our satisfaction. Generally speaking we have met some very wonderful people during our travels.

That is it for now - we will blog on Monday if we have a chance to let everyone know where ended up. Monday is the determining factor. We'll keep you all posted!!

C&A