Friday – Arriving in Kyiv

Friday – Arriving in Kyiv
We had expected to suffer thru the long flight from Denver to Munich, but thanks to Lufthansa, the 9 and a half hours passed quickly. The only downside to the flight occurred because Joe tried to be a good person. He pre-ordered gluten-free meals for Wendy and Graham and a vegetarian meal for Elizabeth. Wendy and Graham were presented with beautiful pieces of salmon. Wendy and Graham hate fish. Elizabeth, ever the dedicated vegetarian, looked shocked at the spinach and cheese ravioli. How could a vegetarian be expected to eat something which contained spinach????
It was the 5 hour layover in Munich which did us in. Sprawled comfortably across the luxurious airport chairs, Graham and Joe managed a couple hours of blissful sleep while Wendy and Elizabeth glared malevolently.
The second leg from Munich to Kyiv was uneventful and we met Valentin at the airport without problems. The Matthews arrived an hour after we did so we all rode into the city together. Valentin and Lena showed us our apartment, or at least tried to. It took 5 minutes of what we assume to be Russian or Ukrainian swear words, before they realized they were trying to open the door of the wrong apartment. I’m just glad that apartment was not the home to a former Soviet KGB agent. Eventually, we were shown our home in Kyiv for the next 4 days. Completely exhausted and assured by Valentin that things were on track for our SDA appointment at 9am on Monday, we fell asleep to the sounds of singing coming from the park across the street.