Christmas

After a nineteen hour train ride, I arrived at one of my linkmate's site and she escorted me back to her apartment where we chatted for over an hour and then got ourselves ready to head up to join the others about an hour north. She was not exactly sure where to get a marshrutka to the place, but with the help of a taxi driver, we figured it out. We hopped on one that had no seats available, so we stood the whole way in an very cramped aisle with our big backpacks. I told her that this was now something else that we could cross off our lists of things that we have done in Ukraine--stood for the entire trip from one place to the other. Don't want to do it again.

We arrived in the little town and were met by another taxi driver who knew the way out to this cabin. I don't really know what I was expecting, other than hearing that it was nice. When we got there though and walked inside, nice is not really the word for it--the place was absolutely beautiful. Brand spanking new, the place was full of conveniences, luxuries, comfy furniture, beds, and even heated tiles in the bathroom. The manager (who is talked about in Lonely PLanet Ukraine) even had an excellent meal waiting for us when we arrived--this was even before our shashlik dinner! It was delicious. We amused ourselves by singing Christmas carols (complete with a trumpet, trombone, and a guitar), having an i-pod concert, playing euchre, other card games, and just in general hanging out. Of course there was a white elephant, and my gift was the one "retired" first--I brought a couple of dvds and books--of course that gift was envied and "stolen" a few times. I "stole" a little Xmas box that had some tabcoso (spelling?) sauce in it.

A wonderful time was had by all, and before we knew it, it was time to go. I hopped onto my train back to Odessa (another 19 hours) and was pleasantly surprised to see that my platzkarte mates were people I knew! A student from the city English club and his father. The father took excellent care of me and even made sure to help me out when we got to Odessa to find out where I can pick up a marshrutka to the airport tomorrow. I am often times worried about the company I'll have on the train, so this was a really really nice coincidence.

Overall, it was a lovely (and surreal) Xmas. I got to see some friends, including someone who had COSed just days ago and all of our exhaustive efforts singing in the minibus taking us back to the bus station from the log cabin made it snow just in time!

I hope that all of you had a Merry Christmas too! Here's to a Happy New Year!