I'm Your America!

"And who are you to me?" says the ticket taking lady in front of wagon number 15 last around 1 a.m. this morning. "USA," I respond with a weary-been-up-all-day-and-part-of-the-night-waiting-to-catch-this-late-train-from-Kiev-back-to-Moscow smile. By now I know the drill so I go ahead and remind her that I'll need my immigration papers to fill out to give to the Ukrainian and then Russian border guards when the train inevitably stops for inspections to cross both borders in a few hours - ie - we'll get woken up in the middle of the night. She then lets me know that she'll come into the wagon in a few minutes after everyone's settled to give me said papers. And sure enough, about ten minutes later after making my way through the hot, un-air conditioned hallway of wagon number 15 and finding my spot and putting my little rolley Eddie Bauer suitcase under my bed/bench, the train ticket lady comes down the hall, taps me on the shoulder, and says to me in her quaint Ukrainian accented Russian, "You're my America, right?" "Yes! I'm your America!" I chirp in response, my smile now wider and more full of energy from the kick I get out of our little exchange.

The rest of the 13-hour train ride passes just fine, except for the aforementioned lack of AC. The windows open (unlike in the last train) so I'm pleasantly surprised by the nice, summer nighttime breeze. Then my neighbors decide it's too cold (WHAT???!!!!) and close them. Ugh. So I'm hot for the next five hours or so of sleeping until my neighbors get on board with me and realize that yes, dear reader, it's actually super hot and stuffy and open the windows finally so as to nix this giant sauna-on-wheels. I cross the border just fine without any problems with my papers. It gets hot again during the day even with the windows open. My window-closing neighbors are kind enough to share (ie - insist I eat) their lunch with me. Btw, it was cucumbers, tomatoes, black bread, boiled eggs, and chicken. Mmmmm. . .

So concludes my time in Kiev. As I sit here typing to you from my bed here in my Moscow apartment, dear reader, I'm reflecting on memories from the past three days in this beautiful city and how amazing it is in the summer. I basically just relaxed and casually strolled around the city re-visiting and re-taking pics in the sunny weather of places I'd visited and taken pics of in the cloudy, gray December weather of my last visit there. I also spent the last day and a half doing this walking around (and eating my fair share of tasty Ukrainian food and drinking my fair share of local Ukrainian beer) with a very nice and even cooler Danish guy I met at the hostel where I was staying. That's the great thing about traveling alone - you end up meeting a lot of cool fellow travelers also traveling alone and sometimes hang out and explore together. Both of us had been to Kiev before so we just kinda ended up taking turns being the guide depending on who knew the city better.

Yes, dear reader, you can drop me off in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, or Odessa, and these are cities I know well enough not only to go around in on my own but also can serve as a pretty decent guide for a newcomer. Another great thing about traveling alone - I couldn't have said that two years ago. :)