Day 8 - Return to Kiev - Sept 25

Day 8 - Back to Kiev

Pretty uneventful day. Our second referral appointment is for Monday afternoon back in Kiev. Our options were to take the bus or 6am train to Kiev from Sumy. We decided to go with the bus. It has been great having Yarik with us the last couple days. His English is constantly improving. I am really enjoying working with him reading the Bible and the Learn English the Fast and Fun Way book. But he can not go back to Kiev with us, so we got to ride together to Sumy and then parted ways.
Taxi Sergei picked us up at the hotel at 9:30am. We had heard scary stories about the bus rides, but as we waited to board, a big charter bus pulled up and Sergei jumped right up to the driver and booked us seats on the big comfy bus. At least our ride to Sumy was not so scary. We arrived in Sumy and Yarik made sure we got off at the right spot to walk to McDonalds where we met Ksenia. It is great that Yarik can help us so much. We got some lunch at McDonalds and then Ksenia took our large suitcase that has all the stuff for the boys once we get custody. It was so nice to only have our back packs and small carry-ons to travel to Kiev with us.
Yarik got instructions from Ksenia to help us find our next bus. We had some time to wait until it would load up, so we walked a bit with Yarik and just people watched. We passed some Hare Krishna people singing on the sidewalk..felt a little surreal...it was funny to see the reaction of the other people to them dancing. One Ukrainian lady walked by and was cracking up. I had to laugh at her laughing at them; it was pretty comical.
Yarik made sure we got on the right bus and then stood outside watching until the bus left. This was not a nice big charter bus, but a small 19 passenger bus, more like a large van. At first we had the 4 back row seats to ourselves, but as the hours passed and stops were made, the bus filled up. By the time we stopped half way to Kiev, it was full. We got a 15 minute break during the 5 hour ride. I so needed to stretch my legs. We stopped where there were lots of stands selling snacks and drinks. We each got a snack and hesitantly squeezed back into our spots.
Once we arrived in Kiev, they parked the bus at the train station. We were not sure where to go, so we called Nastia and let her know we had arrived. She was nearby, so told us to stay close by where we parked and she would find us. A few minutes later she pulled up to the curb and we loaded in and went to the hotel.
We were happy to be off the bus! We were also happy to have a place with wifi. Nastia still had to get the code, but we saw the router and knew we would get it soon. We went to Drova's for dinner and then came back to catch up on so much internet stuff.
After our internet fix, we dropped off to sleep. Ready for a couple days of walking around Kiev.