Chapter 7: "Ticket to Kiev: $929… Flat in Kiev $80… Visa to Kiev… Priceless"
OK, I have some ‘splainin’ to do about one thing… I arranged everything on this trip by myself. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t. But there was a reason why I did:
Pride.
I didn’t say it was a good reason…
Let me explain… When I went to Russia, I was amazed at how intimidated I felt. I was so concerned about running afoul of the Russian Mafia, or being hauled into the police station because my papers weren’t right… or what have you, that I was honestly afraid to go out and “be a tourist.” I spent an entire week trying my best not to appear to be a tourist at any time. I don’t know how successful I was, but I do know this: It was no fun.
When I started to prepare for my Kiev trip, I decided that I was going to change all of that. This time, I was going to go as an American. With no apologies. And this time, I was going to prepare everything myself, just to show myself that I could.
So, although Jack was only a phone call away (and he lives right up the road from me) I vowed I would manage to do this whole thing by myself.
And I did… barely. In the end, I am sure that it would have been less expensive (and a lot less trouble) to let Firstdream simply arrange everything. But, I wanted to see what it was like “on my own…” and here’s how it went…
First, I had arranged the personal ad by myself using www.ukr-service.com. I posted the text of my ad in a different post, and I have discussed at length what I thought was good and bad about the ad, so I won’t go into that now.
To get my airfare, I called a couple of the travel agents who specialized in travel to the FSU. No luck. The best price I was getting was $1200. I was sure I could get a better fare than that.
I searched on Expedia and found the flight that went through Gatwick, London on American Airlines, and then on to Kiev via Ukraine International. It was $969. I wanted to verify the connections, so I called American Airlines directly. They couldn’t find the flight I was referring to. It took him 20 minutes of looking (fortunately, I had all of the flight information in front of me) and then he found it. Interestingly enough, his search engine was only turning up flights through Frankfort Germany. It wasn’t until he keyed in “through London” that he found my fare.
And, also interestingly, he got the fare for $929 instead.
OK, so the airfare was booked, now I needed a place to stay…
I decided to see what ukr-service could do for an apartment. They had a link on their page, so I checked them out. They were very nice, and very centrally located, but a bit pricey. The one apartment I wanted, in particular was $100 a night. (it was REALLY nice, though…) I decided to see if the price were flexible, so I emailed to ask if they would accept $80 per night.
The guy went ballistic. First he called me cheap, and said that the price was firm. Then he told me that he could not even be sure if the flat would be available until May 23rd!. Since I was leaving for Kiev on the 26th, I thought this was cutting things a bit close.
I wrote him back. I told him that the price was high, but I would pay it, except that I really needed to know if it were going to be available before the 23rd.
He wrote me back that if I wasn’t going to pay $100 a night that I was not worth his time to talk to, since had so many other men to do business with who understood the value of such a fine apartment.
I wrote him back and told him that I wished him luck, but I found him rude, and he would never get my business. I got three more emails from him calling me a cheap so and so, etc. I ignored them all. So, I would say that although ukr-service was not a bad place to use for placing personal ads, they were more than a little difficult to use for apartments.
I then found ukr-rent.net, who I eventually wound up using. They are a moderately expensive as well, but they advertise that their apartments have all been renovated recently. The apartment I got was very well situated, and with time running out, I decided to go ahead and book it.
Incidentally, although I was not thrilled with the apartment I got, Victoria sure was.
I sent her the pictures from the website that showed the various rooms of the apartment, and she was ecstatic. Her next email to me started: “To my Wonderful Prince!”
She told me that she had never been in an apartment as nice as the one I had reserved for us. And now she felt like a princess. The only question she had was: “Does the apartment have a kitchen?” (I had not sent her the pic of the kitchen, I mean... kitchen? Who cared about the kitchen? My Princess did, that’s who…)
Incidentally, I read somewhere once that a good thing to ask your Russian/Ukrainian girlfriend was what her favorite fairy tale was growing up. Supposedly this could give you great insight into her personality. Well, I never really did that, but when Victoria told me about how excited she was about the apartment, she confessed to me that her favorite fairy tale growing up was Cinderella. And, I guess if you think about it, that is a pretty good story for us… After all, in that story, the Prince takes her away to his kingdom to live happily ever after…
Anyway, so now I had an address, I was ready to get my Visa.
This was supposed to be the easy part. I had about 21 days, and you can get it in ten, so I was feeling pretty confident. I carefully read the Ukrainian Consulate web page. There was a big announcement about how you no longer needed to have the Visa registered in Ukraine any more.
There was also an announcement that said you no longer needed a letter of invitation. All you needed was a confirmation from a hotel, or your itinerary from the airline.
As it turns out, this was not true. And, interestingly enough, I have been on the Ukraine Consulate web page recently, and I found that the wording on the web page has now been changed. Please make a note of it… it now clearly states: For a Tourist Visa, you need a letter of invitation from a Ukrainian or American tourist agency or confirmation from a hotel.
It did not state that three weeks ago, I can assure you.
I did not have a confirmation from a hotel. I also did not have a letter of invitation. And, I very nearly did not have my visa!
When I sent off for the Visa, I made the decision, at the last moment, to pay the extra fee for the three day processing. That turned out to be money well spent. That way I knew seven days earlier that my visa had been rejected.
Of course, they didn’t tell me why it was rejected. They simply sent my application back, with my uncashed money orders. Nothing to tell me what they didn’t like about my application.
I read over the instructions again. I could find nothing wrong. The web site clearly said that you did not need a letter of invitation. I double-checked my application. Everything seemed in order, but they did not process it.
I called the Embassy.
Yeah… that was good for a laugh.
They are open for business I think for fifteen minutes a day. Or something like that. I’m not sure. You have to listen to the entire voice menu given in Ukrainian. I mean… I know that it is the Ukraine Consulate… but they are located in Washington DC! Who do they think will be calling them???
Anyway, as the day for my flight was drawing near, I decided to enlist the help of professionals. I contacted Travel Document Services. (http://www.traveldocs.com) They claim to be able to get a Visa in one day. It turned out that they were right. Unfortunately, it turned out that we needed it that fast.
The first time they took my application over, it was rejected.
Since I didn’t have a hotel, TDS applied for a private Visa. It was rejected. They said they needed a name and an addredss of someone in Ukraine.
I’m guessing now, in retrospect, that what they want is a hotel confirmation if you are going on a tourist Visa, or a letter of invitation if the are going on a private Visa. I’m not sure. I take a little comfort from the fact that TDS didn’t seem sure either.
(Neither did ukr-rent, the place through whom I rented the apartment. They seemed to think that I should have qualified for a tourist Visa with just the apartment address.)
Well... we all were equally puzzeld. The only people who knew what they wanted were the Ukrainian Consultae -- and they weren't talking. Or... at least not in English...
The Ukraine Consulate, told TDS that as long as I could provide the name and address of someone in Kiev, they would approve the Visa.
Well, in actuality, I was meeting someone from Kherson… but we were meeting in Kiev. I sent Victoria’s Kherson address to TDS on Wednesday. They took it to the embassy on Thursday and got my Visa. They Fed-exed it to me. It arrived on Friday.
I left for Kiev on Sunday.
So, finally, my trip was in place.
And I did it all myself…
Big, fat, hairy deal.
Next time, I’m paying someone to arrange everything for me…
