Ukraine: Kyiv: going for a walk

 I went for a walk yesterday. I'd been meaning to do this for ages, this was just the first time I'd stopped being lazy on a weekend and actually walked out the door.

 I walked through the woods that happen to be really close to my flat. As in across the street close. Yay! This part of Kyiv is never mentioned in the guidebooks, or online travel guides. I kinda want to keep it that way, it's beautiful :)

 I walked on a beautiful day, at a beautiful time of day. The sun was low enough in the sky to be really pretty, and the light was absolutely beautiful. I saw people riding their bikes along the paths too.

I've been told that these woods aren't terribly safe, and the people I might see in the woods aren't the 'right' sort of people, but I've never had a problem. I've never seen any of the needles I've been told about, either while in use or on the forest floor.

I wish I knew how to get rid of the little dot in the lower left corner of this photo. The way the sun was coming across was absolutely amazing. I saw various groups of people having picnics while I was walking, but I still felt as though I had the whole area to myself.

Well, maybe not completely to myself, but pretty close. It was quiet, and peaceful. My biggest concern were the mozzies, as they love me, and I hate them. It's the most beautiful time of day, but also the time most filled with bugs.

Amazing, right? 

I took this walk the day before a so-called super moon/blood moon, which also seemed to make the sun even bigger. Or maybe it just seems bigger at that time of day, I don't know. 

I need to go for more walks :)

kyiv: 3 days to adjust to this time zone

after all of that traveling to get back to kyiv from argentina, i had three days to try to adjust to the east european time zone...it never really worked, oh well...
as soon as i got back to my flat, i dropped my bags, grabbed some money, then went to the office where i pay my internet bill...i discovered it had moved, eeek...thank goodness, there were maps on the door of the old office, so i was able to figure out where to go to find the new office...it wasn't far...i paid my bill, and thought everything was hunky dory...
after picking up groceries on the way home, i found out internet hadn't yet been turned back on...not only was i not able to get online, my computer wasn't even registering any wireless networks...i decided to wait a few hours, maybe it just needed time...by 2100, i still wasn't able to get online, so i walked back to the office...but it was closed...eeek...

since i couldn't get online, i used my evening to take photos from memory cards and put them on my computer and back them up with the external hard drive...it's probably a good thing i wasn't able to get online, there were no distractions...otherwise dealing with all the photos would've taken a LONG time, since the trip was 7 weeks, and i took a lot of photos...
i also used the evening to do laundry...it's easy to dump clothes straight from my pack into the washer...perhaps the dirtiest item was my red jacket...it looked totally different when i took it out of the washer an hour later:)
the next morning i was at the office 10 minutes after it opened...
on the way home, i stopped for fresh raspberries from one of the babushkas on the street...YUM...

i walked back into my apartment building, stepped into the elevator, the doors closed, and...nothing...the lights turned off, the elevator didn't move!!! i'm not claustrophobic, but i am worried when i can't get out of somewhere...i've seen the elevators stop working heaps of times throughout the year, and it often took over a week for them to be fixed...i was NOT keen on the idea of being stuck in there for a week...i banged on the door and yelled...after 10 minutes or so, some guys decided to help me...(they probably felt sorry for me)...another 30 minutes after that, they were somehow able to get the doors open...phew...i felt soooo much better...
needless to say, i took the stairs to get up to my flat, even though i live on the 8th floor:)
by the time i got up to my flat, my internet was working again...yahoo...let the distraction begin:)

one of the things i love about this time of year in kyiv is the explosion of beautiful flowers...there are heaps of flowers planted around most apartment buildings...
i didn't really adjust to the time zone, i kept going to sleep at 3 in the morning, and waking up around 11...that's not like the normal me at all...thankfully, when i woke up the last morning, i decided to double check my flight time for later that day...i'm not sure how, but i had the idea that my flight left at 2200 or so...it turned out i was very wrong...my flight left at 1530...lets just say i got ready in a hurry:)