Election Day in Kiev

From Kiev, Ukraine

It's a lazy Sunday at the hostel. My ATM card is AWOL, but it is almost certainly in the Piraeus Bank ATM machine. The machine has been out of order ever since we went back to it looking for the card last night, suggesting that the machine's failure to regurgitate the card was connected to its downfall.

Since banks are closed on Sunday, there is nothing I can do until Monday, so I may as well hunker down today and relax.

I woke up early due to worry about the debit card. Things always seem worse at night than they do in the light of day; I feel pretty confident about things, now. Anyway, I got up at the crack of dawn, showered to wash away some of the smoke from last night, and then ate an apple. I boiled water because the tap water in Ukraine is not safe to drink. I then filled my water bottle with the boiled water and refrigerated it for later. I won't be able to buy bottled water until money situation is straightened out tomorrow, so this will do.

Lauren, snorer Piet ;-) and I went out to a great cellar pub last night and had a terrific discussion about politics. Hip student types occupied most of the tables and the air was thick with smoke. Smoky air is a novelty to me now, and even though I am not a smoker myself it brings back fond memories of venues I frequented in years past before smoking bans went into wide effect. Indeed, waking up to the smell of my smoky clothes and hair was actually a tiny pleasure.

We were surprised by the appearance of a former hostel-mate, Keith, who is a writer of note documenting aspects of the election. He had ditched the hostel for an apartment. He may have been playing, but he made a daring prediction that Yanukovich will win the whole election today--no runoff. (Most expect a runoff.)

Piet, Lauren, and I are all lying in our bunk beds staring at our laptops. Weather outside is exactly the same as it was the last few days: white skies with no trace of blue anywhere, specks of snow falling like dandruff, and cold.

The Finns invade today. There will be a large group coming in that will occupy every last available bed.

CORRECTION (19 January): The Finns turned out to be Swedes.

Breaking News

Debit card missing. My only cash line. Probably in ATM at bank, but banks probably closed tomorrow. Film at 11.

UPDATE: My finances are good, and there simply have to be other ways to access my account. So I am feeling decent. "There are seven ways to solve every problem."

Anti-Snoring Machine

From Kiev, Ukraine

When I got to the hostel I found I had five roommates. I was informed right away by Lauren, one of the backpackers here, that at least two of them were snorers. This was exactly the sort of situation I feared would happen when opting to bunk in a room full of people.

And the first night was terrible. Even though I wore both earplugs and noise-reduction headphones, the snoring cut right through.

This is when I switched into "Survivor" mode. At 3 AM I removed my earplugs and headphones. I then listened closely to determine who exactly was snoring around me.

The next morning I said to Lauren, "You and I have something very special in common. Neither of us snore. How about we form an alliance? Perhaps we can move to a double room someplace else in the hostel."

Lauren agreed to this, so we then asked the manager if we could move. He agreed to help us out by moving us upstairs. But then we learned that one of the employees in the hostel WHO SLEEPS IN ANOTHER ROOM had been awakened by the snoring, and she went upstairs to escape it only to find that it was just as loud up there!

So.

I switched to plan B. Plan B was to build an Anti-Snoring Machine. Not a machine that would stop a snorer from snoring, but a machine to prevent me from hearing snoring. Here is what I did:

1) I went to http://whitenoisemp3s.com/free-white-noise and downloaded the one hour sample of white noise on the top.

2) I dropped the mp3 into Sony SoundForge.

3) I deleted the fade-in and fade-out of the 1 hour sample.

4) I copied and pasted the file several times in order to stretch it out to 8 hours, checking the transition the 1st time to be sure it resulted in steady, unbroken sound.

5) I do not know the maximum length of a music file for an iPod (I don't have an iPod). But 8 consecutive hours was too long to fit on my personal digital recorder/player. So, I would have to play it from my laptop.

7) The resultant file played smoothly in iTunes.

8) I set the computer up beside my bed, elevated it with two books, spread apart in order to better let the battery breathe, and then draped a shirt over the screen in order not to disturb others if I needed to wake up and make volume adjustments throughout the night.

It was a success. Our bunkmate snored last night, but the white noise, in combination with my earplugs, completely eliminated the sound. I slept very well. In fact, I had to be shaken awake at a quarter to ten!

The one disadvantage is that clunky headphones are uncomfortable to wear when sleeping. But this problem was a delight to have compared to the annoyance of listening to snoring all night.

By the way, Piet, who is the snorer in question, is a great guy.

Kiev in January

From Kiev, Ukraine

Everybody in Kiev is playing winter sports in order to get from point A to point B. The city cannot afford to keep clearing the many streets and sidewalks of ice and snow, so a dirty gray crust of ice forms everywhere, presenting a walking challenge for all. Some of the hills around the city, which are topped by picturesque churches that beckon both tourists and the faithful, are especially steep, presenting a sense of danger as one descends.

One person staying at the hostel, Lauren, who lives in Russia with her husband, is here in Kiev as she waits for a new 3-month visa to be approved so that she can continue working in Moscow. She has proven an excellent guide. She showed me where to buy groceries, SIM cards, and jeans. She has also offered abundant good advice. She is only 23, but possesses the worldliness of someone in her thirties. She also knows passable Russian, as a result of being married to a Russian man. So she is a good friend to have in this city.

For a hundred dollars I got a great pair of jeans and three sweaters. Oddly enough, Lauren has never found long underwear for sale in Ukraine or in Russia, so the four pairs I brought along are now an especially precious comfort to have.

We also visited the Chernobyl Museum, which provided a fantastic overview of that tragedy, especially in tandem with Lauren's own knowledge of the event (again, very useful, considering that the placards are all in Russian or Ukrainian, none in English).

Some Random Observations

Beards are very rare here, so despite the comfort they provide in these cold temperatures I am ditching my effort to grow one in order to blend in a bit better.

If 3/4ths of the city cannot change them and the remaining 1/4th complains when they do, the ATMs in such a city really shouldn't dispense huge bills. A city like Kiev, for example.

CORRECTION (19 January): Lauren lied about her age; she is in fact 21. :-))

Arrival in Kiev

Don't know if you've seen the movie Before Sunrise, but basically that happened to me and a young woman today, except that instead of running around a romantic city all night long we were stuck in an airplane, and then the Frankfurt airport. So my travel plans have already been altered as we hope to meet up in Bucharest in a couple of weeks.

Regarding less-sensational personal revelations, I made both my connections (Frankfurt and Dusseldorf), the second one just barely, but of course barely counts. So now I have taken my first walk around Kiev. This was a tremendously surreal experience after years of studying the various Kiev webcams pointed at Independence Square. Night fell fast here at around 5 PM, which is actually quite perfect considering my jet lag. The sidewalks are slippery with dirty ice, some of that ice quite thick. The natives slip and slide on this stuff, sometimes deliberately attempting to slide along it short distances in order to cover the distance more efficiently.

The hostel here is full and active. Most of the guests are online; obviously myself included. I am seated in a lounge area watching an HD TV showing Ukrainian programming.

I learned that one group of people who fill Ukrainian hostels are Russian-based foreigners whose 3-month visas in Russia have expired. They must leave the country until paperwork for a new visa is completed, a process that can take weeks or even over a month.

Tymoshenko TV ad on right now.

I suspect I'll be able to sleep through the snorers tonight, considering I have only grabbed a few minutes of sleep on the heels of a poor night of sleep in NYC (my fault; too much fun).

On the Run: NYC

Dropped off minutes ago at West 46th and 9th Avenue, in the Hell's Kitchen district of New York City, after a heart-pounding taxi ride through city traffic filled with (what appeared to this placid Atlantan to be) a couple dozen near-accidents scored by a chorus of angry horns and, on the radio, Billy Joel's "Tell Her About It" (shudder). Night is falling outside the Mercury Bar, which I picked in part because of its proximity to Amy's place, and also because of the Guinness sign overhead. It's basically a sports bar, but with classy leather booths and a friendly waitress named Lina who told me about a DJ friend of hers who I might be interested in contacting. So I am already networking. Amy and Paula will arrive soon; I'm writing to fill the time before their arrival.

My Last Full Day in Atlanta

I'm just sitting at the Buckhead Mercedes/SmartCar center, so I might as well blog. I'm getting a tire replaced before I turn the SmartCar over to Greg, who drives off in it this evening. Cost is nearly $200, $125 for the tire and $65 for the labor. The last month has been full of expensive surprises.

Tomorrow I fly to NYC for a last evening with my friends up there. Then it's off to Kiev. I decided to arrange for a taxi in Kiev to take me from the airport, because I know I'm going to be exhausted and stressed from trying to make two connections between New York and Ukraine.

Friend Liza loaned me a kick-ass backpack that is a considerable upgrade from the one I currently use. I will finally do a dress-rehearsal packing of my stuff tonight in order to see what I can realistically carry.

Friends Laura and Bryan loaned me a pair of gloves that will be much appreciated.

Yesterday I bought some great new shoes from REI that are both club-appropriate and sensible for walking in the cold weather.

Brookstone offers rechargeable heated insoles, but at a hundred bucks these are well outside my price range. $4 versions of these sorts of things can be had at REI, but they are for one-time use only. I'll let my feet suffer a little.