Went to Kharkov via vienna from Birmingham UK. Very nice experience though i had arranged to meet 8 ladies during my visit i only ended seeing 5 of them during my 10 day visit. Not sure about the agency i went through though-confidentialconnectionscom.A bit shifty i thought. Anyway not enough space to go into detail here.
I had exchanged about 2 or 3 emails with the ladies before going out there.The 3 ladies that did not turn up said through the agency they were "busy" at work.Unbelievable.
The ladies i went with wanted everything to paid for by me. So taxis ,restaurant,interpretors made it expensive nights out.Apparantely they expect the man to pay for everything and will go into a sulk if you forget to pay for an item for them. At least the champagne was cheap at £1.80 uk equivalent prices.
Refreshingly there were No ethnic people in Ukraine so it actually felt like a european city. Not like parts of England ie, Birmingham,London where you feel as though you could be in Pakistan or Africa. Political correctness has not reached Ukraine. and i hope it never does.
Gregx. I would get rid of that expectation of the girls to pay for anything related to sharing time with you. In any city of Ukraine or Russia for that matter. If you aren't ready to buck up the Pounds or the Dollar's then give up your search now. At the very least These girls will see you as cheap. If they wanted a guy with no money who can't pay or is willing to pay for their night out then they would just continue to date the poor local Ukrainian man. The only thing I usually didn't pay for was their transportation to come meet me. But at the end of the date I always offered a taxi at my expense regardless of the time of night. If you're worried about money then you are walking down the wrong path for a soul mate.
gregx
Just out interest which airline company did you use? I myself flew Aerosvit from Birmingham through Bob Sopel travel in Oldham.Very helpful friendly and they were and at the time about £80 cheaper than the larger lufthansa planes. You are probably aware of this already but i thought i would relay my comments anyway.
You astute observations about political correctness in Ukraine are accurate.Political correctness in UK and US is all about white people having an uncontrolled and desperate desire to ingratiate and empathise to the needs of a black/ethnic minority in the mistaken belief that they will get the ethnic vote in return.The infamous Ken Livingstone typifies these characteristics-a white man that thinks he is black.
Gregx,
But if you only exchanged 2 or 3 emails before travelling then what did you expect? Ideally one should write for perhaps a couple of months, to get to know the person and detect such things as 'high maintenance costs' etc.
Because you hadn't taken the time to impress them, or even understand them, in letters then your first realistic opportunity would be when face to face with them. As Deano says, if they want a cheap man then they've got plenty of those readily available, it is a 'way' of Ukraine that the man supports the lady, this is there way of life and every guy should understand this before he writes even that first letter.
You incurred your own unecessary, their are so many English speakers in a city like Kharkov that you shouldn't have found it mandatory to hire an interpreter and if you do select non English speakers then of course you are expected to pay for the interpreters. With regards to taxi's and restaurants, well just compare the prices you paid to the prices that you would pay in UK, you got a bargain in Ukraine.
If you can't afford to go out on dates with ladies then you should curtail dating ladies, the cost of a few nights out is nothing in comparison to the costs that will follow and no lady likes a man who appears to be mean with his money.
xtc11
yes thanks friend i was aware of Bob Sopel and aerosvit.His web site as you may know is 3 years out of date but the other information on the site ,phone numbers and all is relevant.I did book at first with Lufthansa but for some unknown reason my flight was cancelled and then re diverted. In the end i gave up with Lufthansa and used aerosvit.
Last time I travelled BHX-Kiev I used Luftwaffe via Dusseldorf, a 30 minute connection on the way out and 75 minutes on the way back and, all the way there and back on 50 seater CRJ jets, it was bl00dy marvellous, I hate lots of passengers and screaming kids.
Any progression that does not go from writing -> calling (cell # followed by home #) -> visit (physical address) will produce the kind of results experienced here. Ukraine is the # 1 destination for this kind of exerience.
Martin
i have not heard of BHX to be honest. Have you a link to their site or something like that and UK airports they fly from/to?
I can not really complain about aerosvit as the two occasions i have used them there were no kids on their flights and only 9 passengers on it going and 12 passengers on the return journey.
It is always good to have another option to fall back on though if for some reason Aerosvit is not available the BHX option will be helpful.
Greg,
Airports have 3 letter 'IATA' codes, BHX = Birmingham, CVT = Coventry, LHR = Heathrow, LGW = Gatwick and so on thus on such search engines as travel.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/c_172201_flights.html you do not need to write 'Birmingham' in full, you write just 'BHX'.
Kiev/Borispol is KBP, Kharkov is HRK.
Luftwaffe = Lufthansa, Such A Bl00dy Experience Never Again = SABENA, Same As Sabena = SAS & Let Us F*ck The Hostess And Not Say Anything, well we're back to Lufthansa again :)
Martin
Thank for the information i shall check this out. Interesting that you should mention Lufthansa as being a "bloody experience" . something not quite right at Lufthansa it would appear. They do seem to foook about a lot at U.K end anyway.
Greg, the BE in SABENA is the bl00dy experience, Lufthansa well their sandwiches are shite but at least on the Dusseldorf to Kiev sector you get a hot meal, don't know what it is mind you but it's hot :)
i had a look at the travel.kelkoo.co.uk/b/a/c_172201_flights.html link and it said time of arrival kiev some eleven hours after departing from Birmingham uk. Maybe i will give their schedules a miss.
sev,
Well you obviously didn't look hard enough or you might be looking at flight prices in the imminent future when all the cheaper seats on the more optimum flights have filled up.
This is from lufthansa.com for a month from today:
boredfukka,
I challenge you to get any flight for 10p with Ryanair that includes taxes, fuel surcharges and all the rest of the b0llocks that they charge for a seat that doesn't recline and with stale sandwiches and warm beer.
I say again, no lady appreciates a man who is mean with his money.
I love it when western guys seem to want to apply western ideas of dating in the former Soviet Union. Its hilarious.
While in Odessa a few years ago - another guy and I were fortunate enough to meet two ladies from Moldova. They had ridden some three hours by bus with the hope of meeting western guys at a Romance Social. They had return tickets - to be used immediately after the Social (in case they didn't meet anyone), a little food that they had brought with them and change of clothes carried in plastic grocery bags. One lady also carried 30 Moldovan lei for spending money - thats less than $3.00.
My friend and I put these women up in the hotel that we were staying in (a seperate room, at least at first) and took these ladies out to dinner twice. By the third time, by new-found friend insisted that we were due for a free dinner at the lady's expense. Pointing out that they only had $3.00 between them didn't seem to stop his insistance.
Western guys definitely have advantages when pursuing Eastern European women - Beautiful educated lafies will often date much older men - but it has to be remembered that there are REASONS for this. And among those reasons are that local guys don't have much money and western guys generally DO.
U talk bull shit man. $3? dont make me laugh, you couldnt even buy a sandwich for that. And as if they would risk being miles from home with $3. what a load of BULL. They probably earn $150 a month in Moldova and pay $20 rent, so they would have more than $3. what a laughable poster