Safe arrival

Hi!
I'm in the beautiful city of Kiev (Kyiv) and safely ensconced in my very nice apartment. I will be getting together later today with my friend, Ania, to begin touring the city. There are so many places to see, I'm really looking forward to exploring on my own as well as with Ania.

My trip was somewhat eventful. When I showed up at the Indy airport at 8 am Saturday I was informed that my first flight had been cancelled (Continental). I was sent to USAirways to make my connection to Newark. My original flight plan was Indy to Newark to Dusseldorf, Germany to Kiev. USAirways put me on a flight to Charlotte, then to Newark, but the flight from Charlotte was delayed to the point that I couldn't make my connection from Newark to Dusseldorf.

So I returned to Continental. After about an hour and a half (but very nice and apologetic agent), I was rebooked on United to Chicago O'Hare, then to Frankfurt, Germany, then to Kiev. And they gave me $20 in food vouchers, and a first class ticket from Indy to Chicago. I really like first class, but only got it for that one short leg. So I waited at the Indy airport until my 2:30 takeoff (the original was scheduled for 11 am).

After that, the flights were mostly uneventful, though every leg was a window seat, when it would have been nice to have an aisle seat because of my back. But honestly, my back is doing great, all things considered, so I should be good for the trip. I did have a nasty headache for most of the voyage, but it went away when I landed in Kiev, thank goodness.

Ania met me at the airport, and Vlad, my landlord, met me at the apartment, and got me settled in. And now I'm on my second day in Ukraine, still a little nervous, my Russian is pretty awful, though I'm still trying, but looking forward to seeing as much of Kiev and Ukraine as I can in 3 weeks.