See that picture? That's our friends in Krasny Mak. We love those guys alot. But I'm currently feeling kinda maxed toward this lovely Ukraine culture after a long four days in Kiev. The conference was awesome, it's just all the in-between stuff. Crowded metros, silly things like turning the water off in the hotel for the whole evening, no maids for our hotel but lots of guards with guns (huh?), cigarette smoke everywhere getting blown in your face, blah, blah, blah. I miss Canadians!

Tomorrow we head into Moldova on a long 15 hour train ride which should be interesting. Sleepers come in fours so two of us will share a cabin with another two people. I booked the train tickets today and was I ever glad Jhenya came along. EVERYTHING in the colossal train station was written in Ukrainian, so my russian wouldn't even do any good. I was totally and completely lost. Then we got the train tickets and I couldn't read a thing on them either, couldn't decifer anything. If you're reading this now, pray we catch this thing, tomorrow at 8:30am.

Moldova should be interesting, even though we are only passing through, it is a very unique post-communist country with the largest population percentage of any country living in rural locations. We get in late and stay in a shady high rise (they all are :-). Then try to find a bus or train to Brasov, Romania (without Jhenya :-(.

Well, I'm tired, it's 1:00am. Maybe I'll write more on the train!