The journey

The Hope camp 5 international team of 2007 has arrived!!!

We left Lewin Road bright and early on the morning of Thursday 9th. Driven by our marvelous driver (a Mr. Terry Morran) we arrived with plenty of time to spare and we all got on our flight without incident. Three and a half hours later we landed in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. We were met by Igor and his son Yaraslav who took us to see a few sights of the city, got us some… well it should have been lunch as we had cooked breakfast on the plane, but it must have been dinner because it was 6, though it felt like about 4 due to the time difference… well we got some food anyway. I think most people managed fairly well at getting at least something they liked, though we are still not sure what some of the dishes were.
After food we jumped back into the minibuses which had brought us from the airport and headed to the train station. The train station is one of those places that deserves a look even if you have no other reason to go there. It is lots of marble, with hanging chandeliers and is so pretty. They are slightly harder to appreciate however when you are sat in the heat, in low lighting, with all your cases and a lot of noise and hustle and bustle going on around you. Unfortunately as we left for the station Igor went back to the airport to pick up the Americans and he has the tickets which would have enabled us to go into the nicer waiting rooms! Eventually he arrived and we joined the others in the beautifully cool and light VIP waiting area (ooOOOOooo).
It was a good thing that we had that nice relaxing rest because the next part of the journey was…. Horrendous- it is the only word that comes close to describing it. In England we are very good at the whole “Please, you go first” attitude- the Ukrainians aren’t! It is literally everyman for himself and everyone was pushing, shoving, shouting and all going in different directions trying to get to their part of the train. Suzanne later likened it to a mosh pit. Driven by the thought of collapsing into our compartments we pushed through and got on. We were greeted by a unpleasant surprise though. The train was nothing like any of us had ever been on before. There were compartments of sorts with 4 bunks- much as you might expect from a sleeper train or ship cabin. However these compartments didn’t have doors, so were open to the tiny corridor, which in turn was open to a 2 more beds facing the other 4. So not only were we mixed in with a load of Ukrainians we didn’t know, but there was no privacy to get changed, freshen up or even escape the noise of all the others. But none the less we managed to get bunks sorted with bedding and tried to get some sleep- fully clothed of course.
Despite not everyone having much sleep we all survived and got of at Simferople station and sat down for food, a big mac and fries- but boy did it taste good!!!
The last of the traveling was 4 hours on another minibus. But finally after 2 days (three for the Americans) of traveling we were finally here. Those who had been before had great fun greeting old friends (many of the counselors and translators are the same as last year) and admiring the renovations (I’ll tell you all about those in another post), those who hadn’t been before got to explore a bit.
Finally it was dinner and then bed.

Today the kids have been arriving in dribs and drabs so the main program hasn’t started yet. Tomorrow though we begin in full force- I can’t wait 