Day 28 and 29 (and into Day 30) – Travel on...and on...and on...

We arrived early to the airport so that we could attempt to get seats together on the Amsterdam to Kiev flight. They only give those seat assignments when you check in for the Minneapolis to Amsterdam flight. No dice by the way...

Being spring break, we of course ran into people from Hudson. One of the guys on Alex’s soccer team was there with his family heading to Disney. You mean to tell me that Ukraine wasn’t at the top of the list for spring break destinations?

The flight to Amsterdam was uneventful. Since we had to change our flight arrangements with the addition of Robert and the change in timing, we ended up in the back of the plane with middle seats in the middle section of the plane. Ouch! Alex and dad were in the row ahead of me. I was jammed between a really nice young man (it really makes me feel old to say that but he was middle 20’s at best so I have to call a spade a spade...I guess I really am getting old!) and another gentleman who seriously forgot to take a shower and then proceeded to want half of my seat in addition to his own. Needless to say, the nice young man and I got to be much better friends! We were laughing at the other dude. Alex watched movies all the way to Amsterdam and did a great job on the flight. Better than I did as a matter of fact! He did say that he and dad had to turn on the ventilation as they couldn’t stand the BO either. I just laughed...they have no idea...

The flight to Kiev was also uneventful, Alex slept the entire time. I woke him just in time to get off the plane. Customs was incredibly long, it took us well over 90 minutes to get through the line and then pick up the one bag we checked. We checked a large collapsible duffle that was full of 35 lbs of clothes for the orphanage. The empty duffle will be packed in one of the roller carry-on’s very soon. We were met in the airport by one of the drivers we had on trip one, it was very nice to see a familiar face in the crowd. 

From the Kiev airport, we went straight to the train station. By the time we wrestled with traffic, we had about 30 minutes to grab a quick McDonalds to eat on the train. Then we met up with our coordinator, same coordinator as last time. Another familiar face! We boarded the train and very soon we were off.

Alex did very well on the train. With the exception of our coordinator, we all fell asleep by about 7:30 p.m. Saturday night.  The three of us woke up a little before midnight, hit the restroom and then crawled back in our bunks. Alex played game boy for about an hour and then he was back to sleep as well.

Long journey, can't wait to get there!