Max:
For future reference, can you please post the link to your apartment agancy please. Have fun!
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Max:
For future reference, can you please post the link to your apartment agancy please. Have fun!
I usualy wait to give advice or recomendations until I have actually acumulated some experiance with a provider...
I have sent the deposit... Within a few days I should know one way or another... I intend to try to book the same apt via another service to verify that it is not available...
The service I am using is about half what I could find on the web...
I even considered making the first nights reservation via the internet service and using my less well established provider for the remaining 10 nights... I have used that method before... At the worst you end up with a higher rate... At it's best you end up with a fantastic rate and a fantastic future provider of services...
-Max
Guys with experience in Ukraine, I need your input on this:
I plan to make a first time trip to Ukraine for 10 nights. It is obviously not a long time but also not so short to spend in Kiev only. I was thinking spending 6 nights in Kiev, 2 nights in Kharkiv and 2 nights in train traveling to and from Kharkiv. I really wanna see a rural city like Kharkiv, but the current plan seems a bit of a stretch.
Please let me know what you think! Spasibo!
I've been to Kharkov 7 times since 2000, always stopping in Kiev first for a few days, and before returning home. Kiev is twice as expensive. A decent flat will cost no less than $65 a night, and prices for entertainment have creeped up from $50 for an hour,(2000 to 2002) to $70 now. The problem is the quality, which over 3 years, I definitely have to say has gone down a notch or 2.
You don't need to waste 12 hours on the overnight train anymore, there is a 5 hour express train now. Kharkov is NOT a rural city by any means, its huge.
If you want something rural, maybe go to Kremenchuk. One of my Ukrainian friends keeps suggesting this town as a good hunting spot.
A flat with hot water and satellite TV will run $50 in Kharkov. Entertainment is reasonable though, $30 an hour, but again the problem is quality.
I finally decided to try Odessa last month for a change of pace, and it was good for that.
When I talk about quality, my perspective may be totally different than the average guy. I always end up spending 2 weeks time wading through all the 6's and 7's, and wondering where the hell are the 8's and 9's. There's nothing wrong with the 6's and 7's, and I don't mind "sponsoring" them, there's not much opportunity for them in day jobs. But they have to return my generosity and let me meet their friends. Most of the time they just don't get it though. Invariably, on almost every trip, it always comes down to my last night, and finally, in walks a 9 or even a 10. Why couldn't I have met you 2 weeks ago???? It drives me crazy.
I really think that the Ukrainian girls are getting too spoiled, and I'm more than ready to head deep into Russia proper, Yekat or Novos, or Samara, where they don't have stupid underground shopping malls like in Kiev.
Any period of time is short for Kiev,no matter how long it is!
Nothing so special about Kharkiv,just an industrial city.Dniepropetrovsk,Donetsk and Lugansk on the east are much more attractive in terms of girls. But if what you're looking for is real Ukrainian cultural life,you should head for Lvov on the west,where people speak pure Ukrainian with a completely different accent! Sounds like a poem,very interesting and can make you quite romantic as well if you manage to quote some words?!
Vegamars,
I read elsewhere in this board that Kharkiv has many universities and therefore it is a good city to go for fun...
This trip of mine will be cultural and sexual excursion for me. I occasionally enjoy paid sex, but I enjoy more seducing regular girls. This process is much more fun, in the process you get to learn about a new person's life, taste the culture and also enjoy sex. Often times it costs as much as paid sex, in a sense this is also paid sex, but I find it more fulfilling.
So after this long prelude, here is my question. Will it be too cold in January or February to pick up girls outside, I mean in cafes, sidewalks, parks so on? By the way I speak some basic Russian.
And among Dnepetrovsk, Donets, Lugansk and Kharkiv which city provides the best nightlife (normal clubs with regular girls) and organized sex (salons, saunas with girls etc) opportunities?
Spasibo bolshoe!
I'm always talking in terms of natural sex anyway!
Universities are everywhere,there are about 50-60 of them just in downtown of Kiev.You can also find many universities in Dniepropetrovsk,Lvov and Crimea region,which also has the mildest climate in winter.Dniepropetrovsk is the largest of these cities,so you can find quite a number of bars and discos there,but you wouldn't need organized sex anyway.Watch out though,university girls are mostly busy with exams between mid January and end February and also in June,so you would have more choices other than these periods.Almost all girls seem to enjoy it more if you don't speak Russian at all and they feel different when they're together with a foreigner.I've never spoken Russian anywhere outside or on the street,but rather just in bed!!
Hedonist,
In Kharkov, the closest to winter I've ever gotten was either November or April, and for a Florida boy, I was freezing. I recall a bit of morning reading in the bathroom, (the warmest room in the flat), and walking through rivers of melting ice, and wet snow falling out of a tree on my bald spot. The ladies were all covered up, parks pretty empty, I always saw some in cafes, but not outdoors. From that aspect, its totally imcomparable to when I normally go, in Sept/Oct, or May/June. Some flats have no heat, hot water can be hit or miss, so it can be a little rough. Make sure to ask for a portable space heater!
I only went once in August, but to Crimea, it was like a candy store! Simferopol and Sevastopol were crawling with honey.
No shortage of university girls in Kharkov, and I agree with VegaMars that they get deep into serious exam studying in January and June, but I foud Odessa to be the place where the cafe lifestyle was prominent, since it is primarily a resort city. Its a bit more expensive, with prices as high or even higher than Kiev. I've also heard that is true in Yalta, since all of Eastern Europe who have the money to spend, go there.
I'm curious if any Senior Members can expound on my theory that over these last years too many Ukraine girls are acting more spoiled, and that to find that really pure GFE in plentitude, its going to require plunging eastward into the nether-regions of Samara, etc? Any thoughts you guys?
Thanks for your replies guys! I guess I have to reconsider my plans...
Odessa is way too small for me,I always prefer metropolitans like Kiev.Of course,you cannot save your pennies all the time if you wanna get along with really top quality girls and that's really the essence of life!
If you really wanna see the geniune spoiled girls and what expensive means,you should definitely head for Russia and especially Moscow!I'm sure you will go there again in the shortest possible time if you've got anything left at your hand!??
Vega,
You might have mistook my point. I definitely am aware that Moscow & St. Pete are the MOST expensive, which is why I have avoided them completely. And also that, hand in hand, the quality and "spoiled" factor will tend to along with the prices. Don't get me wrong, I love Kiev. In my 9 trips, I've almost always found one 9 or 10 there. But I just can't afford to stay there at those prices for 2 whole weeks. Usually a few days on the way in, and then on the way out again.
What I'm trying to say is that even in places like Kharkov and Odessa, which for me don't seem small at all, over 4 years, the overall feeling I get is that the Ukrainian females are getting spoiled and too westernized, ie., less GFE and more strictly business.
I always try to find amateur students as opposed to professional experienced types that many times tend to be young moms, and always plead with "Oo vas yest padruga?" But even with that, lately I'm leaving discouraged.
So from my perspective, I'm just curious to hear from all you Ukraine/Russia mongers if you see what I'm seeing, and if there's less of the "westernized" factor when you get farther back into less traveled places like samara, yekat, novos, volgograd. I'm just theorizing that those places will be more like Ukraine was 4 years ago. Who needs a stupid underground shopping mall? I just see a very noticeable difference over the last 4 years. Anyone else?
Places like Samara and Yekat in Russia are already full of westerners.I guess you're not aware of Ukrainian countryside yet,it's unbelievably cheap and full of girls yet to be discovered.
I would highly recommend Uman in the west or Lugansk in the east for instance for a new adventure.If you wanna stick close to Kiev and still save your pennies,you might even try Brovary just 50 km from Kiev or Vinnitsa in the south of Kiev!
You know Vega, I'm really not trying to give you a hard time. It's true that I haven't ventured to dozens of the smaller cities that I am absolutely dying to see. It's only because of time constraints from my work. Believe me, if I hit the lotto tomorrow, I'd spend 4 weeks a year here and the rest of my life over there exploring every place, instead of the opposite like I do now.
I'm not doubting that the Russian cities have many westerners already, but what about the girls?? Do you or anybody out there reading this have a good perspective to compare what's happening lately, are they already changing?? Like I see in Kiev, Kharkov, and Odessa.
Again, my point is that I know its not too likely that I could find many opportuinites for very open amatuer student types that aren't greedy in France, Spain, or Germany. That's why I headed strainght for Kiev, I had no problem before to find this in my first years in Ukraine.
Is this shift to the western attitude sweeping all the way across to the outlying Russian cities?
The shift actually originated from Moscow and now has spread all over Russia as an unevitable effect of changes and developments in economical situation.Now it's directed towards Ukraine quite naturally and will head for Belarus and Moldova pretty soon.However,as the cultures of these countries and especially of Ukraine are quite different than the Russian culture,the changes are not so sharp and easy to deal with!
Vegamars,
this smaller cities around Kiev you mentioned or elsewhere in Ukraine will it be possible to find a reasonable hotel to stay and a reasonable hotel to live? When I say reasonable my expecations are not that high. A typical old Soviet style place with hot water and warm rooms will do it.