Our brush with the law...Miltiary actually

The trip to work each day is about 45 minutes. The cab (neither of our drivers speak English), picks me up first, then we do a Uee (Uturn) and go about 200 metres down the road to pick up Michal. The trip is normally uneventful, but we pass through several districts (it is like going from Nunawading to Moorabbin each day, sort of against the traffic), but you see quite a bit of local goings on and it makes me laugh and sometimes cringe each day.
Ukraine has Kiosks, 2 or 3 on every corner that sell everything from Alcohol to cigarettes, fruit, chocolate bars, coffee etc. ( no slurpees....Good market for the PMS slurpee shop Paul !!!). Some of the locals even set up their own and sell their pets milk (goat milk). Yes the goats are grazed on the local nature strips to ensure they get the right nutrients to product the milk. Anyway, it seems that the locals visit these kiosks frequently, to purchase what, I am not sure. but the funny thing is that the kiosks are the size of a bathroom, but they are stocked heavily with stuff that the window that you talk to the owner through is about the size of an A4 sheet of paper and it is usually about breast height, so everyone has to bend over to speak to the assistant. Ummmm just strange! ( Will try and get photos so you can picture what I am seeing).

Anyway, one night, 6pm (and pitch black), Michal & I were in the cab going back to the city. PM is located on the ring road that surrounds the city so the route takes us from PM, down the road for about 5 clicks and then we turn off to get back to the “Maroondah highway” type road that takes us back to the city. One night as we turned off the ring road, the driver stopped and got out of the car. I will mention at this point that our night time driver loves his music loud and its all retro and hip hop, so there is very little conversation in the car going home ( I think he thinks we like it but neither of us speak Russian, so we cant explain that we don’t enjoy it).

So, Michal & and I are sitting in the car, yelling to each other to try and work out why we have stopped. We can hear the boot being opened and lots of rustling happening and voices but we have no idea what is going on. A couple of minutes later, the passenger side front door is opened, (Michal sits in the front on the way home, I get the front seat on the way to work), and a couple of huge Ukrainian soldiers in full army attire, with riffles, motioned Michal to get out of the car! I turn white with panic, but stay put in the back seat. The conversation between Michal, the military, our Russian driver was almost hilarious (if it wasn’t you in that situation). Michal was asked and the only word I understood was “CRIMINAL?” “I am not a criminal” said Michal. The gun goes skyward, indicating that Michal should lift his arms in the air so he can be searched! ...... Then my door was opened!!!! Our Russian driver actually winked at me and motioned for me to get out. Shitting myself, I dragged myself out and placed my back pack containing laptop, bag and passport on the ground.

By this stage, Michal was being searched..... backpack, body, phone was examined... the whole kitandkaboodle! Michal was saying “I am Polish” as he handed over his passport. (You have to carry your passport everywhere in Ukraine). Shit I thought, that is a good idea, I will get my passport out and give it to these big mothers so they can see that I’m just a little Aussie chick trying to help these kind folk out on this project. The passport didn’t cut it, they didn’t even look at it!. By this stage, I heard the driver saying something about PM, just picked us up from PM down the highway or something. When I heard them talking about PM, I pulled out my PM ID tag (Australian and Ukraine) and showed them. Meppih Cihkjiap (That’s Merrin Sinclair in Russian folks). Ahhh Merrin Sinclair they tried to interpret and laughed!
Next thing I know, we are being “released from custody” and told to get back in the car. Off we drove and our driver started trying to explain just what had happened...... Of course, Neither Michal nor myself understood, so we just nodded !!!!!

Folks, it must have been at least minus1 degrees that night, but I can tell you, I did not feel the cold at all, the heart was pumping that hard, that it could have been minus 50 and I wouldn’t have noticed. This was scary, and having no way of negotiating or talking to the military or our driver showed me how out of my “normal self control” I was in this country. Michal and I laugh about it today as we pass by the intersection. We still have no idea what they were looking for or why they pulled us over, however, we have noticed that our driver has taken off his “taxi” sign from his roof (possibly to detract his car from the military), fine by me!

One for the many memories in Ukraine I guess. I wish I could have taken a photo Michal being searched, but even if I did have a camera on me, I don’t know if I would have had the balls to ask the big Ukraine soldier if I could take a photo of his gun!!!

Some more pics of the local area for you

Typical supermarket / department store

Schevchenko's monument

Schevchenko's monument

















The singing fountain by night and day.
Lots of people have their wedding photo's taken here

Display of old cars in the square on the weekend

Love to you all

xm