A Trip to Remember

Well, I originally wanted a catchier title than the regular, 'we are in Kiev or Hello from Kiev'. We are here, but not without a ton of 'excitement'. The first leg of our flight was very normal. Nothing unexpected. We arrived at JFK, found things to do to pass the time, walked around, found out where our gate was supposed to be, ate lunch at a somewhat expensive Chili's in the airport, then settled in the waiting area of our 'supposed' gate to watch planes. We later find out that we needed to be at another gate. Karina found a 'babushka' to talk to. She wanted to practice her English. She helped another lady figure out how to dial the phone since she only spoke Russian. Then, it was time to board the plane. Everything went like all normal flights were supposed to go, until about midnight New York time, 5am London time. So, you should be saying, 'why did she mention London?' Well, it seems that our flight crew decided to make an unexpected landing in London. One attendant said there were electrical issues, then the captain came on the loud speaker and said there was some oil leaking out of engine number one. Of course, they didn't want around 150 or so passengers panicking, but they sure landed that plane fast! The captain said that since it was 5am in London, no repair crew was available to fix our plane, so we sat for a while and waited. Then they told us that we would be staying the night at the Holiday Inn there and leaving the next morning. That was somewhat okay for us even though we had no phone or internet to communicate with anyone. There were two other families on the plane with SDA appointments the next morning, so they had to find a way out. They were exhausted once they arrived here, but the airline did find them a flight out that afternoon. They would have liked a direct flight like they booked, but at least they made it to their appointments.

Anyway, we are here in Kiev now at the internet cafe in Independence Square. We've walked around exploring and eaten a couple of meals. We are staying just around the corner from and have spent the evening with R.

I'll have to tell why I will never want to go through London again in another post so that I will remember:0