Advice for Visitors to Ukraine
Posted on 07. Jul, 2010 by admin in Life in Ukraine
The following is basically a collection of quick advice for virtually anyone looking to come to Odessa, Ukraine. As noted elsewhere, most people who come to Ukraine are interested in meeting women, so the first section covers most of my advice on that.
Two Week Stays – to Meet Women
* It would be best if you plan on meeting several women. Don’t fall in love with a picture or a letter that has gone through a translator until after you have met the individual face to face. Why? An awful long way to travel to be stood up, find out you’ve been scammed, or discover there’s simply no chemistry.
* Don’t buy expensive gifts – just be prepared to pay for any and all entertainment and a taxi home in the evenings. Flowers, always an odd number, are okay. Small souvenirs from your home are okay. Computers, jewelry, expensive clothes, or things like that. Why? Hopefully, you want your future wife to be interested more in you than your money.
* Not 100% necessary, but strongly recommend finding a lady who can already speak some English. Why? Russian is very difficult to learn for the average westerner. The less time you are dependent upon a translator, the better. It is highly unlikely that you will find a translator willing to go to bed with both of you.
* Do not expect to get married during a two week visit, or even two visits. Possible, but not likely – the registration itself can take that long. Research and talk to others about how difficult it is to get a fiance visa from Ukraine to your home country.
* In terms of costs – you will be looking at air fare, hotel/apartment, local transportation, food, entertainment and possibly souveniers. Apartments are the best way to go – and range from about $50 to $150 per night, and it will beat the hell out of the hotels, unless you are going for deluxe suites… and even then, most apartments will beat the hotels. Only a few exceptions. Expenses can vary widely depending upon your tastes, budget and entertainment. It is possible to get by on $20 a day – a bit boring, very basic, but every day need not be a party. It is also pretty easy to blow through several hundred dollars if you start talking about the best restaurants, drinks, cover charges, etc.
* Safety – avoid going out alone, getting drunk, flashing money and leaving late at night by yourself to walk back to your apartment in the dark. Make sure you have or rent a cell phone and have the number of a translator or a local contact in case you find yourself in trouble. Avoid using Internet cafe’s for accessing any personal information online. Do your best to use ATM’s at banks. It is generally best to avoid petting the stray dogs – most likely nothing will happen to you if you do. Avoid getting into fights. Mind your own business, don’t pick up anything you might see on the street even if you see someone drop something. Around the center of town, avoid giving money to the panhandlers. If you will be cooking in your apartment, it is recommended for you to cook things a little longer or at a slightly higher temperature than you might at home.
Three Month Visits to Ukraine (Plus or Minus)
* All of the above applies, plus –
* Probably the most important thing to understand is that most Ukrainian landlords are either into the short-term daily rental market or the long-term – family who plans to live in the apartment for years market. The 3 – 6 month apartment market is significantly more difficult. Landlords will not reserve apartments and most expect to hear a yes or no on the apartment they’ve shown within a matter of hours. Important to remember it is first paid, first served. A lot more information is included in the long-term living section.
You will likely be expected to pay for the first month upfront along with a one month security deposit that you get back at the end of your stay, provided the apartment is in the same condition as provided to you. For a single, good quality bedroom apartment near the middle of town – you will likely be looking at something in the range of $550 – $650 per month. The closer it is to the center and the bigger it is will obviously mean a significantly higher rent.
* Not all apartments have an Internet connection and very few have Satellite TV. Both require landlord approval to install and in most cases these will need to be installed at your expense. Internet varies by company, the biggest issue tends to be that there is frequently a two week waiting period. However, that can be accelerated via “gifts”. Satellite television is going to run a couple hundred bucks at the least, plus monthly service fee.
* Transportation should rarely be a problem unless you are going to frequently travel to other cities. Around town, it’s just as easy to take a taxi or gypsy taxi – as long as you know how to pronounce your destination. Negotiating price is a little trickier – but should take you all of about 5 – 10 minutes to learn. Or you can brave public transportation. Just avoid the peak hours.
Long Term Stays in Ukraine – 6 months plus
* Biggest issue is going to come down to your Visa and the regular quarterly visits to OVIR (equivalent to immigrations). Depending upon how long you stay, it may be necessary for you to leave the country for a couple days and come back in. It is a hassle, it is a pain in the ass – but this is about the only issue that creates any real problems for anyone. We’ve done this for nearly five years… every three months…
* Don’t expect to find a job here, even trying to teach English or another language. You could get lucky, but unless you speak Russian fluently that is about the only job available and there are quite a few people vying for those positions.
* Your first year in Ukraine will be your most expensive as you will incur costs getting settled in. As well, almost everyone here has changed apartments two or three times if they’ve been here any length of time, and that adds to the costs, too.
* Ideally, if you wish to live here on a prolonged basis, you should have either a solid nest egg and some source of continuous income. Everything depends upon your expectations and standards. I’ve known a few people to blow through a couple hundred thousand in 1-2 years…. but it is distinctly possible to live reasonably comfortably while renting an apartment for less than $1,000 monthly.
* If the only reason you are coming here for a long-term stay is to meet women – I can only encourage you to come up with some additional activities to pursue while you are here – a hobby, some side-work that you can do online, trying to meet others of your profession here – there is a lot that you can do, but you will need to be creative. As well, these activities can be used to meet women here, too.
* If you are coming here mostly to retire and get away from the West – it will take a little bit of adaptation, maybe even a lot. If you can do it though… you will be in heaven. I regret living in Ukraine only about 3% of the time, 2 or 3 days every 3 months or so.
Finally – there’s the little things in life… like food. Be able to cook at least basic things for yourself. The only thing I miss about the United States is simply the variety of foods at the supermarket – which is not that hard to get over… and the sheer number and variety of good restaurants. Especially if you are going to be here for a couple years – it’s natural that one day you just won’t want to cook and just want something different. The only way to really get past that is to try making it for yourself.
For the most part, I’ve managed to make just about everything I have a taste for… it’s possible to get close on almost everything, except…
Maple syrup.
So, if you like breakfasts with maple syrup – bring a bottle with you. The other thing I’ve not been able to find, but is possible to make… but if you eat them in any quantity… you will probably want to bring a jar of pickled jalapeno peppers. Which means you will probably want some Mexican food to go with them… and while there is some of that here… it is only kinda-sorta- sorta-kinda Mexican food. Unless you stick with the fajitas.
