Kiev, Ukraine: First Impressions

The girls:
Even in the waiting area in Munich Airport for the flight to Kiev, I already noticed that Ukrainian girls put even more effort into their appearance, on average, than any other set of girls I've seen before, including Poles and Bulgarians. On top of that, before officially setting foot in Ukraine, I noticed that the girl guard at customs had managed to wear her uniform in such a way as to emphasize her figure. The feminine overload continued with the hotel receptionist; plus it didn't hurt that she showed me to my room, which usually only happens at high-end places. Finally, walking around the streets of downtown Kiev tonight, again, it was pretty clear that this was the highest average effort I'd seen.

That being said, while the girls in Kiev are certainly blonder, on average, than those from Sofia, they're less blonde than those from Poznan. I'm now pretty confident I have a thing for blondes, which before this scout trip, I didn't really know I had. I guess in Fatlanta, my eyes had gotten used to taking whatever they could get. Now I've got to see Estonia.

The competition:

I'd say the average Ukrainian guy is less competitive than his Bulgarian cousin, who in turn is less competitive than his Polish cousin. Inversely, the average Ukrainian guy seems to be more of the Slavic "thug/hustler" stereotype than his Bulgarian cousin, who in turn is more of that stereotype than his Polish cousin. (Note that what I'm saying about the average guy and girl is just that - an average. You'll find put-together guys and sloppy-looking girls in these places too, just not in the screwed up percentages in Fatlanta.)

Perhaps inevitably, on my way from the bus stop to my hotel, at evening rush hour, I saw two obviously drunk Ukrainian guys. On top of that, at dinner tonight, I sat at the small bar next to a Ukrainian guy, who also was obviously drunk. Not knowing the stereotype, you'd think it was coincidence, but in my mind, it at least supports the assertion that the girls have to compete hard for the non-alcoholics.

Running counter to that, probably to an insignificant extent, there were three obvious Turks on my flight. The first thing I thought of - and what the Ukrainian passengers probably thought too - was that these Turks were sex tourists.

The girls' reaction to me:

I'm catching and forcing a few more IOIs here than in Sofia, but certainly not at the level of Poznan. While this supports the assertion that guys should go to places where the local guys don't look them, in the back of my mind, I'm also wondering if it's a Slavic thing to IOI less than Western girls, since the more Slavic a girl's environment is, the more severe the consequences she faces from poor emotional control. Some of the stares were quite stoic, but that's probably just who they are. Part of me thought that these stares were IODs, but the Ukrainians I've had to interact with just today have been friendly, sometimes going slightly out of their way to do so.

Everything else:
Kiev seems like Sofia, but with even less English, which had less English than Poznan. Again, automation such as ATMs and Google Translate can help, but it's pretty obvious that language here is even more of a market entry barrier

Next steps:
Enjoy Kiev.
Figure out how to get home on Saturday/Sunday ... to Fatlanta.