Its a long weekend in the Ukraine with the women’s day celebrations on the March 8th. This is a huge day as the men celebrate their women with flowers and gifts - its quite a show really. The guys at our work organised a party and handed flowers to every single woman in the company as they came into work. Impressive - us kiwi’s have a lot to learn - or so I am told!

Dasha decided that there should be a bit for her man for the weekend also so she organised a trip to Bukovel resort in the Carpathians (south western Ukraine) - just east of where Dracula hung out a few centuries ago. Dasha had seen my snowboard standing in the corner for 6 months, with me staring aimlessly at it so she thought it’d be a good time to get me to the slopes. Good call.

Bukovel is the best resort in the Ukraine with pretty good investment in lifts (14), runs (50km) and plenty of accommodation, restaurants and facilities. I have to say I was impressed. Prices were pretty good and the service OK. Luckily I didn’t need to check out the medical centre but I did see ski patrol - phew - but then no emergency chopper.

We were meant to fly from Kiev on Friday night, but 20 minutes from departure the flight was cancelled - advising that it would leave at 6.30am the next morning - this didn’t help the anxiety that was building over the state of the plane that would take us!

We got up the next morning at 4am to head back to the airport. To our surprise the plane was a jet and fairly new. We were soon in Ivano-Frankivske and jumping in the back of a mini van for our 2 hour trip to the resort. The airport at Ivano-Frankivske was supposed to be “international” but check out the baggage cart (8th photo) - quicker to carry the bags from the jet ourselves!

After a dodgy ride in the mini van we arrived at Bukovel. The hotel was 25 mtrs from the lift so we dumped our gear, grabbed a coffee and breakie and I got kitted up for some boarding - while Dasha faded off for some sleep. She hadn’t skied before so was showing signs of apprehension.

I was soon out on the slopes, feeling very rusty but nevertheless grinning from ear to ear - the snow was good and the air fresh - I was in heaven. After a few easy runs I tested out the skills on the bumps and even found some fresh pow under the tree’s. It started snowing again during the day so the line up for the weekend was good.

Dasha rang me between runs and so I headed back down to have a mulled wine with her. I was buzzing. Her day was to come tomorrow.

The next morning we were up and had some Ukrainian breakfast (meat, meat, meat, pancake and meat, coffee and meat) and went to get her some gear and an instructor. With that sorted, and a quick chat with the instructor I was off again - and Dasha began her conversion to skiing. We agreed to meet in 1 hour to check on her progress and I was amazed to see her cruising the beginners slope with no worries. She looked amazing. I checked with the instructor, she was lesson 3 level already, so we took off up the mountain. I was blown away as she faced up to her first red run and nailed it. This was great - she was awesome - and we’d be hitting the slopes more often!

The snow continued all weekend, Dasha kept doing well, kept getting up after falling and by the end of the weekend was pretty stoked with snow and the whole atmosphere - she was hooked - and I was totally proud of how she’d done it.

One last thing, women’s day was Sunday so we went out for pizza (the best since Italy), had a few cocktails and rum & cokes and then hit the club under our hotel. We hit a relaxed couch, ordered a apple & milk Hookah (turkish pipe), and soon we were dancing to local Ukrainian pop music - folk pop as I call it. I left the dance floor for a break but Dasha was soon back as another local anthem hit the decks. This time she didn’t hold back - she used to be a professional dancer and before I knew it the moves were flying. She looked amazing and completely captivated the audience - including me. She was in a trance and dancing like I have never seen - I have to say it was the second proud moment of the day. I was happy I wasn’t out there myself - I would have looked a complete idiot cutting shapes.