Taxi home

Today I was invited by Kati and Nechko for Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. It was great. Kati spent entire day roasting turkey (who flew from US), making broccoli pure, sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts and pumpkin, pecan and apple pie. The dinner was spectacular. Such great dinner was accompanied with wonderful wine.
After such a nice dinner to get back home I hailed a cab. In Kyiv if you want a taxi ride you just stretch your arm and any driver wanting to moonlight as a taxi driver will stop. Sometimes even official taxi’s stop but than meter is never on. You say where you want to go and how much you are willing to pay. If negotiations are successful you get in, if not you stay a bit longer on a street. Usually after short negotiations you get in and they are willing to drive you for a price you wish to pay. It’s basically safe and often I have interesting conversations with the drivers. Tonight leaving Kati’s place an old Lada stopped. We agreed on a price and we were quickly driving towards my place. The driver was interested where I am from and I said Croatia. WE had a short conversation about Croatia, war etc. At one point he asked me if Albania was part of Yugoslavia. He explained that he met one Albanian from Yugoslavia but that guy have not spoke Russian. I explained Kosovo situation in the simplest way possible. The driver asked me about difference between Albanians and Croatians. I tried to explained the best I could. Thank I asked him so where you met your Albanian friend. The answer was: “Izvinite na tochnosti no mi stretilse v turmy” or in translation ”Excuse me for being precise but we met in prison”. Luckily at that point we reached my home and I get out.