To my fellow Latvian comrades :)

If you get enticed by low airplane tickets and visa free entry to this former USSR country, then my advice to you is – don't. Granted, it is no longer the Soviet culture. It is worse, much worse. Someone said on the blog that service levels in Ukraine comes from a single linguistic shortcoming, they don't know what the word “client” means. That says all.

I have been in many ill-mannered places. But in Ukraine it is more on the side of absurdity than rudeness. In one ticket counter I was told that they cannot give me the price of a train ticket unless I buy it first. I did it and then refused to pay because the price was too high for me, and they were swearing at me while canceling this ticket. What they were thinking about?

At the airport I was yelled by obnoxious taxi hawkers. The intrusive service offerers is a common thing in many places, including airports. But I really wasn't ready for it when they started to yell and insult me.

I know you are all sick from the banal joke that in the Soviet Union everything is in reverse. But in Ukraine in is not always the customer's fault when there is a problem but the customer is at fault merely for trying to buy something.