We’re in Hotel Victoria. Kharkiv is a surprisingly pretty place, with western standard hotels and gourmet restaurants, but at a third of the price. I will have to come back to this country on vacation sometime, ideally staying in one place to avoid the terrible roads and crazy traffic. We got here through a lot of rain and high winds… We were actually contemplating going to Kiev via a more scenic southern route that would have skipped Kharkiv, but the bad weather made this detour less attractive, and in the end i am glad we visited. I will post photos once we are in Kiev.