The first real day

The day started with a breakfast which reminded me of why the UK sucks so much. I think it’s why there’s so much conservatism and nonsense going on at the moment.

There is zero quality fruits and vegetables. Okay not zero, British strawberries are honestly the best and much better than what you would find in Ukraine.

but my god the tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, why the hell do they taste like water in the UK? Imagine the best tomato you’ve had in the UK, probably farmers market or thenpremium class ones from Sainsbury’s Or Tesco's finest. They taste “good” until you taste anything from Ukraine. It literally makes British tomatoes taste like cucumber. I haven’t tasted something so intensely tomatoey while still being completely crisp and fresh.

No wonder everyone is mad and obese, the food in the UK is junk, processed garbage, and then healthy food HAS to be processed in some way to make it shit on purpose.

How did we conquer the world, beat the Nazis, obliterate Napoleon's Fleet at Waterloo yet cannot manage a fucking cucumber?

Dentist

So we got up early to go to the dentist, that was the main plan for today.

Usually, I would never really go to the dentist. The dentists that work for the NHS tend to be shit, which I think is a combination of skill and pressures from NHS on dentists. If you could work as a private dentist and get a lot more money, why would you work for the NHS? Unless of course you have golden morals.

I had a bad experience with dentists pretty much all my life, they would shove metal fillings in my mouth which looked ugly and crack. One of which needed 3 root canals performed in record time like the NHS dentist was trying to speedrun - which they kinda are due to NHS credit system. After a historic root infection, they would just keep doing root canals without taking any measures to remove the infection... the first dentist (when I was 18) just ended up giving me antiobiotics and forgetting about it.

Second dentist said "they didn't see anything wrong" (TMI: I would have a big ball in my gum that popped every so often).

Third dentist said "all we can do is remove it".

Fourth dentist did a root canal but didn't remove infection deep in the gum so it just failed, then tried again, which then weakened my tooth (and didn't remove the infection).

At a nice trip out to Largs and we bought some fish and chips, when I bit down on said fish the entire tooth cracked in half.

Then yep, NHS dentist just removed it and cut my gum open to remove the infection (why didn't they do this earlier, I don't know).

But anyway - dentistry in Ukraine is cheap and good quality. I was quoted £800 for a root canal and two fillings in the UK privately, and in Ukraine for about £900 I had:

• Two root canals (one with orthodontist)
• Five fillings (two replacements of metal)
• A zirconum crown

I must've spent at least 6+ hours in dentist chairs on our 2025 Ukraine trip.

A quick aside... Taxis

We also Taxi everywhere here, because it is just so cheap. But you also have to risk death because they don't wear seatbelts and all use their phones. And everyone in Kyiv drives like a moron.

After dentist - a day of eating (we probably shouldn't have)

I was told after the dentist I was not allowed to eat anything with a strong colour, and no dairy. Mom was very strict with this, but then we got to ATB (kinda like Lidl in Ukraine) and she shrugged and laughed and let me have a mushroom Rollini.

After that it was Alice's turn to go to the dentist, but hers was more of a gum doctor to make sure she is squeaky clean.

After the 2025 dentist visit and too much time spent in the chair, we both started flossing + water flossing every day. This time we got nothing but praise and told we were ideal patients.

I used to think flossing was a borderline scam, because as far as I know not many people in the UK floss, and it is largely seen as an American thing (growing up at least). I also would send Americans links to our NHS teeth report saying how people have less cavities on average, so their system of flossing and overbearing dental visits was stupid.

Like always it's a little bit of both. Flossing is obviously very good, but maybe the NHS was not reporting people having as many cavities due to people avoiding dentists? Or maybe just our dentists are so bad they barely notice cavities until they get to the stage where you have to beg for a root canal.

Food for real this time

We went to a mall nearby to try the vegan KFC Alice was non stop excited for. It was actually surprisingly good, not like you woul dget in the UK.

It was actually seasoned in the same stuff the meat is, so it tasted like KFC. In the UK the quorn burger just tastes like a quorn frozen chicken burger they decided to throw in a KFC microwave.

Here it tastes like actual 'fried chicken' (obviously without the horrible flesh taste).

They also had a hit new thing: Pepsi Popcorn

I told my friends about it and most of them said it sounded disgusting. But it was genuinely good, it tasted like the entire experience of going to a cinema (apart from the idiots in front who always laugh too loud at every joke like they're trying to pretend to be human).

We also got a REAL baked sushi roll from Sushi Master. The one we had from Yapiko was okay but didn't hit the same.

You might be so weirded out. I was too. Then I came here and tried it and realised westerners are stupid and baked cheese on a sushi roll is fucking amazing.

Walking home filled with monster and food we spotted a funny attempt at an "Anglyskyy snydanok" or English style breakfast.

Changes from last time

What I notice more and more after coming to Ukraine a few times over the years is that western brands have started to 'notice' Ukraine. Obviously after the war started people gained the ability to say 'Ukraine' instead of 'The Ukraine', and were able to find it on a map (with varying success).

But I guess production needs time, because now even new monster variants show up here with Ukrainian language.

Crab time

There are a LOT of crab flavoured stuff in Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe. It's so fucking nice.

It is like fishy but not with that token 'fishy' taste from western fish product. It is sweet, slightly with tomato, buttery. I don't like the idea of eating crabs and lobster beacuse they are too intelligent to eat, so there being crab flavoured product such as crisps lets me get my fix.

Home, chill and birthday gifts

After we got home we chilled and watched the snails, fish and shrimps in Mom's little aquarium.

It was also my birthday last week just before we left, so I naturally received presents and a card upon my arrival.

I really appreciate that Alice's parents know what gifts I like and they barely talk to me.

After gift giving Dad showed us his racing wheel he built from scratch with a motor he bought. It genuinely felt very realistic (as someone who is very experienced with driving a Suzuki Alto). It 'fought back' and you could feel the 'weight' of the steering change as you progressed through a corner.

Sleep and tomorrow

Tomorrow we have ultrasounds. I got accused of healthcare tourism (jokingly I hope) by a new Ukrainian little friend I have. I tried to refuse the ultrasound but Mom would not let me get out of it, she told me "look what happened with your teeth, I do not want your body to have another problem". Fair enough, honestly. I have no argument back.

Right now we don't have much time to ourself, everything is preplanned and lots of appointments.

It feels quite stressful rather than a holiday, so I hope it gets easier later in the week.

Future me here: It does