A favourable first impression but the reality for the Euro 2012 co-hosts is that actions will speak louder than wordsAfter all the negative publicity surrounding Ukraine, the first impressions for this writer have been pretty favourable. The shower lever broke off in my hand and it was impossible to turn off the water in an unfortunate incident at my hotel that drew a smile from the receptionist (just to avoid any confusion, she was not present when it actually happened) while later on in the evening there was a power cut in a restaurant where the shrimp risotto looked particularly appealing until the waitress explained that salads were now the only thing on the menu. These, however, have been minor inconveniences at the end of a largely enjoyable first 24 hours in Ukraine.It all started on Thursday afternoon with a flight into Lviv's brand new airport terminal, where everything ran much smoother than envisaged. There was no queuing, the luggage arrived quickly (certainly much faster than it does at my local airport in Bristol) while those working at passport control seemed to have undergone a personality transplant compared with this intrepid traveller's eight previous trips to former Soviet states. An icy glare was about as hospitable as it ever got on those occasions.This time there was a smile as the official in the passport booth had a stab at pronouncing my name before handing over a couple of helpful Euro 2012 leaflets. "Welcome to Ukraine!" featured on the cover of both. Underneath that slogan on the smaller of the two leaflets, it says "Ukraine is a diverse multinational country which has always been friendly to foreigners", which will raise eyebrows among those who viewed the recent Panorama programme. This emotive subject is not going to go away during the tournament and the reality for Ukraine is that actions will speak louder than words over the next three and a half weeks.The rest of the leaflet runs through a list of "Dos while in Ukraine" (always keep your passport or ID with you, if stopped by police always ask them to present their ID etc), "Don'ts while in Ukraine" (do not drink in outdoor public places and do not take part in gambling etc) and spells out the prison sentences for engaging in prostitution and other sexual crimes under a "Strictly Prohibited" section. There are also phone numbers for the emergency services.Once through the arrivals hall, staff in yellow Euro 2012 T-shirts were waiting to provide help with onward transport or anything else, which felt like a nice touch for a country that is not exactly used to embracing tourism. Fortunately, a chance conversation on the plane with a Canadian by the name of Lloyd Cenaiko meant that myself and Simon Mullock, the Mirror football reporter who was on the same flight and staying at the same hotel, would have no concerns when it came to how we were going to get about Lviv, the smallest of the host cities and only 70 kilometres from the border with Poland.Lloyd is the president and founder of an organisation called Humanitarian Aid Response Teams (HART), which is dedicated to providing food, clothing and medical care to orphanages, street children, invalids, hospitals, the elderly, those in prison and desperately poor families in Eastern Europe. He is as nice a guy as you could wish to meet and his wife, who was travelling with him, is Ukrainian and just happened to have a brother-in-law who is a taxi driver in Lviv. This has been a godsend.We were dropped at our hotel by Kostya Voloshy, a Ukrainian who works with Lloyd, and 20 minutes later Dima Podolyan, the cab driver, picked us up to go to the stadium and has ferried us around everywhere since. Dima speaks very good English, which not surprisingly isn't the case with many people in his line of work in Ukraine, and he has pre-booked all of our transport for the duration of our stay and gone out of his way to help with anything he can. He even queried with a shop assistant in a supermarket why she was charging us 10p more than the advertised price for two bottles of water.Needless to say this level of service is unlikely to be granted to every tourist in Ukraine, or visitors to England for that matter. Simon and I knew that we had got lucky long before we bumped into a Dutch journalist at the stadium who was moaning about how long he had been waiting for a taxi, the extortionate rates that he was being charged for five-minute journeys and the fact that he had been forced to change hotels because the Wi-Fi didn't work. I tried to empathise but I couldn't.The stadium itself is located on the outskirts of Lviv. Indeed, the drive to Arena Lviv, built especially for the finals, is a bit of an eye-opener and at one point it felt as though we were on a road to nowhere. Stray dogs ran out in front of the car and there was a distinct smell of freshly-laid tarmac as we got nearer to the ground. Once at the stadium, though, the staff in the accreditation centre were warm and friendly and sorted out the press passes with the minimum of fuss.Later in the evening we paid a visit to what is called downtown Lviv, where the fanzone is located as well as numerous restaurants and cafes. There was a nice buzz about the city, which is picturesque and enjoys Unesco World Heritage Status, and not the slightest hint of any trouble. A group of Germany supporters took particular pleasure in the sight of a dozen policemen climbing back into a minibus and driving away after stationing themselves outside a restaurant where fans happily mingled.These are, of course, early days and it is far too soon to be making judgments, but what can be said is that the early signs in Lviv are positive. The shrimp risotto never turned up and the shower was beyond repair but a pizza and a new hotel room, which is basic but clean, more than compensated. All we can wish for now is to see some decent football in Ukraine and hope that nothing else makes the headlines.Euro 2012UkraineStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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