Day 7 - Don't take Pictures with the Birds!

I was walking out of the Metro yesterday, going to just tour around Central Kiev for a little while. This girl with two white pigeons on her arm came up to me and asked if I wanted to take pictures with the birds. I remembered Maddy telling me a story about the other day when she had someone dressed up in a big costume came up to take a photo with her and then asked her to pay up something like 20 grivna. With that in mind, I asked the girl if it was free. She nodded her head, and just to clarify I said, "no Grivna?" She then shook her head and sheepishly said, "10 grivna for picture with bird". I smiled and said, "Nyet spaciba, baka!" which is about the extent of my knowledge of any Russian at them moment. Later I was talking with my host-dad and he said that that sort of thing is a big trick. They really mean 10 grivna per bird taken in the picture, and a lot of times when you have one bird on your arm, a swarm of birds will come. You take the picture, then you end up having to pay 10 grivna for every bird that comes and lands on your arms, and that really could add up quick.