Posted on

Short Escape to Ukraine. Day 1: Get to Ukraine

12h50, I’m in the air and above the clouds already. Seatbelts off.

I booked this flight a fortnight ago. Yes I had just returned from the pub but at the time I wasn’t working and saw this as a little opportunity to do something different; to get me a mini-adventure. A UK to Ukraine return flight at less than £300 is money bloody well spent for someone who’s otherwise sitting around twiddling their thumbs/ jobhunting. In the two weeks since booking though, I’ve now got a couple of job offers – so all the more reason to make hay whilst the sun shines.

What’s the big idea? What kind of hay are you making? I’m not quite sure but I have my camera, I have this here laptop and I have intrigue and a want to just see what’s going on out here and share, if it is that I do chance upon anything of note. I also have a workout schedule of sorts to keep. London Marathon is only three weekends away and I keep getting emails from the charity I’m running for telling me that I’m supposed to be tapering. I’ve been tapering for about 6 months now. So shooting, typing, reading, exercise, travel. All good.

Woke up this morning to my phone (Google Now) telling me that the second leg of my flight was cancelled. That’s the Kiev to Simferopol bit which would take me into Crimea as originally intended. No surprise, but not what I wanted. First thoughts are to now have tonight out and about in Kiev, and speak to whoever I can about what would happen if tomorrow morning I took the train down to Crimea. Would I even be able to get in if I got down there? If the bloke at the gates is Russian then he’ll want me to have a visa, which I don’t have. So if I really cannot get into Crimea I’ll travel around as much as I can, maybe keeping close to the Black Sea, we’ll see, until I fly back next Weds 26th morning.