Day 1

The day has finally arrived for me to start my next long overseas trip.  My first stop is Kiev, Ukraine which is a place that I visited on my trip last year.  Unfortunately, there was a lot of rain & flooding on the morning of my trip.  Traffic was terrible and a quick 20 minute trip turned into a stressful 50 minute one.  Luckily that was the worst part of my journey.

My flight to Atlanta was quick & easy.  The overseas flight to Paris was ok except for the smelly little French hippie guy that sat next to me.


The last flight to Kiev was ok, but it was a struggle to stay awake for the 3 hour flight.  The main Kiev airport is located outside of town, but has a cheap & convenient bus service into town for just $3.

So except for the stressful ride to the airport, the trip is off to a good start.  By the way, my flights from Charleston to Kiev were cheaper ($33 in taxes using FF miles) than my $44 Uber ride to the airport.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paros

Image
I received a ride from the hotel down to the port to catch the early afternoon catamaran to Paros.  The catamaran arrived 30 minutes late, but the 45 minute trip to Paros was smooth since the seas were calm that day.  I was picked by the hotel at the port in Paros.  The hotel is a small family run place just outside the town of Parika.  My room was fairly large & had a nice view of the sea, it is a good deal at just over $30 per night for a 3 night stay. Paros has plenty of tourists that visit the island, but it has a more relaxed atmosphere compared to Mykonos and Santorini which always have multiple cruise ships docked nearby.  I had a nice dinner my first night in town and found a good place for gelato afterwards.  The next day, I spent a half day at a nearby beach & then took a local bus to a town called Naoussa.  Naoussa was an interesting place to visit for a few hours, but there was not a whole lot to see there. I visited a differen...
Read more

Flying Home

Image
Even though I enjoyed my 2 month long trip, I was definitely ready to come back home and be in one place for awhile.  I managed to get about 5 hours of sleep before I had to pack up my things to catch the hotel shuttle to the airport.  I was through the airline check-in, immigration, and security in just 25 minutes, so I had 1.5 hours to kill before they started boarding my 11 hour flight from Athens to Philadelphia.  I had an aisle seat on the 2 seat section of the plane, so it was somewhat comfortable for the long flight.  However, there seems to be a requirement that at least one crying baby has to be on these long flights and that the person in front of you must see how far back they can recline their seat even if they are only 5 feet tall!! The food was decent on the flight and I managed to watch 3 movies that were all pretty good.  The flight arrived on time and eventually I cleared immigration and security to wait for my 2 hour flight to Charlesto...
Read more

Budapest

Image
Although I enjoyed the opportunity to visit Russia again, I was glad to leave the bad weather behind for warm & sunny Budapest.  The flight on Wizzair was great.  I had a whole row to myself near the front of the plane.  The guy in immigration in Budapest seemed excited that I was born in Ohio & even showed my passport to another official mentioning Ohio twice.  I quickly picked up a transit pass & headed into town.  It is nice to visit new places, but I really enjoyed coming back to Budapest for my third visit. I realized after my first long trip to Europe that I needed to take a break from going to a new city every 2-5 days & find a place to stay in the middle of my trip for 10-12 days to relax.  I stayed in Budapest for 11 days, spending 5 days at an Airbnb apartment & 6 days at the Park Inn (free nights using points).  I tried to get in some running every day, but overdid a little bit & my legs were sore for a few days. ...
Read more