Update: Thu 02:10

Tuesday, 04 October

Something of a slog down the road into the Crimea ("Crim" or even "Cream" to the locals) with a gusty crosswind making life less than pleasant. Large open fields (not quite rivalling Kazakhstan but one or two km on a side) not slowing the wind down at all. Some, uh, ungraceful towns on the way.

I rolled into Sevastopol ("Sevas-top-ol" rather than "Sevasto-poll") at dusk which wasn't what I'd wanted to do. There'd been a decent number of motels until about 30-40 km from Sevastopol when they stopped. I didn't want to pay through the nose in town so found some accommodation on the GPS in the direction of Balaklava. When I'd bumbled through the back streets of some tiny unlit place the one of the three I found with a sign had the gate closed and the lights off.

Oh dear. I headed back via somewhere with limited security for the bike and on into Sevastopol. Here the map/GPS was 60m out and the auto-recalculate mode of the GPS was having a whale of a time. In failing to find several marked places I utterly failed to see any hotel/motel/gostintsa sign anywhere. Very odd.

I finally found the Gostinitsa Krym (Krym is a poor transliteration). I found it because having gone past it and on the way down the hill I could see "Gostinitsa" on the roof silhouetted against the near black sky. On the plus side it's cheap (295 versus the 800+ the Hotel Ukraine wanted) but there's so much that is grim about it. Reception behind the tiny window, the shaking to a halt life, required to press the door close button before the life will move, calling the lift you press a mechanical button that pops out when the lift arrives (up or down, it doesn't know the difference), a hard bench seat (like in a caravan) around a table in the room, three hours of hot water per day, ...

Luckily I'd arrived during hot water hours though it took a while to flow through. I headed out to wander the streets looking for something to eat. I'd taken a look at the GPS before heading out and had gone in the vague direction of the only eating establishment nearby (excluding the "antisushi" place almost next door -- I couldn't figure out what they were selling) but even then I only found it by chance as I'd gone up a side street towards some neon lights (a pharmacy -- always a queue into the night in ex-Soviet states) and only then saw the dimly lit lights around the corner up a side-side street.

Hotel Krym is pretty grim.

Currently at lat/long: n44 36.159 e33 30.897

Hotel Krym, Sevastopol, The Crimea, Ukraine

Wednesday, 05 October

Breakfast was in the Zeppelin Restaurant -- a perfectly preserved 80s monstrosity. Breakfast served/orchestrated by a woman dribbling tea from her pot everywhere. Even the locals were bemused by the surroundings and the chopped spaghetti and frankfurters.

The LP was a bit short on things to see and do and I failed to find the one outdoor attraction as I rolled through the same old streets as last night. Attempting to get out of Sevastopol and down the coast road I ended up in dead ends and so just gave up and followed the main road to Yalta. It's not such a bad road winding through the hills with the odd rare glimpse of either the Black Sea or white-walled villas in villages below. I did find a sign to Balaklava which did have a large hotel (which I guess was open) and a big harbour full of expensive yachts and an ugly factory blotting the one end.

I tried to find the palace where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin looked so pleased to be in each other's company. There was a big sign (including in English) off the main road which I followed then nothing, even Russian/Ukranian speakers seemed to be left on their own. The GPS gave some hints but then got confused in the winding streets. The was some car parking a long way out so I gave up and battled the non-existent signage to work my way back up to the main road. No obvious palaces from the limited views on the way up.

I tried entering Yalta but got lost again. I found a sign to the centre but there was nothing to see in the end. A poor morning's work.

I took from around 1pm in Yalta until sunset at 18:23 to reach here (where I'd stopped for coffee on the way down yesterday by coincidence). At least the wind was such that it wasn't much of a struggle.

I have managed to spend the best part of 3000 ding-dongs while I've been here (EUR360?) and it'll be more still as I'm either going to be possibly another night here before Moldova and certainly have to traverse more Ukraine after Moldova.

Speaking of which, entering Moldova looks like a pain. Crossing the pseudo-independent Transdniestr (Eastern flanks of the Dniestr river) invites scams left right and centre and the map doesn't show any roads from the recommended southern crossing north/west of Odessa. Should be fun.

I tried the establishment's "speciality" of pork legs which turned out to be, I guess, pig's trotters enveloped on fatty goo in a bread-crumby ball covered in mayo. There was more meat in the borsch. Hmm, perhaps I should have stuck to the chicken.

Currently at lat/long: n46 43.180 e32 34.861

Motel Kurin, Cherson, Ukraine