Cold and Wet Day

Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2014--Kosice

Unfortunately, today proved to be a cold and wet day.  I had planned to go to the area where the botanical gardens and the zoo are located on the outer edge of the city.  I had also planned to go to an outdoor dance performance tonight.  I threw all of those plans out when I arose.

I could tell it was cooler than usual during the night.  The comforter, as thick as most of the others I've had on this trip felt good rather than too warm.  I was up late doing some planning/reservations on the computer, so I didn't awaken until 9:00.  When I looked outside, I saw clouds and drizzle.  Inside, the place seemed a bit cool.  I decided not to leave the apartment.  I've stayed inside all day long.

I spent most of the morning doing more planning.  I am searching for places to stay in my next few cities.  It eats a lot of time doing this, so having a lazy, rainy day was helpful in this respect.  I made reservations in Lviv and Odessa.  I requested a reservation in Batumi and am awaiting a reply.  I made lists of possible places in Kiev.  I still have to follow up and complete the process.  Within the next few days, I hope to have reservations in all the cities I will be visiting for the rest of the trip.

I also spent part of the day reading.  And I made a few phone calls.  The day still passed too fast.  There are so many other things I could do if it were longer.

Tomorrow, I leave Kosice and enter Ukraine.  I'll take an afternoon bus to Uzhgorod in the mountains just across the border.  I already have a reservation at a hotel there.  The weather forecast is for the same weather as today, so it is good that it is a travel day.

It will be more of a challenge for me starting tomorrow than the past portion of this trip has been due to the use of the Cyrillic alphabet in Ukraine.  For the entire next month, none of the places I will visit will use our Roman western-style alphabet.  Georgia and Armenia have their own alphabets.  So communicating will become a bit more difficult.