An Error in Planning/Must Adjust My Schedule

Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014--Odesa to Kiev

I forgot to mention yesterday that two people came to the tram stop and spoke to me in the local language.  I explained I speak only English and am from the USA.  Immediately, the woman looked panicked.  She quickly said, "Ukrainian!" and pointed to her and her husband.  Then she said, "Ukranian, no Ruskii, Ukranian!!"  I guess she was afraid I would think they were Russians and wouldn't like them. 

I have an unexpected problem.  Today, I was writing the airline to check on my flight schedule and to ask when I should be at the airport on Friday.  When looking at my reservation, however, I noticed it had a different date--Sept. 17 instead of Sept. 12.  Sept. 17 is the day I had scheduled to travel from Georgia to Armenia.  As I have thought about the situation, though, I think I know what happened.   I know I was in a bit of a panic because Ukrainian Airlines had no flights available on Sept. 12, and I was worried about how I could get across the Black Sea to Georgia. I checked, and Ukrainian Airlines had nother available for days before or after Sept. 12, either.  In my rush, I found DniproAvia.  At first on Kayak.com, it had no seats available either.  But when I went to the airline's own site, it showed I could fly there by going from Kiev to Kharkov and then to Batumi in Georgia.  Thinking about it, I believe that I realized at the time that the only date I could book that flight was for Sept. 17.  I quickly booked the ticket, and I guess I forgot about it being for a different date and never adjusted the dates on my itinerary.  I've been following the itinerary and am just lucky that I looked at my ticket today rather than showing up at the airport on Friday and being told I wouldn't be flying until Wednesday.  What this means is that I must stay in Ukraine for 5 extra days and then shorten the length of my visit to Georgia and Armenia. 

Based on that information, I quickly asked for my reservation in Batumi to be adjusted to a different date and for only 1 night instead of 3.  I will also stay in Tbilisi for only 1 night instead of the 2 I had planned.  That way, I hope to only have to cut 2 nights off my planned stay in Armenia--giving me 7 days instead of 9.  It's not a disaster, but it would have been so much better if I hadn't made that mistake of forgetting to adjust my itinerary at the time I booked the ticket.  Now I must decide what to do with 5 extra days in Ukraine.

I will leave for the train station in about 15 minutes, so I will finish this post after I arrive in Kiev this evening.
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It was a long trip even though I was on a fast train.  It took 7 hours rather than the usual 12 hours or so.  That's why the ticket was so expensive when I bought it last week--3 times the cost of any of the other tickets I have bought here in Ukraine.  Unfortunately, we were delayed by two emergency stops.  One related to a drunk who was walking across the tracks.  He made it fine.  But later, we stopped again for about 10 minutes and a man from the train went along the entire exterior of the train before we started again; I have a feeling that they thought we hit someone or something.

Sergey, the owner of the apartment here, picked me up at the airport.  He's a nice man, and he speaks English well, but with a strong accent.  On the way to the apartment, we talked about the situation with Russia.  It was interesting hearing his stories and ideas.  Most interesting was his telling about friends who live in Crimea and business customers who live in the disputed area near Russia who used to talk openly about the good and bad of Russia and who now seem afraid to talk on the phone about Russia at all.  Apparently Russia already has its secret service working to monitor who is a "good" citizen and who isn't in these areas.

The apartment here in Kiev is wonderful.  It's probably the biggest I have rented so far and is very clean and well located near the center of town.  Sergey told me I can have it for 5 more days if I want to stay in Kiev for all 10 of the days until my flight.  I said I would do some research to see if I want to do that or if I want to travel elsewhere.  I would enjoy going to Kharkiv for 2-3 days.  I just checked the train schedule, and it is only a 4 1/2 hour trip there.  So I may leave here to go there on Friday and return to here for 2 more nights before leaving for Georgia.  Tomorrow morning, I will work on planning it.  It's sad, if I do that, that I will have to come back to Kiev to catch my flight which will go through Kharkiv, but that's how airlines are today.