I am heading off to Ukraine and Poland today. My flight is less than ideal (Dulles to New York JFK, 4 hour layover, JFK to Warsaw, Warsaw to Kiev) but whatever, that’s what happens when you try and save a few hundred bucks.

We will be in Kiev from July 1-5, with a tour of Chernobyl and Pripyat scheduled for July 4. This will be the fourth Independence Day that I celebrate in the former USSR, although this one will likely be more bizarre than the others.

On July 5, Ryan departs for the Crimea, and Laura and I fly to Krakow, Poland. We’ll check out the city of Krakow and tour Auschwitz and the Wieliczka Salt Mine. I’ll be back in the squalid cesspool otherwise known as Washington DC on the evening of July 8.
As usual, I’ll take a ridiculous amount of photos with my recently acquired Canon S3 IS (yeah, I finally decided to upgrade).

Just booked my ticket to Ukraine and Poland. Yes, I am once again vacationing in the former Communist Bloc. Does that really surprise you? I swear, one of these days I will make it to Asia or South America.
On July 1 I’m meeting up with Ryan, a friend I’ve known since high school, who is traveling around Russia and Ukraine for several weeks this summer. We’ll be in Kiev for a few days, then he’ll head down to the Crimea while I’ll fly to Krakow, Poland, spend the remainder of the week there, and return to DC on July 8.

Looking forward to some classic Eastern European customer service, vodka, and quite possibly a bit of civil unrest.

I guess I should start brushing up on my Russian…