Coming true...

I had a dream, that there one day... might be a cheap flight from Stockholm to Kiev.
Since the end of 2010, the dream has come true. Now, I can get to Ukraine for €30 one way (bus tickets excluded). That's what I am about to do later today.

Wireless

I turned out, I can connect to the Internet in Denmark. Right now, I am sitting in a department of Copenhagen University, where my computer automatically connected to the eduroam network. This it the wireless network that I used at the KTH in Stockholm, as I still was a student. I was able to use my old account, saved on my compter, despite being at a different university in a different country, and despite me having finished my education one year ago. Nice...

Night Train

The night train from Stockholm to Malmö is very convenient. It starts its journey after 11 p.m. However, boarding begins at 9 p.m. Thus, one may have time to fall asleep before the train starts to roll and shake. Also, the scheduled arrival time is shortly after 6 a.m. However, one may stay in the car until 7 a.m.

Dnepr

This used to be the view from my window as I stayed in the city of Dnepropetrovsk in Ukraine for a few days.

Odessa

I am back in Odessa now... This time at winter...

Minsk

Kiev

Black Sea

Odessa

Chisinau

Chernivtsi

Slovakia

Tonight, my journey to the eastern Europe continues. I will leave Prague and wake up in Slovakia tomorrow. My plan is to make a short stop in a town called Michalovce before I cross Ukrainian border to find myself in the Transcarpathian city of Uzhgorod.

I want to spend some time in Slovakia for a few reasons. For the first, I have never visited the country before. In order to say I have been there, I need more than just travelling through by bus. Some hour in a small hole at the Ukrainian border will do. The second reason is my euro coin collection. Since Slovakian just recently joined the EMU, their coins were still rare in Germany as I lived there. I only have one of them, I don't remember which, however. Tomorrow, I therefore intend to be busy buying ice creams, biscuits and other cheap sweeties until I die or collect all the eight Slovak coins.

PS
What kind of collector are you if you don't know what coins you have, someone may ask. Let me explain myself. In my collection, I have one coin from Slovakia, and one coin from Slovenia. One of valor €2, one of €1. Both are rare. Since I mix up the countries, I mix up the coins. Sometimes, you just need to visit a place on order to stop confusing it with others. At least that's what took me to learn the difference between Bucharest and Budapest. I also know that people asking me how's life in Switzerland have neither been there nor in Sweden.

PPS The photo is from the Prague city. I am proud of my new camera being able to make night pictures.

Packing...

Packing for my trip to Eastern Europe. I am about to visit Czech Republic and Ukraine, and maybe some other countries as well. Leaving in 6 hours. Needs to get some sleep...

Prague

Prague turned out to be a really nice city. My first visit to the Czech Republic may become one of my best experiences of the year. But now I am back home: Full of impressions, but obliged to get back to normal life again as soon as possible...

Away

I am off for Prague, having extremely nice time. Will be back next week. It turned out, however, there is civilization and internet in the Czech Republic as well. At least I have a very strong feeling that of being online at the moment... If you can read this post, and you are not me, then I was right %))

Heat

I have been flying between Frankfurt and Stockholm at least 20 times in the last few years. Every time I noticed a considerable difference in the weather. I estimated the temperature to be in average about 5 degrees higher in Germany. This time, Sweden turned out to be warmer for the first time. And much warmer. I was able to take off two layers of clothes at ones. Nice. The north seems to give me a great welcome home.

By the way, I found a good slogan for the cheapest European airlines. Check it out:
Ryanair -- if it fits.

Back from France

It took two days and 237 km to fulfill my old dream to make it from Darmstadt to France by bike. Sleeping under a bridge, loosing a bag and staying with one foot in each country -- this is not a complete list of my brand new adventures.

Summer-1

Back to Darmstadt now. It is really warm over here. I could walk out of the plane in a bare T-shirt.

It seems I have got lucky this time as well. The volcano ash increases again the day after my flight.

Clouds

Now that most of the flight in Europe are canceled due to a volcano ash cloud from Iceland, I feel lucky having chosen to fly three days ago.

I hope the cloud disappears when the times comes for me to fly back.