- Mon - I planned to travel East, but suddenly when I reached the road I decided since I was nearby I should check out some of the seaside towns to the west. Bus, hitch-hiking and in the afternoon I was in Berdjansk. It was like I imagined Mariupol to be. There was a town of 100 year old buildings, going down to the beach. The first beach suburb linked to the city so I found a "komnaty" homestay for 50Hr.

- Tue - Alexi had emailed me a translation listing my sickness so rather than going to Donetsk I decided to go to the Berdjansk clinic as it's easier than in a big city- this time the doctor prescribed stomach medicine - I kept telling the doctors that my stomach is OK now, but they kept talking about stomach ache.
- I got on a bus going to Donetsk - but instead of going direct it took 3 hours. It was 5pm before I reached Alexi's house down to the beach. The first beach suburb linked to the city so I found a "komnaty" homestay for 50Hr.

- Ludhansk - I couldn't find any babushkas offering rooms - one alternative hotel turned out to be 400Hr. I left the bag at the station and went to explore. There was a bit of an old town. I went to some museums but was still sufferening from lack of concentration and needed a coffee.

- Nothing came up during the day so I went back to the station. The only night-trains were to Kharkiv so I bought a ticket.

- Kharkiv around the station wasn't impressive so I decided to spend the whole day travelling by slow train and eventually reach Odessa . I bought a electrishka ticket to Poltava, but I had a Russia event - I couldn't find the train - it turned out it left from platform 1A 400m away from the station. So nothing to do except wait 2 hours for the next train.

- When I arrived I was still weak so I hung around and then bought a 4pm ticket Kremenchuk. So I went into town which wasn't that interesting to use internet.

-9.30pm I arrived in Kremenchuk, but there were no cheap tickets only 140Hr so I thought about taking a train to another place just to sleep. But then a student Benedict who was returning from Kyev suggested I sleep in his village.

- "Wow, great I will get to see some village life and travel on in the morning." I thought, but things turned out to be more complicated.
- First the village was far so it was close to 1am before we arrived. His cousin had laid on some great Ukrainian food.
- Second the only direct train to Kremenchuk left a 7am so instead I decided to catch the 9.30 train north and change back south at the junction.

- Sat- it took all day to get out of the village eventually night-train to Odessa

- We slept breakfasted & did a quick village tour as they weren't sure what time the train left. There were some things from big soviet planning like trees planted along the railway track and arose the village to shield the village from wind. And a drainage dike stretching from Russia to the Black Sea, which has largely dried up these days

- It seems village life has been left behind by the change from communism. Before they worked their own land whilst pretending to collective farming. These days they still know how to farm, they produce enough tomatoes, pumpkins for themselves, but they are not farming properly in a business sense. They produce small quantities which they sell for a low price. They don't have machine systems to produce large volume , nor do they have the business skills to do things like specialise to in niche high price products.

- Sat Today's mission is to get to Zynamyanka to get a nighttrain to Odessa. But even when I arrived at the train junction there were no trains south for 2 hours, nothing to see, nor any water without gas in the few shops there. It was 3pm before I arrived back in Kremenchuk, but the first train to Zynamyanka was 6.5 hours later. There was another station the otherside of a dam spanning the Dnipro river, so I took a bus, but no luck just came back on the same bus to get the 9.30pm train. There wasn't even any internet place. Although at 11pm in Zynamyanka I was lucky and got a cheap bed to Odessa.

- Horrible beaches. A tram runs 7Km west to the beaches. I first tried the beach you descend to by funicular Yuck you must pay to access the beach and anyway it's paved with fat Russians. I sat in the forest, but I felt terrible my temperature suddenly dropped, so I called in at the clinic back at the top, but the doctor was useless. I went further to Arkadia beach, but that was even worse than the first beach ..tacky expensive etc

- The only other places to visit were complicated a town of canals 50Km south and some expensive catacombs 15Km away, so I could see no reason to stay in Odessa instead I should head to the ancient castle town of Kamianets-Podilskyi in West Ukraine . I tried to get night-train to West Ukraine, but all full, so in the confusion crowds, headache I said the name of the first town I could think of so I ended up with ticket to Kirograd which is further East. I should have stopped and bought a night bus ticket instead.

- Another train black hole - Pervomaisk train station listed the trains not by deparure time from Pervomaisk, but by departure time from their origin. So it took a while to work out I'd missed the morning trains west and the next trains were 12 hours later. Hung around I was sick anyway.