14 June 2009 Sumy, Ukraine

I stayed an extra day in Sumy because I needed to catch up on blog entries and find out how to get out of the city, always a challenge. I also needed to get my documents in order to leave Ukraine and enter Russia. I will be crossing the border between Sumy, Ukraine and Kursk, Russia. It’s only about 31miles/50 Km to the Ukraine/Russian border and then another 120 miles/183 Km to Kursk. I worked most of the day updating my blog and also tried a few other things to get Matilda working. No luck again. I went downstairs to reception and asked her to help me plan a route out of the city. We were talking probably 15 minutes when this guy comes up and she asks him about a route out of the city. He goes on about how simple it is to get out of the city and scribbles something on a piece of paper and leaves. So we continue looking at the map on the internet and came up with kind of a plan. She wrote it down on a piece of paper for me with bridges and streets written in cryllic. The guy comes back and starts telling her how to get out of town and this time she won the argument. She then drew me another more correct map. She then told me the guy really didn’t know for sure how to find the road to Kursk, Russia. He just drove around till he found it. I then told her that people say it’s easy to find the road because they live in the city all their lives, speak and read the language. Then I said, I drive into the city for one day, don’t really understand the language nor do I read cryllic. Finding roads just became much more difficult. I think it just sunk in why I’m asking for directions. Anyway, I had a small sketch which I could follow to get me to the Kursk road. I went to bed early so I could get up early and leave with no/very little traffic.