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Chicago has to be one of the world’s best sightseeing cities, and yesterday we saw it all. Well, we didn’t see it all, of course, and in fact only scratched the surface, but probably did as much as one could possibly do in a single day. It was chilly; even for those of us who dwell in the frozen north, the wind off Lake Michigan brought distinct nip to the air. We wandered north from the Loop into the Magnificent Mile aiming at the Driehaus Museum; this fascinating display (well, I will assume it if fascinating, because as it turned […]

This year I am in England for some difficult family reasons, but it is nonetheless delightful to be here over Christmas. Other than the wild snow and ice of a couple of days ago, the weather has been superb, and the countryside is gorgeous. Staying with friends in their Victorian cottage in Manston, a small village in central Dorset is quite delightful, and their traditional Christmas dinner of goose with all the accompaniments was simply irresistible. And so today, a perfectly clear and gorgeous Christmas Day, we headed out to visit Tyneham, a very curious spot. If you have ever […]

Well, it has been an interesting week; a collapse of a substantial UK-based charter carrier Globespan, the on/off drama of the British Airways cabin-staff strike, the looming possibility of baggage handlers on strike in the UK and the general malaise of the airline industry has made interesting reading and thinking. The Globespan collapse was notable in a number of ways; timing, of course is important, and when a company is placed into receivership it is always when the party pushing the issue feels that the business has the most money in its coffers. For an airline with bank accounts full […]

All travel must come to an end, and it is now over a week since I returned from my journey from Odessa to Tbilisi and Baku. I have missed posting, and have not done so for a couple of reasons; firstly, of course, is the requirement to work when one returns after a two-week absence, and secondly posting shifts from a daily report to a more reflective commentary, and I have been reflecting. I love to travel to unusual places, and like so many other wanderers pretend to substitute observation with understanding. Observation is simple; it is a matter of […]

What a remarkable trip. A journey like this, while simple today, would have been almost impossible only twenty years ago when this part of the world was an integral part of the Soviet Union. To travel within the USSR required a degree of planning and cooperation that left most tourists visiting only the main, keynote cities and sites. I most certainly would not have been allowed to travel on a ship as I did, and would never have been able to spend time with, and get to know Andre, Archi, Ia, Tony and Aydin as I have been able to […]

Twenty-four hours in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku really isn’t enough, but as the morning dawned grey and drizzly, and with the whole of the city to see and a day in which to do it, I ignored the elements and waited for Aydin. Aydin co-owns, among other enterprises, a travel company in Baku and our mutual friend Ia in Tbilisi thought that we should get together while I was in town. Aidyn generously offered to come and show me a couple of things and would be at my hotel by 9.00. By about 9.45 he arrived, having been gridlocked […]

In the end, it was a bit of an anticlimax, as we slid slowly and very neatly into the small port of Poti. Small the port maybe, but it is a hive of activity, with a miscellany of the world’s tramp steamers here loading and unloading a cornucopia of loads. Ships from Antigua, Majuro in the Marshall Islands, Panama and more were being emptied by a forest of rusty cranes onto a crumbling dockside; were I not in a hurry to move on, I would have loved to explore this scene of intimate internationalism. Each of these ships spend weeks […]

Well, this morning I received a note from my contact at the ferry company in Odessa: From: VLADLEN [mailto:wave_vyt@mail.ru]Sent: Mon 11/23/2009 1:34 AMTo: Max JohnsonSubject: Re: Help! DEAR MR.MAX, THE SITUATION WITH M/V “GREIFSWALD”: 1/.DELAY BECAUSE OF THE WEATHER;2/.DELAY BECAUSE OF THE BULGARIAN FERRY “GEROI ODESSA”. 2/.THE TIME OF THE BERTHING APPROXIMATELY 23.11.2009/13:00 AFTER THE DEPARTURE M/V “GEROI ODESSA”. BRGDS,VLADLEN TARASENKO All looks good, and if the Georgian immigration formalities can be completed in record time (less than about four hours) we will be off, and in Tbilisi tonight. Pondering the Georgian immigration formsSo, perhaps I will fly to Baku […]

Tension on board the MS Griefswald mounting, and I would not entirely rule out the possibility of mutiny. The Georgian coastlineWe are in a very strange position. Lying idle in the eastern end of the Black Sea, from the deck there is much to see. As I look to my left and sweep through 180⁰ I see three countries. Well, two countries and a heatedly disputed zone; Abkhazia, Georgia and Turkey. In Georgia, I can see both ports of Poti and Batumi and with a little imagination and a gust of wind can make out the clanging of the harbour […]

Now don’t get me wrong; the hours pass on board The MS Griefswald at precisely the same rate as they do elsewhere, and I don’t begrudge the UKR Ferry Company the additional eighty or so hours of my life that I have given them, as the experience has been interesting; if a touch slow. Being (at least) eighty hours late is an odd concept for those of us used to flying. Once you get on a plane and it has departed, it cannot stay aloft and circling indefinitely; it will land one way or another. Ships are not like that, […]

The problem seems to be that of small ports and big ships. It is Friday afternoon, and we have been advised that we can’t land today because there is a large gas tanker blocking our path to the single dock that can accommodate our ship. So tomorrow morning it is, as long as the weather cooperates. Gazing loningly at PotiWhich is “100% maybe”, according to my German friend Not his phrase, of course, but what the scuttlebutt is around the ship. But tomorrow, of course, is the Bulgarian’s turn at the single railway dock, so we will have to see. […]