Kyiv to Lisbon

And so ended our southward trip from Helsinki to Kyiv. Today we started our trip towards home, although with a 12-day ‘layover’ in the Azores.

Caught our taxi to the airport at 7am. We found out yesterday that there are actually two airports on Kyiv. We arrived from Minsk at the smaller airport in town. Our flight this morning was from the larger airport about 45 minutes from the centre. Luckily the hotel staff were on the ball last night when we booked the taxi cause at first we asked for the wrong airport.

Went through security etc and had a quick breakfast at the very busy restaurant. We pushed off the gate on time, but then had to wait 30 minutes for clearance from some country (I couldn’t hear which one over the speaker) to fly through their airspace.

Three hours later we landed at Schiphol (Amsterdam), which we’ve flown through a lot. I didn’t realize how often we’ve passed through until I was looking at my passport stamps! Got another Schiphol stamp, probably our last stamp of the trip as we’ll be in Schengen for the remainder. (Maybe we’ll get a stamp leaving the Azores?)

We had enough time between flights to grab some lunch. Conveniently, there was a device charging area across from our gate, and free wifi, so I was able to post my Chernobyl pics. I took almost 700 pics yesterday (I think the most I’ve taken in a day) and used the last flight to edit my favourites.

The flight from Amsterdam to Lisbon also boarded somewhat on time, but then had a 90 minute delay to get a take-off slot. This flight was also about three hours. Used the time to catch up on my blog. (Flights are great for this!)

We landed in Lisbon around 6pm. More bad news, Heather’s luggage didn’t make the connection in Amsterdam and was on the next flight, arriving around 10pm. The baggage people suggested our best option logistically was to come back around 10:30pm to pick up the bag. (An aside from Heather: to friends and family who patiently endured my “lost luggage” years, yes, this is the first time anything’s happened to my bags since meeting Eric in May 2005. I’ve had a good run of my luggage arriving with me, so I wasn’t too bothered with the delay...although I’ve been told many times before that my “delayed bags” would arrive on “the next flight” - and ended up without my bags for weeks sometimes!)

When we booked this trip, we had debated just continuing on to the Azores (another 2.5 hours), but we preferred to break up the travel. Plus dinner in Lisbon is never a bad thing. With the flight delay and having to go back to the airport to pick up Heather’s backpack, we had only a 2.5 hour window for dinner.

We hoped to get into Taberna da Rua das Flores for dinner. They don’t take reservations, and the line up can be up to two hours, but we had originally figured if we got there at 6pm, when it opened, we’d get in. Our chances didn’t look so hot at 7:45pm on a busy Thursday night, but the restaurant was just around the block from our hotel, so we dropped by. They did have availability for two people, lounging on cushions on the stairs, so we took it!

It’s a tapas restaurant, we had the coriander with clams, sardines, grilled prawns, and then calamari. Everything was cooked perfectly. Had espressos and chocolate mousse for dessert. And we were back at the hotel just in time to meet our driver to go back to the airport! Couldn’t have planned it better :)

We had to wait about 30 minutes in line at the check in counter. Finally it was our turn. They went to the back room to search for Heather’s backpack (Heather - yes, folks, this was when my luggage anxiety really kicked into high gear) and about five minutes later they wheeled it around in a cart. Yay!

Took the taxi back to the hotel (we’ve spent more time with our driver than at the hotel!) and went to bed. The NBA finals game 6 was starting at 2am, and we had to catch a taxi at 6am for our flight to the Azores, so it didn’t look like we’d get much sleep tonight.