The Wild East

"Another ‘rest’, another puke for MT"

Uzhgorod, Ukraine.
I awoke around 8.30. I was still dressed and hadn’t even taken my trainers off. My throat was totally dry. I tried to remember the events of the previous night.
Luckily I hadn’t drunk my own-brand cola the previous day (it had been too disgusting). It tasted OK at the moment though. I lurched uncertainly over to the bathroom and had a huge sh*t. Taylor remained in an unconsious state, his own-brand Ukrainian bottle of cola is empty.
A few hours later.
I enquired how Taylor was feeling. “OK” came the gruff reply. I felt like sh#t, but lied and said I felt Ok too (MT was lying as well). However, Taylor did seem to be operating on a meagre 10% of his usual efficiency – I was ready before he was for once.
We wandered over to the hotel opposite ours and bought 1L bottles of fanta each. Taylor immediately began to take massive gulps of it. Big mistake.

We left the hotel for the bus station. The day was hot and humid – the worst weather for a serious hang-over, although I was (very) slowly recovering with each step taken.
MT announced that we should stop for a rest. We sat down on a rock. Taylor leaned back casually and vomited skillfully behind the rock we were sitting on.

We walked a bit further down the road. Another ‘rest’, another puke for MT. This carried on sporadically.
On about the 5th puke, Taylor had emptied all the lemon fanta from his stomach.
I was too busy feeling very paranoid (as I often do on a hangover). I was continually looking out for our ‘friends’. Only this time I imagined they would have all the Uzghorod mafia with them.
I did manage to persuade Taylor that we shouldn’t walk through the town centre in case we met them. Taylor sat down for a prolonged rest in a park.
I continued to the bus station alone. Without the support of Taylor I felt even more paranoid. I was convinced that police the entire police force was on the lookout for us too. Or maybe there were going to let us get to the border, then suddenly surprise us...

On my return, taylor was sitting in exactly the same position as I had left him, only there was now a large pile of bile at his feet.
It had to be another night in Uzhgorod - taylor was in no state to travel or deal with customs officials.
Puking on one of them really would get us in trouble!!

We checked back into the Svitanok and even got the same rooms.

I really wanted to get out Ukraine. I was even considering walking to Slovakia. Every time I left the hotel room I checked up and down the corridors, making sure that Fish and his 12 mates with baseball bats weren’t waiting for us.
I felt desperate to get out of Uzhgorod. I think there can be something very depressing about provincial towns in the former Soviet Union. Our entertainment was a black and white film. Dinner was bread and ham from the local shop.

Hopefully tomorrow would be better than today.

Back to Main Page