Ukraine: Trip Three

Ukraine, winter of 2013 to 2014—the nation is in uproar. Each day brought more news of demonstrations and violence and even deaths. Riot police battled with the people on Kiev’s main square—the Maidan. Soon, other cities across the nation saw protestors on the streets and government buildings occupied by the people. The clashes in the capitol city grew in size and the violence got more intense.
What will happen next? How is the general mood of Ukraine’s citizens, already burdened with poverty, a dilapidated infrastructure, decaying industry and utter corruption?
To find the answers to these and other questions and to be witness of the newest developments too, I returned to the Ukraine at this time—impromptu and in the dead of winter.
A trip to the Crimea was also planned, wanting to make the best out of this tour. Thus I went on another road trip, this time from Kiev directly to Simferopol. The mid-winter season would make this journey a somewhat adventurous undertaking, being in a country already fraught with bad roads. Another very memorable place visited was a former secret submarine base by the small Crimean town of Balaklava.