It's 5:30 am local Amsterdam time and I am sitting in the KLM lounge while Elizabeth enjoys her second machine-made cappuccino. Our next flight does not leave until 9:25 am local time, so we've got some time to kill. It dawned on me as I was just pulling out my laptop and iPad that, although I remembered to bring 10 (count that - 10) European adapters and a transformer, they are all dispersed in different pockets of my checked baggage. As Homer Simpson would say, "Doh!"
I did remember, however, to charge everything prior to departure and I have my spare 7200 mAh battery pack to charge my phone and tablet, so there's that.
Writing my blog post
The flight was as eventful as flying first class transatlantically could be. After a few drinks, carrot soup, goat cheese stuffed chicken, and a sundae bar (trying to make the most of good food before we hit the zone), I managed to sleep a few hours.
The bar is open
I am most interested in the level of military presence in the Boryspil airport in Kiev. This will be a strong indicator of any issues we may face in the zone. On my last expedition, I landed in Kiev just 2 days after Malaysian Airlines Flight #17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine.
There was an increased military presence, of course, in Boryspil and I was stopped and asked if I had a CARNET (which I typically don't get on personal projects), a helmet, and a vest (meaning bullet proof vest). It dawned on me that he thought I might be a freelance journalist heading to the region of fighting on the eastern border of Ukraine. I told him I did not possess those articles and was heading to the Chernobyl region. He looked at me for a second, then motioned for me to continue on through the exit doors.
Catching up on the local goings on in Amsterdam