Back to Kiev

My Caucasus trip has come to an end. In truth, I didn’t get to see much of Yerevan-I was there 48 hours and had to do two laboratory visits, visit the Environment Ministry and write up my work, so a late night’s work, no meals out and no sightseeing. Pity. Yerevan is said to have the most lively cultural scene of the three countries.

Back to Kiev with Armavia and, fair play to them, they provided me with a virtually new A319 after the rickety old A320 two days earlier. And back to what passes for normality in my peripatetic life; Victor our driver at the airport, Kyryl waiting to let me into the apartment and, best of all, the news that Marcella has decided to do some pasta for us this evening.

Marcella is from Bologna and denies the existence of Bolognese, so we are greeted with the smell of basil when we arrive and sit down to conchile with a tomato and pesto sauce, washed down (in part!) with a bottle of Georgian red Inessa had given me, and with Armenian apricots for afters. Did you know, the botanical name for the apricot is prunus armeniaca? And, one more guest at the meal. Ilia, Bulgarian hydrologist and my boss two years ago in Eastern Ukraine. It’s a small world, this consultancy business.