1 {scene: The lobby of the Palast-Hotel in Kiev}
1 Ginny: Curses! They're going to break into my room. Fortunately I have the orichalcum with me.
2 Ginny: This makes it imperative that I get out of Kiev and back to Moscow as soon as possible.
3 Ginny: But all transport links are cut by the weather. Still, better here on the plains of Ukraine than in Athens.
4 Ginny: At least it's a steppe in the right direction.

Much of Ukraine is covered by the wide, treeless grasslands known as steppes.

My original plan for this strip involved Dr Ginny Smith disguising herself as a nun to try to hitch a ride out of Kiev, but being turned down by various truck drivers, saying it would be all right taking a man as a passenger, but not a nun.

Then Ginny could complain about the distance from Kiev to Moscow:

That's one small steppe for man, one giant leap for manakhinya.

I decided, however, that this was just a bit too contrived - just a bit, mind - and the reliance on readers knowing that manakhinya is Russian for "nun" was probably asking a tad too much...