Україна

2 August 2011 at 8:27 pm · Filed under 2011 Ukraine

The Ukrainian Coat of Arms

This morning I left Lutsk in Ukraine. The weather has been exactly as predicted, rain and quite a lot of it. So I’ve done some shopping, seen yet another castle and been to a spa. A nice end of a splendid trip.

Lutsk Castle

I have divided the last ride in two parts so right now I’m not far from Warsaw. I’ll have to be in Gdansk tomorrow at 4.30 pm to get on my ferry to Stockholm. It’s less than 400 km to go so I am not in a hurry.

Lutsk Old Town

I left the Ukraine this morning convinced of that I’ll be back. I also had that feeling last year, but that was mostly because I had missed Gammelsvenskby and Crimea. I’m not sure how to point out what makes me feel this way, but one thing is the Ukrainian people. I understand that I’m some kind of UFO with my big bike and so, and that makes it interesting to contact me. But after first contact I still have been treated extremely friendly. It is easy to find good accommodation and it’s cheap. You can allow yourself that little extra without ruin yourself. For instance, my back massage yesterday was 6 € for 40 minutes. I have made contacts with people here and thank to Internet I hope to be able to stay in touch.

On the other side this country has mostly very little experience with tourists, that don’t speak any Slavic language. But my impression is that it is about to change. In the west it’s a smaller problem than in the south and in the east. One thing you should do is learn to read Cyrillic letters. It took me 10 days, but now I can. In that way you easily can understand what the signs say and more easily follow directions. And it’s quite fun. I feel like seven again going letter for letter when I read something, but it is getting better every day. For me it was the names of all the villages that I could practice while riding that was the clue. In the west they are written in both roman and Cyrillic, which made a good start for practice. I kind of missed the Cyrillic signs as I came to Poland so I instead translated the Polish ones on to Cyrillic. Then I realized how close Ukrainian and Polish are. Languages are fun and very interesting.

Sign in both roman and Cyrillic in L’viv

I will post a collection of pictures and movies, which I missed out of different reasons. But then there will not be that much more. I will as always publish some statistics.

Statistics

• Total length 5023 km
• Highest peak 1 158 m (By Yalta)
• Longest ride/day 730 km Sevastopol – Uman
• Incidents, hardly any. Two times I was close to lay down the bike. On one occasion because of oil track, on the other because of sand on the street. On both times I was able to get a grip again. I would probably not have happened too much either; I was driving slowly in serpentine.

In the Castle of Kamyanets Podildkyy there was an exhibition of the Ukrainian history. I found the story if the different uniforms very interesting.

Can someone tell me why they paint the trees white. A long the street I understand, but why they do it in parks as well I can’t understand.

The really look forward to Euro 2012. There are count downs in many places.

One UAH Hryvnia is about 0.85 kr. You do the math.

They place a lot of flowers on all kind of religious monuments, war monuments, or other kind of sites. And the cemeteries are extremely colourful, every stone or cross has a lot of flowers.

But I have never seen any flowers at a Lenin statue!

Comments

Rain in Ukraine

31 July 2011 at 6:03 pm · Filed under 2011 Ukraine

As predicted the weather has changed. Now it is gray and rain. And the temperature has dropped 20 degrees in two days for me. At the lowest I had 16 degrees today. But I’m all well, will do some shopping and relaxing while the rain passes. It is said to better on Wednesday, when I’m going back to Gdansk.

Today I had the worst roads ever, and my bike now looks like I’ve done a dirt race.

Comments (3)

Uman to Kamyanets Podolskyy

30 July 2011 at 9:27 pm · Filed under 2011 Ukraine

In Sweden red i a popular colour on houses, here it’s blue.

As I woke up this morning the sun was still shining, but I saw dark clouds coming my way. I still didn’t want to rush so I had breakfast. The waitress said she could make me an omelette. That was fine, but I didn’t get an omelette, at least not what I understand as one. It was two fried eggs with two tasteless sausages on the side.

Or why don’t you have a blue church?

I managed to get all on my bike before the rain started. Just as I drew off it started pouring. And that continued for almost two hours. The street was slippery and it was no good ride, I hade to stay very focused. Then it cleared up a bit, still some showers here and there but I could dry off in between. I also could increase speed. Unfortunately a bit too much. So I got my first speeding ticket in the Ukraine. And the same procedure as the last time, this time it ended at me paying 14 €.

On the other side of the road his colleague had al lot of cows…

I wanted to take a picture of the police officer but he wasn’t so keen on that, instead he made one of me. As you can see, still with the rain gear on.

This is how a Ukrainian police man sees me, after giving me a speeding ticket 🙂

Right now everyone is running around because of a massive thunderstorm hitting this place. I’m safe under a roof, having a beer.

The ride went on in about the same manner, some rain, some clear sky. And when in rained it poured. As I came to my first way point, Kamyanets Podolskyy, at the border to the Carpathian, it was nice and I was dry. So I decided to stop here. I directly found a very nice hotel, good standard for 30 €.

Castle at Kamyanets Podolskyy

I looked at the weather forecast for this region and it doesn’t look good. So I have decided to leave the Ukrainian Carpathian unseen. I’ve seen the Moldavian, Rumanian, Slovakian and Polish one so that is no big deal. In stead I will go north, once more visiting the area around L’viv which I found very pleasant. And I rather bee in a city when it’s raining, there are more things to do.

Some still do their wash ups in the river

I also will allow my self some time off this blog. I have archived almost everything I planned for and the remaining days I will perhaps just write some short notices. I Still will write about my final reflections of Ukraine, but that can wait until I’m home.

Getting down from one of the towers

Kamyanets Podolskyy is a very nice little town of the middle ages. It has a great history, a nice town centre and the main attraction, the castle. I felt like ten again, as I loved such castles. Suddenly the wind gusts enormously, and even me, sitting way back is getting wet. I’ll have to get out of here. Hmm nu umbrella 😦 I’ll be wet!

I’m back in my room with dry clothes.

A wedding

One thing with this city is that it seems to me to be a wedding town. Here are five, and I saw them in 30 minutes. The last one is funny, from far it looked very strange, the bride and groom were spinning and around them circled a car. And that, in the middle of the city market place. As I came closer I saw, that they were shooting a video out of the car. But they are much into taking pictures and filming. And when taking pictures, one has to pose. Preferring the woman, but I have on rare occasions also seen man posing. By posing, I mean putting some body part in an unnatural position. It’s not enough just standing in front of the thing you want on film. Or in pixels, nowadays.

I really enjoy listen to street musicians. And today I had a blast. It’s probably the best I ever heard and seen. Just listen to this, I bet you’ll understand what the song’s about without understanding it.

Not only his playing was so good, I relay liked his voice. He deserves a stage.

I spook to him, and as I thought he had studied music for seven years. I stayed on, listening to him for quite some time. And I gladly gave him a decent sum of money. I am now a fan of Russian (I think it’s Russian, please all Ukrainian people, correct me if I’m wrong) love songs, played on the bandura.

Comments

Strategic Missile Forces museum

29 July 2011 at 11:59 pm · Filed under 2011 Ukraine

Me in front of a SS18

This was actually the last “must” on this journey. I first I would visit it tomorrow but I got here well before closing so I went straight in.

There ar not som many countries having this type of branch in the military.

It’s not so much to say about it. All soviet missile bases were destroyed, except for this one which they made into a museum. Ukrainian armed forces have proclaimed not to have any nuclear weapons any more. Soviet never fired a rocket from Ukrainian soil so they were all built for nothing – what luck!

Flags are important – and nice.

It was just some Ukrainians, a French couple and me for the tour. Very nice. The guide spoke nothing with roman letters but he had a transcript of all what he said. And it was important that we followed and read the right part. He showed us several times where to read.

Just checking

The first part, in a museum with models was not that interesting but then a former soldier, who worked here, continued the tour. First outside, above ground, where he showed us the different rockets.

The guide is pointing at the command room at the bottom, where we would go later.

Then we went under ground. We were about to enter a control silo. Every launch site had a silo containing the controls. At all times there were soldiers present who could follow orders and initialize a strike. The best part was going down the 30 meters in a tiny lift.

First steps down

Instead of writing more here, please read the text to the pictures.

I wonder what kind of licence you need to drive this?

The most important thing of all, the GRAY bottom. To initialize a launch. I pushed it!

The french couple 

At the end the Rachel and Florent, the French couple and me spoke, they were really nice. Thanks for the comment, I hope I have everything right now.

Comments (1)

Sevastopol to Uman

29 July 2011 at 11:12 pm · Filed under 2011 Ukraine

He just wanted to see my papers.

Today was going to be a long and hot day. As I am turning north my back will be exposed to its heat and that warms me up more than if it’s coming from the front. So I took off early, before the sun got up so high, skipping breakfast at the hotel. Did that instead at first stop for petrol.

They were just waving to cars. Back home we use traffic lights. But I could talk to them, much nicer 🙂

And I have med close contact to the police now. Twice in one day. The first was a routine control, only my papers. No problem, took a few seconds. The other one was because I crossed the central line (as every one does).

It didn’t matter how fast I drove, my shadow never left me. I’ll never be like Lucky Luke.

I did know that the police forces in Belarus and in Moldavia can be bribed. But I didn’t know how it is here. I’ve heard so much so I decided to see what happens if I wanted a regular fine. But this officer couldn’t speak a single word English. Instead he took out a paper. And then it was all clear to me, he wanted some money.

Here is how it’s done; he writes down what he would like, and I write down what I think it is worth. It is a game, looking somewhere else, getting just so much upset that it doesn’t stand out. As I didn’t want to lose too much time I was eager to end this. He wrote 200 and I 50. Then 150 and I 75. At 100 we agreed. The officer started to look around and I gave him the money. 9 € for crossing a line – ok I think. I hope that officer did something nice with the money.

My hotel in the park. It was not as nice on the inside. But cheap 20 €

I had no idea where to sleep tonight. I just had one goal, the former Soviet Nuclear Missile Silo at Pervomaysk. Lonely Planet says it’s one of the coolest museums in the Ukraine. So I went there. I made a separate part on that.

In Pervomaysk there are no hotels. Neither my GPS nor the web could list any. So I had to go on. I have planned this part badly so I didn’t really know where to go. But I ordered my GPS to take me to a place with at least 5 hotels. The closest town for that is Uman. Lonely Planet barely mention this town. But it has a landmark, a beautiful garden from the early 19:the century. As a matter of fact my hotel lays in the garden. But I arrived here late so I didn’t have that much time. I will perhaps have another look tomorrow. The town has nearly 100 000 citizens, but hardly any restaurants and absolutely no night life. I quote Lonely Planet “…this is one of many places in Ukraine where time seems to have stopped 1985.”

Part of the park

Tomorrow I will go west, to the Carpathians. I also think I will hit rain again. It’s been almost a week without it now.

Comments

Yalta to Sevastopol

28 July 2011 at 9:18 pm · Filed under 2011 Ukraine

This is now getting a bit out-of-order. That what I write now actually happened before Balaklava.

So yesterday I decided to leave Yalta. I initially planed to stay for two days but the hotel was expensive and a bit dull, front desk didn’t do much when I asked for anything. Mainly it was filled with Russian people. But I always try to be nice, make a joke (even when it is easily misunderstood due to lack of English skills). That has brought me many advantages talking about prices are when I want to get another room or so.

That morning I had a rather miserable breakfast. They have completely missed the point here to have nice bread. It’s always dry and unexciting. And the Ukraine is the grain shed of Europe. As I had finished I got a postcard from the waitress. Hey, I’m travelling; I am the one who should be sending postcards. It was a nice gesture, and I sent a mail to the direction of the Hotel saying them that at least one in their staff knows how to make in impression. Instead of leaving having no more thoughts of that place, I left with a smile.

It was once again hot as hell. It is always a show to everyone when I put on my gear. The crowd that passes by is in shorts and bikinis. I am putting on my back cover, my black bike clothing, not leather, but still warm enough. Then my boots and helmet and gloves. And almost every time I forgot some thing so that I have to take something off. After 5 minutes in 35 degrees I am melting away and the people around me must think I’m crazy. Just before I put on my helmet, I poor some cold water over myself. When I then hit the breeze it cools me off a bit.

Livadia Palace

First stop that day was Livadia palace. A palace built for the last Tsar and his family. It is more known as the place where the Yalta Agreement was signed. So I once again walk on history soil. Unfortunately I went in to the wrong part. I ended up at a pre recorded explanation about the Tsar Family and the Yalta Agreement. And it took 30 minutes, I couldn’t leave and didn’t understand a thing. At least it was cool inside but the wax figures started steering at me, so I felt at least. Perhaps Churchill and Roosevelt felt sorry for me. But I missed the desk and room where Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin signed. You can’t get it all…

Tsar family

The park around the palace we superb, close the building that is. A bit away it really needed a gardener. That is a general impression I have so far of many things. Roads are great, between the big cities, houses look very nice downtown, but away from these parts they are in bad shape.

After that I just stopped at the Swallows nest, no way I was going to walk that way down in this heat. And I had just put everything on again.

The road to Sevastopol took me around the mountains instead of over them; so no serpentine this time. I arrived at my hotel, this time far away from downtown. I found one close to the shore. I planned for swimming in the Black Sea. I have also used this time to relax and to do some washing.

This area is more of a suburb. Lots of, as I call them, Soviet styled apartment buildings. But It’s nice to see how they now tear down the old ones and build up new ones. As I walked around I noticed that I could as well be walking some wherein the US. This new area, with broad streets, big buildings, amusement park and big hotel could have been some where in the south of US, like Florida or CA.

The beach is very rocky, no sand. But all around there is plenty of nice restaurants. And families keep swimming too late in the evening. But I don’t think you would call a night club in Sweden “Sova”!

Right outside of my hotel is the ship yard of the old Russian ships. It is sad to see them just rust away. At the same time it’s nice to see that they are not being needed.

Tonight is going to be a early one. I have one of my longest legs tomorrow. And I’m not so sure about finding a hotel. There is nothing on the big booking sites. But there is always one hotel some where. I might not get connected though.

Comments (1)

Overlooking Sevastopol harbour

28 July 2011 at 2:15 pm · Filed under 2011 Ukraine

Right now I’m in a wine-bar in the Sevastopol harbour. As I write a Russian naval Vessel is passing by. This part of Sevastopol is very Russian.

Today I went to Balaklava to se the former Soviet naval base. If you plan to go here, don’t bother this museum unless you speak Russian or is extremely interested in military history. But the surroundings of Balaklava is very nice and I had my first swim in the Black See. It will not be any more for me this time, I’m heading north tomorrow morning.

I forgot to charge my camera yesterday so I’m out of pictures for today.Therefore I “borrow” some from the web. 

There will be a second part on this. But I caon not empty my camera so it will have to wait until this evening.

Comments

Aspects on bike riding in the Ukraine

27 July 2011 at 9:57 pm · Filed under 2011 Ukraine

This post is for my fellow riders, wherever you are. There is o order, just my thoughts about my impressions and observation.

Border passing

It’s easy to pass the border. You have to be a bit brave an pass the whole queue. At the Ukrainian border you need to stop at the first booth to get a small paper with your registration number of the bike. At the other end of the border control you shall give this back again, so hold on to it.

You need two stamps on this paper, one for your bike and one for your self. Different booths so find the shortest line to start. It has never bothered me where to go first. Place this paper at a easy reachable place and drive to the other booth at the end. There some guys, often armed, will take that of you. This can be done in 30 minutes. If you go by car it will take you many hours.

The roads

If you travel between the larger cities you can ride any bike. And that with comfort. In a couple of years it will get even better. They are building modern highways at many places. If you are interested in seeing some places beside the larger roads you probably be all right with most bikes. But you should be prepared of potholes and tarmac in bad condition. When you travel further south you will notice lots of signs; “slippery when wet”. That is probably very true. Around Yalta I noticed, that it’s also slippery when hot. The first time at stopped at red light I nearly fell; my boot didn’t find any grip. The streets are full of oil and other slippery chemicals. And as it hasn’t rained for such a long time – well you do the math.

The traffic

There are three kind of traffic. The non engine one with horses, bikes and pedestrians. The tend to go well a side, but don’t’ be sure about it. Then it’s the pre orange revolution traffic with old trucks, busses and Ladas, moskowitch and so on. The travel in generally at speeds around 20 – 30 km/hour below the tempo, which the third kind of traffic uses. That would be the modern vehicles. So you will have to adept and always be prepared for anything. After over 2 000 km in the country I look out for this:

Rail road crossing.

 Take it really slow, the can ruin your bike. Hard and bumpy the are.

Porsche Cayenne (can also be a Mercedes…) 

It is probably the most popular “sports” car because you can go fast on bad roads. And the will overtake you on both sides. So keep an eye on them, the come up very fast from behind.

Vehicles that are about to overtake in spite there is no free street can be a potential danger. If you have no reason to stay close to the centre of the street stay as far right as you can. Or it can happen that you will be forced out there by some crazy over taker you meet. On the other hand, every one does so. And that you can use for overtaking by your self. Especially at low speeds I find it useful.

Speed limits (it can change, don’t quote me on this)

• 60 km/h within towns
• 90 km/h outside towns
• 110 km/h on dual carriageways
• 130 km/h on motorways

Signs and road marks

Often there is a solid line, which indicates no overtaking. Cars tend to take to the right so that you can overtake without crossing it. I don’t think it’s allowed but I have never been stopped doing this. And I have overtaken police cars a couple of times in this way. Traffic signs are frequently used. But speed limits are only produced when differ from the ordinary.

Police control

I have never been stopped here. So I have no personal experience of that. I’ve heard from other bikers and car drivers, which the police have to explain to you what you did wrong. So if you don’t speak any Ukrainian or Russian it will be hard. Not many policemen speak adequate English for this. So if the want to charge you, you should pay in local currency and demand a receipt. Then they probably will let you go without any tickets.

Safe parking

Has never been a problem for me. For the night I try to park in front of the main entrance or in a yard. Just ask, it will sometimes cost you a small amount. During daytime a practice the same procedure for short time parking. Drive as close as you can to where you are going. Be a bit strategic and find the way that doesn’t really exist. When they see you are from the west, they will understand. I lock everything but the tank bag. And I have never lost a thing. On the contrary, people tend to care for the bike making sure nothing will happen to it.

Petrol

Finding petrol is no problem at all as long you travel along the big roads. I always use 95. On smaller roads when it loner distances between the villages, it can sometime lack petrol stations. But almost every village has a modern petrol station. It’s quite amazing actually.

Comments

Simferopol to Yalta or say good bye to straight roads – hello bends

26 July 2011 at 11:58 pm · Filed under 2011 Ukraine

Overlooking Yalta

Now my holiday really starts, I will only travel around this area and the legs will be at the most 50 km. I will have time to read a book, sleep late and stay up late in the night.

Yalta and the Black Sea

Right now I’m in Yalta and the heat has struck again. On my way up the mountain separating Yalta from Simferopol the board computer on my bike read 37 degrees. Luckily for me, only for a short while, as I entered the woods it dropped 10 degrees.

Castle from the outside

On my way here I stopped in Bakhchysaray. There is an old castle, built by the last Khan who lived here. It is a sad story about the Tatars who were forced away from here by Stalin. Hundred of thousand were moved to other places in USSR to prevent national movement. Only very few returned.

The mosque

As I parked my bike, as always I’m “welcomed” by someone who either want to sell me something or want me to pay for parking. This time it as for parking in a public street. Well, I don’t really care so much, the people need money so why not. It is extremely cheep anyway.

A bit later a young man approached me speaking excellent English. His family had a café where the also sold local food. He also was the local English teacher. As the Tatar people lived here, they were Muslims. That is not generally the case any more. But they kept their Arabic names, so I think. The teachers name was Mustafa. I told him, that I know so many Mustafa because I have so many Arabic students. He was impressed. As I said salam wa aleikum he didn’t understand, he was neither a Muslim nor could he speak any Arabic.

Room in the castle

This place was destroyed by a fire and has then been rebuilt. And that is, so far as I can tell, in a very nice way. They even have restored the Mosque, which is now fully functional. At one o’clock I even heard the muadh. After me some Russian people wanted to enter but they didn’t know the Muslim customs and tradition of taking of your shoes and that women must cover them self. The door keeper was not happy. Especially as the women wasn’t wearing that much clothing anyway.

Then I had to gear up again and I must say it isn’t easy when it’s over 35 degrees. But I never compromise on security and when I get rolling the breeze will cool me down, at least a bit. Bur before I start I use to poor a bottle of water over me. When the breeze hits, then it’s nice.

Begin of gravel

Once again I didn’t want to take the easy way, but one through the countryside. I knew that would lead me to bat roads again. But my GPS didn’t say anything about gravel. Well, I could turn back, but that’s not me. I let a lot of air out of the tires and went on gravel for the first time on this trip. Hey, what a joy! But I had to look up, the road went straight through many villages and their animals have probably never seen a big bike going pretty fast on gravel. But no harm came to any hen, goat or sheep. And I was cheered on by many locals!

Serpentines

The part over the mountain was hard. I have never driven a bike, or a car for that matter, through so many serpentines in that, pretty short distance. And the road was mostly just 5 meter broad. Often even less. But it was a thrill that I liked. For you at BMW-klubben who follows me I can say that the accelerator cable did a fantastic work. I didn’t have to shift as often as I would have to do without it which made the ride both safer and more comfortable. It was also very easy to overtake all the slow cars.

I made a mistake, not booking in advance. Yalta is a crazy town when it comes to traffic. And strangely to say, the hotels are hard to find. I took me over an hour to find a suitable one. I will just spend one day here, tomorrow morning I will see the town and in the afternoon continue to Sevastopol. There I will stay for two days. I’ve found a nice and cheaper hotel there. I also have one “must” in Sevastopol, the USSR-marine base.

I will allow my self a day off from my blog. I’ll give it all to you who reads it to comment and cheer me on. The statistic tells about 50 hits per day, so there are a few. That feels nice 🙂

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin overlooks the Crimean people

To finish this up, in the west I never saw a single statue of Lenin. Here they are still standing, and that in every city as far as I can tell. At the same time all people seem very into capitalism. Some one else have to interprete this…

Comments (1)