Gunnar Rundgren på resa / on tour

"And I say to myself, what a wonderful world", he sings Louis Armstrong.

And I say to myself after more than two month on the road (in countries with perhaps not the best reputation), that human beings are friendly and helpful. I really have no reason to be angry at almost anybody I met. A few clerks in railway stations have been rude, but otherwise even border police has been nice and helpful. Nobody has stolen anything from me or tried to take advantage of me in any significant way (the bicycle story from Crimea I see more as a joke). I have got free food and drinks from people I never met before and probably will never meet again. I have got so many smiles. I hope I also given my smiles back.

In the same time as people are so nice, the world is so messed up. How is that possible? I mean it is clearly people that mess up the world, we can't blame something else for the wars, the poverty, the discrimination and the environmental degradation. So why is that? I refuse to accept that it could be the acts of a few evil individuals that could dominate all the rest of (us) the nice people in the world. Shall we blame religion (or too little religion), politics, capitalism? Or is it just the old observation that power corrups that comes to play?

Jag funderar en hel det på varför världen är så bedrövlig när människor är så trevliga. På mina två månaders resa har jag bara mött trevliga människor. Till och med Ukrainsk gränspolis och polsk trafikpolis har varit hjälpsamma.  Men om alla människor är trevliga och snälla varför finns det så mycket elände, krig, svält, diskriminering och miljöförstöring?

Keeping car makers alive
I hear that the Swedish Government has decided to put a lot of money into the car industry. There are some reason for the government to invest its money in the development of new and more efficient and sustainable transportation systems, but I really don't see why the tax payers money shall be used to keep the production of Volvo and Saab alive. Of course I understand the short term importance of the car industry for employment and the many contractors that are dependent on them. However, to put money in obsolete and environmental technologies (the car), industries in general decline (the car industry) with foreign owners (Volvo and Saab), seems like a very bad idea.

Subsidising fertlisers
The Economist reports that the Indian government subsides chemical fertilisers to the value of 23 billion dollars per year. That is another example of completely senseless use of money. Chemical fertilizers are an environmental hazard and if anything governments should tax them.

Jag har aldrig bloggat förut. Jag vet inte om det finns några skrivna eller oskrivna regler för hur man bloggar som jag brutit mot. Kanske det har blivit lite för mycket för folk att följa. Det blev mest engelska också. Jag måste erkänna att jag inte har följt någon annans blogg tidigare - bara högst sporadiskt kollat Valdemars och Lenas. Det kanske blir mer i framtiden. Fast det tar ju rätt mycket tid.

Man påverkas ju en del av att man bloggar, eller på annat sätt rapporterar vad man upplever. Flera gånger har jag kommit på mig sjålv med att uppleva saker genom ett sorts filter, dvs när jag upplevt något så har mina tankar i det ögonblicket varit hur jag skall berätta om det på bloggen. Jag vet inte om det är en vanlig känsla some de flesta har?

En lustig sak med en blogg är ju att slutet ar det man läser först. Det måste ju påverka läsaren enormt. Det går kanske inte att skriva blogg-deckare då?

Jag kanske kommer rensa upp bloggen lite - men samtidigt så år väl lite av poängen med en blogg att den är opretanciös och en ögonblicksbild?

Tja, God Jul och Gott Nytt År och all det där.

Så nu är jag hemma. Min cykel är parkerad i Turkiet. Planen har varit att flyta runt lite i Medelhavsområdet, hitta något vackert ställe att stanna längre på och kanske skriva något. Men det är lite oklart när jag åker ned igen.

Bloggen får vila ett tag nu.

So now I am back. My bicycle is parked in Turkey.  The plan is to move around a bit in the Mediterranean area, find some nice place and stay a longer time, i.e. a couple of month. Perhaps write something. But it is a bit unclear when I will go down again.

The blog will rest for a while now

My final destination was the rural centre of the Bugday Association, which is the leading organic NGO in Turkey. There I had agreed with Victor Ananias that I could leave my bicycle and some stuff for a while.
You can read more about Bugday at: http://www.bugday.org/eng/

I was very well recieved by Victor, his partner Güne şin Aydemir and others at the centre. When I arrived, tired from the long trip Victor had organised a ilttle party in their small round house


Victor frying Falafels for the crowd.

Next day we had a nice walk in the area of operation which is a village on the slopes of the Kaz Mountains towards the Mediterranean Sea. It is an olive growing area. Apart from organic farming there is a lot of activity oriented to ecological building, and Victor himself has designed a number of such houses apart from his own.



This is one of the houses that they are presently constructing. It is the Mediterranean you see in the distance.





The new building for the centre is progressing quite well. Still to make are the solar collectors on the roof top some interior work and the sanitary facilities. Here you see Victor, Güne şin and me in front of the building.



I was very impressed by the work and even more by the spirit of the people I met. It was also nice to see that they interacted very much and well with the "normal" people in villages in the area. 

Going home
The 14th December, we took the olives harvested on their farm to the oil mill in Edremit and after that I took a bus to Bandirma where I took the ferry to Istanbul. Next day I slept long and I bought some typical Turkish things for Christmas (can't disclose here what that is). I also got a very nice basket filled with all sorts of nuts from the area, olive soaps and other things from Victor and his friends. Flight home to Sweden was without drama and I finally arrived Karlstad at night, where Kari met me and picked me up.

At home it is a bit like a postcard with new snow everywhere!


I am happy to leave Margareta, the bike, in good hands. 

I have now travelled from the Baltic Sea, to the Black Sea and then further to the Mediterranean Sea which I arrived to the 12 December. Contrary to common perceptions, rain was pouring down when I reached the Mediterranean Sea!


I also reached Asia. At least geographicallly Turkey on the easter side of the Bosporus is counted as Asia. Of  course this lacks all kind of meaning and relevance. Only lines drawn on a map by people like me that like to classify and catagorise information with the idea that the world will make more sense in that way.


11 December
From Istanbul I took the ferry to Bandirma on  the other side of the Marmara sea. It is a modern quick catamaran ferry and the whole trip takes less than two hours. There is a nice view, but a clear disadvantage is that you are not allowed to go out (guess that has to do with the speed of the thing).

From Bandirma I headed southwards. The first stretch was not so intereseting. It was a bit lilke being back on the plains of Ukraine. Fields were very big and then there were a number of very large chicken operations.


When I came to the town Gönen the landscape changed and there were gradually more and more mountains, Gönen itself was a pleasant town of 50000 inhabitants where they sold tractors on the main streat, They also had a pedestrian street. From Gönen the road started to climbed quite a lot and I was very tired when I reached the small town of Balya after a 102 km ride. In Balya I found food and a  very basic hotel for 8 Euros. It appaeared to be more like a community or municipal centre having some rooms, But there was hot water and a bathroom and heating, the most essential things (OK, a bed is perhaps even more esssential but that is somewhat taken from granted, it is only once, in Mozambique, where II stayed in a hotel that didn't even have a bed!!).

The mountain area was very beautiful and I was surprised of how green it was.


Twice I went into a standard village cafe - where they don't serve coffee but tea. Both times I were not allowed to pay. First time it was the manager who hosted me and next time it was another guest of the cafes - see picture. 
 



12 December
After Balya the road was a bit up and down for another 50 km and after that a long slope started towards the Mediterrannean Sea. I actually broke my previous speed record and came up in 59 km per hour - and the speed limit was 50! Weather was OK all until I actuyallly reached the Sea, then it started to rain. Victor at Bugday offered to come and pick me up by car this final stretch of some 30 kilometers. That was of course a nice offer, but being stubborn, childlish and macho in combination I just  found that it would not be a stylish arrival to the final goal to be driven and have the bicycle in the trunk of a car, so I declined and subsequently got quite wet.....

But I did arrive - after 113 km - to the final destination where I will leave Margareta - the bike - for a while as I am going home for Christmas and New Year. In total we did 2662 km and the total time I spent in the saddle was 165 hours.

Jag tyckte jag skulle komma till Turkiet i god stil och Margareta fick en rejal overhalning i Ukraina, sa nu skiner hon!
Jag lyckades fa med cykeln, jag fick tom leda den forbi alla sakerhetskontroller och apparater {ramen kunde ju vara fylld med sprangmedel, sa mycket for den sakerheten} direkt till baggagevagnen. Flyget till Istanbul gick utan missoden.

Jag var i Istanbul 1971 med familjen, och mindes egentligen mest lukterna - tyckte att det luktade sotaktigt skit mest hela tiden. Och att de tutade hela tiden/
 Men det ar intressant hur mycket man kanner igen nar man val ar dar. Ocksa en detalj om hur teet smakade. Teet i Turkiet har en alldeles unik smak-jag vet inte varfor. men jag har inte kannt den nagon annan stans, och jag har da druckit te i valdigt manga andra lander.

De har slutat tuta bilarna, och det luktar inte skit langre. Istanbul ar faktiskt en mycket trevlig, intressant, livlig och vacker stad.

Har ser ni utsikten fran mitt hotel, Nu skall jag till ett turkist bad- hamam och fa skummassage, inte skum massage alltsa! hoppas jag/
t

You can see that I gave Margareta a thorough cleaning before leaving Ukraine. wanted to arrive in style in Turkey/


Now in Istanbul, here you see the view from the hotel roof top restaurant for breakfast.
 
I spent the 10th in Istanbul, mainly wandering around and going by tram. The tramline number 1 is a a very nice and cheap way to move around and it also stops at most touristic hot spots, So I went with it from one end station to the others. They have also a metro line in Istanbul. I didn't really visit any of the touristic monuments even if I passed them. I have seen them before and they are really great. I find the Sultanahmet (Blue) mosque in particular beautiful.

I was here 1971 with the family and it is interesting to note how I remember some things well, how other things are new (like the tram-super, and that the cars no longer blow their horns constantly). The smell is not the same. Interestingly Turkish tea has a very unique flavour which I immediately recognised 37 year later. It is interesting how strong memories of smell and taste are - for me at least.

I focused on people and houses this time and got a lot of nice shots of derilict buildings. 

 
fish mongers/



People fishing at the Galata bridge.


The tram, quick, slick,clean and cheap.


They were really cute - but they were meeowing miserably, like if they were looking for somebody to adopt the whole family - they do look like one family don't they ?

I did also go to a hamam and got a foam massage (with the foam from an olive soap), that was quite nice, then I also cut my hair (no picture provided for these two events).

My earlier memories from Istanbul were very nice and I must say that this very brief visit reconfirmed my feeling that Istanbul is one of the most interesting and pleasant big cities of the world (mind you that I am a bit of a city hater......) Can strongly recommend a visit.

Have to take an early evening today. Have a ferry boat that leaves at 7 in the morning and have to get there with bicycle and everything, I am heading accross the Marmaris Sea to Bandirmas and will try to roads of Turkey. The 15th I have to be back in Istanbul for a flight home.

Simferopol 8 December,
Hej, det har ar mitt sista meddelande fran Ukraina. I morgon tar jag flyget till Istanbul. Margareta - cykeln fick svetsas idag! Det har varit ett konstigt gnisslande ljud och jag tycker den har kannts konstig den senaste veckan. Jag trodde ljudet kom fran styret eller sadeln och den konstiga kanslan fran det nya bakhjulet. Men det var en spricka i ramen, och nar den blev lagad sa forsvann oljudet och cykeln kandes helt normal igen. Det gick mycket battre att cykla. Jag har last att en vek ram gor att man tappar mycket energi sa det ar nog inte bara psykologiskt att det gick battre att trampa. Svetsningen kostade 5 kronor.


I ovrigt sa tog jag mig fran Gurzuf till Simferopol idag, Forst cyklade jag 20 km till Alushta, sen "fuskade"jag och akte buss uppfor de varsta bergen. Det var da jag sag sprickan i ramen - nar jag satt och holl i cykeln pa bussen. Jag hade tankt att besoka nagra beromda marmorgrottor, men nu prioriterade jag att hitta en verkstad. Nar jag val hittade den sa fixade jag lite annat pa cykeln ocksa. Sen var klockan for mycket for marmorgrottorna, och inte hittade jag nagot hotel i bergen heller sa jag rullade vidare till Simferopol.


Here you see some of the highlands in Crimea, unfortunately you can see some garbish at the road side as well!

Today I went back from the South Coast to Simferopol from which I will take a flight to Istanbul tomorrow. I had planned to say up in the mountain, but something happened that made me change plans. I saw that there was a big crack in the frame of Margareta (see picture above). I have had the feeling that something was wrong with her for a week or so, but didn't find any problem, but today I saw it. This meant that my priorities changed and instead of trying to reach the marble caves in the mountains, I had to find a workshop that could weld the crack. Which I did, and I got it fixed for fifty Eurocent, and I took the opportunitiy to fix a few other small things as well. It was actually quite a difference after the crack was fixed.
So I progressed to Simferopol, where I have surveyd three different cafés. One of them was a really sophisticated African Speciality Coffee place, http://www.kofein.biz/ compared to them Starbucks and those guys look like amateurs. Unfortunately I didn't like at all when I started to take photos of the interior, so I can\t show you how fancy it was. They have a handful of cafés in Ukraine, but I think they could export their concept beacuse it was really cool. Of course I fear that in Sweden the cup would cost 10 Euro as opposed to 2 Euro in Simferopol.

Anyway, time for me to go and eat some place. My last picture from Crimea is of the special red Yalta onion. I have been told that it has a unique taste, and that even if you grow it somewhere else it will not taste the same. I get sick from eating onions so I have not tried them, but I have five in my bag and will bring to Turkey and perhaps home. People in Ukraine are not so very happy about having their picture taken, so the woman who sold them plainly refused to pose.


I have been on the road for eight weeks, I have quit using snus - the Swedish tobacco, I am quite fit I believe, I moved more than 2400 km by bicycle. That is more or less the same distance as from home to Rome by road.

I have said if before but it is worth repeating:
Ukraina is a country well worth visiting. There are many things to see - but they can be a bit hard to find!
Where to go will depend on your interest. You may get some ideas from my postings
In the off season many things are closed.
I don't think there are any reasons to be afraid for travelling in Ukraine. I think the risk of getting robbed or mugged is less than in most other countries.
People are very helpful and friendly
Food is interesting and hygiene seems to be satisfactory - at least I never got sick
Hotels are very varying in standard from very good to really shitty places. Relationship between price and quality is quite weak. But in most smaller towns there is simply only one place to stay - if any, so your choice is rather limited.
It is only in Kiev and Yalta and a few other toursit hot spots where you can count on people speaking English, but the more expensive hotels and restaurants you visit the bigger the chance. The knowledge of other foreign language is even more limited, but a few person speaks a bit German.
The tourist sector is not well developed and if you travel indepdently you need to see the fun side of problems, if you can't laugh about them go with an organised group tour.
If plan to travel independently, try to learn some Ukrainian or Russian first:; get some Ukrainian friend; or hire a Ukrainian interpretor for your trip.
If you go to "normal" places it is very cheap in Ukraine
If you go to the four-five star places in the few tourist hot spots it is not really so cheap anymore.
To go by bus or train is an interesting way to meet normal people and it is very, very cheap.
It is possible to go enjoy a bicycle vacation in Ukraine in November!

Den har bilden har jag some bakgrund i min telefon. Tagen fran kontoret. Jag borjar langta lite hem nu!

I have this picture as "wallpaper" in my telephone. It is the view from my office. This is how it normally looks at this time of the year. Now I start to get a bit home sick.  

Here you see the Southern part of Crimea.
Simferopol - the capital of Crimea - the wine bottle
Sevastopol - the ex-Soviet fleet base - the water bottle
Bahkchisaray - the "capital of the Crimean Tartars - the grapes
Yalta - the famous resoirt - the point of the key
Gurzuf - where I stayed longest - point of knife
Sudak - Swiss army knife (thanks ITF!)
Feodosia - tea bags
Bolshoy Canyon - the canyon where I camped - point of pen.

I have now done quite a lot of touring, cycling and trekking in Crimea. After passing over the mountains to Yalty the 3 December, I have had my night quarters in Gurzuf some 15 km East of Yalta. From there I made excursions to many other places. The weather has been pleasant with day temperatures between 14 and 19 I believe, night temperature perhaps five degrees lower. Sun almost all the time. On the south coast of Crimea the commercial agriculture production is grapes. It has a very nice climate and in protected places you find olives, sharon fruits, organges, palms and in a few places even bananas!


Gurzuf
I stayed in a pension style of hotel where I have been the only guest for five days. The manager has made my laundry against a small fee, Cleaning of the room and making the bed doesn't seem to be part of the deal. But I got a very nice room (two rooms actually) with sea view for 12 Euros per night so I will not complain. It is located on the main street of Gurzuf, Leningradskaja. It is the white building to the left in the picture.





It is good to be a goat in Gurzuf!!!! A human being almost risk falling of the streets. The streets of Gurzuf are very steep, as a matter of fact in many places there are stairs and no streets at all. I believe I should be in pretty good shape after 2300 km bicycling, but I must say it was quite an effort to walk up and down those streets. A big advantage is that there are very few cars in the older parts of the town, it is simply difficult for them to drive in those steep narrow streets and there is very little parking space.



Here you see a combination of stairs and strett. Also note the paintings on the walls. Most houses along the main street had some kind of art on the walls.


Gurzuf is between these grapes and the "bear mountain".
Grapes is clearly the dominating agriculture crop in the area. Other fruits and vegetables are mainly grown in small plosts.




The sea front was not so attractive in my opinion. There were beaches, but they were mainly caged in. You can see the dacha of the author Anton Checkov at the sea front. All in all Gurzuf was a very pleasant place to stay. But if you are into partying this is just too off season - most bars and clubs are closed, also most restaurants. I believe it is only in Yalta where there are enough tourists also during low season to allow for all the fun to take place. I am just happy if it is a bit more quiet.

Livadya

In the Livadyia palace in the outskirts of Yalta the victorious countries of the WW II met to discuss what to do with Germany in particular and the European map in general. Stalin, Roosvelt and Churcill were the guys, and the border of the Iron curtain was in a way drawn there as well as adjustments of a lot of borders in Europe. The palace was built as a summer residence for the Czar, just a few years before the revolution.

A walk to Nikita
I took off for a walk to Nikita, supposedly some 10 km from Gurzuf. I realised that the coast line is really not made for walking. There are geographical challenges, there are steep cliffs and deep gulleys here and there. But more disturbing I found that som much of the beach front is restricted behind fences. But also behind the beach front there are fences everywhere and nobody seem to think about how can a person walk/go by bicycle/ride from A to B. I think it would really add a lot of value to tourism in the area that you can walk around (in the mountains there are marked tracks etc). I ended up in a place where I had to jump over an elecric fence and then found myself surrounded by security guards shouting in walkie-talkies to some command center. The boss came and soon things cooled down. They checked my passport and showed my out from the estate. It was little chateau style building with a wonderful garden.....

I continued and reached a natural reserve where the only remnants of the original vegetation is.


From there I progressed to Nikita Botanical Garden. Who needs the Amazone when there is Nikita? In Nikita there are twenty six thousand different spcies and varieties grown. It was established some two hundred years ago to collect all plants that could grow in Russia. It is a truly fascinating place and very popular. When I visited Livadyia the place was empty, Nikita was full of people. It has a collection of 2000 varieties of roses.

Of course December is not really high season for roses....But some where still flowering.

A trip to the Wild Coast
The coast stretch from Alushta to Sudak is consider the Wild part of the coast. It is a lot less developed than the Alushta to Sevastopol stretch. It is a bit hard to understand why as it is really beautiful. However it looks dryer than the rest and more deforested. The road is really hard. A stretch that is no more than 50 km as the craw flies take four hours for the bus. I took a trip for some distance along the coast up to a town called Ribache. There the beach was a lot better than in Yalta or Gurzuf and the best of all, it was fully accessible!
 
There are not many hotels there. But in the high season there must be quite a lot of tourists as there were caf'es all along the shore. However not one singel place was open neither along the shore or in the town centre. There are some disadvantages with off-season tourism......

I will leave the coast stretch tomorrow and get back to Simferopol to catch a plane for Turkey. All in all I find Crimea very beautiful and worth while to visit.

Nagon  fragade mig varfor jag bemodar mig att aka hela vagen till Svarta Havet utan att bada????? Och det ar ju en ganska relevant fraga.

Sa jag tog mig i kragen och doppade mig idag. Det sags att det ar trettongrader, men det kandes kanske lite varmare. Jag har inte sett nagon annan som badat. Annars ar ju ryssar och ukrainer beromda for vinterbadning.

Someone asked my why I took the pain to go all the way to the Black Sea without bathing in the Sea once I reached it. And I guess that is a valid point. So today I pulled myself together and jumped into the sea in Gurzuf. It is claimed to be 13 degrees Centigrade, and I would have guessed perhaps fifteen from how I felt it - perhas I have got adjusted to more cold than before.

Jag hade nog raknat med ett samhalle dar mannen var mer dominanta och kvinnorna undvikande. Men mitt (forvisso helt amatormassiga) intryck ar att kvinnorna verkar ta for sig. Man ser ganska manga kvinnor i ledande stallningar, tex premiarministern. Kvinnor man moter pa gatan verkar mindre radda and kvinnor i Sverige. En ensam kvinna i morkret ser inte orolig ut, byter inte sida av vagen eller pa annat satt signalerar att hon kanner sig hotad. Pa barerna ar det mycket tjejor och kvinnor som verkar ga ut tillsammans i grupper. Pa det mer chica kafeerna ar det definitivt en majoritet kvinnor. En baksida av jamlikheten ar kanske att det ar ganska manga kvinnliga alkolister pa parkbankarna och att kvinnor roker mycket (men det gor det ju i Sverige). Visst ar det en del reklam som ar sexistisk av en sort som inte skulle accepteras i Sverige - men inte varre an vad det ar i sag Italien.

My amateur view on gender issues in Ukraine is that it doesn't seem to be so bad. OK, there is quite some exist advertisments, but not more sexist than they are in e.g. Italy. Ukraine has a woman prime minister and a number of other leading women. Women I meet on the streets don't seem to be as afraid as women are e.g.in Sweden. Even if they are alone and it is dark (street lights are either missing or very feeble in Ukraine) they don't look in the ground or change side of the street when you meet them. In bars and cafees there are plenty of women and they behave in a "emancipated" manner. In the chicer places almost all clients are women. One draw back with the equality is that women are also rather frequent as alcoholics on the park benches.



Young women taking each others' picture in Nikita Botanical Garden

Vissa uttryckte tveksamheter vad galler toaletter i Ukraina. Jag har ju varit i mer an attio lander och hade inte alls nagra hoga forvantningar vad galler toaletterna. Pa det stora hela sa tycker jag det ar helt OK. Har och var ar de grisiga, ibland ar det bara hal i golvet modellen. Spolningen ar ofta defekt - rormokare maste vara ett farmtidsyrke i Ukraina!!! Toalettpapper finns ofta men inte alltid. Pa "hotellet" i Uman sa tror jag matronan hade en linjal och matte upp exakt 42,5 cm toapapper per gast, Det var en patetisk lite remsa dar i alla fall, och nar jag bad om mer, sa fick jag en lang svada men inget papper! Min guidebok varnade for att toalettpappret skulle vara sa grovt att det ar traflisor i det. Men det har nog battrat sig sedan dess. Jag tycker att det haller en utmarkt kvalitet. Det ar mycket starkare an det svenska och saknar perforeringar, Man skulle kanske kunna anvanda det som rep om man behover evakuera rummet.......

Nar jag cyklade sa var det val inte manga toaletter i sikte. Men jag svettades for det mesta sa mycket att det blev valdigt fa kiss pauser. Och det ar valdigt lite trafik pa de flesta vagar och man ser kilometer at bada hallen sa det finns goda mojligheter att slippa bli uttittad om man ar kanslig for det! Toalett skrack borde inte avskracka nagon fran att aka till Ukraina.

I have been asked by Eugene to write a piece for the Newsletter of organic farming in Ukraine, so here it is:

Eugene Milovanov asked me to write down some of my impressions from five weeks in Ukraine for the newsletter of organic Farming in Ukraine. I saw some copies of the newsletter and I think it is a very good initiative and send my best greetings to its readers.

I have had the pleasure to go by bicycle through Ukraine from 2 November to 9 December. I crossed the border from Poland and came to Lviv and end by taking a flight from Simferopol to Istanbul. The trip has been a holliday trip, and my reflections are purely those of an amateur! Before saying something about farming let me just say that I love this country and the people in it. I don't know why but Ukraine hasn't got a very inspiring image where I come from. Why would you go to Ukraine? was a question I got from many. That I also planned to go by bicycle AND in November made most people think I suffered from some mental disorder. But as I said I think Ukraine is great, food is good, landscape is fascinating and the people are really nice and helpful. If only I had known the language!

When you go by bicycle you get a good feeling for what is going in in agriculture. Ukraine is truly a very agrarian country. Fields, field, as far as the eyes can see. You have even tucked away your villages into valleys so they are not seen so easily! Farming is a strange mix of almost susbsistence farming - people keeping a cow and a few chicken - and very large scal industrial farming. The field sizes are almost like the US praries! But here and there on those huge fields you see somebody with a scythe cutting grass for his or her cow... That combination is unique and I doubt that it will continue so long. My understanding is that most of Ukraine was steppe before it became farm land. I guess it is a bit too dry for forest? Still I would believe that a bit more forest in the landscape should be beneficial for all and in particular for wild life. It would surely provide better wind breaks for the cyclists!
 
Trying to follow the ecological origin of the land, it surprises me that there is not more cattle for beef and sheep grazing. I mean a Steppe is made for grazing isn't it? Most cows I saw were dairy cows that are taken in during night and kept individually by farmers. I would belive that a kind of ranching farming (say 200-1000 cows in a unit) would suit the conditions quite well. I am aware of that there is less food produced with that kind of farming than by growing wheat and corn which is fed to animals as animal feed, but I still think an increase of cattle ranching would make sense. Ukraine has so much agriculture land that it can afford that. it would increase bio-diversity a lot. Also I believe that such an extensive land conversion would be interesting from a carbon sequestration perspective and that Ukraine should lobby for that agricultural carbon sinks should be taken up in the the post-Kyoto negotiations.

When it comes to organic farming I visited Dr Eugene Milovanov and his colleagues of the Organic Federation of Ukraine. I also visited the biggest organic arable farm in the world in the area around Chaplinska. Apparently all organic products are produced for exports and there is not yet any organic market in Ukraine. I did see a few imported organic products in the shops, e.g. baby food. The kind of crops that are mainly grown will not be the basis for the development of the initial consumer market for organic. I mean consumers don't eat sunflower, wheat and rape seed, they eat processed products from those. It is mostly easier to start the organic marketing with products that have no or very little processing between the farmer and the consumers, I think mainly on fruits and vegetables. They are also the products where most pesticides are used and consumers are often weary of that, and if they are not they can easily become weary about it, if they get the information. I think the organic market has to be seen in the context of the food market in general in Ukraine. There is actually very little "branding" in the Ukrainian food market. Milk is milk, meat is meat and there are almost no real brands. Most brands are in the beverage segments (vodka, beer and juice) and in chocolates. In such a market with low diffrentiation it is hard to market organic. On the other hand I think it creates special opportunities for the use of an organic label as a marketing brand for all product categories. That would be my most important recommendation, to get such a brand established and to see it mainly as a marketing brand and not as a certification logo.

On the production level I have not seen enough to have any real recommendations for how to improve organic farms in Ukraine. I think organic farms in Ukraine should go in the forefront in creating more biodiversity on the farms -  that is really neeeded. So think a bit beyond "no chemicals", think how can this piece of land that I am responsible for be a better living environment for people, for animals, for wild life? How can it be more beautiful? This doesn't have to be expensive.

I want to finish by thanking Eugene, Genadij, Alexander and Segej and others for taking well care of me. For those that can follow English you can read about my trip in Ukraine on gunru.blogg.se

Dear Minister of Tourism of Ukraine

I saw in the papers that Ukaraine has spent some millions on a spot to be put on CNN, something like the Incredible Indian or Malaysia, truly Asia.

It is of course nice for the self-esteeem to put such advertisments, but let me suggest that it might be a bit premature. Don't misunderstand me. I have spent a month in Ukraine, and I have enjoyed it. I will recommend to people I know to go to Ukraine. It has some quite remarkable places to visit. The big part of the country that is an agriculture landscape has its own beauty, but is perhaps a hard sell on its own. But still there are plenty of places to see, and also the history and culture has tourism potential.

The limits for tourism is more on the level of organisation and information. Things are just not well enough organised for people who don't speak the language, in particular not as so few Ukrainians do speak any other foreign language than Russian. Also the information available is not at all sufficient. Take my trip to the Chufut-Kale. I believe it is a truly remarkable place. I read about it in two different guide books, I start the rather taxing climb to reach there just to find a locked gate!!!!


And note that even here there is no sign - not even in Ukrainian - that tells when this gate will be open. Is it closed for the whole winter, will it open at ten or????  And if it would have been such a sign it should of course be at the parking place already so that people don't have to climb one hour to meet a locked gate. I also wanted to progress to the Tepe Kermen caves, and there was not one singel sign to show the direction. OK I had bought a good map and had a compass so in the end I found them, but I didn't make the final climb up to them. I was simply afraid of that there would be another gate there as well! This was not at all the first experience of this kind that I have had.

Also I think you have to see Ukraine with the eyes of the foreigners. What is unique for Ukraine? The Carpathians are nice, but not particularly unique, the same kind of nice mountains can be found in most European countries. What I though was very spectacular in Galicia was the deep river valleys in  particular the Dnister. Some rafting, fishing and other water related experiences could be developed there.

Culture I already mentioned as a good selling point for many parts of Ukraine. Which of course means that Kiev, Lviv and other cities are important. My favourite place was Kamyenats Podilsky. That spectacular cliff, all those cultures and religons in one single place!!!

As for the BIG tourism spot Crimea, you should realise that the beaches of Crimea are not unique. The whole Mediterranean is full of the same or better. And the beach front of Yalta is not very special or interesting as such - I mean it is nice but I don't know if it is so much different from Rimini, Monaco or Nice? What makes Crimea a good sell is the landscape, the flora, the mountains and the cultures that are mixed here. With those things in place the beach and the sea is of course an added value. But there is also a big problem with accessibility to the beaches and shores. It is not only the topography that is challenging, but companies, private persons and hotels seem to have the right to fence of the beaches. I find it ironic that a former Socialist country now seem to go so far in allowing people to restrict other peoples access to the beaches and to other nice places. In general it is very hard to "take a walk". You end up in fences, barking gods and signs of no access everywhere you go. I really hope that there could be some thoughts about this when the yet not so developed parts of the Crimean coast (East of Alushta) is developed.

I suggest that the millions could be better spent on improving information and perhaps some language classes for people in the tourist sector. They also need to understand that there is not much point in having English web sites or brochures if no single person can speak or read English......Or German, or French or Spanish or any other language of possible interest. Key communication centres, like railway and bus stations should have some signs in English and the staff could be trained in at least some basic ideas on how you communicate with people who don't understand the language, such as writing down figures on a piece of paper instead of shouting them again and again.....

It seems to me that most of the tourism is oriented to organised group trips and not independent travellers. I realise that crazy people like myself that prefer to bike on their own for five weeks in Ukraine is not and should not be the target group for investments in the Tourist sectors. But I believe that e.g. Germans coming by car could be an interesting target group (and note that they are not always keen on English, they surely would expect some information to be in German!). But again, information needs radical improvement.  If I compare with your neighbour Poland, there most towns/bigger villages have very good information signs of where to find hotels, post office etc. And all cities seem to have a Tourist Information office with very helpful staff, they even call hotels and ask if they have rooms. Something like that is what you need as an independent traveller.

Areas for improvement
Here are a few areas where I think things need to be improved to make tourists happier.

Garbage: If you don't do something about the waste management tourists will be angry. It is quite scandalous here and there. I believe also the normal Ukrainian would appreciate it.
Plumbing: There is work to do in Ukraine for all plumbers in Europe for five years I believe!!!!!!. Tourists want water, running water, hot water, toilets that flush properly, faucets that are not leaking all the time, warm water from the warm water tap and cold from the cold water tap and not the opposite.
Disabled people: The main reason for Ukraine to improve conditions for disabled people must be to help its own disabled people and not the tourist. But it is quite obvious that there is almost no consideration of disabled people in the development of housing, tourism etc. I am aware of that it is difficult and it will take a lot of time. But today, even simple things like crossing a street is almost impossible for a person in a wheel chair as the pavements are so high. At this stage I would recommend that you ensure that your tourism information  makes clear that Ukraine is not developed as a tourist destination for disabled tourists.
Vegetarians: There is plenty of vegetarian food in Ukraine, but for foreigners it is always difficult to get the right kind of food. Perhaps you could assist the tourism industry by introducing some kind of signs that can be used on the menus for vegetarian food. But consult with the vegetarians first, because they will tell you that vegetarian food shall not use meat broth or animal fat in the cooking...

This is just some friendly advise, I wish you all the best. Now I have to figure out how to get out of your beautiful country - there is no place where I easily can get information about neither how to get here nor get away.

Yours truly,
Gunnar Rundgren

Riga - Yalta was the official target for the trip. So I can now announce that I reached Yalta by bicycle. I was actually here already some days ago on a scouting trip. So I have now moved 2375 km by bicycle. The shorterst route possible from Riga to Yalta is 1975 km. I surely haven't taken the shortest route, as I have made some 500 km by bus or train as well.

I stayed three nights in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea and stayed in the hotel Ukraina, a Victorian style hotel, clearly the finest hotel I stayed in so far, price 50 Euro. I scouted the Southern Crimea and went by bus to Feodosia, Sudak, Yalta, Gurzuf etc. I had an afternoon in Yalta and saw these people dancing under Lenin's supervision.


After Simferopol I drove by bicycle to Bakchisarai, some 35 km away. It was the capital of the Crimean Tartars nation.
You can see the interesting rock formations that guards the city from above.


There I visited the Palace of the Khan, a fascinating place. On the picture you see me, Pushkin and the Fountain of Tears. Pushkin wrote a famous poem about that fountain. It was built by the Khan court as consolation for his grief over the death of one of his concubines. Her loved her a lot, but it was not answered by her. 


Reminds me of the words of Souleimane the Great: "I ruled the univers but I was a beggar at your door". Love can't be commanded or controlled. 

The following day I went to the ancient cave cities. They are high up in the mountains and really quite unique. The one I visited, Chufut-Kale was inhabited only a hundred years ago, then only by Karaim Jews - a special sect of sorts (Karaim Jews "Jews of the Crimea -- who call themselves the descendants of the true children of Israel, i.e., of the Sadducees -- reject the Torah and the Pentateuch of the Synagogue, reject the Sabbath of the Jews (keeping Friday), will have neither the Books of the Prophets nor the Psalms -- nothing but their own Books of Moses and that they call his one and real Law" ). I also hiked further to another cave city Tepe-Kermen, but concluded that the guys that built that place didn't want any visitors! It was on top of a mesa mountain with steep sides - it is the one on the picture


But I enjoyed the hike anyway, and as you can see the weather was nice.



In the afternoon that day I went to Sevastopol to fix a  new wheel to my bicycle - see separate posting

Accross the mountains
The next day I took off on the small road between Bahkchisarai and Yalta that crosses the mountain range. This is not the main road to Yalta. It goes from the gentle fruit-growing landscape into the rugged mountain range. It follows the Belbeek river and the valley gets more and more narrow. It was really warm, I had to take off the jacket, the cap, the gloves and the long johns. Also the road was climbing so it was a bit heavy.

 

Much of the fruit plantations are in a neglected shape. Here you can see one of the biggest clematis fields I ever seen, but in reality it is an orchard overgrown with clematis!

My goal for the day was the reach the Bolchoy Canjon. I did so and got a refreshing bath in the small stream that runs through the canjon.  I raised my tent for the first night of camping in Ukraine. I was a very nice spot. The night passed well.



Next morning I set out up the canyon. I walked one hour in the bottom of the canyon which was full of nice pools of water. The sides were very steep and rugged.



At around nine, it was high time for me to take off for the real crossing of the ridge.
 
I had some 60 km to go, and I knew most of that would be very rough. The first two hours I could harldy bike at all. I moved 12 km leading the bicycle all the time, climbing from around 400 m to around 1000 m I think. Then there was a stretch of less than 10 km on a plateau where I could bike now and then. Some snow had fallen during the night. Finally I reached the top of the pass 1209 meters, and shortly thereafter the edge of the range with the full view over Yalta.



22 km rolling!
The trip down the slope was truly amazing. For 22 kilometers I just rolled, didn't have to spin the pedals one single time. Mostly standing on the break instead. The descent was from 1200 meters to about 100 meter above see level on that stretch. It was also a very beatiful landscape and there was little traffic on the narrow road. With a mountain bike and no load the biking would have been even better.



I had booked a place in Gurzuf  some 20 km east of Yalta. it is nicer and cheaper, In will make a separate posting about it. This is how it looked when I arrived around four in the afternoon.


I stay in a pension style place. I have two rooms, and all you need (water boiler, heating, kitchen ware etc and even sea view for 12 Euros per night. I don't know what the place costs in high season but I am sure it is a lot more. I celebrated that I reached the "final destination" with a very nice meal in an restaurant at the sea side.

Now I have to figure out how to get out of here. The ferries to Turkey are all cancelled because of Idd (end of Ramadan), so that will not work. In the railway station they looked at me as id I was an idiot when I asked about trains to Istanbul and the same at the bus station. There seems to be some flight.

Added Later: I have now booked a flight to Istanbul from Simferopol the 9th December and a hotel for Istanbul for the same night. After that I will go to the
Bugday Association for Supporting Ecological Living
Kaz (Ida) Mountains Centre for Research, Education and Implementation
Bahcedere Koyu, Kucukkuyu, Ayvacik, Canakkale, Turkey

Where this part of my trip will end.

... or the story about the Ukrainian mafia

There are a lot of stories about the Ukrainian Mafia. I have met the true Ukrainian mafia!

The story is like this. If you look at the picture below you see Margareta'a back wheel on arrival in Crimea. It just didn't look good. and I realised I needed to fix a new wheel. I was staying in Bakchisarai but there was no bicycle shop there, so I had to go to Sevastopol by bus. I left my bicycle outside a cafe. I "told" the manager that I would come back in the evening. I managed to by a new wheel in Sevastopol, even if I realised when I came back that it was one inch to small...


Come evening and I realise that the bicycle is gone!!!!????? Everybody had told me I couldn't leave it outside, and it has stayed with me in my room, in hotel lobbies, once even in the kitchen of a pension. And it is true I have never seen a bicycle parked outside. Anyway it was dark and late and not much to do about it, so I went to bed. Next morning I went down again (the hotel was like a 15 minutes climb up the hill and I then saw my bike inside the cafe - I had almost expected that.  Of course it was closed and no opening hours posted, so I just had to hang around. After an hour or so, the manager comes and I thanked her for taking care of my bicycle, and she laughead and said (remember that I don't really speak the language) and signed that I should give her a kiss on the cheek and pay her a bottle of Crimean champagne from her own bar. I felt it was almost a joke but obeyed and got my bicycle back. So now you understand how dangerous the Ukrainian mafia is and I here show you the picture of the GodMother (the cafe manager).



Jokes aside, there is perhaps a Ukrainian mafia, but I don't think tourists hjave anything to fear from that mafia. They are inte robbing their country or big companies and not mugging tourists in the streat.