Crimea / Krim
Simferopol 28 November,
Den 27:e slog jag nytt rekord och cyklade 178 km, svag medvind, men det var anda femtio kilometer langre an tidigare....
178 km
The morning the 27 November it was nice weather. It was sunny, around zero and there was a weak wind from the North. I realise that this would be the last chance the upgrade my day trip record, as what was ahead of me was 170 km of plains and after than the terrain in South Crimea, which is the touristic part, is mountainous, and there is no chance that the day trips will be long. So I set my mind on reaching a place North of Simferopol, which would make the distance around 160 km. Unfortunately I started a bit late, around 8 in the morning. And as days are short and sun is down already at four but up already at seven (personally I think they should adjust their time zone one hour earlier) It is not so smart not to use that first hour of light. Anyway, I was in good shape and did nothing but riding my bike and take short breaks, two food breaks and two more the take in and let out liquids. Yes and then I stopped for my only shot with the camera for that day, see below. I reached the outskirts of Simferopol at around four and felt fit enough to continue into the city center and look for a hotel there. Once in the city center I ran into a Mc Donalds and suddenly felt an urge for hamburger and french fries and took such a meal before going to a hotel. When I reached hotel Ukraina I had done 178 km - 50 km longer than any day before. The total distance by bicycle is now 2218 km.
I passed the border to Crimea in the beginning of the day. There is actually a border post, but nobody checked anything. Crimea is an autonomus republic within Ukraine. I think there are many different opinions about how autonomus this autonomus republic should be and it is a political minefield. I just note the following:
-During my two days on Crimea I see few Ukrainian flags and many Crimean flags
-Russian is more common language here than Ukrainian (both of them are "official")
-I see a lot of USSR monuments and things intact, such as statues of Lenin, streetnames etc.
-I see many Mosques (this is linked the the Crimean Tartars that long time ago constituted a majority of the population here).
The Northern part of Crimea looks pretty much the same as the plains I have been travelling through the last ten days. It is almost completely flat, and irrigated with the same water from the enormous Kachovka reservoir in Dnepr - I am told this is the biggest irrigation system in Europe.
In Poland and Lithuania they sell mushroom and honey along the streets. In Ukraine it has mainly been apples all along, But here there was also quite some fish trade - here carp.
I think me story would bot be complete without showing one of these (whatever they are called in English). They are very common in Ukraine. Sometimes the side-thing is not for passangers but just a flat surface for loading, e.g hay, fish, apples or a goat (I have seen all of them)
Today:scouting
Obviously I was a bit tired today after a long ride yesterday. In addition it was very cold today. In any case I had planned to spend two days based in Simferopol scouting the Southern part of Crimea, where the mountain range, the famous beaches and palaces are. So I started today going Eastward to Feodosia and Sudak. I combined bus, taxi and hitch-hiking. As I said before in Ukraine they expect to get paid for picking you up. I rode 40 km with one guy and he had the car full all the time, as soon as one left he picked up another one. There was no discussion about the fare, everybody just gave him a bill. I don't know if there is a "fixed" rate, if you pay per km (like the buses) or if it is a bit that you pay after your ability? 
It was freezing cold the whole day. But I had a nice walk and a meal in Feodosia, I crossed the Crimean range to Sudak and there I visited a very impressive ruin of a Genoese fort. I was more inspired by the view tha the fort itself therefore I have no picture of the ruins. 
Here it is: The Black Sea! Seen from the Fort in Sudak.
Internet and ATMs
Don't think I mentioned these two things. There are many more ATMs in Ukraine than in Sweden. Even in very small places you find a number of ATMs. In most of them my card works, but in quite a lot of them I can't withdraw more than a few hundred hrivnas (divide by eight for a euro) at the time. I seem to get most money out of the Raffaisen bank machines......
In many places the Post office or Ukrtelecom have internet caf'es. Mostly there are pretty basic, sometimes there are big ques. Now is Friday evening and the youngsters seem to prefer partying as there are many computers free here. This in Simferopol is the biggest place I have been to, they have 40 computers. 3 UAH per minute seem to be the regular rate for this kinds of internet cafes. A few hotels have business centres, like hotel Ukraina and there they charge 20. In the smaller town there is no internet, forget about it. WiFi hotspots seem to spread. The toilet at the beach of Feodosia was a WiFi hotspot!
Sverige, Ukraina, Poltava och Carl Bildt
I Sverige hor vi talas om Svenskarnas nederlag i Poltava, och vet normal sett inget om andra aktorer i samma slag. I Ukraina sa ses slaget i Poltava som ett nederlag for Ukrainas sjalvstandighetsstravanden. Sverige hade en militar allians med Kosackerna i Ukraina mot arkefienden Ryssland. Men nar slaget i Poltava forlorades av de svensk-ukrainsak styrkorna sa grusades inte bara svenska stromaktsdrommar utan ocksa Ukrainsk sjalvstandighet.
I Ukraina har man givit ut minnesfrimarken over svensk-Ukrainska militar allianser. Jag ar saker pa att det gjorts med Sveriges goda minne - det gjordes ju infor kungabesoket i ar.
Jag fragar mig bara - och jag fragar utrikesministern:
- ar det verkligen lampligt att man pa detta satt firar svenska stormaktsambitioner pa sjuttonhundratalet?
- ar det lampligt att alliansfria Sverige firar militara allianser vi haft med andra lander i strorsta allmanhet?
- ar det lampligt att alliansfria Sverige som ar granne med Ryssland, firar militara allianser vilka har varit riktade mot Ryssland?
Det kanns som om Carl Bildt ar fast i den Rysslandssyn som praglades under ubatskriserna - en syn som ju senare visat sig varit minst sagt tvivelaktig. Tja, i sjalva verket ar synen ju mycket aldre, den gar tillbaks till stormaktsdrommar......och holls vid liv under kalla kriget dar vi pastods vara "neutrala" men spelade under tacket med USA. Ar det inte pa tiden att skapa en konstruktiv relation till Ryssland. Som argument emot far man val nu hora att Ryssland inte ar demokratiskt osv. Men jag tror nu inte att Georgien ar sa mycket mer demokratiskt. Och I Ukraina visade en opinionsundersokning i forra veckan att mindre an femton procent av Ukrainas egen befolkning anser att Ukraina ar demokratisk - men jag antar att Carl Bildt vet mer om dem. (Ja jag vet att jag ar stygg mot Carl Bildt har, men han ar ju ganska elak han sjalv -och jag gillar hans arroganta besserwisser stil, han hycklar i alla fall inte!). Sjalvklar finns det kjal att vara bade forsiktig och kritisk till Rysslands ambitioner pa en del omraden.
Kunde det inte vara lampligt att moderaterna svangde om sin Rysslandspolitik pa samma satt som man svangt vad galller rasism och invandring. Jag tycker de alla kommer fran samma stam - radsla for den andre......Sverige skall odla vanskapliga relationer med Ukraina, men det finns ingen anledning att irritera Ryssland i onodan - eller finns det?
Hoppsan, har det har nu blivit en politisk blogg? nej for f-n.
Big farm and natural steppe
Chaplinka 26 November,
I am now back from a day "in the field". I did not go by bike today but has been driven around by the staff of Вицва Ананда (Yes you can also practice some cyrrilic alpabeth), the biggest organiv arable far operation in the world. Basically we visited there farm and Askania Nova
Askania Nova
This is the only remaining natural steppe land in Europe, that is steppe that has never been plowed. It is a big area which was set aside by Friedrich Eduardovych Falz-Fein. I visited both the Dendrologic park (trees) and the steppe. The Dendrologic park was nice to walk in a rather beautiful. The steppe itself is vast, 110 sqkm but is managed in some different ways. Where you see me standing the grass is cut for hay every year. In other parts the steppe is grazed by cows or rare steppe animals as Przewalski's Horse, of which I saw some five or bison which I also saw (but not close enough for my cell phone camera. The place is clearly worth visiting but as with many other tourism sites in Ukraine there is little ifnormation available and absolutely none in English. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Askania-Nova
Click if you want to see the sod.
In the park there are also a number of "babas". Stone baba (kamiana baba). An anthropomorphic stone statue, 1 to 4 m in height, found in the steppe belt of Europe and Asia from the Dniester River in the west to Mongolia in the east. Commonly used as grave markers, the baby were connected with cults of the dead among nomadic peoples. Those erected in Ukraine were left by Scythian and Sarmatian tribes (see Scythians, Sarmatians) of the 7th to 4th century BC and by Turkic peoples of the 6th to 13th century, particularly the Cumans.
We also visited a vast salt lake, having a similar salt concentration as the Dead Sea. It is apparently a very popular place to go by the Ukrainians (but missed in my guide book). Next to the lake there was a new Wind park, the first I have seen in Ukraine. A bit further away there was a titanium factory rising from the mist.
OOO Vichva Ananda
Note: the dialogue about the farm was made in a mix of Russian, Ukrainian, German, English and Serbian and there may be a few misunderstandings here!!
As I mentioned this is the biggest organic arable farm operation in the world, they farm 50 000 hectares (there are farms in Australia and Argentine with more than 500 000 hectares but that is pasture. It is not one coherent piece of land but spread out around Chaplinka and in Crimea, but it is under one management. It is a fairly new operation so many things are still in a trial stage. So far they produce Wheat, Rye, Sun flower, soy, rape seed (canola) and coriander (seed) and perhaps a few more crops that I have forgotten to note. Crop rotations and fertilisation program seem to be under development. Currently there is no processing of the raw materials but it is discussed. They have no animals. All sales are for exports. Machinery was new and impressive. There are 80 full time field workers plus a lot of support and management staff.
Sergei in one of the wheat fields, this one was 200 hectares.
I visited a lof of fields, many of them with winter wheat. In one field there were hundred cows grazing. I was told that they were cows from the village that roams freely in day time. They were not concerned about damages on the crops. Apparently there was some agreement with the villages to avoid grazing the cows in crops in a critical stage.
I am now back from a day "in the field". I did not go by bike today but has been driven around by the staff of Вицва Ананда (Yes you can also practice some cyrrilic alpabeth), the biggest organiv arable far operation in the world. Basically we visited there farm and Askania Nova
Askania Nova
This is the only remaining natural steppe land in Europe, that is steppe that has never been plowed. It is a big area which was set aside by Friedrich Eduardovych Falz-Fein. I visited both the Dendrologic park (trees) and the steppe. The Dendrologic park was nice to walk in a rather beautiful. The steppe itself is vast, 110 sqkm but is managed in some different ways. Where you see me standing the grass is cut for hay every year. In other parts the steppe is grazed by cows or rare steppe animals as Przewalski's Horse, of which I saw some five or bison which I also saw (but not close enough for my cell phone camera. The place is clearly worth visiting but as with many other tourism sites in Ukraine there is little ifnormation available and absolutely none in English. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Askania-Nova
Click if you want to see the sod. In the park there are also a number of "babas". Stone baba (kamiana baba). An anthropomorphic stone statue, 1 to 4 m in height, found in the steppe belt of Europe and Asia from the Dniester River in the west to Mongolia in the east. Commonly used as grave markers, the baby were connected with cults of the dead among nomadic peoples. Those erected in Ukraine were left by Scythian and Sarmatian tribes (see Scythians, Sarmatians) of the 7th to 4th century BC and by Turkic peoples of the 6th to 13th century, particularly the Cumans.
We also visited a vast salt lake, having a similar salt concentration as the Dead Sea. It is apparently a very popular place to go by the Ukrainians (but missed in my guide book). Next to the lake there was a new Wind park, the first I have seen in Ukraine. A bit further away there was a titanium factory rising from the mist.
OOO Vichva Ananda
Note: the dialogue about the farm was made in a mix of Russian, Ukrainian, German, English and Serbian and there may be a few misunderstandings here!!
As I mentioned this is the biggest organic arable farm operation in the world, they farm 50 000 hectares (there are farms in Australia and Argentine with more than 500 000 hectares but that is pasture. It is not one coherent piece of land but spread out around Chaplinka and in Crimea, but it is under one management. It is a fairly new operation so many things are still in a trial stage. So far they produce Wheat, Rye, Sun flower, soy, rape seed (canola) and coriander (seed) and perhaps a few more crops that I have forgotten to note. Crop rotations and fertilisation program seem to be under development. Currently there is no processing of the raw materials but it is discussed. They have no animals. All sales are for exports. Machinery was new and impressive. There are 80 full time field workers plus a lot of support and management staff.
Sergei in one of the wheat fields, this one was 200 hectares.
I visited a lof of fields, many of them with winter wheat. In one field there were hundred cows grazing. I was told that they were cows from the village that roams freely in day time. They were not concerned about damages on the crops. Apparently there was some agreement with the villages to avoid grazing the cows in crops in a critical stage.
Energy efficiency
I am complaining a lot about that it is cold in the houses etc. Of course when you have been biking the whole day, you are soaked in sweat, in addition your body is really low in energy at the end of the day as it is very hard to keep the energy up, so you really feel you want a warm room and a hot shower. But I sometimes feel like a wimp compared to the average Ukrainian!!!
But of course the Ukrainians are really talented in saving energy, and they are a hardy lot. People sit outside and play games or drink, a lot of the bars still have their outside tables (in November!). Other ways of saving energy is that they travel a lot by bus, not even the farm family I stayed with had an own car. Also they do a lot of hitch-hiking so the cars are full of people. I was a bit surprised the first times I saw properly dressed ladies in the fifties waving down cars. My understanding is that hitch-hiking in Ukraine normally comes with a contribution to costs and is not a free ride as it is in most Western countries. I mentioned before that there are hardly any or very weak street lights. etc. etc. So in the end they are just better adapted to a society after peak oil.
Men playing domino.
The vodka (or gorilka as they call it here) is perhaps another secret. I guess it is in a way an inteligent use of bio-energy. Ethanol is very concentrated energy (that is why you can drive cars on the stuff) and a shot that is swallowed whole without doubt make you feel warm for quite a while. Adding new shots througout the day possibly keep you warm. I still haven't learnt how to do it without falling off my bicycle. Looking from another perspective, perhaps improvement in housing could play a role in combatting alkoholism. I wonder if it did that in Sweden?
Surprisingly there seems to be NO development of normal biofuels (I now mean other bio-fuels than vodka) in Ukraine. One would imagine that with such abundant land resources and limited own energy sources there would be an interest.
But of course the Ukrainians are really talented in saving energy, and they are a hardy lot. People sit outside and play games or drink, a lot of the bars still have their outside tables (in November!). Other ways of saving energy is that they travel a lot by bus, not even the farm family I stayed with had an own car. Also they do a lot of hitch-hiking so the cars are full of people. I was a bit surprised the first times I saw properly dressed ladies in the fifties waving down cars. My understanding is that hitch-hiking in Ukraine normally comes with a contribution to costs and is not a free ride as it is in most Western countries. I mentioned before that there are hardly any or very weak street lights. etc. etc. So in the end they are just better adapted to a society after peak oil.
Men playing domino.
The vodka (or gorilka as they call it here) is perhaps another secret. I guess it is in a way an inteligent use of bio-energy. Ethanol is very concentrated energy (that is why you can drive cars on the stuff) and a shot that is swallowed whole without doubt make you feel warm for quite a while. Adding new shots througout the day possibly keep you warm. I still haven't learnt how to do it without falling off my bicycle. Looking from another perspective, perhaps improvement in housing could play a role in combatting alkoholism. I wonder if it did that in Sweden?
Surprisingly there seems to be NO development of normal biofuels (I now mean other bio-fuels than vodka) in Ukraine. One would imagine that with such abundant land resources and limited own energy sources there would be an interest.
Gunnar the Biking
Chaplinska 25 November
The vikings did go to the Black sea and further to Istanbul. Originally they went down the river Volga, but later they changed route and went via Novgorod, Kiev and Dnepr.
I passed 2000 km by bicycle today between Nova Kachovka and Chaplinska (if you look at a map I am about 70 km SE of Cherson). In total 2040 km. 126 hours I have been sitting in the saddle. The maximum speed is still 51 km/hour. The average speed varies a lot, but when it is flat and neutral wind I normally keep a speed of 17-18 km per hour. With wind in the back in can go up to 22 km per hour and today for two hours I was down to 11-12 km/hour as I had full storm in my face. My "normal" day trip has increased from 60-80 km to around 100. I did 127 one day but then I was really tired and I fear that it was the reason that I was ill for five days after that day.
Weather has been very varying. I found it very cold in the beggining, but perhpaps I got used to it, because afterwards it has been better. I have seen some very light snow but nothing that stayed on the ground. Not much heavy rain but quite some drizzle. The last three days have been full sun most of the day, for the rest I have not seen the sun too much in Ukraine, but honestly how much sun do we see in Sweden or in Holland in November?
Margareta the bike is still doing fine, non flat tyres or any other major problems. Small maintainance things. My steer bag has collapsed so I have to look for something else (that one was supposedly a high quality "Pro" thing).
I am also doing fine, Sometimes I feel it is cold and sometimes I feel a bit lonely. I think very little about the tobacco these days so I guess I have got out of that habit. I drink a beer or two almost every evening, which I perhaps not such a good idea.... I do a lot of thinking, some of it interesting and productive, some of it just nonsense and other perhaps a bit sick (like the road burger) All in all I enjoy myself. I enjoyed Lithuania and Poland and I surely enjoye Ukraine. I am on my way to Crimea.
The vikings did go to the Black sea and further to Istanbul. Originally they went down the river Volga, but later they changed route and went via Novgorod, Kiev and Dnepr.
I passed 2000 km by bicycle today between Nova Kachovka and Chaplinska (if you look at a map I am about 70 km SE of Cherson). In total 2040 km. 126 hours I have been sitting in the saddle. The maximum speed is still 51 km/hour. The average speed varies a lot, but when it is flat and neutral wind I normally keep a speed of 17-18 km per hour. With wind in the back in can go up to 22 km per hour and today for two hours I was down to 11-12 km/hour as I had full storm in my face. My "normal" day trip has increased from 60-80 km to around 100. I did 127 one day but then I was really tired and I fear that it was the reason that I was ill for five days after that day.
Weather has been very varying. I found it very cold in the beggining, but perhpaps I got used to it, because afterwards it has been better. I have seen some very light snow but nothing that stayed on the ground. Not much heavy rain but quite some drizzle. The last three days have been full sun most of the day, for the rest I have not seen the sun too much in Ukraine, but honestly how much sun do we see in Sweden or in Holland in November?
Margareta the bike is still doing fine, non flat tyres or any other major problems. Small maintainance things. My steer bag has collapsed so I have to look for something else (that one was supposedly a high quality "Pro" thing).
I am also doing fine, Sometimes I feel it is cold and sometimes I feel a bit lonely. I think very little about the tobacco these days so I guess I have got out of that habit. I drink a beer or two almost every evening, which I perhaps not such a good idea.... I do a lot of thinking, some of it interesting and productive, some of it just nonsense and other perhaps a bit sick (like the road burger) All in all I enjoy myself. I enjoyed Lithuania and Poland and I surely enjoye Ukraine. I am on my way to Crimea.
The ulitmate street food - the road burger
This posting is not recommendet that people with a limited sense of humour, vegans or an exaggerated empathy for animals should read....
When you have tried all the other delicate street food that Ukraine can offer I suggest you have a go at the unique
Road Burger
The Ukrainian Road Burger is made from any kind of meat, but most often it is dog, cat or bird. The result is more or less the same.
It is tenderised by being rolled over by rubber tyres again and again, the occassional horse hoof add spice. The number of tenderising processes also determine how much fur or feather will be there on the end product (see picture with sample after 182 roll-overs).
It is cured by oil spill, diesel and pterol fumes as well as rubber dust
Finally it is spiced to your taste by heavy metals, polyaromatic substances and many other known and unknown things.
The summer version is baked in the burning sun of the Ukrainian steppe
The winter version is freeze dried and comes with an additional seasoning of anti-freeze agents. Normally also the most tender version as spikes and snow chains add to this.
Try them out and pick your favourite!
Made to your wishes!
I guess it is a bit sick, but what is really sick is rather all the animals that are killed on the road. When you go by bike you get a much better view of this. In Ukraine the road kills are mainly dogs, birds (craws) and cats. There is not an awful lot of other wild life to be seen, as most of the landscape is fields.
When you have tried all the other delicate street food that Ukraine can offer I suggest you have a go at the unique
Road Burger
The Ukrainian Road Burger is made from any kind of meat, but most often it is dog, cat or bird. The result is more or less the same.
It is tenderised by being rolled over by rubber tyres again and again, the occassional horse hoof add spice. The number of tenderising processes also determine how much fur or feather will be there on the end product (see picture with sample after 182 roll-overs).
It is cured by oil spill, diesel and pterol fumes as well as rubber dust
Finally it is spiced to your taste by heavy metals, polyaromatic substances and many other known and unknown things.
The summer version is baked in the burning sun of the Ukrainian steppe
The winter version is freeze dried and comes with an additional seasoning of anti-freeze agents. Normally also the most tender version as spikes and snow chains add to this.
Try them out and pick your favourite!
Made to your wishes!
I guess it is a bit sick, but what is really sick is rather all the animals that are killed on the road. When you go by bike you get a much better view of this. In Ukraine the road kills are mainly dogs, birds (craws) and cats. There is not an awful lot of other wild life to be seen, as most of the landscape is fields.
Gammelsvenskbyn
Den 23 November kom jag till Gammelsvensk byn och jag stannade dar tva natter.
Ers Majestat, jag kan rapportera att vagen some byggdes infor ert besok tidigare i ar fortfarande ar bra. Det kan man knappast saga om traden som planterades utmed vagen, de ser milt sagt doende ut. Men enligt byborna ar det inte sa konstigt efterasom de planterades pa sommaren trors deras invandningar. Att plantera barrots trad pa sommaren i Ukraina are mycket varre an att gora det i Sverige, och det ar ju illa nog i Sverige.
I korthet ar storyn den att Rysslands regering tvingade 1781 1000 'svenska' bonder som bode pa Dago utanfor Estland (det har var ju svenska omraden tidigare) att flytta till Dneprs strander. De omradena hade just erovrats fran turkiet och Ryssland ville befolka omradet med folk som inte var trogna turkiet. De fick ga de 2000 km, en stracka ganska lik den jag cycklat nu, pa vintern. De hade det svart och 1793 var de bara 130 personer kvar. Sen fortsatte livet dar och man beholl sin svenskhet. 1929 flyttade huvudelen av dess svenskar tillk Gotland, men 250 stycken flyttade tillbaks till Sovietunionen 1930. Under utrensningarna 1936-37 blev cirka tjugo av svenskarna likviderade. Nar tyskarna retirerade fran byn 1943 sa tog man med sig svenskarna och de fick stanna i Polen som jordbruksarbetare fram till krigets slut 1945. Nagra av dem sandes da av outgrundlig anledning till Sibirien i stallet for hem. Det ar ganska hisnande umbaranden nagra av dessa manniskor har gatt igenom!.
Gammelsvenskarna ar idag i minoritet i byn, Zmieyivka, det finns en grupp tyskar i byn, med en liknande historia.
Vill du veta mer kan du kolla http://www.svenskbyborna.com/
Jag bodde hemma hos Roman och Lilja som driver ett mindre jordbruk. De ar en av de fa familjer som har gjort i ordning for turister. Liljas syster bor i Sverige och hon sjalv var i Sverige i over ett ar, men nekades till slut uppehallstillstand och fick aka tillbaks (hennes syrra ar frisorska i Taby). Hennes familj tillhor Gammelsvenskarna, men svenskan hon pratated har hon lart sig i Sverige. Om ni vill hyra rum av henne sa har hon telefon +380554642414. Jag hade helpension dar och allt fungerade bra forutom att det inte finns rinnande vatten pa dagarna (det ar kommunen som inte skoter det). Lilja fodde mig med tre mal mat om dagen, vodka, ol, te. Hon tvattade mina klader.
Lilja. Roman och dottern Katarina. Som ni ser sa har de mikro och gasspis. Jag tror att deras standard var ganska mycket battre an genomsnittet. Kanske det lonar sig att hyra ut till turister.
Har ar deras hus. Jag bodde i det mindre huset till hoger.
Jag promenerade runt i byn och utmed Dneprs stander. Dnepr ar tredje storsta floden i Europa och verkligen maktig. senare passerade jag over den pa en stor dam, men jag vagade inte riskera brak genom att ta kort av den.
Jag besokte Lidija Utas pa alderdomshemmet for att hora hur gammalsvenskan later och hora hennes livsode. Hon tillhorde dem som var tva ar i Polen och darefter i Sibirien i flera ar, jag tror sex, och jobbade is kogen. Jag spelade in det hela och kommer kanske lagga ut det har om jag kommer pa hur man gor. Det var inte sa svart att forsta vad hon sade, det fanns en del tyska ord har och dar (frystyk istallet for frukost, men det kanske ar gammal svenska???) Det var ju ocksa intressant att besoka ett alderdomshem i Ukraina. Det var mer som ett sjukhus, men hon hade eget rum. Det hela gav ett inte alltfor deprimerande intryck.
Enligt Lilja var det valdigt mycket som fungerade mycket samre nuan under sovjet tiden. Vagar, vatten och annan infrastruktur skotter inte, folk hade daligt med arbete och den fria marknaden fungerade daligt. Tex sa fick de tre och femtio kilot for morotterna forra aret, men i ar hade de bara blivit erbjudna sextio, sjuttio ore. Jag tror inte att de nodvandigvist vill ha tllbaks sovjet systemet, men det ar klart att de forandringar som skett har vinnare och forlorare som man sager.
Ers Majestat, jag kan rapportera att vagen some byggdes infor ert besok tidigare i ar fortfarande ar bra. Det kan man knappast saga om traden som planterades utmed vagen, de ser milt sagt doende ut. Men enligt byborna ar det inte sa konstigt efterasom de planterades pa sommaren trors deras invandningar. Att plantera barrots trad pa sommaren i Ukraina are mycket varre an att gora det i Sverige, och det ar ju illa nog i Sverige.
I korthet ar storyn den att Rysslands regering tvingade 1781 1000 'svenska' bonder som bode pa Dago utanfor Estland (det har var ju svenska omraden tidigare) att flytta till Dneprs strander. De omradena hade just erovrats fran turkiet och Ryssland ville befolka omradet med folk som inte var trogna turkiet. De fick ga de 2000 km, en stracka ganska lik den jag cycklat nu, pa vintern. De hade det svart och 1793 var de bara 130 personer kvar. Sen fortsatte livet dar och man beholl sin svenskhet. 1929 flyttade huvudelen av dess svenskar tillk Gotland, men 250 stycken flyttade tillbaks till Sovietunionen 1930. Under utrensningarna 1936-37 blev cirka tjugo av svenskarna likviderade. Nar tyskarna retirerade fran byn 1943 sa tog man med sig svenskarna och de fick stanna i Polen som jordbruksarbetare fram till krigets slut 1945. Nagra av dem sandes da av outgrundlig anledning till Sibirien i stallet for hem. Det ar ganska hisnande umbaranden nagra av dessa manniskor har gatt igenom!.
Gammelsvenskarna ar idag i minoritet i byn, Zmieyivka, det finns en grupp tyskar i byn, med en liknande historia.
Vill du veta mer kan du kolla http://www.svenskbyborna.com/
Jag bodde hemma hos Roman och Lilja som driver ett mindre jordbruk. De ar en av de fa familjer som har gjort i ordning for turister. Liljas syster bor i Sverige och hon sjalv var i Sverige i over ett ar, men nekades till slut uppehallstillstand och fick aka tillbaks (hennes syrra ar frisorska i Taby). Hennes familj tillhor Gammelsvenskarna, men svenskan hon pratated har hon lart sig i Sverige. Om ni vill hyra rum av henne sa har hon telefon +380554642414. Jag hade helpension dar och allt fungerade bra forutom att det inte finns rinnande vatten pa dagarna (det ar kommunen som inte skoter det). Lilja fodde mig med tre mal mat om dagen, vodka, ol, te. Hon tvattade mina klader.
Lilja. Roman och dottern Katarina. Som ni ser sa har de mikro och gasspis. Jag tror att deras standard var ganska mycket battre an genomsnittet. Kanske det lonar sig att hyra ut till turister.
Har ar deras hus. Jag bodde i det mindre huset till hoger.
Jag promenerade runt i byn och utmed Dneprs stander. Dnepr ar tredje storsta floden i Europa och verkligen maktig. senare passerade jag over den pa en stor dam, men jag vagade inte riskera brak genom att ta kort av den.
Jag besokte Lidija Utas pa alderdomshemmet for att hora hur gammalsvenskan later och hora hennes livsode. Hon tillhorde dem som var tva ar i Polen och darefter i Sibirien i flera ar, jag tror sex, och jobbade is kogen. Jag spelade in det hela och kommer kanske lagga ut det har om jag kommer pa hur man gor. Det var inte sa svart att forsta vad hon sade, det fanns en del tyska ord har och dar (frystyk istallet for frukost, men det kanske ar gammal svenska???) Det var ju ocksa intressant att besoka ett alderdomshem i Ukraina. Det var mer som ett sjukhus, men hon hade eget rum. Det hela gav ett inte alltfor deprimerande intryck.
Enligt Lilja var det valdigt mycket som fungerade mycket samre nuan under sovjet tiden. Vagar, vatten och annan infrastruktur skotter inte, folk hade daligt med arbete och den fria marknaden fungerade daligt. Tex sa fick de tre och femtio kilot for morotterna forra aret, men i ar hade de bara blivit erbjudna sextio, sjuttio ore. Jag tror inte att de nodvandigvist vill ha tllbaks sovjet systemet, men det ar klart att de forandringar som skett har vinnare och forlorare som man sager.
Priamo, priamo
Nova Kachovka 25 November,
Have not had internet for quite some days.
Har inte haft internet pa manga dagar. Har foljer en beskriving av de senaste dagarna pa engelska. Jag skriver sarskilt pa svenska om Gammelsvenskbyn.
Priamo, Priamo
De sista dagarna sa har jag korsat stapp, 400 km, Priamo betyder rakt fram pa ukrainska och det ar standardsvaret nar jag fragar om vagen.
The last days I have had the ultimate steppe experience. Priamo is Ukrainian for straigth ahead, which is the most common answer when I ask for which way to take. From Uman to the old Swedish village there is more than 400 km of steppe. Vast fields interrupted by small river valleys. The main difference in landscape compared to more West in Ukraine is that fields are larger, and distances between villages even bigger. It is of course somewhat monotoneous but it has its own beauty and the colours of the sky and the fields are changing all the time.
this is the famous black soil of Ukraine.
Hurry up Gunnar, the sun is setting!!!
Now there are no horses working on the field. But strangely enough even if farming is more large scale it doesn't look as if they earn more money in this part, rather the opposite. I saw many villages where there was no running water in the houses and people collected water from village wells. interestingly I only saw men and boys carrying water.
Another difference is that I see less churches and the ones I see are smaller, and I see more monuments from the Soviet time, not only the monuments form the Great Patriotic War (WW II) - it seems as if each village fought its own key battles with the Nazis - but also other Soviet art work, cultural houses, children play grounds etc.
Play ground for kids in a small village, both a medeval fort and and a sky rocket. Bet it was built in the seventies something.
Typical piece of soviet art. What is nice is the gender balance in most these soviet things. Even the military monument has a high proportion of females featured.
Climate is slowly getting milder. I saw peaches and walnuts and the lasyt day of my trip vineyards became common. Earlier I have only seen grapes in private gardens.
House styles also change gradually as well as the colours used.
I trid this time to avoid the bigger roads as I don't like the traffic, but in the end that might be a bad strategy. Taking the smaller roads really increases the risk that you get lost: that you can't find food or any place to sleep. Roads that are marked as "roads of regional importance might suddenly be just a mud track......
I have not stayed one night in the tent in Ukraine. There are several reasons but one main reason is that there are fields everywhere and where there are trees there are villages. There are some exceptions, like the 20th I cycled alongside a forest for 5 km, but that was in the morning and since then I didn't see anything I would call a forest (OK as a Swede I might have an exaggerated idea of what makes a forest) for five days.
The center of Ukaraine
I left Uman 20 November. It was very cold and the ice on water puddles never melted. Briefly there was some powdery snow as well. I had the wind in my back and already at 14.30 I had reached my planned destination Dobroveliskovka, 103 km average speed more than 19km/hour. It was difficult to find a place to stay, the hotel had closed. But finally I asked a policeoffice that knew about a new hotel under construction. He started to call on his phone and finally reached th owner.I was the first guest of the hotel and was very well received. I had to write in the guest book and my photo was taken. Hotel was very nice and owner, Vasilij even nicer. Aparently Dobroveliskovka is the geographic centre of Ukraine.
The following morning it was a lot warmer and it was sun already in the morning, which has been really rare. If I have seen the sun at all it has been for a few hours in the afternoon. When I came to Bratske, I asked for a bar and people pointed to a house without signs or anything. Somebody opened in a night gown, it was arounf 11.30, but apparently it was open. I asked for soup and some bread and tea, which they served. Then they continued to carry in varuious dishes that I never ordered. I had a bit more and didn't bother to protest - it was all very good. In the end when I wanted to pay (now they were three ladies and a girl) they refused my money and said 'present'. One of them called a daughter and she spoke some English. I gave them my business cards which I had to sign 'autograph, autograph'. I bet I was not only the first bicycling foreigner passing their bar but the first foreigner ever since the Germans during the war. Perhaps the thought I was Robert de Niro?
It was very hard to leave them because it is really no good idea to have a heavy lunch when you are out biking, you get tired and the legs feel like led. My total distance this day was 114 km and I found a very strange 'hotel' where I could stay for 3 Euro. There was heating and a communal shower and a toilet. In the evening I found a nice bar with Armenian food where I had excellent Schaslisch (don't remember how that is spelled, but I mean those barbecued sticks). So that day was very nice.
Biking by taxi
The weather is changing a lot on the steppe and also the other experiences. The next day was a HARD day. First I was tired from two long days, both above 100 km, and then there was a drizzle and a very strong wind. After 25 km I tried to take a bus and to flag down cars to pick me up. But the bus refused and no cars stopped (there were perhaps five cars passing in one hour.....). I didn't want to get stuck in that raod crossing with five houses so in the end I continued another 35 km to Novi Bug, where I first had lunch as my experience is that it is good to take food where there is food and also that I make better decisions after a meal. Also here the busses refused to take my bicycle. I have some understanding for that as the buses on the country side normally are this kind of 20 seaters, with not enough luggage space to take a bicycle so the only option is to take the bike inside the bus. Finnally I took a taxi to reached my planned destination, Snigorivka, a distance of around 80 km. The taxi charged 0.35 Eurocent per km.
I thought it was mainly because of language problems that it always is so difficult for me to find hotels and bars, but I realise that there may be other reasons. It took the taxi driver more than half an hour to find the hotel, he asked more than ten people and they all pointed to different corners of the town (and it was no big town). In the end we took one guy with us in the car to show us all the way. That hotel was the worst so far. There was no heating, there was no running water and obviously no hot water. I managed to get an electric fan, but then at seven the electricity also went! Normally in Ukraine there are good blankets or duvets and often extra ones in a closet, but here there was only one thin blanket. Fortunately there were three beds in my room so I took the blankets from the other beds. Cost was 4 euro, so one can't expect much of course.
Stuck in the mud
The 23 November was nice and sunny, but there was frost in the morning and a hard wind, mainly in my face. I got some crazy directions and ended up trying to pass on a farm road for 7 km. It all looked ok, the raod was smooth. But how I regret that I took that road. It was without competition the worst biking so far. The dirt from the road got stuck on the tyres and followed round and in the end got stuck between the tyres and the frame, so wheels simply stopped to spin. Which meant I had to take a stick and clean up the mess. Then go again ten meters and repete the whole things. In the end I had to drag, pull, lead the bike on the side of the road in tall grass to avoid all this mud. Here and there I could cycle, but mostly not. So those 7 km took me more or less two hours and I can tell you it felt like a day!!!.
This picture was taken when the problem started, later on I was too tired and depressed to take anymore pictures, but I can assure you it looked a lot worse.
The Old Swedish Village
In the end I reached the old Swedish village at sunset. I stayed there the whole 24th as well. I write a separate posting about the Old Swedish Village in Swedish, but the main story is that 1792 1000 swedish farmers were moved from an island outside current Estonia and were forced to walk 2000 km (more or less the same distance as I now have gone by bike) to settle in this area, on the Dnepr banks, which Russia recently had conquered from the Turks. They kept their Swedish traditions over the years. But there are not so many of them left. I visited an old peoples house and spoke with one of the old ones. I stayed in a farm family where the wife, Lilja Malmas could speak good Swedish, and we had a lot of exchange about farming conditions in Ukraine and Sweden. I also got to wash my self, my clothes and my bike and have a full day of rest, just strolling in the village, so now I feel quite fine. It does make a lot of difference in undesrstanding if one can stay with a family like that and share a common language. I gave them a leaflet about organic farming from the Ukrainian Federation of Organic Farming. Read more about the village in English on
http://www.svenskbyborna.com/Historia/Historiska%20dokument/Hedman%20Zmiivka%20history%20eng%20vers.htm
You can also improve your Swedish!
The banks of Dnepr at Zmievka
What's behind?
In the cave monastry complex I saw this old (am sure she was at least 70, perhaps 80) digging the garden. I found it absurd that you have all those well-fed and healthy monks and then an old lady like her should do their gardening!
Anyway, my thoughts drifted (hey that is why I do this trip - to let my thoughts drift) to how many of the churches, castles and other wonders of the world that have been built by pure slave labour or forced labour. Think the pyramid, think the Great Wall of China, all slave work. Most of the famous churces and castles, forced labour. Even the nice park in Uman was made by the serfs to the Polish landlords. The nice city centre of Kiev - built by German prisoners of war. So as well as boycotting textiles from sweat shops we might want to boycott the wonders of the world? A new certification system: non-slave tourist monument (I heard on the TV one of these days that even the White House was partly built by slaves...). Food for thought.
Kiev 17-19 November
Traffic in Kiev cures atheism says my travel guide (Bradt). There is some truth in that even if I must day traffic Lviv was even worse (so I should have been cured before). They do drive more on the pavements (sidewaks) in Kiev than in Lviv, but the reasons are that in Lviv the sidewalks are very narrow and in addition there are so many and deep holes in them that you can't drive there at all!!!!!
I went by bus from Uman to Kiev. In my nice hotel in Uman they served no breakfast, but when I had eaten my dry sandwhiches and drunk some mango juice, the hotel staff had made a table with some twenty dishes celebrating that one of them were getting merried. I think I was the only guest so they (8 females!) invited me to join them. That was very nice of them and I even got a marriage proposal.
Jag vill inte hanga ut dem pa engelska for det finns ju en risk att nagon hittar det har pa natet. Men vi gjorde ocksa av med tva flaskor vodka till frukost. Men jag tror att det tom for dem var lite extra for de hade flaskorna pa golvet sa de inte skuller synas. Forsta gangen jag har druckit alkohol till frukost tror jag (hm lucia firande is skolan och glogg ar kanske undantag, men sannerligen har jag aldrig druckit tre rejala vodka till frukost nagon gang.
The bus trip to Kiev was without drama. Landscape quite the same, but a bit more forest and a small lake or pond now and then. In Kiev my organic friend Eugene Milovanov met me. He had booked hotel and he drove me there, but first we had lunch in a moder Ukrainian fast-food place which was extremely packed with people. Good food. My hotel was at the Khrestchatik street which is the main high street in Kiev. The whole area was destroyed during WWII and was rebuilt in a tasteful modern way: Not all Soviet architecture was bad, I must say this was much better than what they build in Sweden at the same time period.
(this internet caf'e in Uman is really quite weird. They are open 24 hours per day and seem to be a centre for hip hop and very often there is Swedish hip hop on VERY high volume throbbing in my ear. And some guys dance behind my back. Bit difficult to concentrate)
I was driven to one of the main tourist sites in Kiev, the "cave monastery", which is a very big are og churches, temples etc. I went into the caves where the relics of many famous ortodox priests and saints are, including glass sarkofags with the whole bodies. It was a bit of a strange feeling to walk there as all others seemed to be devoted Ortodox, kissing the objects etc. I did my best to look wholy and serious. Caves are not to recommend for those that are claustrophobic. But the whole area is very beautiful and a nice place to visit.
From them I ventured into the Metro of Kiev. It is the deepest in the world. You see no end of the escalators and some people sit. I was told it goes 120 meter down. The main station (where my hotel was) was also said to be the biggest metro station in the world and I have no reason to doubt that!. Later on I also tried to trams and some buses. A tram tour on a central line, just going the whole round is one of my favourite ways to explore a new city.
In the evening Eugene hosted me for another meal, in a very nice 1920 style theme restaurant.
Eugene is the chairperson of the Organic Federation of Ukraine and is involved in all aspects of organic from Production to Policy and markets. Organic is quite big in Ukraine when one look into hectares. Unfortunately there is basically no domestic market developed as yet. Eugene is also involved in an organic arable farm of 50 000 hectares, the biggest in the world, which I will visit later on during my trip.
He says I am his hero for going alone by bike in Ukraine, but he was also a bit upset that I hadn't contacted him before as he could have helped me also in the other places I been. I tried to explain that I didn't want to bother him and in the end I was more on a kind of indidivualistic trip than a social one. Eugene really spoilt me with all his arrangements in Kiev the first and the last day. Having been on the road for a while it can be a bit nice to be spoilt - even a stubborn-quasi-macho-guy like me can admit that. Thanks again Eugene!
In Kiev I also went to the Opera and saw some balet to Strauss music (Strauss is not really my favorite classical music, but that was on offer), mainly for the atmosphere and the people. I bought a ticket for 13 euro, there were tickets from 1.3 Euros up to 26 Euro - very cheap. Eugene took me to an open air architecture museum, where they collected a very impressing number of buildings from all parts of Ukraine. Very well done.
Chernobyl
I had planned to visit Chernobyl and made arrangement with a tour agency. You need special permits etc. In the end the other participants pulled out so I had the choice of paying more than 500 dollars for an individual tour, which I found a bit much to pay for getting depressed, there are cheaper ways. I did visit the Chernobyl museum. The picture above show some of the signs for the villages that have been evacuated in the zone around the reactor - more than 200 villages have been evacuated. The museum was fairly interesting, and very touching so see all the things belonging to people that died, pictures of all the children with leukemia etc. It didn't have what I was looking for, the effects on Nature. I am interested in how has wild life been affected. Are there more mutations, new species, disturbed reproduction etc? Of course there are now two different factors affecting the wild life: the radioactivity and the fact that the area is evacuated. It is de facto and Natural Reserve, even if I am not sure they call it like that.
Kiev and the origin of Russia and Ukraine
This is a highly politicised topic so whatever you write somebody will say you are wrong, and perhaps there is nor ONE simple truth. Anyway the main story (that is to the liking of a Swede) is that the Slav tribes living in the area around Kiev, had some weaknesses re organisation and cooperation and they asked some vikings to come and be their ruler and establish law and order. And so they did. And Kiev is counted as the centre not only for Ukrainia but for the whole of Russia.
Summing up Kiev
There are plenty of old things to see in Kiev, but don't make the mistake to believe it is a museum city. It is actually a very modern city and a booming business place. It is also a beautiful city. I think you can find anything you want there, including food from all over the world and the latest fashion.
I overheard some Americans complaining that Kiev was much more expensive than Washington when it comes to housing. Costs in general are very high in Kiev. If you go to the places where foreigners mostly go or the "in" Ukrainian places, food appears to be as expensive as Copenhagen (and that is a lot!). But there is a bit of parallel world still with some things being fairly cheap, e.g. the subway tickets had just increased from 6 Eurocent to 25 Eurocent, which is till like one tenth of the price in Stockholm. All the museums also have low entry fees. Hotels are not cheap. The difference in cost level between Kiev and the countryside is really very high.
I went by bus from Uman to Kiev. In my nice hotel in Uman they served no breakfast, but when I had eaten my dry sandwhiches and drunk some mango juice, the hotel staff had made a table with some twenty dishes celebrating that one of them were getting merried. I think I was the only guest so they (8 females!) invited me to join them. That was very nice of them and I even got a marriage proposal.
Jag vill inte hanga ut dem pa engelska for det finns ju en risk att nagon hittar det har pa natet. Men vi gjorde ocksa av med tva flaskor vodka till frukost. Men jag tror att det tom for dem var lite extra for de hade flaskorna pa golvet sa de inte skuller synas. Forsta gangen jag har druckit alkohol till frukost tror jag (hm lucia firande is skolan och glogg ar kanske undantag, men sannerligen har jag aldrig druckit tre rejala vodka till frukost nagon gang.
The bus trip to Kiev was without drama. Landscape quite the same, but a bit more forest and a small lake or pond now and then. In Kiev my organic friend Eugene Milovanov met me. He had booked hotel and he drove me there, but first we had lunch in a moder Ukrainian fast-food place which was extremely packed with people. Good food. My hotel was at the Khrestchatik street which is the main high street in Kiev. The whole area was destroyed during WWII and was rebuilt in a tasteful modern way: Not all Soviet architecture was bad, I must say this was much better than what they build in Sweden at the same time period.
(this internet caf'e in Uman is really quite weird. They are open 24 hours per day and seem to be a centre for hip hop and very often there is Swedish hip hop on VERY high volume throbbing in my ear. And some guys dance behind my back. Bit difficult to concentrate)
I was driven to one of the main tourist sites in Kiev, the "cave monastery", which is a very big are og churches, temples etc. I went into the caves where the relics of many famous ortodox priests and saints are, including glass sarkofags with the whole bodies. It was a bit of a strange feeling to walk there as all others seemed to be devoted Ortodox, kissing the objects etc. I did my best to look wholy and serious. Caves are not to recommend for those that are claustrophobic. But the whole area is very beautiful and a nice place to visit.
From them I ventured into the Metro of Kiev. It is the deepest in the world. You see no end of the escalators and some people sit. I was told it goes 120 meter down. The main station (where my hotel was) was also said to be the biggest metro station in the world and I have no reason to doubt that!. Later on I also tried to trams and some buses. A tram tour on a central line, just going the whole round is one of my favourite ways to explore a new city.
In the evening Eugene hosted me for another meal, in a very nice 1920 style theme restaurant.
Eugene is the chairperson of the Organic Federation of Ukraine and is involved in all aspects of organic from Production to Policy and markets. Organic is quite big in Ukraine when one look into hectares. Unfortunately there is basically no domestic market developed as yet. Eugene is also involved in an organic arable farm of 50 000 hectares, the biggest in the world, which I will visit later on during my trip.
He says I am his hero for going alone by bike in Ukraine, but he was also a bit upset that I hadn't contacted him before as he could have helped me also in the other places I been. I tried to explain that I didn't want to bother him and in the end I was more on a kind of indidivualistic trip than a social one. Eugene really spoilt me with all his arrangements in Kiev the first and the last day. Having been on the road for a while it can be a bit nice to be spoilt - even a stubborn-quasi-macho-guy like me can admit that. Thanks again Eugene!
In Kiev I also went to the Opera and saw some balet to Strauss music (Strauss is not really my favorite classical music, but that was on offer), mainly for the atmosphere and the people. I bought a ticket for 13 euro, there were tickets from 1.3 Euros up to 26 Euro - very cheap. Eugene took me to an open air architecture museum, where they collected a very impressing number of buildings from all parts of Ukraine. Very well done.
Chernobyl
I had planned to visit Chernobyl and made arrangement with a tour agency. You need special permits etc. In the end the other participants pulled out so I had the choice of paying more than 500 dollars for an individual tour, which I found a bit much to pay for getting depressed, there are cheaper ways. I did visit the Chernobyl museum. The picture above show some of the signs for the villages that have been evacuated in the zone around the reactor - more than 200 villages have been evacuated. The museum was fairly interesting, and very touching so see all the things belonging to people that died, pictures of all the children with leukemia etc. It didn't have what I was looking for, the effects on Nature. I am interested in how has wild life been affected. Are there more mutations, new species, disturbed reproduction etc? Of course there are now two different factors affecting the wild life: the radioactivity and the fact that the area is evacuated. It is de facto and Natural Reserve, even if I am not sure they call it like that.
Kiev and the origin of Russia and Ukraine
This is a highly politicised topic so whatever you write somebody will say you are wrong, and perhaps there is nor ONE simple truth. Anyway the main story (that is to the liking of a Swede) is that the Slav tribes living in the area around Kiev, had some weaknesses re organisation and cooperation and they asked some vikings to come and be their ruler and establish law and order. And so they did. And Kiev is counted as the centre not only for Ukrainia but for the whole of Russia.
Summing up Kiev
There are plenty of old things to see in Kiev, but don't make the mistake to believe it is a museum city. It is actually a very modern city and a booming business place. It is also a beautiful city. I think you can find anything you want there, including food from all over the world and the latest fashion.
I overheard some Americans complaining that Kiev was much more expensive than Washington when it comes to housing. Costs in general are very high in Kiev. If you go to the places where foreigners mostly go or the "in" Ukrainian places, food appears to be as expensive as Copenhagen (and that is a lot!). But there is a bit of parallel world still with some things being fairly cheap, e.g. the subway tickets had just increased from 6 Eurocent to 25 Eurocent, which is till like one tenth of the price in Stockholm. All the museums also have low entry fees. Hotels are not cheap. The difference in cost level between Kiev and the countryside is really very high.
Backward planning
For a person used to meticulous planning this trip has been quite different. I had planned very little, and it has worked out fine - I mean as the purpose was not to accomlish something in partiular it is a it hard to assess if it could have been better with more planning. Anyway, now I have to plan some things in order to fit with my Christmas plans. I will take a flight from Istanbul home the 15th December (and go back to Istanbul the 2 Jan). I always "planned" to taлу the ferry from Crimea to Istanbul and I still want that. Therу seems to be ferries both from Yalta and Sevastopol. The Yalta ferry appears to leave th 1oth and arrive the 11th in Istanbul. That would give me time enough to find a place to park my bicycle and go home. I do want to experience Crimea so I think I need at least 10 days there, that means last November. I go to Kiev the 17th, come back from Kiev to Uman 19th and plan to go biking again the 20th. So that give me ten days to reach Crimea. The two things I want to visit "on the way" are the old Swedish Village and Askania Nova which is the only remaining natural steppe in Europe. Those detours make the total distance something likу 900 km which means I have quite a tight schedule coming days. I can of course always take a bus or train again. Or come two days late the Crimea. The ferry is also still a joker as the schedule for December is not confirmed.
Sofiyivka Park, Uman
The park
Det var intressant att se hur manga som lat sin bild bli tagen i bjorkskogen i parken. Det ar latt att glomma bort hur vackra vara svenska bjorkar ar nar vi har dem runt om kring oss hela tiden.
How do you describe a park like this? I don't know. I guess there is a special park descrition language as there is wine tasting language? I found the park very beautiful and spent six hours walking in it, I also plan to spend another hour or two tomorrow morning.
It is a style that we would call "English" so any comparision with Versaille in Paris must be the scale and effort in it and not the actual look the park. The park is "natural" and romantic, there are hardly any geometric shapes, there's little pruning, but there are pavilions, the island of love, sculptures of Eros and Venus, an underground river lots of swans etc. But it is tasteful and it is very big, some 200 hectares. There is quite a collection of trees. You can see more about the park on. http://www.sofiyivka.org.ua/index_en.html
If you like parks and nature this is surely a prime tourist location in Ukraine, in particular for couples. Most people visiting the park seem to be couples and you might end up feeling a bit lonely with all that "coupling" going on around you!
There were perhaps 1000 people I met in the park today I heard no other language than Ukrainian and Russian.
Sofia
As intersting as the park itself is perhaps the life of the person of which the park is named (I believe I saw a movie about her some time ago, can that be correct?) > Sofia Potovsky
Count Felix Pototsky began construction on what would later be known as Sofiyivka Park in 1798 as a gift to his new bride, the legendary beauty Sofia. Sofia had been born in Greece, then was sold into slavery by her parents while 12 years old. The Polish Ambassador to Turkey bought her as a gift for the Polish King Stanislaw August; however, while traveling back through Ukraine she met the son of the Polish army commander, Jozef Witte, who fell in love with the 15 year old and bought her from the ambassador. The newly married Madame Witte quickly became a celebrated society figure among the Polish gentry. She soon took up delivering diplomatic mail and was rumored to use the opportunity to spy for the Polish king as well as Catherine the Great.
Sofia eventually left her husband and two children but was soon remarried to the Polish Count Pototsky in Uman. He adored Sofia and designed the park as a memorial to her beauty and incorporated in it the mythology of ancient Greece. Long before the park was finished, the Count uncovered an affair between his son from his first marriage and Sofia. Brokenhearted, he grew seriously ill. Sofia supposedly spent two days on her knees begging for his forgiveness, but the count died without forgiving her. She finished the park herself during a brief affair with the Russian Count Potemkin, then lived out her days in melancholy. The fact that a freak earthquake pushed her graveyard out of the Uman churchyard has the locals convinced that she was a witch.
More about her on http://ukraineplaces.com/western-ukraine/queen%E2%80%99s-garden
Det var intressant att se hur manga som lat sin bild bli tagen i bjorkskogen i parken. Det ar latt att glomma bort hur vackra vara svenska bjorkar ar nar vi har dem runt om kring oss hela tiden.
How do you describe a park like this? I don't know. I guess there is a special park descrition language as there is wine tasting language? I found the park very beautiful and spent six hours walking in it, I also plan to spend another hour or two tomorrow morning.
It is a style that we would call "English" so any comparision with Versaille in Paris must be the scale and effort in it and not the actual look the park. The park is "natural" and romantic, there are hardly any geometric shapes, there's little pruning, but there are pavilions, the island of love, sculptures of Eros and Venus, an underground river lots of swans etc. But it is tasteful and it is very big, some 200 hectares. There is quite a collection of trees. You can see more about the park on. http://www.sofiyivka.org.ua/index_en.html
If you like parks and nature this is surely a prime tourist location in Ukraine, in particular for couples. Most people visiting the park seem to be couples and you might end up feeling a bit lonely with all that "coupling" going on around you!
There were perhaps 1000 people I met in the park today I heard no other language than Ukrainian and Russian.
Sofia
As intersting as the park itself is perhaps the life of the person of which the park is named (I believe I saw a movie about her some time ago, can that be correct?) > Sofia Potovsky
Count Felix Pototsky began construction on what would later be known as Sofiyivka Park in 1798 as a gift to his new bride, the legendary beauty Sofia. Sofia had been born in Greece, then was sold into slavery by her parents while 12 years old. The Polish Ambassador to Turkey bought her as a gift for the Polish King Stanislaw August; however, while traveling back through Ukraine she met the son of the Polish army commander, Jozef Witte, who fell in love with the 15 year old and bought her from the ambassador. The newly married Madame Witte quickly became a celebrated society figure among the Polish gentry. She soon took up delivering diplomatic mail and was rumored to use the opportunity to spy for the Polish king as well as Catherine the Great.
Sofia eventually left her husband and two children but was soon remarried to the Polish Count Pototsky in Uman. He adored Sofia and designed the park as a memorial to her beauty and incorporated in it the mythology of ancient Greece. Long before the park was finished, the Count uncovered an affair between his son from his first marriage and Sofia. Brokenhearted, he grew seriously ill. Sofia supposedly spent two days on her knees begging for his forgiveness, but the count died without forgiving her. She finished the park herself during a brief affair with the Russian Count Potemkin, then lived out her days in melancholy. The fact that a freak earthquake pushed her graveyard out of the Uman churchyard has the locals convinced that she was a witch.
More about her on http://ukraineplaces.com/western-ukraine/queen%E2%80%99s-garden
Uman 17 November
Now in Uman, located in the middle of Ukaraine so to say, on the axis of the highway from Kiev to Odessa North South and on the main road from East to West.
I reached Uman via an eight hour bus tour. Of course there is no food on the bus, and I didn't know if there would be food stops so I bought food in Kamyanets. I think I have written about food shops before. Most of them are very small and sell the liqour, beer, bread and a few preserved, meat and cheese. Some fresh fruit and vegetables, but they are often sold in outdoor stands.
The bigger shops seem to have a system om "shop in the shop" where there are different parts managed by different people - and with no clear indication for which part is managed by whom - but the ladies will tell you when you make a mistake and can assure you. Below you see a picture from the nuts/raisins/sweets departments. She is cutting baklavah for me.
Here is the liquid department. The woman is tapping beer from the fat into 2 liter plastic bottles, which the guys bring with them. This was at nine in the morning, and already quite a beer business. I am actully surprised that beer seem to be more popular than vodka (horilka as it is called in Ukrainian). Of course many do both........
Going by long distance bus
So the trip from Kamyanets to Uman is some 450/500 km, but the bus goes into the centre of some five places along the road, so despite quite good speed the trip is like eight hours. The cost was 12 Euro, so prices are very low. It is a bit of a problem to find out which bus to take and where it will stop, but generally it is easier with the long distance ones, as they are not many big buses in the station (the local tours are mainly with these kinds of buses that take around 20). The bus driver simply refused to take on my bike. In the end I loosened the steer and took away the front wheel to make it easier to load and just put it into the luggage hold.
The trip was OK, the bus was in reasonable shape and they did not run action movies or music videos on screens for which I was very grateful. The stops at the stations were very short and as I could not communicate with the driver I could never get clarity if there was enough time to "take a leak", so in the end my bladder was quite hard when arriving Uman. I am happy that I had just eight hours to travel, the bus was proceeding to Sevastopol which was another 15 hours away (Ukraine is huge - I told you).
When we were in Uman, I got a shock when opening the luggage hold. I could not see my bicycle any more. But it was there, it was just covered by other pieces of luggage heaped on it!. At least 200 kg of potatoes, onions, cabbage, books etc. was loaded on top of my bicycle. I tried to get the bike together in shape, but it had gone skewed and the front wheel wouldn't run. I was quite convinced that it wasn't so serious, but I still had to find a hotel and food so I decided to ask a taxt to take me and the bicycle to a hotel. The third taxi agreed - under protests and by ripping me off. Anyway, we reached hotel Uman. And if you want to have a real retro trip and want to know how a real communist hotel during Soviet time was, hurry up and go to Uman. It was very cheap, like 10 Euro, but the bed was too short, the pillow was like a baseball, there was not enough blankets, the plumbing in the bathroom looked like a painting of Salvador Dali, and there was of course no hot water in any of all those tubes, and even if there were there was no shower. In the reception, you got a metal token, which you had to present to the warden of the first floor, an impressive woman that controlled all movements from her strategic position. Breakfast, forget about it. Towel - yes the size of my pocket handkerchiefs. and so forth. It is actually hard to make a place like that justice!
Next morning I ate some cold food I bought the day before. I think I mentioned it before that it is very hard to get any kind of breakfast in Ukraine. The bars are open all around the clock I think excepf for like between six and ten in the morning.....Then I fixed the bike, nothing dramatic. On my list then was to find the Sofiyivka Park (the reason to go to Uman in the first place), another hotel (not one more night in that place), the bus schedule for Kiev and an internet cafe. And I find everything in just half an hour. I tell you about the Park itself in another posting.
Below you see the hotel I ended up staying in. It is like a castle. it is INSIDE the park and 200 m from the bus station, so better location is not possible. It smells nicely from all the plants of the part. The room was normal good hotel standard, a room that would cost 100 -200 Euro in most European countries. It cost 14 Euro per night, and then as it is inside the park you don't pay the park entrance fee of 4 Euro so if your reason to stay there is to visit the park (and to be honest with the risk of insulting Umanites, there are very few other reasons to visit Uman....) the net cost is 10 Euro. This hotel and the other awful place show that there is still very little correlation between price and what you get in Ukraine. All combinations are possible. You pay a fortune and you get good things, you pay a fortune and you get crap, you pay nothing and you get nothing or you pay nothing and you get a palace. What you normally get when you pay the fortune is that some staff knows a bit of English.
By the way, I don't carry a real camera, all the pictures are taken with my Sony Ericsson K800i. Therefore I don't take soi much landscape shots, the optics of a cell phone is just not the rigtht for that. But for buildings and people I think it is quite fine.
I reached Uman via an eight hour bus tour. Of course there is no food on the bus, and I didn't know if there would be food stops so I bought food in Kamyanets. I think I have written about food shops before. Most of them are very small and sell the liqour, beer, bread and a few preserved, meat and cheese. Some fresh fruit and vegetables, but they are often sold in outdoor stands.
The bigger shops seem to have a system om "shop in the shop" where there are different parts managed by different people - and with no clear indication for which part is managed by whom - but the ladies will tell you when you make a mistake and can assure you. Below you see a picture from the nuts/raisins/sweets departments. She is cutting baklavah for me.
Here is the liquid department. The woman is tapping beer from the fat into 2 liter plastic bottles, which the guys bring with them. This was at nine in the morning, and already quite a beer business. I am actully surprised that beer seem to be more popular than vodka (horilka as it is called in Ukrainian). Of course many do both........
Going by long distance bus
So the trip from Kamyanets to Uman is some 450/500 km, but the bus goes into the centre of some five places along the road, so despite quite good speed the trip is like eight hours. The cost was 12 Euro, so prices are very low. It is a bit of a problem to find out which bus to take and where it will stop, but generally it is easier with the long distance ones, as they are not many big buses in the station (the local tours are mainly with these kinds of buses that take around 20). The bus driver simply refused to take on my bike. In the end I loosened the steer and took away the front wheel to make it easier to load and just put it into the luggage hold.
The trip was OK, the bus was in reasonable shape and they did not run action movies or music videos on screens for which I was very grateful. The stops at the stations were very short and as I could not communicate with the driver I could never get clarity if there was enough time to "take a leak", so in the end my bladder was quite hard when arriving Uman. I am happy that I had just eight hours to travel, the bus was proceeding to Sevastopol which was another 15 hours away (Ukraine is huge - I told you).
When we were in Uman, I got a shock when opening the luggage hold. I could not see my bicycle any more. But it was there, it was just covered by other pieces of luggage heaped on it!. At least 200 kg of potatoes, onions, cabbage, books etc. was loaded on top of my bicycle. I tried to get the bike together in shape, but it had gone skewed and the front wheel wouldn't run. I was quite convinced that it wasn't so serious, but I still had to find a hotel and food so I decided to ask a taxt to take me and the bicycle to a hotel. The third taxi agreed - under protests and by ripping me off. Anyway, we reached hotel Uman. And if you want to have a real retro trip and want to know how a real communist hotel during Soviet time was, hurry up and go to Uman. It was very cheap, like 10 Euro, but the bed was too short, the pillow was like a baseball, there was not enough blankets, the plumbing in the bathroom looked like a painting of Salvador Dali, and there was of course no hot water in any of all those tubes, and even if there were there was no shower. In the reception, you got a metal token, which you had to present to the warden of the first floor, an impressive woman that controlled all movements from her strategic position. Breakfast, forget about it. Towel - yes the size of my pocket handkerchiefs. and so forth. It is actually hard to make a place like that justice!
Next morning I ate some cold food I bought the day before. I think I mentioned it before that it is very hard to get any kind of breakfast in Ukraine. The bars are open all around the clock I think excepf for like between six and ten in the morning.....Then I fixed the bike, nothing dramatic. On my list then was to find the Sofiyivka Park (the reason to go to Uman in the first place), another hotel (not one more night in that place), the bus schedule for Kiev and an internet cafe. And I find everything in just half an hour. I tell you about the Park itself in another posting.
Below you see the hotel I ended up staying in. It is like a castle. it is INSIDE the park and 200 m from the bus station, so better location is not possible. It smells nicely from all the plants of the part. The room was normal good hotel standard, a room that would cost 100 -200 Euro in most European countries. It cost 14 Euro per night, and then as it is inside the park you don't pay the park entrance fee of 4 Euro so if your reason to stay there is to visit the park (and to be honest with the risk of insulting Umanites, there are very few other reasons to visit Uman....) the net cost is 10 Euro. This hotel and the other awful place show that there is still very little correlation between price and what you get in Ukraine. All combinations are possible. You pay a fortune and you get good things, you pay a fortune and you get crap, you pay nothing and you get nothing or you pay nothing and you get a palace. What you normally get when you pay the fortune is that some staff knows a bit of English.
By the way, I don't carry a real camera, all the pictures are taken with my Sony Ericsson K800i. Therefore I don't take soi much landscape shots, the optics of a cell phone is just not the rigtht for that. But for buildings and people I think it is quite fine.
Tourism
In one month's time I have met almost no "foreign" tourists, the exception being in Vilnius and Krakow. I surely have seen no other bicycle tourist and no motobike tourists. I have seen some German plated cars swishing pass me. In none of the hotels I stayed there has been anybody I met that have been a foreign tourist. Most of them have been Ukrainians and the few foreigners have been businessmen, contractors or consultants (those are the guys with the lap tops). Most places I visited has clearly no infrastructure for catering to tourism from other countries even in the high season. I am sure this will be different in Kiev and in Crimea. So if you are one of those that want to go where there is no mass tourism, in fact no tourism at all, follow in my foot-steps.
Having said that I believe there is often a rather naive idea of "pristine" cultures untouched by tourism. I think the chances that you actually can visit and get anthing in particular out of those visits in a week's visit is are very small. If nothing else language poses an almost insurmountable barrier. And even in countries where e.g English is an official language villagers often don't speak it.
If there are people there speaking English or German, forget about your pristine culture. Of course it is a totally different game if you plan to stay somewhere for months or years, but that is hardly tourism any longer.
In reality you get more out of short term tourism if somebody has paved the way a bit, some people know foreign language, some people know what interests foreigners, some restaurants have a menu with several languages etc. But of course at that moment we already start to influence the site a lot.....
I think mass tourism and genuine cultures are incompatible. The whole tourism industry is rather unsustainable. Not only does it lead to an enormous energy use, it also undermines local cultures. And don't beleive that by ensuring that more money go to the local communities you are making those local cultures a service. The reality is that the better the local communities earn from tourism the less attention they will pay to their traditional livelihoods. Why go fishing if I can earn more money by selling sun glasses on the beach? Why farm when I can be a waitress (or a sex worker) in the hotels. In the end it only works if the tourism is reserved for a very small elite that have been given the right to "consume" other people's culture.
Sorry if that makes you feel bad, I have no easy answers....I just make problems all the time.
Having said that I believe there is often a rather naive idea of "pristine" cultures untouched by tourism. I think the chances that you actually can visit and get anthing in particular out of those visits in a week's visit is are very small. If nothing else language poses an almost insurmountable barrier. And even in countries where e.g English is an official language villagers often don't speak it.
If there are people there speaking English or German, forget about your pristine culture. Of course it is a totally different game if you plan to stay somewhere for months or years, but that is hardly tourism any longer.
In reality you get more out of short term tourism if somebody has paved the way a bit, some people know foreign language, some people know what interests foreigners, some restaurants have a menu with several languages etc. But of course at that moment we already start to influence the site a lot.....
I think mass tourism and genuine cultures are incompatible. The whole tourism industry is rather unsustainable. Not only does it lead to an enormous energy use, it also undermines local cultures. And don't beleive that by ensuring that more money go to the local communities you are making those local cultures a service. The reality is that the better the local communities earn from tourism the less attention they will pay to their traditional livelihoods. Why go fishing if I can earn more money by selling sun glasses on the beach? Why farm when I can be a waitress (or a sex worker) in the hotels. In the end it only works if the tourism is reserved for a very small elite that have been given the right to "consume" other people's culture.
Sorry if that makes you feel bad, I have no easy answers....I just make problems all the time.
dalig dag
Idag har jag en dalig dag. Ar forkyld, lag mest hela eftermiddagen igar och kanner mig ganska hangig. Skjutit upp cyklandet och kommer aka buss till Uman i morgon och stanna dar tva natter och aka till Kiev den 17:e, lamna ctkeln i Uman. Nu skall jag ga och klippa mig och kanske fa lite massage eller nagot annat som far mig att ma battre.
A bit sick today. Didn't leave Kamyanets as planned, but stay until tomorrow when I will take bus to Uman (with bike). Now I will go and get my hair cut and perhaps some massage or something else that makes me feel good, or better.
Have fun!
A bit sick today. Didn't leave Kamyanets as planned, but stay until tomorrow when I will take bus to Uman (with bike). Now I will go and get my hair cut and perhaps some massage or something else that makes me feel good, or better.
Have fun!
Nucleo-tourism
So there is death camp tourism. I also realise that there is nuclear disaster tourism. I had planned to visit Chernobyl and realise that that is not at all an original idea. It is actually a bit tricky and you need special permits from the government, so in the end you almost have to go through an agency which I now have. The 18th November I will spend a day in Chernobyl in a group of three with English speaking guide. Will be interesting, even if I am sure it will be depressing. This is actually the first planning ahead I have done during this trip, but it was neeeded. So it means I have to be in Kiev the evening of the 17th. Will see how I will manage that. Of course I will also take the oppportunity to stay a day or two in Kiev and look at the place.
Ukraine in the middle of Europe
I have passed the locations both in Lithuania and Ukraine that claim to be the geographic centre of Europe. I think most people in the Western part of Euope would be surprised to know that, and for those that have started to say Europe, when they mean the European Union it may come as bad news.
Ukraine is huge, bigger than any other European country except for Russia. Yalta, is more or less on the same Latitude as Florence, and Kiev the same as Brussels, and it stretches out some 1000 km from East to West.
In Lithaunia you could not change money aywhere, in Poland in most places and in Ukraine you can do it in the middle of nowhere. I guess it is an indicator of a country that de facto has embraced three currencies, their own hrynia, the US dollar and the Euro. There are many Ukrainians living outside Ukraine (Canada and Israel have traditionally been popular, but lately you have Ukarainians more in the EU countries at least for temporary work) and they send money to relatives. Also the country has a short history of inflation so the locals don't trust the currency. There is a constant shortage of change (vaxel) so it has happened twice now that I got a match box instead of money in the small food shops. Sometimes they round off. But it is also a little silly that the keep the one kopeck coin - that is almost the same as a Swedish ore which was abolished in circulation very long time ago.
Two other things there seem to be an endless demand for are Notaries and Pharmacies. They are everywhere. I have no idea what all those Notaries are doing (there are also "advocates")? There are also plenty of halls with gambling machines.
Roliga skyltar
Det har ar ett valdigt trevligt hotel restaurant in Kamyanets. Kolla symbolerna. Man skulle kanske tro att de har en pump for etanol till bilen, men de har de inte alls. De bara saljer alkohol,
Symbolen for sang ar ocksa intressant. En Unisex sang av nagot slag, eller menar de att man - fasansfulla tanke- kan sova i samma sang...
Interesting signs. You might believe that they have a pump for ethanol cars here, but that is not at all the case, they just sell liqour. Gives you an idea of the quantities. I am also enchancted by the bed sign. Is it the worlds first Unisex bed or does it mean - God forbid - that you can share bed....... You will have to check for yourself. The place is in the Old town and costs 30 Euro per night (regardless of sex I believe). The restaurant is in very old caves - cool in a double sense.
Shit,now they yell about me hammering the key board again. I wonder how Carina has coped with sitting so close to me so many years in the office, when everybody is complaining about me hammering the keys. I am sorry Carina!
Symbolen for sang ar ocksa intressant. En Unisex sang av nagot slag, eller menar de att man - fasansfulla tanke- kan sova i samma sang...
Interesting signs. You might believe that they have a pump for ethanol cars here, but that is not at all the case, they just sell liqour. Gives you an idea of the quantities. I am also enchancted by the bed sign. Is it the worlds first Unisex bed or does it mean - God forbid - that you can share bed....... You will have to check for yourself. The place is in the Old town and costs 30 Euro per night (regardless of sex I believe). The restaurant is in very old caves - cool in a double sense.
Shit,now they yell about me hammering the key board again. I wonder how Carina has coped with sitting so close to me so many years in the office, when everybody is complaining about me hammering the keys. I am sorry Carina!
The man himself
Framfor slottet i Kamyenats-Podilsky.
EN MANAD PA VAG OCH EN MANAD UTAN SNUS
I gar cyklade jag 127 km - det kandes i benen.
So this is how I look in front of the castle in Kamyanets-Podilsky
The two last days I made new records regarding distance. the 10th of November I made 111 km, which I celebrated with a vodka (my second for the whole trip). Then the 11th I had not really planned for a long ride, but I got a bit lost in search of the crystal cave and suddenly I realised that I either should go backwards 30 km or go forward another 60 to find a place to sleep. And even if I am not obsessed with reaching somewhere in particular, going backwards is really not my thing. So I ended up doing 127 km which I think is not bad for an old man on an old bike. Had to do the last one and half hour in the dark which I don't like at all. They have no street lights on the main roads here and even in the cities the lights are so faint that you hardly see anything. If the roads are fine it is less of a problem, but most of the time the roads are NOT fine. Anyway, I obviously had to celebrate the 127 km with another vodka. In addition I am now 1 month without tobacco and have not used the Nicotine patches for four days, so I think that merited yet another vodka.
I have now done 100 km in Latvia, 400 km in Lithuania, 600 km in Poland and some 400 km in Ukaraine by bike. Ukraine is so huge that I will do another 1000 before I am done.
I will stay three nights in Kamyenats-Podilsky. Get some rest, buy some things, plan the coming trip etc. It looks as if I will go 400 km on pure country roads until I reach Uman, where I plan to stop, visit a park and then take the train to Kiev and back again (Kiev is more North than my route). I still don't know if I will have some internet connection during these days. I expect it to be more or less ONE BIG FIELD. I am still pondering over if I should take the trip via Moldova instead. I could also take a brief tour into Romania. In the - childish - way I would "tick off" two more countries, leaving only Albania, Bulgaria, Spain, Ireland and Iceland as not visited by me. Also depends on the weather. It has been around zero in the mornings last days and I have almost got frost bites on my chin while myt chest is soaked in sweat. So I might fast track the trip southwards.
I have bought a English-Ukrainian-English Dictonary and train quite a lot, and make some progress. One problem is that a lot of people here speaks Russian and many mix Russian and Ukrainian. They are quite close, but pronounciation is different and some words are different and a few characters. It confuses me a lot in any case. At least I can manage a food order to some extent now. But I can't build any sentences. If I get to Kiev I have to buy some basic book for Ukrainian as the Dictionary doesn't tell anything of how to form a sentence. The guide book I bought in L'viv has a limited vocabulary. What intrigues me is that among the 200-300 words it has one of them is "rainbow". It is under the section where you have useful places to look for like the post office and the railway station. I just wonder how many tourists go to Ukraine and ask for the rainbow - and what the locals think about that!!!
Tourism 7-11 November
The 7th I took the train up into the Carpathians, basically directly South of Ivano-Frankovisk. It was a three hour train ride, around 150 km that took me to Vorochta. I had lunch and asked the waitress if she knew any rooms to rent. She followed me to a place and looked up the owner. That was very nice of her, Irinka was her name. Just another example of how helpful Ukarainians are. They don't smile a lot though.
One exception from the rule is the women that work in the railway station. They seem to be very little inclined to help, and as I wrote before the whole system is confusing, and a poor foreigner can actually need some help.....Also the women in the post office are blunt (sorry girls but there seem to be only women that are bad, let's say the guys are all drunk to be fair).
The train was very simple, wooden benches and the windows were so dirty that it is hard to believe they have washed them since the wagon was made, and I rather not speak about the toilet (the smell still haunts me)...The train was full and people chatting all the time. Wheh we reached the mountains the sky cleared and I saw the sun for the first time since coming to Ukraine.
An interesting observation is that they have soldiers guarding all the rail tunnels and bridges on each side, with a watch tower and also trenches for them to take position in. I wonder which completely outdated military doctrine that is the basis for this complete waste of human energy?
I took a walk aound the village and a short bit up into the hills. This is next to the highest mountain of Ukaraine, 2061 meter, but I could't see the top. I went into a church and there was a wedding ceremony. The Ortodox churches are really loaded with things.
The same wedding party later appeared in the restaurant where I had dinner, but the main party was somewhere else.
The following day I took the bus to Yaremche, which is the center of tourism in the Carpathians. I was looking for a trail leading to some spectacular cliffs but never found it, but had a nice walk. From Yaremche I took the bus to Kolomija, which features a museum for egg shell paining, a Ukrainian speciality. Then back to I-F in the evening of the 9th
the 10th and 11th I cover a lot of ground between Ivano-Frankovsk and Kamyanets-Podilsky where I am now. Most of the photos in the other posting is from those two day. It is striking what potential they have for tourism - and how little they have made out of it. In a German book I read about this striking cave with walls full of crystal. I tried to find it. There were absolutely no signs, but by asking the locals I gradually came closer and closer and further and further away from "civilisation". Finally I reached a place where there was a house and a party tent. Still no signs or any people. But there was a path leading up into the hill, so I went there. After quite a while I finally found the entry, but there was a closed gate. No information even in Ukarainian about opening hours etc.
Kamyanets-Podilsky is a really fascinating town. The whole Old town and the Fortress is a UNESCO World Heritage. You can see the castle with me in front in the other posting. They cast the black and white version of Ivanhoe in that castle (was it Errol Flyn?). You can find a lot of pictures on http://www.tryukraine.com/photos/kampod.shtml
Apart from all the nice things to see it is like Jerusalem but more. The old Town is divided in Quarters for a large number of ethnic and religious groups, (Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Greek, Tartars, Jews, Bulgars etc.) which in the old time all had their own rule and magistrates. There is very little commercialism developed. I believe this would be a prime investment target for anybody having some extra money. Really beautiful and huge tourism potential.
Costs
Ukraine is a lot cheaper than Poland and Lithuania. Train ticket for 150 km: 1 Euro, bus is a little more expensive, One loaf of bread or a beer in a shop 30 eurocent. Food in a bar-restaurant has a wide spread in costs, but in most simpler places you get a royal meal, including drinks for 3-4 Euro, and it is quite easy to get through on 5 Euro per day if your interest is mainly to save money. Hotels I stayed in have cost from 6 Euro to 75 Euro. The 75 Euro was in Lviv and it was Superior room in the best hotel. I stayed two more days in Lviv in a nice place for 30 Euro. In the countryside the hotels/pensions will normally cost like 10-15 Euro, in the cities the double. Here in Kamnyanets I stay in a recently refurbished hotel of high standard and it costs 28 Euro per night, breakfast included. If you drive petrol is in the range of 60 cent per liter. Taxi is very cheap and most of them have a meter/
One exception from the rule is the women that work in the railway station. They seem to be very little inclined to help, and as I wrote before the whole system is confusing, and a poor foreigner can actually need some help.....Also the women in the post office are blunt (sorry girls but there seem to be only women that are bad, let's say the guys are all drunk to be fair).
The train was very simple, wooden benches and the windows were so dirty that it is hard to believe they have washed them since the wagon was made, and I rather not speak about the toilet (the smell still haunts me)...The train was full and people chatting all the time. Wheh we reached the mountains the sky cleared and I saw the sun for the first time since coming to Ukraine.
An interesting observation is that they have soldiers guarding all the rail tunnels and bridges on each side, with a watch tower and also trenches for them to take position in. I wonder which completely outdated military doctrine that is the basis for this complete waste of human energy?
I took a walk aound the village and a short bit up into the hills. This is next to the highest mountain of Ukaraine, 2061 meter, but I could't see the top. I went into a church and there was a wedding ceremony. The Ortodox churches are really loaded with things.
The same wedding party later appeared in the restaurant where I had dinner, but the main party was somewhere else.
The following day I took the bus to Yaremche, which is the center of tourism in the Carpathians. I was looking for a trail leading to some spectacular cliffs but never found it, but had a nice walk. From Yaremche I took the bus to Kolomija, which features a museum for egg shell paining, a Ukrainian speciality. Then back to I-F in the evening of the 9th
the 10th and 11th I cover a lot of ground between Ivano-Frankovsk and Kamyanets-Podilsky where I am now. Most of the photos in the other posting is from those two day. It is striking what potential they have for tourism - and how little they have made out of it. In a German book I read about this striking cave with walls full of crystal. I tried to find it. There were absolutely no signs, but by asking the locals I gradually came closer and closer and further and further away from "civilisation". Finally I reached a place where there was a house and a party tent. Still no signs or any people. But there was a path leading up into the hill, so I went there. After quite a while I finally found the entry, but there was a closed gate. No information even in Ukarainian about opening hours etc.
Kamyanets-Podilsky is a really fascinating town. The whole Old town and the Fortress is a UNESCO World Heritage. You can see the castle with me in front in the other posting. They cast the black and white version of Ivanhoe in that castle (was it Errol Flyn?). You can find a lot of pictures on http://www.tryukraine.com/photos/kampod.shtml
Apart from all the nice things to see it is like Jerusalem but more. The old Town is divided in Quarters for a large number of ethnic and religious groups, (Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Greek, Tartars, Jews, Bulgars etc.) which in the old time all had their own rule and magistrates. There is very little commercialism developed. I believe this would be a prime investment target for anybody having some extra money. Really beautiful and huge tourism potential.
Costs
Ukraine is a lot cheaper than Poland and Lithuania. Train ticket for 150 km: 1 Euro, bus is a little more expensive, One loaf of bread or a beer in a shop 30 eurocent. Food in a bar-restaurant has a wide spread in costs, but in most simpler places you get a royal meal, including drinks for 3-4 Euro, and it is quite easy to get through on 5 Euro per day if your interest is mainly to save money. Hotels I stayed in have cost from 6 Euro to 75 Euro. The 75 Euro was in Lviv and it was Superior room in the best hotel. I stayed two more days in Lviv in a nice place for 30 Euro. In the countryside the hotels/pensions will normally cost like 10-15 Euro, in the cities the double. Here in Kamnyanets I stay in a recently refurbished hotel of high standard and it costs 28 Euro per night, breakfast included. If you drive petrol is in the range of 60 cent per liter. Taxi is very cheap and most of them have a meter/
People, landscape, housing and nature
An old woman selling pickled cabbage can perhaps be a good symbol for Ukraine? It is a very common thing to eat as well as pickled cucumbers etc .
Below you see two of my Ukrainian favourites: Varenniki and Deruny, the first is a dumpling filled with e.g. cheese, the second are potatoe pancakes, like Swiss Roesti
Sometimes it is a bit hard to find food in the country side, and then you go into a shop. Often they can boil some water for tea and then you buy some other stuff. Like here some bread and a piece of ham. The nice thing with food is that it is one of the least globalised things. Most other things you buy are more or less the same in Sweden and Ukraine. A few brands dominating the world and with local companies basically only doing bad copies. But food is still very much a local/national thing.
It is surprisingly difficult to find the restaurants and bars. Some of them are on the fifth floor (elevators-are you joking?) and it is only rarely there are any opening hours. Many things look like small bars, but then you enter room after room each with its own style.
Most bars and restaurats have very few guests, the staff is regularly many more and normally sit around a table. A bar that is managed by one person in Sweden would normally have four-five staff.
Landscape
This is the mighty Dnister river. I crossed it three times already and been driving on the banks of it and some of its tributaries. It is a beautiful river which has very marked meandering, such as the Klara river at home, unusual for these big rivers. I think it would have enourmous tourism potential for canoeing, partly rafting (and even more some of the tributaries). But there seems to be nothing going on. Didn't see a single boat on it either, so I don't know about fishing. Up here were the river is still at its beginning there is very little industry so I guess it is not so polluted.
Most of the landscape I passed through has not been river valleys. Most of it has been a high plateau, which is cut by the Dnistr and many smaller rivers feeding into Dnister. Up on the plateau there is almost only BIG fields, not forest and no huses. The villages are in the river canyons and valleys. From a biking perspective it means you go for 10 km on a plain like this, then there is a steep slope downhill then there is the villagae and then it is steep uphill again. This is most marked when you travel East West as the Dnistr tributaries flow North South.
The last days fields have just got bigger and bigger. It is like travelling on the ocean almost. I also see fewer and fewer horses now. But still you see the guy with a hay fork making a stack by himself in the middle of a 500 hectare field.....It is a bit hard to really understand the aricultural conditions here. It is such a mix of enormous scale and subsistence farming, of new technology and hundred year old technology.
This pricture shows the transition of the country here expressed in clothing. You see one of the old woman has the traditional folk dress. The two other older women has small parts of it. The man looks like men look like most. The boy in the background could have been anywhere in Europe and the young woman has modern dress, with a certain Ukrainian style. Unfortunately none of them carried the typical Hugo Boss plastic bag. I think a plastic bag maker has offloaded a large batch of Hugo Boss bags here, because you get them in every gorcery store.
The villages
Almost all villages are stretching along the main road and there his no particular centre. This can go on for kilometers. I wonder what the background is? It is very far from the villages to the fields, sometimes it seems to be like 10 km. This must have been very hard in the past. It is not clear if this pattern is very old or new. I mean also before Communism there were large landholders in most parts of Ukraine where the people were serfs. Question is then: was it to control them more easily that they live in big villages like this? And is it to prevent them to defend themselves that the village is so spread out???
Close to the village you see a lot of cows and fowl, here goose. Pigs are rarely seen. Wonder if they are not kept in this area; kept indoors or if they come from big "factories" somwehere else. I surely have not passed any big pig or chicken operation as you feel the smell for kilometers.
What really surprise me is that this land has so much arable land, I mean these plains are just "endless". Apparently Ukraine has the highest proportion of arable land in Europe. Still people in the village use almost every inch to cultivate as well - just look at this picture below. NO LAWNS and not much of ornamental plants. It is said that these small plots is what has kept people alive. The fact that they have had several famines in Ukraine is really an indicator that most famines are caused by bad policies. I mean it is hard to see a more fertile land, and it is not at all overpopulated and the climate is good, what more can you ask for?
Most house are in quite good shape I must say. See more bad houses in the cities than in the country side. The one above is perhaps quite typical.
This one is from the mountain areas, where they build more in wood.
Houses can really look quite different - this one is all covered in tiles!
Roads
Quality of roads vary a lot. Also the same road, may go from 20 meter wide good road to a 5 m rough gravel and then back again. It is not uncommmon that people actually drive beside the road instead (like in Africa). As a cyclist the biggest problem is that the middle part of the road often is quite OK but edges are really bad.
This is a bridge over Dnister in a "road of regional importance". Looked a bit scary, but in the end it looks worse than it is.
Here it is the opposite. it is hard to take pictures of the roads that give the right feeling of how bad they are....But we are speaking about at least half a meter difference between the highest and the lowest part here.
Most of the country roads have a hedge of trees along them. Probably good for erosion control, and control of dust and snow storms. In many cases these vegetation bands are wider, and the locals seem to use them for firewood (legal or not).
25 days: Half way - halva vagen 1314 km
Nu har jag nog cyklat halva vagen.
Totat ar jag uppe i 1314 km cyklad stracka. Jag har ju akt nagra kortare strackor tag ocksa. Fagelvagen fran Riga dit jag ar 950 km.
Jag raknar med att jag har cirka 1200 km till Jalta, kortaste vagen kanske bara 1000 km, men jag cyklar oftast inte de kortaste vagen
Totalt sa har jag suttit pa cykeln 83 timmar. De dagar jag cyklat sa har det varit mellan 4 och 6.5 timmar, snitt farm har varit mellan 14 och 18 km per timme raknat pa dagsetapper.
Maxfart 51 km i timmen.
Cykeln har hallit val. En ny kedja och tva stod har jag fatt kopa, annars bara smatt underhall som att dra at skruvar som skakat loss och smorja kedjan eller justetring av sadelhojd och styre.
Olflaskan ar Riga, pennan ar dar jag ar idag och vattenflaskan ar dit jag skall Jalta
The beer bottle is placed on Riga where I started cycling, the pen is where I am now and the water bottle is the target Jalta.
I estimate that I have done at least half of the cycling now. Total stretch on the bike is 1.314 KM and total time in the saddle is 83 hours (yes I did buy a new bike computer - of better quality...) Day trips vary from 50 to 110 km, most of them in the range of 65-85.
As the craw fly it is abut 950 km to Riga (1750 km to Paris or 1370 km to Rome). I am at the same latitiude as Zurich I believe, or thereabouts. I calculate about 1200 km to Jalta - that is not the shortest way but a realistic way, as I don't want to cycle a lot on high ways.
Bicycle is doing reeally well. Had to buy a new chain (the one on was probably the original one, i.e. as old as I am) and two rests. Otherwise just normal maintenance and adjustments.
I am also doing well. Proud that I keep off the tobacco. Don't think I either lost or gained weight, perhaps re-distributed some from "love-handles" to thighs and bottom. A bit lonely now and then - but I think that was part of the plan. Just bought a Ukrainian-English dictonary....
Amazingly it has not been hard to switch off the work related things. I have the occasional discussion with Kari or Kolbjorn about some issues but really nothing that keeps my mind spinning at night.... I sleep at least nine hours most nights!!!!!
On the way to Jalta I plan to make breaks and take bus or trains in various directions, starting tomorrow when I will go up in the mountain range, the Carpathians. Later on I guess I will travel to Kiev, perhaps Cernobyl and Oddessa. We will see. It depends mainly on the weather. So far it has been fairly mild, but today winds had a markedly winterly feeling.
Thanks for reading me!
Totat ar jag uppe i 1314 km cyklad stracka. Jag har ju akt nagra kortare strackor tag ocksa. Fagelvagen fran Riga dit jag ar 950 km.
Jag raknar med att jag har cirka 1200 km till Jalta, kortaste vagen kanske bara 1000 km, men jag cyklar oftast inte de kortaste vagen
Totalt sa har jag suttit pa cykeln 83 timmar. De dagar jag cyklat sa har det varit mellan 4 och 6.5 timmar, snitt farm har varit mellan 14 och 18 km per timme raknat pa dagsetapper.
Maxfart 51 km i timmen.
Cykeln har hallit val. En ny kedja och tva stod har jag fatt kopa, annars bara smatt underhall som att dra at skruvar som skakat loss och smorja kedjan eller justetring av sadelhojd och styre.
Olflaskan ar Riga, pennan ar dar jag ar idag och vattenflaskan ar dit jag skall Jalta
The beer bottle is placed on Riga where I started cycling, the pen is where I am now and the water bottle is the target Jalta.
I estimate that I have done at least half of the cycling now. Total stretch on the bike is 1.314 KM and total time in the saddle is 83 hours (yes I did buy a new bike computer - of better quality...) Day trips vary from 50 to 110 km, most of them in the range of 65-85.
As the craw fly it is abut 950 km to Riga (1750 km to Paris or 1370 km to Rome). I am at the same latitiude as Zurich I believe, or thereabouts. I calculate about 1200 km to Jalta - that is not the shortest way but a realistic way, as I don't want to cycle a lot on high ways.
Bicycle is doing reeally well. Had to buy a new chain (the one on was probably the original one, i.e. as old as I am) and two rests. Otherwise just normal maintenance and adjustments.
I am also doing well. Proud that I keep off the tobacco. Don't think I either lost or gained weight, perhaps re-distributed some from "love-handles" to thighs and bottom. A bit lonely now and then - but I think that was part of the plan. Just bought a Ukrainian-English dictonary....
Amazingly it has not been hard to switch off the work related things. I have the occasional discussion with Kari or Kolbjorn about some issues but really nothing that keeps my mind spinning at night.... I sleep at least nine hours most nights!!!!!
On the way to Jalta I plan to make breaks and take bus or trains in various directions, starting tomorrow when I will go up in the mountain range, the Carpathians. Later on I guess I will travel to Kiev, perhaps Cernobyl and Oddessa. We will see. It depends mainly on the weather. So far it has been fairly mild, but today winds had a markedly winterly feeling.
Thanks for reading me!
Collective transportation
A nic bus stop with mosaic - could be a lot nicer without the garbage.
Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine have a good collective transportation network with busses and trains, in cities also trolley buses and trams. I really hope that they will invest in this infrastructure (it does need quite some investments as some of it looks rather run down) and not go down the same path as most Western countries. Cimate change, pollution, increasing oil price and a poor population make up good arguments for collective transports.
However I note that he petrol is around 60 Eurocents.
7 November, from Lviv to Ivano-Frankivsk
I spent the afternoon 5 November strolling around in Lviv. I entered an ortodox church and listen to the celestial music.
I also strolled in the enormous Bazaar they have in Lvov. There you can find anything and easily get lost as well.
In a previous posting I had a picture o two old ladies playing cards in the part. That looked nice. The reality of most older people is more grim. When communism collapsed they had very small pensions, as under the communist system housing was almost for free and food was very cheap, but now with market economy 50 Euro per month doesn' t allow them to survive. So in the end you see a lot of old people working and trying to make some money on whatever you can sell. Most of them are women. Already to begin with many males in that age died during the WWII and communist terror and in addition life expectancy for males is MUCH shorter than for females (with alcohol as the main reason...)
My last evening in Lviv, I spent on trying various Ukarainian and Molovan wines for 0.6 Euro per glass. The quality was accordingly.
The 6th I went by bike from Lviv to Rogatyn. The weather wasn't so nice as there was a drizzle most of the day. In addition there was a fog so the visibility was bad, down to 50-100 m at the worst.
It was a very lean day, I spent in total less than 4 Euro on food and 6 Euros on the room in the gues house. In the evening the restaurant couldn't serve any food at all, so I bought in a shop.
Today I progressed to Ivano Frankivsk as planned, and I am happy I hadn't planned a longer trip today, because I have had a very strong wind in my face the whole day and it has been quite cold. Then 65 km is just about enough.
The landscape has varied quite a lot. Close to Lviv it was a mosaic landscape with smaller fields
and quite some forest (but the fig prevented me from taking pictures).
Most farms look quite well managed, and what is really positive is that you see a lot of young men and middle aged men engaged in the farming. They plow with horses, the harvest etc. E.g. in Lithuania, if you see any horse in farming you can bet that the driver is a man or woman above sixty. So you really get an impression that people invest in farming here.
The house below was rather below average than above. The richer ones don't store straw alongs the walls like this. Just found it interesting, seen the same i Switzerland with firewood.
You see a lot of bird (fowl) here on the farms, geese, ducks, turkey and of course chicken. They tase very well as well.
A very common sight in the morning is the people leading one or two cows from the farms (which are all concentrated in the villages) to common grazing ground outside the village. So each farm has just a few cows but you see a herd of hundred or more.
This is the river Dnistr that I passed today. It is the second longest river in Ukaraine (I believe) after Dnepr. Perhaps you have not understood how big Ukraine is. It is the second largest country in Europe after Russia, substantially bigger than France and Sweden. It stretches more than 1000 km from East or West. Population around 50 million.
Food is still posing a challenge. I now know the name of about 10 dishes. One of the favourites is the Борщ (the famouse beetroot soup). This one is different in every bar, there seem to be little standardisation. They throw in anything they have I believe
This afternoon I was lucky to go into this bar, where they had a kind of buffet so I could point out the stuff I wanted.
I also strolled in the enormous Bazaar they have in Lvov. There you can find anything and easily get lost as well.
In a previous posting I had a picture o two old ladies playing cards in the part. That looked nice. The reality of most older people is more grim. When communism collapsed they had very small pensions, as under the communist system housing was almost for free and food was very cheap, but now with market economy 50 Euro per month doesn' t allow them to survive. So in the end you see a lot of old people working and trying to make some money on whatever you can sell. Most of them are women. Already to begin with many males in that age died during the WWII and communist terror and in addition life expectancy for males is MUCH shorter than for females (with alcohol as the main reason...)
My last evening in Lviv, I spent on trying various Ukarainian and Molovan wines for 0.6 Euro per glass. The quality was accordingly.
The 6th I went by bike from Lviv to Rogatyn. The weather wasn't so nice as there was a drizzle most of the day. In addition there was a fog so the visibility was bad, down to 50-100 m at the worst.
It was a very lean day, I spent in total less than 4 Euro on food and 6 Euros on the room in the gues house. In the evening the restaurant couldn't serve any food at all, so I bought in a shop.
Today I progressed to Ivano Frankivsk as planned, and I am happy I hadn't planned a longer trip today, because I have had a very strong wind in my face the whole day and it has been quite cold. Then 65 km is just about enough.
The landscape has varied quite a lot. Close to Lviv it was a mosaic landscape with smaller fields
and quite some forest (but the fig prevented me from taking pictures).
Most farms look quite well managed, and what is really positive is that you see a lot of young men and middle aged men engaged in the farming. They plow with horses, the harvest etc. E.g. in Lithuania, if you see any horse in farming you can bet that the driver is a man or woman above sixty. So you really get an impression that people invest in farming here.
The house below was rather below average than above. The richer ones don't store straw alongs the walls like this. Just found it interesting, seen the same i Switzerland with firewood.
You see a lot of bird (fowl) here on the farms, geese, ducks, turkey and of course chicken. They tase very well as well.
A very common sight in the morning is the people leading one or two cows from the farms (which are all concentrated in the villages) to common grazing ground outside the village. So each farm has just a few cows but you see a herd of hundred or more.
This is the river Dnistr that I passed today. It is the second longest river in Ukaraine (I believe) after Dnepr. Perhaps you have not understood how big Ukraine is. It is the second largest country in Europe after Russia, substantially bigger than France and Sweden. It stretches more than 1000 km from East or West. Population around 50 million.
Food is still posing a challenge. I now know the name of about 10 dishes. One of the favourites is the Борщ (the famouse beetroot soup). This one is different in every bar, there seem to be little standardisation. They throw in anything they have I believe
This afternoon I was lucky to go into this bar, where they had a kind of buffet so I could point out the stuff I wanted.
A helpful crowd
Ukrainians have so far showed to very helpful. I have gor help to change buses. In the hotel in Lviv they gladly made my laundry (didn't happen once in Poland), and when I aske for needle and thread the woman fixed my shirt (I don't know if itwas a gender factor here). and she completely refused to take any money for it. Yesterday morning I needed a tool ad when to a garage and the guy there spent quarter of an hour looking for the tool and another quarter looking at me using it (while his big dog was chewing my leg). He also refused any money. And today a guy spent almost half an hour to assist me to by a train ticket for tomorow morning. I ended up with a busticket for this afternoon, but it was very nice of him to help me. He did accept me buying him a beer for the assistance.
If only I could speak the language better I am sure I would experience more hospitality.
If only I could speak the language better I am sure I would experience more hospitality.
The American dream - a myth
I happened to have BBC and Al Jazeera at the time of the US election. One thing that strikes me is how well the myth that the US is the country where anybody can become somebody is nurtured and now Obama is taken as an example of that. I don't know his biography, but I am sure he doesn't come from the slums.....
Just a few weeks ago the Economist had an article on social mobility. Expressed as the correlation between the income of the father and the sun (sorry girls but if women were included it would perhaps say more about gender discrimination than social mobility I guess), the USA and the UK came out very badly, i,e if the father is rich the son is likely to be rich, and most diturbingly the same if they are poor. France also came out badly, while e.g. the Scandinvan countries did a lot better. Probably beacuse they have realised that there is such a big favour to have rich parents that they made all kind of efforts to mitigate that.
(now the manager of the internetcaf''e comes and tell me not to type so hard.....)
G
Just a few weeks ago the Economist had an article on social mobility. Expressed as the correlation between the income of the father and the sun (sorry girls but if women were included it would perhaps say more about gender discrimination than social mobility I guess), the USA and the UK came out very badly, i,e if the father is rich the son is likely to be rich, and most diturbingly the same if they are poor. France also came out badly, while e.g. the Scandinvan countries did a lot better. Probably beacuse they have realised that there is such a big favour to have rich parents that they made all kind of efforts to mitigate that.
(now the manager of the internetcaf''e comes and tell me not to type so hard.....)
G
Bilder / Pictures
Jag lyckades antligen hitta nagon som kunde fora over mina bilder till en USB sticka, sa nu har jag lagt till en del bilder i de gamla inlaggen.
Finally I found somebody that could transfer my files from the memory stick of the camera to a USB stick that I can use in the computers. So now I have updated some of the old things with pictures. The smaller ones you can click and they expand.
Finally I found somebody that could transfer my files from the memory stick of the camera to a USB stick that I can use in the computers. So now I have updated some of the old things with pictures. The smaller ones you can click and they expand.
дьвів 5 November
Lite traning behover ni ju - det star Lvov dar uppe
You need a bit of exercise it says Lvov up there.
Lvov is a big city. I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning (Ukraine is one hour ahed of central Europe) walking around in the city. As I wrote before I don't fancy going by bike as the roads are so bad. Interestingly enough things that have been steady for more than 1000 km shook loose when I came to Lvov and just cycled some 15 km looking for hotels on these roads.
it is hard to take a shot that really shows how bad the roads are.
As I wrote Lvov has many names and spealling. Sometimes it is also referred to by its German name Lemberg.
you can read more about it on e.g. www.guide.lviv.ua
The central market square - could have been Poland, Austria or Czech Republic as well.
Among its famous sons and daughters we note Leopols von Sacher Masoch, a novellist that inspired the classification of masochism. I went to a trendy bar dedicated to his memory.
The man himself
The bar...
It is nice just walking around studying the people.
There are many types. There are the traditional babuschkas (grandmothers) playing cards below
And of course there are alcoholics. Can be quite deptressing, but at least thereare not more of them here than in Poland as far as I can see. The city streets and cafes are full of young women, most of them dressed exclusively (a bit too flashy for my taste) and good looking. Apparently the new James Bond woman is Ukarainian, something that will up the hype even more I guess. The young men seem to be in gambling houses and beer joints. Both men and women alike seem to spend a lot of money on cell phones, the women a lot on clothes and costmetics.
I am into an intensive learning of the language and the alphabet. I would say it is quite hopeless to get around outside the main tourist treks if you can't at least read a menu. Here in Lvov some young people in the chic places and the internet caf'es speak English but for the rest. Some older people seem to speak German. Anyway I try to read the menus and order and it is not easy.
Try to order on that menu!
You can see a quite typical modern fast food joint. Basically built on American concepts (yes they have a McDonalds here as well). Otherwise restaurants come in many shapes, old fast food places, with pirogs and sausages, cafe-bars where they sell beer and snacks and some basic food stuffs. There are few real Restaurants. Most of them seem to be either giant halls from Communist times or small chic French or Italian style, with mainly standards European food. Street food is in a way the best as it is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). There are places for any size of wallet here, but basically it is very cheap. You can eat yourself sated for less than 2 Euros and you get a beer for 50-60 Euro cents and a cup of tea for 20-30 cents. I don't think Ukrainians eat a lot of breakfast or at least they don't eat breakfast out. Almost no food places or bars are open before 10!
The hotel I stay in is clean and has a comfortable bed and I pay less than 30 Euros for it. Same standard in Western Europe would be 80-90 Euros.
I spent two hours going around on various tramlines (costs 10 cents). It is an interesting way of seeing the town and also to se other people than the ones that populate the city centre. If a bus in Lithuania (and Sweden for that matter) is silent like a graveyard, a bus or tram in Lvov is like a market in North Africa! A total cacaphony. Very interesting and amusing to listen to them even if I understand nada. Also interesting to see the trusting system they have for payment. If somebody gets on at the back of the tram (these are double wagon trams) and the tram is full. He or she just sends his coins forward and a few minutes later the ticket comes!!!! Hey, how many million people citys in Western Europe would have a system like that! I am impressed.
North of here, the water goes towards the river Bug who joins Wisla in Warzaw, South of here we are in the watershed of Dnistr, which empties into the Black see.
So so far the Ukarainian leg of my journey has been very positive. Notably this part of Ukraine, Galicia, is supposedly quite different from the rest of Ukraine, it was part of Poland for quite a while and is (was) also the heartland of the Jewish settlement in Central Europe. Tomorrow I plan to continue by bike in the direction of Ivano Frankovsk, but it will take me two day to reach there. From there I plan to take some trip up to the Carpathians, probably by bus or train as we are speaking mountains and not just hills here. But it will depend on the weather. The last week has been very mild, I believe the normal temperature for this time of the year would be some five degrees lower. And while I am quite well prepared I am not in for snow. See you!
You need a bit of exercise it says Lvov up there.
Lvov is a big city. I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning (Ukraine is one hour ahed of central Europe) walking around in the city. As I wrote before I don't fancy going by bike as the roads are so bad. Interestingly enough things that have been steady for more than 1000 km shook loose when I came to Lvov and just cycled some 15 km looking for hotels on these roads.
it is hard to take a shot that really shows how bad the roads are.
As I wrote Lvov has many names and spealling. Sometimes it is also referred to by its German name Lemberg.
you can read more about it on e.g. www.guide.lviv.ua
The central market square - could have been Poland, Austria or Czech Republic as well.
Among its famous sons and daughters we note Leopols von Sacher Masoch, a novellist that inspired the classification of masochism. I went to a trendy bar dedicated to his memory.
The man himself
The bar...
It is nice just walking around studying the people.
There are many types. There are the traditional babuschkas (grandmothers) playing cards below
And of course there are alcoholics. Can be quite deptressing, but at least thereare not more of them here than in Poland as far as I can see. The city streets and cafes are full of young women, most of them dressed exclusively (a bit too flashy for my taste) and good looking. Apparently the new James Bond woman is Ukarainian, something that will up the hype even more I guess. The young men seem to be in gambling houses and beer joints. Both men and women alike seem to spend a lot of money on cell phones, the women a lot on clothes and costmetics.
I am into an intensive learning of the language and the alphabet. I would say it is quite hopeless to get around outside the main tourist treks if you can't at least read a menu. Here in Lvov some young people in the chic places and the internet caf'es speak English but for the rest. Some older people seem to speak German. Anyway I try to read the menus and order and it is not easy.
Try to order on that menu!
You can see a quite typical modern fast food joint. Basically built on American concepts (yes they have a McDonalds here as well). Otherwise restaurants come in many shapes, old fast food places, with pirogs and sausages, cafe-bars where they sell beer and snacks and some basic food stuffs. There are few real Restaurants. Most of them seem to be either giant halls from Communist times or small chic French or Italian style, with mainly standards European food. Street food is in a way the best as it is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). There are places for any size of wallet here, but basically it is very cheap. You can eat yourself sated for less than 2 Euros and you get a beer for 50-60 Euro cents and a cup of tea for 20-30 cents. I don't think Ukrainians eat a lot of breakfast or at least they don't eat breakfast out. Almost no food places or bars are open before 10!
The hotel I stay in is clean and has a comfortable bed and I pay less than 30 Euros for it. Same standard in Western Europe would be 80-90 Euros.
I spent two hours going around on various tramlines (costs 10 cents). It is an interesting way of seeing the town and also to se other people than the ones that populate the city centre. If a bus in Lithuania (and Sweden for that matter) is silent like a graveyard, a bus or tram in Lvov is like a market in North Africa! A total cacaphony. Very interesting and amusing to listen to them even if I understand nada. Also interesting to see the trusting system they have for payment. If somebody gets on at the back of the tram (these are double wagon trams) and the tram is full. He or she just sends his coins forward and a few minutes later the ticket comes!!!! Hey, how many million people citys in Western Europe would have a system like that! I am impressed.
North of here, the water goes towards the river Bug who joins Wisla in Warzaw, South of here we are in the watershed of Dnistr, which empties into the Black see.
So so far the Ukarainian leg of my journey has been very positive. Notably this part of Ukraine, Galicia, is supposedly quite different from the rest of Ukraine, it was part of Poland for quite a while and is (was) also the heartland of the Jewish settlement in Central Europe. Tomorrow I plan to continue by bike in the direction of Ivano Frankovsk, but it will take me two day to reach there. From there I plan to take some trip up to the Carpathians, probably by bus or train as we are speaking mountains and not just hills here. But it will depend on the weather. The last week has been very mild, I believe the normal temperature for this time of the year would be some five degrees lower. And while I am quite well prepared I am not in for snow. See you!
Lvov, Ukraine 4 November
So now I am finally in Ukraine. I stayed a bit longer in Poland than planned, but I enjoyed it. The entry to Ukraine was not so stylish. I travelled in a bus that had seen it's better days. This was a completely local bus thing carrying mainly older women with loads of bags and boxes. Looking as if they were on their way to or from the market. I was an exotic element in the bus, and there were a lot of discussions between the passengers and the driver about this strange creature with the bike on the bus. But they were friendly. Surprisingly the Ukrainian border control was also very friendly, even if it took time. The officer was a women named Laila with a warm smile and great looks, she even carried her uniform with a grace. Instead of inquiring a lot, she assisted me filling in the form correctly.
The country side changed quite markedly. Fields became a lot bigger on the Ukrainian side, and there were very few houses in the farm areas. Perhaps they are still kolchozes, but I don't think so because everywhere in these big fields farmers were plowing small plots with horses - yes I saw more horses yesterday than on the whole trip so far.
I had to change bus in Novojavrovsk, fortunately the driver getting me there also helped me onto the next bus.
That bus stopped in the outskirts of Lvov, so I took my stuff and headed for the town, looking for a place to stay and the tourist information.
I am not exactly an inexperienced traveller, ok I haven't gone by bike a lot but nevertheless, IT WAS A SHOCK. Kampala, Uganda has both better roads and better drivers than Lvov, but Kampala doesn't have the amount of cars, trolley busses and trams that Lvov has. Drivers just take any turns and any directions. Red lights seem to be advisory, roads are really VERY bad (and I have seen a lot). the tram rails are an additional problem as they often rise 10 cm above the road surface and they are hard to pass over with the bicycle. The sever bumps also made my load sliding to the side, caused my back light to fall of and made an impact on my bottom similar to a ten hour ride. Don't think I will do a lot of biking in this city. It was incredibly hard to find a hotel and in the end I ended up in a real upmarket - but not pleasant place. Far above my budget so I will look for another place now.
For the rest Lvov has a certain charm. It is also an old town with a lot of nice buildings. But it is very big and a bit difficult to get a handle of. I will try today and perhaps report more later on.
My plan is to stay here for some days and get a bit accustomed to Ukaraine, to the language and in particular the alphabet, the road signs etc. After that I will start my criss-crossing of Ukraine, ending hopefully in Jalta. My idea is to go a rather straight line, but park the bicycle and make excursions by train or bus or boat, eg into the Carpathians, to Kiev etc. But we will see, plans are loose and open.
Regarding my remark about the US elections, I note that this hotel has a special event tonight: the show of an old Premier League game with a NEW TRANSLATION OF THE SPEAKER COMMENTS!. Hey that is something important compared to who is going to rule the USA!
The country side changed quite markedly. Fields became a lot bigger on the Ukrainian side, and there were very few houses in the farm areas. Perhaps they are still kolchozes, but I don't think so because everywhere in these big fields farmers were plowing small plots with horses - yes I saw more horses yesterday than on the whole trip so far.
I had to change bus in Novojavrovsk, fortunately the driver getting me there also helped me onto the next bus.
That bus stopped in the outskirts of Lvov, so I took my stuff and headed for the town, looking for a place to stay and the tourist information.
I am not exactly an inexperienced traveller, ok I haven't gone by bike a lot but nevertheless, IT WAS A SHOCK. Kampala, Uganda has both better roads and better drivers than Lvov, but Kampala doesn't have the amount of cars, trolley busses and trams that Lvov has. Drivers just take any turns and any directions. Red lights seem to be advisory, roads are really VERY bad (and I have seen a lot). the tram rails are an additional problem as they often rise 10 cm above the road surface and they are hard to pass over with the bicycle. The sever bumps also made my load sliding to the side, caused my back light to fall of and made an impact on my bottom similar to a ten hour ride. Don't think I will do a lot of biking in this city. It was incredibly hard to find a hotel and in the end I ended up in a real upmarket - but not pleasant place. Far above my budget so I will look for another place now.
For the rest Lvov has a certain charm. It is also an old town with a lot of nice buildings. But it is very big and a bit difficult to get a handle of. I will try today and perhaps report more later on.
My plan is to stay here for some days and get a bit accustomed to Ukaraine, to the language and in particular the alphabet, the road signs etc. After that I will start my criss-crossing of Ukraine, ending hopefully in Jalta. My idea is to go a rather straight line, but park the bicycle and make excursions by train or bus or boat, eg into the Carpathians, to Kiev etc. But we will see, plans are loose and open.
Regarding my remark about the US elections, I note that this hotel has a special event tonight: the show of an old Premier League game with a NEW TRANSLATION OF THE SPEAKER COMMENTS!. Hey that is something important compared to who is going to rule the USA!
Grey, rainy, misty and lethal traffic? stay put or go by bus
Tomaszov 3 November (it is 2008 isn't it?),
Yesterday was warm as I said. I deciced to put up my tent and found a pleasant beech and maple tree forest, a bit close to the raod it was but I didn't have the energy to drag my bike so far, and in the end the forest wasn't big. Yesterdays bikuing was pleasant with quite a lot of hills. I reached 52 km downhill once, even without pedalling so you can understand it was quite steep.
All through the night big maple leaves were falling on the tent, making funny scratching noices, and then it started to rain. Ther leaves stuck to the tent and in the morning it was quite well camoflaged.
I had planned to go by bike to Lvov today, but in the end, the drizzling rain and thick mist combined with very heavy traffic (they concentrate all traffic to a few crossings so there are no alternative routes to take) have made me stop here in Tomaszow to wait for a bus over the border which leaves at 11.00. That one doesn't go all the way to Lvov, so I will see when I reach there if I pick up biking again or if I take another bus or train to Lvov.
Unfortunately I don't manage to get my pictures into any of these computers. I have some new good ones. For later I guess.
Yesterday was warm as I said. I deciced to put up my tent and found a pleasant beech and maple tree forest, a bit close to the raod it was but I didn't have the energy to drag my bike so far, and in the end the forest wasn't big. Yesterdays bikuing was pleasant with quite a lot of hills. I reached 52 km downhill once, even without pedalling so you can understand it was quite steep.
All through the night big maple leaves were falling on the tent, making funny scratching noices, and then it started to rain. Ther leaves stuck to the tent and in the morning it was quite well camoflaged.
I had planned to go by bike to Lvov today, but in the end, the drizzling rain and thick mist combined with very heavy traffic (they concentrate all traffic to a few crossings so there are no alternative routes to take) have made me stop here in Tomaszow to wait for a bus over the border which leaves at 11.00. That one doesn't go all the way to Lvov, so I will see when I reach there if I pick up biking again or if I take another bus or train to Lvov.
Unfortunately I don't manage to get my pictures into any of these computers. I have some new good ones. For later I guess.
American elections and financial crisis - who cares?
A very good thing with the timing of this trip is that I am saved from all ther media hype about the US elections and the financial crisis. I have seen BBC for half an hour the last ten days, Polish newspapers don't appeal to me so I really don't know a lot. I do know that the Polish and Ukrainian currencies have taken a beating from the crisis, which basically is good news for the traveller, although the Swedish krona has also dropped so some of that benefit is lost in conversion.
It is interesting to see how comparably easy it is to drop these addictions. The tobacco is still hard, I feel this big loss now and then. I have managed to switch off work almost completely - and for me that has never happened before, even on the short vacations I have had work has always been in my mind. And this news addiction is almost gone.
The need to communicate with family and friends is not gone though =- and that was never the intention anyway. My warm greetings to all of you.
It is interesting to see how comparably easy it is to drop these addictions. The tobacco is still hard, I feel this big loss now and then. I have managed to switch off work almost completely - and for me that has never happened before, even on the short vacations I have had work has always been in my mind. And this news addiction is almost gone.
The need to communicate with family and friends is not gone though =- and that was never the intention anyway. My warm greetings to all of you.
Landscape and farming
I was in Poland some times in the mid ninetines. At that time agriculture looked very bad and farms were really ran down. That was in South Western Poland. This trip I have found the agriculture area quite prosperous - a lot more than in Lithuania. I have hardly seen any horses in the fields (in the nineties I saw them everywhere, and in Lithuania I saw many more). Not that I have anything against horses in agriculture - the opposite, but they are a kind of indicator of economic development in the farm sector......
In the South East, where I been mostly the last days, farming is specialised with a lot of fruit crops, berries, aspargus,hops.
I even saw quite some tobacco on drying today (yes the thought of taking some to chew did strike my mind, but I resisted, now three weeks without and I cut the nicontine patches in three parts now to make them last longer and reduce the dosis).
In the North East and on the Lithuanian side of the border the lanscape is fairly flat and there is a lot of pine forest on sandy soils (a dune type of landscape, the sea reached there before). When going southwards it gradually became a bit more hilly and today, there were a lot of hills. Vegetation has also changed. Up to Bialystok there was hardly any plant or crop that doesn't exist at least in Southern Sweden. But thereafter I see more and morer trees and bushes I don't recognise easily and as I said the agriculture crops also change.
Didn't see any farms announced as organic but I know there are quite a lot.
In the South East, where I been mostly the last days, farming is specialised with a lot of fruit crops, berries, aspargus,hops.
I even saw quite some tobacco on drying today (yes the thought of taking some to chew did strike my mind, but I resisted, now three weeks without and I cut the nicontine patches in three parts now to make them last longer and reduce the dosis).
In the North East and on the Lithuanian side of the border the lanscape is fairly flat and there is a lot of pine forest on sandy soils (a dune type of landscape, the sea reached there before). When going southwards it gradually became a bit more hilly and today, there were a lot of hills. Vegetation has also changed. Up to Bialystok there was hardly any plant or crop that doesn't exist at least in Southern Sweden. But thereafter I see more and morer trees and bushes I don't recognise easily and as I said the agriculture crops also change.
Didn't see any farms announced as organic but I know there are quite a lot.
Zamosc 2 November
Hi,
(I have updated a bit the piece on travel in Poland that I posted before)
the most perfect bicycle day. I set out at 7.15 from Chelm and had reached Zamosc, 55 km after only three and a half hour, including some breaks. No wind, full sun, now at noon it is almost 20 degrees. I plan to sleep in tent tonight and progress to Lviv (or Lvov, or L'wiw or whatever spelling, it has been under many masters and the Cyrrilic is transcribed differently) in Ukaraina tomorrow. There I will stay for some 2-3 days to get a bit accustommed to Ukraina, in particular to the language, how to read signs etc. Hopefullly find some tourist information, figuring out how trains are working, if it is possible to go by boat on any of the big rivers. I fear writing my blog on a key board with the Cyrillic alphabet, so perhaps it will be all silent from me from now on.
The 30 I went - by train from Chelm to Krakow. I left my bike and the baggage in Chelm and brough just a light rucksack. Krakow is about 450 km westwards from the border to Ukraine, where Chelm is situated. Krakow was very nice. I found a pension for 20 Euros which was three blocks away from the railway station. It was such a warm day, around 20 degrees, I took off my jacket and enjoyed a hot chocolate at the main square. Just stolled around had some easy food and ended up at a concert with Klezmer music in the evening. Next morning I had a walk in the town again, marvelling of all those nice buildings. Krajow is definitively a place to visit, and I could have stayed there a week - but it wasn't really on my way to Ukraina, it was just a nice stopover on my way to visit friends in Katowice......
Enjoying my chocolate at the main square
Then I went to Katowice (Bedzin) to visit our polish friends that work in our farm in the summer. The man is hospitalised and will undergo surgery next week. I stayed by them and the day after I went back by train to Chelm. Chelm is also a very pleasant town, and this Zamosc where I am now has the most wonderful main square with nice guild houses and a charming atmosphere. Overall I think the old Polish towns are really charming or at least the city centres, most of them have dreadful suburbs....
I realise that the Polish takes this 1 November holiday VERY serious. I have never seen so many lanterns and flowers in my whole life. All cemetaries were completely packed with people and lines of cars stretching kilometers. Unfortunately that also meant that the internet cafe' in Chelm wasn't open. And almost nothing else was open either.
Time to get lunch and continue biking
(I have updated a bit the piece on travel in Poland that I posted before)
the most perfect bicycle day. I set out at 7.15 from Chelm and had reached Zamosc, 55 km after only three and a half hour, including some breaks. No wind, full sun, now at noon it is almost 20 degrees. I plan to sleep in tent tonight and progress to Lviv (or Lvov, or L'wiw or whatever spelling, it has been under many masters and the Cyrrilic is transcribed differently) in Ukaraina tomorrow. There I will stay for some 2-3 days to get a bit accustommed to Ukraina, in particular to the language, how to read signs etc. Hopefullly find some tourist information, figuring out how trains are working, if it is possible to go by boat on any of the big rivers. I fear writing my blog on a key board with the Cyrillic alphabet, so perhaps it will be all silent from me from now on.
The 30 I went - by train from Chelm to Krakow. I left my bike and the baggage in Chelm and brough just a light rucksack. Krakow is about 450 km westwards from the border to Ukraine, where Chelm is situated. Krakow was very nice. I found a pension for 20 Euros which was three blocks away from the railway station. It was such a warm day, around 20 degrees, I took off my jacket and enjoyed a hot chocolate at the main square. Just stolled around had some easy food and ended up at a concert with Klezmer music in the evening. Next morning I had a walk in the town again, marvelling of all those nice buildings. Krajow is definitively a place to visit, and I could have stayed there a week - but it wasn't really on my way to Ukraina, it was just a nice stopover on my way to visit friends in Katowice......
Enjoying my chocolate at the main square
Then I went to Katowice (Bedzin) to visit our polish friends that work in our farm in the summer. The man is hospitalised and will undergo surgery next week. I stayed by them and the day after I went back by train to Chelm. Chelm is also a very pleasant town, and this Zamosc where I am now has the most wonderful main square with nice guild houses and a charming atmosphere. Overall I think the old Polish towns are really charming or at least the city centres, most of them have dreadful suburbs....
I realise that the Polish takes this 1 November holiday VERY serious. I have never seen so many lanterns and flowers in my whole life. All cemetaries were completely packed with people and lines of cars stretching kilometers. Unfortunately that also meant that the internet cafe' in Chelm wasn't open. And almost nothing else was open either.
Time to get lunch and continue biking
Planning and preparation
Now three weeks from start it is a good time to asses how well I had prepared myself for this. \
Clearly I could have benefitted from a bit mor bicycling the last half year. The last days I have woken up at night. My muscles have been as strings on a violin and pain has performed a concerto on them. But there is a certain power in pain as well - when you know it is temporary and nothing dangerous.
Packing was very successfull. I have missed very few things. The pair of trousers that I thought would be the main pair to use when cycling were not really so good, the are too heavy and too difficult to dry, so I left them by our friends in Katowice and bought some training pants - never wore such pants before, guess I am a bit snobbish in my own way.
I had three t-shirts. One silk, one cotton (organic) and one merino wool. Must say the merino wool one comes out as the winner. The bike trousers that Kolbjorn and Kari gave me have really been good. Now my poor bottom is a bit tougher and I made some shorter trips without those padded trousers and it has also worked, but for the long haul it is really good. I still need to use the tent a bit more to justify carrying the extra load of tent and sleeping bag etc. (probably forty percent of the weight).
What I could have prepared better was basic information about the countries. To have a simple list of useful words (such as bicycle, how do you try to buy a ticket for your bicycle in the train station......) would have been helful and food language of course.Still I have actually been in all the three countries before and new some words. A bit more research on accommodation could have been useful.
Clearly I could have benefitted from a bit mor bicycling the last half year. The last days I have woken up at night. My muscles have been as strings on a violin and pain has performed a concerto on them. But there is a certain power in pain as well - when you know it is temporary and nothing dangerous.
Packing was very successfull. I have missed very few things. The pair of trousers that I thought would be the main pair to use when cycling were not really so good, the are too heavy and too difficult to dry, so I left them by our friends in Katowice and bought some training pants - never wore such pants before, guess I am a bit snobbish in my own way.
I had three t-shirts. One silk, one cotton (organic) and one merino wool. Must say the merino wool one comes out as the winner. The bike trousers that Kolbjorn and Kari gave me have really been good. Now my poor bottom is a bit tougher and I made some shorter trips without those padded trousers and it has also worked, but for the long haul it is really good. I still need to use the tent a bit more to justify carrying the extra load of tent and sleeping bag etc. (probably forty percent of the weight).
What I could have prepared better was basic information about the countries. To have a simple list of useful words (such as bicycle, how do you try to buy a ticket for your bicycle in the train station......) would have been helful and food language of course.Still I have actually been in all the three countries before and new some words. A bit more research on accommodation could have been useful.
Besok has Marija och Andrzej
Den trettionde oktober besokte jag Andrzej och Marija (det ar det polska par som jobbar hos oss pa somrarna) i Bedzin dar de bor. Jag tog taget fran Krakow och Marija motte mig pa stationen. Hon hade givetvis bullat upp med en massa mat. Jag hade kopt choklad och blommor till dem. Lagenheten ar valdigt fin - inuti. Utanpa ser ju huset ganska bedrovligt ut - men det ar kanske sa det blir nar man har agda lagenheter, nagot som regeringen vill infora har. Jag hoppas de tanker ut hur man undviker att trapphus och gard blir rena slummen..
Efter maten tog vi en buss till sjukhuset. Andrzej lag och sov, men blev glad nar vi kom. Han skall opereras nasta vecka. Det forefaller som om det ar nagon nerv som ar i klam, och inget annat allvarligt, och det vore ju skont i sa fall. De sager atrt sjukvarden ar gratis i Polen, men de menar att om nagot skall handa, med undersokningar och specialistbehandlingar, sa maste man muta lakarna. Det later tragiskt.
Han fragade intresserat om min aktur. Det ar lustigt men de flesta polacker verkar aldrig ha varit i Ukraina trots att det ar grannland...Andrzej sade att mina teorier om cykelstolder inte stammer. Han menade att en gammal cykel ar mer attraktiv att stjala da de kan smaltas ned till skrot. Jag undrar varfor folk sa ofta misstror sina egna landsman? Jag lamnar cykeln olast nar jag har in i affarer i sma samhallen, jag laser den i stora. Jag later baggaget vara kvar pa pakethalleren, tar bara med mig min lilla vaska med pengar osv.
Tilbkas in lagenheten bjod Marija - givetvis - pa en storslagen maltid. Pa kvallen kom en granne och Pawel och Angelika och vi hade knagglig polsk-svensk-engelsk konversation. Pawel korde mig till Katowice nasta morgon.
Jag haller tummarna for att Andrzejs operation skall ga val och sander varma tankar till hela familjen for trevligt mottagande.
Efter maten tog vi en buss till sjukhuset. Andrzej lag och sov, men blev glad nar vi kom. Han skall opereras nasta vecka. Det forefaller som om det ar nagon nerv som ar i klam, och inget annat allvarligt, och det vore ju skont i sa fall. De sager atrt sjukvarden ar gratis i Polen, men de menar att om nagot skall handa, med undersokningar och specialistbehandlingar, sa maste man muta lakarna. Det later tragiskt.
Han fragade intresserat om min aktur. Det ar lustigt men de flesta polacker verkar aldrig ha varit i Ukraina trots att det ar grannland...Andrzej sade att mina teorier om cykelstolder inte stammer. Han menade att en gammal cykel ar mer attraktiv att stjala da de kan smaltas ned till skrot. Jag undrar varfor folk sa ofta misstror sina egna landsman? Jag lamnar cykeln olast nar jag har in i affarer i sma samhallen, jag laser den i stora. Jag later baggaget vara kvar pa pakethalleren, tar bara med mig min lilla vaska med pengar osv.
Tilbkas in lagenheten bjod Marija - givetvis - pa en storslagen maltid. Pa kvallen kom en granne och Pawel och Angelika och vi hade knagglig polsk-svensk-engelsk konversation. Pawel korde mig till Katowice nasta morgon.
Jag haller tummarna for att Andrzejs operation skall ga val och sander varma tankar till hela familjen for trevligt mottagande.
Questions and thoughts
You get an awful lot of time to think when travelling by yourself. I have this half year sabbatical partly for thinking, see if I can get some new bright ideas, that can keep me going for another twenty years or so. I will try to systemtize this a bit more after New Year. At this stage I am more brainstorming and meditating over questions.
Some slighty absurd or provoking:
- Cars kill more people than drugs in almost modern countries, so how come the car dealer is a respected citizen and the drug dealer is a criminal?
Some about how our society and economy work:
-How come that we could build all these railroads some 100/150 years ago, while today a new track of 50-100 km is such a major investment that it is hardly never done?
-Why do most people equate market economy and capitalism (and sometimes even democracy) then there is no such apparent link?
- would not a complete internalisation of external - environmental or social or otherwise - costs in to the prices of good more or less lead to a plan economy?
Existential questions
Why are people not happy?
How is it that we get less and less "time" despite the enormous gains in productivity?
-Why are so many modern things to ugly and crappy
- how come that in richer societies people care less about the dying and the dead while we often claim that life has a higher value in those sociaties compare to the poorer ones?
About nature and the human
Why would I care about wether a species is extinct or not?
-what are the egoistic motives for humans to care for nature
-would "nature" care if humans dissappear?
-Isn't "nature" only an abstaction of the the human mind. Without us there would be no nature, no ecology?
Just a few of many. I think that I collect those question and my reflections and see where they lead.
At the same time I am a bit suspiscious about this question-making, as the way to get insights. It is perceived as more humble and open minded to make questions instead of statements. But in the end most questions have so many assumptions (=statements) that that distinction is flawed.
enough of this
I did make the observation when I went by train, that the thinking is actually better on the train than on the bike. When cycling there is still too much mental energy spent on pain in the butt, how to reach next hill top and find a good place to rest. But in a way that was also my strategy - to "empty" the brain by biking and start the thinking later on, on that "unwritten page".
Some slighty absurd or provoking:
- Cars kill more people than drugs in almost modern countries, so how come the car dealer is a respected citizen and the drug dealer is a criminal?
Some about how our society and economy work:
-How come that we could build all these railroads some 100/150 years ago, while today a new track of 50-100 km is such a major investment that it is hardly never done?
-Why do most people equate market economy and capitalism (and sometimes even democracy) then there is no such apparent link?
- would not a complete internalisation of external - environmental or social or otherwise - costs in to the prices of good more or less lead to a plan economy?
Existential questions
Why are people not happy?
How is it that we get less and less "time" despite the enormous gains in productivity?
-Why are so many modern things to ugly and crappy
- how come that in richer societies people care less about the dying and the dead while we often claim that life has a higher value in those sociaties compare to the poorer ones?
About nature and the human
Why would I care about wether a species is extinct or not?
-what are the egoistic motives for humans to care for nature
-would "nature" care if humans dissappear?
-Isn't "nature" only an abstaction of the the human mind. Without us there would be no nature, no ecology?
Just a few of many. I think that I collect those question and my reflections and see where they lead.
At the same time I am a bit suspiscious about this question-making, as the way to get insights. It is perceived as more humble and open minded to make questions instead of statements. But in the end most questions have so many assumptions (=statements) that that distinction is flawed.
enough of this
I did make the observation when I went by train, that the thinking is actually better on the train than on the bike. When cycling there is still too much mental energy spent on pain in the butt, how to reach next hill top and find a good place to rest. But in a way that was also my strategy - to "empty" the brain by biking and start the thinking later on, on that "unwritten page".
