Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Chisinau, Moldova

***Edit: this should have been posted Wednesday, but internet cafes here are not very efficient, apparently***

I am in Moldova!!

We have hot water in our hotel room!!! (which was not the case in Ukraine) and boy am I happy to be able to read stuff. Crossing over Transdnistria was also an adventure (it's an\ part of Moldova which declared independancy ten years ago, they had a civil war and now it's a no-man's land. we spent a night there, and the borders were really something. I thought I was going to have a heart attack)

But I made it! There are so many beautiful things to see, I can't wait to post pictures for you guys and tell everything in detail about the trip.

John, in Odecca they don't have postcards, so I bought you a normal card instead. it's cheesy and written in Ukrainian, actually I have no idea what's written on it, but I hope it'll do all the same.

We'll be checking out the city tonight and the day after tomorrow we're leaving for the roumanian mountains, where we'll travel from village to village. I hope to get to visit a monastery and go hiking!!

I'll post as soon as I get internet access!!

Chisinau, Moldova

I am in Moldova!!

We have hot water in our hotel room!!! (which was not the case in Ukraine) and boy am I happy to be able to read stuff. Crossing over Transdnistria was also an adventure (it's an\ part of Moldova which declared independancy ten years ago, they had a civil war and now it's a no-man's land. we spent a night there, and the borders were really something. I thought I was going to have a heart attack)

But I made it! There are so many beautiful things to see, I can't wait to post pictures for you guys and tell everything in detail about the trip.

John, in Odecca they don't have postcards, so I bought you a normal card instead. it's cheesy and written in Ukrainian, actually I have no idea what's written on it, but I hope it'll do all the same.

We'll be checking out the city tonight and the day after tomorrow we're leaving for the roumanian mountains, where we'll travel from village to village. I hope to get to visit a monastery and go hiking!!

I'll post as soon as I get internet access!!

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Odessa, Ukraine

Wow. We left Cracow yesterday afternoon and took the 4 hour train to Przemlz (or something like that), a little town close to the border between poland and ukraine. we had dinner there ( really cute and cheap little city) and after we took the train around 19h21, leaving for Odessa. We had to go through the polish customs before we got on the train. If I thought the polish night train was bad, boy was I wrong! Picture a really old train from the black and white movies. the walls are made of plywood, there's a carpet on the floor that's probably older than my grandmother, and it smells like an odd mixture of salami and a horse stable. the controller of the train, a woman, comes running down after us through the hallway, yelling, and we try to tell her that our bunk numbers are 52 and 56, and that there are no such numbers, but she just answers something in ukrainian and stuffs us into the next compartment, pointing to the two bunks on the right side. The two other ukrainian guys who were already in there get there stuff and leave the compartment ( apparently the controller thought it would be best to fill 1 compartment than to let us have 1 for us alone. Anyways, at this point I look around in our "room" for the night... the "beds" look like old school bus seats with leather on it, i smells really weird, it's unbelievably hot, and... the windows are screwed shut!!! Apparently this is custom in Ukraine. I must admit I started crying and the bf, who has much experience in travelling, comforted me and laughed a bit...The Ukrainian customs were also funny, not speaking a word of english, but we managed...

Well, my first impression was a bad one, but I must say I was wrong. We had the compartment to ourselves the whole night, got an extra matress to put on the school bus seats and it was pretty cool during the night. On top of that, our neighbours were 3 women travelling with children, and they really rocked! We hadn"t even left the station that they had already cracked open a beer, were laughing and talking in the hallway. Long story short, We eventually realised that one of them spoke a little english, and another quite good german. They shared their food with us, offered us a drink and we talked together till pretty late. We also then met a moldovan girl (Moldova is where we're headed after Odessa) and it was cool to be able to chat with her.

The night was great, I slept really well, I actually used one extra mattress as a cover cause I was too lazy to fishout my sleeping bag. Anyways, we arrived on time in Odessa. At the station we were swarmed with people looking to rent their rooms, appartments or houses on the beach side, but we were looking for something central. we walked through half of downtown looking for a cheap hotel, not understanding the writing (they use cyrilic alphabet here, so you have absolutely no idea how to pronounce stuff)anyways, we finally found a pretty cheap one that used to be the greatest hotel of odessa. It really does look like a Mansion in decrepitude, but whatever, it's like first class for dingy budget hotels :)

Tomorrow we'll try to find train tickts to get to Moldova, and check out more of the city. I'm exhausted and after the almost 24 hour train ride, I still feel like I'm on a train when I'm sitting...


PS note to self: never EVER complain again abour certain air companies having bad service or flights being uncomfortable

Friday, August 18, 2006

Cracow

Here I am in the basement of a youth hostel in Cracow. The city and castle here are beautiful, but the night train here was quite an adventure. we were 5 in our "cabin", and the 3 others were getting off at Breslau around 5am, so there was much commotion and we didnt get too much sleep. also, the train stopped in everz imaginable nook and cranny of poland, and the toilets were DISGUSTING. oh well, i guess I have to get used to that cause its probablz not the worst I will have seen on the whole trip.

arrived in Cracow, we had to buy a bus ticket and wanted to get info for a train to ukraine, but noone spoke english... that was funy. We've got a double room here in the youth hostel for 98 slotys a night, which is not so bad, considering the shared bathrooms are relatively clean and our room is ok.

we're leaving tomorrow around 13h35 and arriving sunday around 12h40 in odessa (yep, 22 hour train - yay)

I hope we'll have the luck of sharing the compartment with young people or at least someone who speaks english.. either way, it ll be fun

weather forecast says itll be 33 degrees in odessa on sunday, and I will be at the beach on the coast of the black sea..

Ill try to post if I find internet somewhere

well, im off to have pierogis and polish beers in Kazimierz!

cheers

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

School's out for Summer...

School's out for ever... I wish!!

leaving tonight for Cracow and will be travelling through East Europe for minimum 2 weeks...

my backpack is almost as big as me..

oh well