real life got in the way a bit.. I will post in the near future about myself, but for now I have a very interesting post everyone should read in the context of the voting going on right now in the US. If you have time, the whole blog is interesting regarding many other subjects, but at least read the "On military bulletins" post.
Phreadom
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Transnistria / Tiraspol
So, we left Odessa by bus one morning. all of the other travellers were ukrainian, russian or moldovan. We, being the only two westerners, were systematically asked to get off the bus and answer questions at each check point. At the ukrainian border, none of the officials spoke english, and we were given a declaration form to fill out. We had to choose between the form written in russian or in ukrainian (umm.. let me think!) So any ways, we kind of comunicated with the border patrol people with hands and feet (them: dreenk? us: no, no drink, no alcohol. them: smoke? us: no cigarettes!. them: droogs? us: nope, no drugs. ) So anyways, the people at the border were pretty nice and let us go without having to fill out the form written in russian. Then we crossed a little dirt bridge with tons of wild dogs on the sides, and arrived to the Transnistrian "border". The old moldovan border facilities are still intact, and the transnistrians use it. (or have occupied it??). Anyways, we had met a transnistrian girl in the night train between Cracow and Odessa, and she said that Transnistria wasn't that bad, and that all was great there, not like described in the wikitravel website. (yeah, right)
Anyways, as we approach the border, a military guy boards the bus and just tells us two to get off the bus. We follow him to a small building outside the main building. He just goes in the small room with a wooden desk, a wooden counter and nothing more. He speaks in russian to two other guards (soldiers?) and they open a drawer with bills of money in it and then close it. Then, the first soldier asks us to leave the room, comes out, locks the door and starts speaking with a friend of his who drives by, Meanwhile our bus with all of its passengers and driver are waiting for us.
He stops talking with his friend, brings us back into the small building and asks us what we want in Transnistria. As I say "tourism", he starts to laugh. I show him our Lonely Palnet Romania + Moldova, and he brings us to the main building of the customs/border office. Meanwhile, all the other passengers are waiting in line with their luggage in front of a little wooden desk with another customs officer and a huge super modern scanning machine which you normally have in airports. The guy that has our passports disappears in the building so we just get in line with our backpacks. After a few minutes, he comes back out and signals us to come to the front of the line. there, the other guy tells us to put down our backpacks and wait. he then processes a couple of other passengers, and then just randomly decides to take care of us. the scanning machine scans our backpacks and the employee working there looks sceptically at our stuff. then, at the end of a corridor, a man is waiting for us. There is a closed office. We are called in with our luggage. The man who seems to be in charge here tells me in german: "woman, stay outside". I start to panic, thinking he wants to interview us separately but after a few minutes have gone by I realize he is dealing with the bf for both of us. During this conversation he basically told the boyfriend we could either bribe him with 20 american dollars or he would make our trip (entry) hell. So we bribed the guy to let us in. We still don't get our passports back!
we have to line up again with the second guy, and he tells us we have to buy a "visa" (note that this isn't a real country, so there are no embassies and no place where we could have actually bought the "visas" in advance, as we did with our moldovan one). Note: according to the official "Website" (read: propaganda), you don't need a visa to enter the "country". (yeah right! try to explain that to the military mean looking guys! So anyways, he wants 7 hrivnas each for the visa ( about 1 american dollar) but when we say we only have american money (bad calculation and stupid move on our part), he decided finally that it was actually 7 DOLLARS per person. We negotiated it to 7 dollars for both, if I remember right (since when do you negotiate the price of a visa? LOL), got the hand written piece of paper (we don't have a clue what's written on it!), and were on our way. The bus was late on the schedule, partly because of the wait at the border crossing, partly because the driver took a one hour break to drink beer in a bar, just leaving us there (note: ukrainian people seemed to find it normal).
We finally arrive in Tiraspol, as soon as we enter the city it looks like a living museum of the soviet union(to quote either the lonely planet or wikitravel, I'm not sure). There are a couple of military trucks driving around and buildings look like this:
So , we show up at our hotel "Drushba":
At the reception, a really sweet little russian only speaking grandma explains to us that we need to "register" at the police before we can sign in, but looking at my backpack, suggests I leave it at the reception as starts rubbing my back.
We set off to the adress written in our guide book. There are different police offices, and a policeman shows us the next building. We go in, wait 15 minutes in line and finally when we come up, the women behind the window just kind of ignore us. "Hello?" Nothing. aparently they're writing really important papers. They finally tell us to go to another office. In this office, after taking our passports, they finally tell us we have to go to another office on another street, and to hurry because it closes at 4:30 Pm. I ask if it is far, or if they can point it to us on a map but apparently no one in the office knows where this other government/police office actually is. I felt like I was in "The twelve tasks of Asterix". After the long bus ride and stress at the border, I just want to get a hotel room, any room, and quiet down.
so we set off in the city. there are once again many wild dogs roaming the streets. We find in a sort of back yard the adress we have written on a torn piece of paper. We ring a bell. A voice comes out in russian, we just say "passport" and the voice hangs up. Okay. We try to walk aournd the building, a door is open, but looks like a back door to a shop. we walk in , a man says something in russian, and we show our passports. Finally, he brings us to the right room, although I think he wasn't an employee.
We get to a counter, and a little square piece of the window opens. A woman asks something in russian. we show our passports and she rolls her eyes, great. it's 4:10 PM. she holds up a pre-printed piece of paper written: "Pay 4 roubles and 70 kopeks for registration". and slams her little window shut. Uh, ok. We get the money and knock once more at her window. Exasperated, she opens again and shows us the "Kacca" (cash register?) nearby, gives us 2 pieces of paper and shuts the door again. great. we show up at the "kacca", pay the money (which turns out to more than 5 roubles per person) and ask the girl then what we have to do " fill out passport info". Great, once again, papers only in russian. The girl at the Kacca fills them out for us, that was really nice of her. Except I think she wrote down as my last name "Canadian / Canadienne" and entered as my country of residence "france" (my first name is francoise), but at this point, I don't give a shit, I just want to get the stamp and get back to the hotel. So we have to get back in line for the first counter with the exasperated woman. She asks for our passports, visas (we give 2 copies: original and carbon-copy), fills out different papers, and then holds up a paper that say "What numbers leave to Tiraspol?". Okay, now I feel like I am in a game quiz and am starting to lose my patience. We finally get that she wants to know til what date we are going to be staying, and she gives us a stamped paper and our passport and slams shut the little window. Shit. She didn't give us back our visas, and we need them to leave Transnistria. It's 4:25. After trying to explain to her that she has kept both of our copies, and that we need at least one with our passport, we get them and get to go back to the hotel. We are exhausted and I feel the tears rising in my eyes, I am ready to fall on the sidewalk from exhaustion and stress.
We finally get to our room, that looks like this:
Our bathroom WAS the shower, and pretty disgusting, but at this point I didn't give a damn about it, also that there was just a couple of squares of ukrainian toilet paper available:
We ended up having a short but nice evening and visited a couple of things:
church:
tank monument made to remember the civil war:
and the palace of the republic, which wouldn't be complete without the statue of Lenin in front of it:
The next morning we were off to Chisinau, the capital of real country Moldova, even though Transnistria has cut off all train connections. stay tuned!
Anyways, as we approach the border, a military guy boards the bus and just tells us two to get off the bus. We follow him to a small building outside the main building. He just goes in the small room with a wooden desk, a wooden counter and nothing more. He speaks in russian to two other guards (soldiers?) and they open a drawer with bills of money in it and then close it. Then, the first soldier asks us to leave the room, comes out, locks the door and starts speaking with a friend of his who drives by, Meanwhile our bus with all of its passengers and driver are waiting for us.
He stops talking with his friend, brings us back into the small building and asks us what we want in Transnistria. As I say "tourism", he starts to laugh. I show him our Lonely Palnet Romania + Moldova, and he brings us to the main building of the customs/border office. Meanwhile, all the other passengers are waiting in line with their luggage in front of a little wooden desk with another customs officer and a huge super modern scanning machine which you normally have in airports. The guy that has our passports disappears in the building so we just get in line with our backpacks. After a few minutes, he comes back out and signals us to come to the front of the line. there, the other guy tells us to put down our backpacks and wait. he then processes a couple of other passengers, and then just randomly decides to take care of us. the scanning machine scans our backpacks and the employee working there looks sceptically at our stuff. then, at the end of a corridor, a man is waiting for us. There is a closed office. We are called in with our luggage. The man who seems to be in charge here tells me in german: "woman, stay outside". I start to panic, thinking he wants to interview us separately but after a few minutes have gone by I realize he is dealing with the bf for both of us. During this conversation he basically told the boyfriend we could either bribe him with 20 american dollars or he would make our trip (entry) hell. So we bribed the guy to let us in. We still don't get our passports back!
we have to line up again with the second guy, and he tells us we have to buy a "visa" (note that this isn't a real country, so there are no embassies and no place where we could have actually bought the "visas" in advance, as we did with our moldovan one). Note: according to the official "Website" (read: propaganda), you don't need a visa to enter the "country". (yeah right! try to explain that to the military mean looking guys! So anyways, he wants 7 hrivnas each for the visa ( about 1 american dollar) but when we say we only have american money (bad calculation and stupid move on our part), he decided finally that it was actually 7 DOLLARS per person. We negotiated it to 7 dollars for both, if I remember right (since when do you negotiate the price of a visa? LOL), got the hand written piece of paper (we don't have a clue what's written on it!), and were on our way. The bus was late on the schedule, partly because of the wait at the border crossing, partly because the driver took a one hour break to drink beer in a bar, just leaving us there (note: ukrainian people seemed to find it normal).
We finally arrive in Tiraspol, as soon as we enter the city it looks like a living museum of the soviet union(to quote either the lonely planet or wikitravel, I'm not sure). There are a couple of military trucks driving around and buildings look like this:
So , we show up at our hotel "Drushba":
At the reception, a really sweet little russian only speaking grandma explains to us that we need to "register" at the police before we can sign in, but looking at my backpack, suggests I leave it at the reception as starts rubbing my back.
We set off to the adress written in our guide book. There are different police offices, and a policeman shows us the next building. We go in, wait 15 minutes in line and finally when we come up, the women behind the window just kind of ignore us. "Hello?" Nothing. aparently they're writing really important papers. They finally tell us to go to another office. In this office, after taking our passports, they finally tell us we have to go to another office on another street, and to hurry because it closes at 4:30 Pm. I ask if it is far, or if they can point it to us on a map but apparently no one in the office knows where this other government/police office actually is. I felt like I was in "The twelve tasks of Asterix". After the long bus ride and stress at the border, I just want to get a hotel room, any room, and quiet down.
so we set off in the city. there are once again many wild dogs roaming the streets. We find in a sort of back yard the adress we have written on a torn piece of paper. We ring a bell. A voice comes out in russian, we just say "passport" and the voice hangs up. Okay. We try to walk aournd the building, a door is open, but looks like a back door to a shop. we walk in , a man says something in russian, and we show our passports. Finally, he brings us to the right room, although I think he wasn't an employee.
We get to a counter, and a little square piece of the window opens. A woman asks something in russian. we show our passports and she rolls her eyes, great. it's 4:10 PM. she holds up a pre-printed piece of paper written: "Pay 4 roubles and 70 kopeks for registration". and slams her little window shut. Uh, ok. We get the money and knock once more at her window. Exasperated, she opens again and shows us the "Kacca" (cash register?) nearby, gives us 2 pieces of paper and shuts the door again. great. we show up at the "kacca", pay the money (which turns out to more than 5 roubles per person) and ask the girl then what we have to do " fill out passport info". Great, once again, papers only in russian. The girl at the Kacca fills them out for us, that was really nice of her. Except I think she wrote down as my last name "Canadian / Canadienne" and entered as my country of residence "france" (my first name is francoise), but at this point, I don't give a shit, I just want to get the stamp and get back to the hotel. So we have to get back in line for the first counter with the exasperated woman. She asks for our passports, visas (we give 2 copies: original and carbon-copy), fills out different papers, and then holds up a paper that say "What numbers leave to Tiraspol?". Okay, now I feel like I am in a game quiz and am starting to lose my patience. We finally get that she wants to know til what date we are going to be staying, and she gives us a stamped paper and our passport and slams shut the little window. Shit. She didn't give us back our visas, and we need them to leave Transnistria. It's 4:25. After trying to explain to her that she has kept both of our copies, and that we need at least one with our passport, we get them and get to go back to the hotel. We are exhausted and I feel the tears rising in my eyes, I am ready to fall on the sidewalk from exhaustion and stress.
We finally get to our room, that looks like this:
Our bathroom WAS the shower, and pretty disgusting, but at this point I didn't give a damn about it, also that there was just a couple of squares of ukrainian toilet paper available:
We ended up having a short but nice evening and visited a couple of things:
church:
tank monument made to remember the civil war:
and the palace of the republic, which wouldn't be complete without the statue of Lenin in front of it:
The next morning we were off to Chisinau, the capital of real country Moldova, even though Transnistria has cut off all train connections. stay tuned!
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Odessa
sorry for the delay, it seems as though the minute I got back from vacation work just started pouring in!
so, the night train to Odessa was a bit disappointing (we booked the most luxurious compartment we could get)
picture this: it's 33 degrees, the windows are nailed shut and smells like a mixture between horses and salami.
just when I thought things can't get worse, I feel my bladder screaming out - I have to use the washroom. yep. that is a hole in the floor. you see the tracks under you. It smells even worse than in the rest of the train.
and there's no toilet paper. As you might guess, it didn't take me very long to master the technique of peeing standing up in a moving train.
After 15 or 16 hours we arrived in Odessa
There were tons of old babushkas offering rooms or houses to rent in russian, but they were outside of town and we had no car, so we set off through the city to try and find a cheap hotel. and we did! Only first, we had to decipher the names of the streets - our travel guide, being written in english, had all street names in normal latin alphabet. Now after a smelly night dreaming of salami eating horses, try understanding if this:
means "preobrazhenskaya street" or not. yeah, I know.
so anyways, we found this hotel:
"Hotel Passage"
We had a very big room with bathroom and 4 meter high ceiling for about 20 euros a night, smack in downtown and close to the harbour. There was no hot water in the hotel, but that is relatively normal in Ukraine.
We went shopping in the beautiful shopping center next to the hotel:
they also had an air conditioned, modern one closeby, but this one just had more style.
We visited the Potemkin stairs, for those of you that have seen "Battleship Potemkin", it was filmed here.
This was also fun:
yeah, that's a real live snake.
Okay, now on to the more serious things:
The beer was good and cost about 60 cents for half a litre glass. The waitress didn't speak english and didn't understand that we wanted to pay, and just kept bringing out two more... oh well.
And, there's also something for the single traveller in Odessa:
after we took a bus to Transnistria. It is a part of Moldova that declared itself independant and had a civil war 10 years ago. There were warnings to travellers on the canadian governments website to steer clear of it, but how often do you get to set foot in an international no man's land? So we went. Stay tuned.
so, the night train to Odessa was a bit disappointing (we booked the most luxurious compartment we could get)
picture this: it's 33 degrees, the windows are nailed shut and smells like a mixture between horses and salami.
just when I thought things can't get worse, I feel my bladder screaming out - I have to use the washroom. yep. that is a hole in the floor. you see the tracks under you. It smells even worse than in the rest of the train.
and there's no toilet paper. As you might guess, it didn't take me very long to master the technique of peeing standing up in a moving train.
After 15 or 16 hours we arrived in Odessa
There were tons of old babushkas offering rooms or houses to rent in russian, but they were outside of town and we had no car, so we set off through the city to try and find a cheap hotel. and we did! Only first, we had to decipher the names of the streets - our travel guide, being written in english, had all street names in normal latin alphabet. Now after a smelly night dreaming of salami eating horses, try understanding if this:
means "preobrazhenskaya street" or not. yeah, I know.
so anyways, we found this hotel:
"Hotel Passage"
We had a very big room with bathroom and 4 meter high ceiling for about 20 euros a night, smack in downtown and close to the harbour. There was no hot water in the hotel, but that is relatively normal in Ukraine.
We went shopping in the beautiful shopping center next to the hotel:
they also had an air conditioned, modern one closeby, but this one just had more style.
We visited the Potemkin stairs, for those of you that have seen "Battleship Potemkin", it was filmed here.
This was also fun:
yeah, that's a real live snake.
Okay, now on to the more serious things:
The beer was good and cost about 60 cents for half a litre glass. The waitress didn't speak english and didn't understand that we wanted to pay, and just kept bringing out two more... oh well.
And, there's also something for the single traveller in Odessa:
after we took a bus to Transnistria. It is a part of Moldova that declared itself independant and had a civil war 10 years ago. There were warnings to travellers on the canadian governments website to steer clear of it, but how often do you get to set foot in an international no man's land? So we went. Stay tuned.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Leaving Berlin + Cracow
We left Berlin on Wednesday night. Normally when you travel you wake up in the morning and leave, but we were taking a night train to Cracow. In our compartment there were 6 "beds" - one was free, so there was place for our stuff, and the three other people were getting off in Breslau at 5 am. The train stopped at many smaller stations and was late, and there was so much noise that we didn't get much sleep. Besides, the "beds" were at an angle and after about 2 hours of lying down I started having a back ache. This is what I looked like in the morning
We arrived at the Krakow Glowny station before noon and tried to find a bus ticket and info for trains going to Ukraine, but no one spoke English, so we took a taxi and went to the youth hostel. It was a bit outside of the center, but ok and clean. We even had a private room. It was on the small side, but for what we were paying, I didn't care.
Off we were to explore Cracow. The tram took us from our hostel to downtown
We checked out the Glowny Rynek (main square). It was really beautiful, in a pedestrian zone with many nice restaurants, but also more expensive than the rest of the town.
We also visited Wawel castle
Which is on a hill and you get from there a great view from Cracow. The interior courts are really nice
We also visited the cathedral, where many of poland's kings are burried. We climbed up to the tower to see the huge bells
the passage way up the tower was no easy task, since I have a fear of hights, but I managed! And by the way, if you are obese, this tower isn't for you!
In front of the Cathedral on Wawel hill, there are bones hung just over the entrance
The nuns say these are the bones of the dead dragon that used to live on Wawel hill, and legend has it that as long as these bones stay hanging above the entrance, the cathedral will always stay standing. Archeologists have analysed them and apparently they are rhinoceros, mammoth and whale bones.
through the downtown streets you can take these mini trolley buses to tour the area - with a name like this one, it's pretty promising: KRAK TOURS - lol
Cracow streets:
We spent two nights in Cracow, and went out in the jewish neighbourhood one night, which was really cool. Around one little square, they have tons of bars and cool places. We had a beer (okok, more than one...) at Opium, Alchemie and Couleurs. I personally preferred Alchemie, because of the wooden tables and candle-lit atmosphere. For those of you who have been in New Orleans before Katrina, this bar resembled the Blacksmith's Shop in the french quarter.
Soon after it was time to go. We didn't have many days in each town, and were on a tight schedule. We managed to buy tickets for a night train to Odessa, Ukraine.
Krakow's train station...
a polish train...
... and the boyfriend waiting with our backpacks for the train to arrive...
Next post - Ukraine!
We arrived at the Krakow Glowny station before noon and tried to find a bus ticket and info for trains going to Ukraine, but no one spoke English, so we took a taxi and went to the youth hostel. It was a bit outside of the center, but ok and clean. We even had a private room. It was on the small side, but for what we were paying, I didn't care.
Off we were to explore Cracow. The tram took us from our hostel to downtown
We checked out the Glowny Rynek (main square). It was really beautiful, in a pedestrian zone with many nice restaurants, but also more expensive than the rest of the town.
We also visited Wawel castle
Which is on a hill and you get from there a great view from Cracow. The interior courts are really nice
We also visited the cathedral, where many of poland's kings are burried. We climbed up to the tower to see the huge bells
the passage way up the tower was no easy task, since I have a fear of hights, but I managed! And by the way, if you are obese, this tower isn't for you!
In front of the Cathedral on Wawel hill, there are bones hung just over the entrance
The nuns say these are the bones of the dead dragon that used to live on Wawel hill, and legend has it that as long as these bones stay hanging above the entrance, the cathedral will always stay standing. Archeologists have analysed them and apparently they are rhinoceros, mammoth and whale bones.
through the downtown streets you can take these mini trolley buses to tour the area - with a name like this one, it's pretty promising: KRAK TOURS - lol
Cracow streets:
We spent two nights in Cracow, and went out in the jewish neighbourhood one night, which was really cool. Around one little square, they have tons of bars and cool places. We had a beer (okok, more than one...) at Opium, Alchemie and Couleurs. I personally preferred Alchemie, because of the wooden tables and candle-lit atmosphere. For those of you who have been in New Orleans before Katrina, this bar resembled the Blacksmith's Shop in the french quarter.
Soon after it was time to go. We didn't have many days in each town, and were on a tight schedule. We managed to buy tickets for a night train to Odessa, Ukraine.
Krakow's train station...
a polish train...
... and the boyfriend waiting with our backpacks for the train to arrive...
Next post - Ukraine!
I'm back!
I am back in Berlin and over the next posts will show you pictures and tell you more about the trip!
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!!
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!!
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
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
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
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
Saturday, July 22, 2006
I WANT A KITTEN!!!
Because of the move to Germany, I had to give up my cat.
I miss my cat. This one is Sooooooooooooo cute, I would just cuddle him for ever and ever.
and ever.
Vacation!
Woo hoo, no classes until October 17th!!!
I still have to work, but...
I now declare summer officially opened in Berlin
cheers! *takes sip of really good german beer*
I still have to work, but...
I now declare summer officially opened in Berlin
cheers! *takes sip of really good german beer*
Friday, July 21, 2006
Fitz
One of my two last names starts with "Fitz" (Irish half of the family).
Why does my little brother let all his friends call him Fitz? Does it really sound cool?
Why does my little brother let all his friends call him Fitz? Does it really sound cool?
States visited
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okok, maybe not as good as John's, but not bad either for a Canadian, right?
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