Category: General

Sleeper trains could be a very good way of travel, but somehow it annoys me that a 600 km trip should take 12 hours, and the the lack of any ventilation combined with a heater on full blast makes sleeping nearly impossible.

It does save a night in a hostel and you arrive early in the morning so that the whole day is available for exploring.

At about the same time I checked in to Kiev Backpackers, Ian also checked in. This friendly aussie was traveling eastern europe while his wife was teaching in Ghana, we had breakfast together at the restaurant downstairs and decided to explore Kiev together.

Starting from the hostel, we walked along the main roads to the center of town, about a 45 minute walk. The frenzy of a city with 2.5 million inhabitants is quite a shock after relatively quit Lviv. The center of Kiev has all the feel of a large Sowjet city, complete with larger then live Lenin statue…

Kiev is situated on the steep banks of the Dnipro river, giving plenty of points were you overlook the city. An improbable amount of golden domed church towers is hard to overlook, while the left bank is covered in flats for as far as the eye can see. We visited the most well known of the churches, the Sofia church and were impressed by the 11th century fresco’s and iron flooring.

Having walked across most of the “old” center, mainly the single winding cobble stone road that survived the war in Kiev, we had gotten pretty cold and as it started to snow we went to the Chernobyl museum.

This could have been very impressive had the exposition been translated into English. As it is, the only english words there are “please close the door”.

Very welcoming indeed. The photos and countless memorabilia were impressive even with russian / cyrillic explanations and at least we were warm.

 

Thursday we visited the mummies of dead monks. Seriously. Apparently these mummies, placed in two caves, are very important and they attract pilgrims from all over the Ukraine. It is kind of disturbing to see people really get into it and snog the coffin of a mummy.

The immense complex of churches built on to of these caves reminded me of the “Efteling” in the Netherlands somehow.

A 10 minute walk south of this monastry complex is were a 60 meter high titanium statue of Mother Russia guards the city and the “Museum of the Great Patriottic War” at her feet.

Again, no explanations in English in this museum, but a intercontinental ballistic missile launcher and similar exhibits don’t really need much explanation. Come to think of it, I would like to know what their role in WOII was…

Also memorable are the statue groups besides the road leading to the museum. With patriotic music in the background this must have been very impressive to the brave sowjet people who visited this place.

It would have been interesting to be able to read what the Russian take on their role in WO2 was, I cannot imagine they will discuss things such as what happend in Katyn in Poland.

The metro system in Kiev was build during the 60’s in the most ornate Sovjet style one can imagine. CCCP logos, the best Lenin quotes and celebrations of the cummunist system abound. Many of the stations are so deep under the ground (we estimate 80 meters deep) that the 2 escalator rides take 2 minutes each.

The fotos from Kiev are online
So far for Kiew, I’m boarding the night train to Odesa!

I really like Lviv a lot. Maybe because of the great sights, but the hostel definitely helps as well. You know, most hostels tend to be friendly places but The Kosmonaut is an exceptionally good hostel.
Ed and the rest of the staff have been so helpful, from aranging trips to helping with the booking of tickets (which is very much needed since none of the ticket offices have personnel that speaks any foreign language)
They even include free breakfast, free laundry and free WiFI/Internet computer. Which, for the price, is just amazing.
It might help that Lviv is still pretty far from the beaten track, attracting an especially friendly crowd of guests.
Anyway: If your somewhere near Lviv, do visit the Kosmonaut hostel. In fact, even if you’re not, try to visit sometime!
Alas, all good things must come to an end and there is so much more I want to see.
For now, my plan is to first visit Kiev for a few days, then overnight train to Odesa, and take the ferry from there to Istanbul. After that, probably back to Bucharest but I’ll see about that later.

As I write this, my photos are uploading to the webserver and I’ll add them to the gallery sometime tomorrow.

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Today I spent some time at the University (Franko), an imposing building but interesting to see. A choir was rehearsing in the large auditorium providing a soundtrack.
My second undertaking was to visit the Lviv Art Gallery, very interesting to see some eastern European painters and sculpturers.

My photos from Lviv are available here (any moment now!)

The first day here was pretty much just sleeping and relaxing, listening to my iPod (lectures on Nietzsche, a good way to fall asleep).
I met the other people staying here in the Kosmonaut hostel, Francios, a very nice french guy who is walking acros the mountainranges in eastern europe, Nick and Simon, two australians who have seen considerably more of the world then I thought possible, and Jonathan, from England.
We had dinner together, (Lebanese)and after that we tried one of the clubs here in Lviv. It was an Interesting experience, people dance really weirdly here. Very over the top, "One limb at a 90 degree angle at any time"-style dancing.

Yesterday I finally got around to seeing some of Lviv and it truly is one of the most beautiful cities, but quite an unpolished gem. Give it a few years and this might wel turn out to become the new Prague.

Today I want to explore some of the museums and the markets, after which I hope to warm up again while uploading the photos 😉

<p>I decided that travelling to Lviv via Krakow would be fun as well, even though I had already been there. So I got on the bus at 5 pm, had a few near death experiences on the two lane roads connecting Vilnius and northern Poland (Imagine a convoy of 100’s of trucks on your lane. Every 1 km a truck comes from the other side. Is this a reason for the bus driver not to overtake? guess again… ) <br />
Crossing the border is interesting as well when some of the Russians on board are too drunk to find their passports. <br />
Anyway, at 6 in the morning I arrived in Krakow, just in time to see the sun rising over this beautiful city, covered in snow and with a thick mist slowly rising. <br />
<a href="http://thomas.macconsultant.nl/GL_Gallery2/Krakow/">The photos from krakow.</a><br />
It was definitely a good experience to be there again. But only for a few hours, since the train to Lviv was leaving at 2 pm. <img vspace="10" hspace="10" align="left" alt="" src="http://thomas.macconsultant.nl/galler…C_5532.JPG" /><br />
<br />
Traveling by train is totally different here. Think bureaucratic sowjet relic and you’re quite close to how the system works. There are for instance seperate offices for travel information, where you can find out when and where the train leaves, and for buying the actual ticket. <img vspace="10" hspace="10" align="right" alt="" src="http://thomas.macconsultant.nl/galler…C_5524.JPG" /><br />
Once you are on the train, guess how long a journey of 300 km takes? About 10 hours. That’s just pathetic. <br />
You have to change trains at the border since the rail has a different width in the Ukraine. This means I had to spend two hours in the rather spooky station in Przemysl. After that there was some problem with the Ukrainian train, which meant that by then I was running over an hour late. Which in turn meant that I arrived in Lviv at 2 am. Believe me, Lviv is quite a scary place to arrive in the middle of the night. Lada’s with blinded windows pulling up next to you…. <br />
<br />
An extra challenge here in Lviv is the Cyrillic alphabet.&nbsp; I had the street name and name of the hostel, but in latin. That means that no taxi driver can understand it. Eventually, after some adventures, I managed to find a taxi driver who understood where I wanted to go based on the map in my lonely planet guide.&nbsp; He dropped me of somewhere near the hostel, and it took me about 40 minutes and a short ride by a security officer to eventually find the hostel. Turns out that the description of streetnames in latin is not really helpful when the signs are in cyrillic. <br />
<br />
I have never been so happy to arrive in a hostel before…. (<a href="http://www.thekosmonaut.com">website of Kosmonaut Hostel Lviv</a>)<br />
<a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&a…,48.164063">Lviv op de wereld kaart</a><br />
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<a href="http://thomas.macconsultant.nl/GL_Gallery2/Lviv/">De eerste fotos uit Lviv staan hier, </a>maar meer is onderweg…</p>

I managed to get a ticket to Vilnius for next to nothing. With Baltic Air. On a Fokker 50 propeller driven, duct tape enhanced peace of nostalgia.
No worries though. There where only 10 passengers on the flight so it must have been light work for the machine.
On the airport I had some very friendly assistance from a local who was also taking the bus to the old town, he even paid my bus ticket. Nice!
From the bus stop i had a pleasant walk through most of the old town part of Vilnius which looked nice enough. The hostel was located on a small alley just off one of the main streets, tricky to find but a very cozy hostel.

I was feeling brave that night so I decided to go ahead and try the local special dish, "Zeppelins".  As all Lithuanian food, the main contents are potato and meat. Zeppelins are like small meatballs, covered in a 2 cm thick layer of potato dough, liberally sprinkled with cream and other artery clogging stuff.  I can’t say it is the most refined meal but it certainly helps you regain your strength.

Monday I spent most of the day running around old town Vilnius, which really is beautiful. Aside from the churches, which are nice, there are the most amazing views to be found when you just wander around.
Feeling rather chilly after this, I decided to visit a museum. Something warm and cozy …. well, maybe not. The local KGB museum is quite impressive, so I went there. It certainly was impressive, documenting the Russian oppression on the first floor and in the cellar, the original KGB prison could be viewed. People tend to think of the Germans as nasty to oppressed peoples, but the russians were quite capable as well.

Back in the hostel I happend to meet two dutch girls and a guy, Carla, Jacqueline and Merijn if I remember correctly. We had a little dutch night out in a pub, broadeway, just around the corner from the hostel.  The pub featured a number of live perfomances by local musicians. Some were very good, others weren’t

Then came the time to leave.. unfortunately there where no direct busses to Lviv.
 Which explains how I ended up in Krakow, which I’ll post about later.

The photos I made in Vilnius are here, including some bonus comments

Sunday I made a short trip to Finland, Helsinki. It was quite the experience. The first three hours I spend in a corner of the bar onboard the ferry, wondering how these people manage to drink beer before breakfast.
I am not the kind of guy who absolutely needs sunshine to enjoy a place but Helsinki was positively dreary that day, even to my taste. I think the photo’s will reflect that.
 
I did enjoy the sculptures that are all over the center. I can see that the place must be kind of charming when you’re really into shopping or something.

So here are the pictures, and I’m off, back to Talinn!

Sorry to my english speaking friends, I just typed this message in dutch and now realise I promised you to swtich to english.
The very short version in english: i´m doing fine 😉 the next update will be translated for you!

Inmiddels zit ik alweer twee dagen in Talinn. Vergeleken met Riga is het hier eigenlijk weer wat meer west europees, maar de prijzen zijn nog erg vriendelijk. Je kan hier voor 5 euro prima een hap buiten de deur eten met een pint lokaal bier erbij…
Ik heb vandaag een Zorki C camera gekocht, een russchische kloon van de Leica 2 rangefinder cameras. Is weer eens wat anders dan een digitale camera. Maar wel een mooi stukje sowjet techniek uit de jaren 50, gebouwd als een tank.
Was ook wel een avontuur om te kopen, samen met een australische jongen uit het hostel op de russische tweedehandsmarkt.
Ik heb weer een boel fotos maar de internet verbinding is hier zo traag dat die nog even op zich laten wachten.
Binnenkort dus meer en dan hopelijk met fotos!

Vandaag ben ik buiten het toerischtische gedeelte gaan kijken, onder andere naar het spoorweg museum, naar het industriele oude havengebied, naar de prachtige oude wijken met klassieke gebouwen en van daar weer door het oude centrum terug.
Erg mooi allemaal, de contrasten die je hier vind zijn te gek om te fotograferen.

http://thomas.macconsultant.nl/GL_Gallery2/riga2/

Morgen ga ik verder naar Talinn, als alles goed gaat…

 

 

Ik ben inmiddels rustig Riga aan het verkennen. Ik heb een aantal foto’s, met commentaren, online gezet in de gallery:
http://thomas.macconsultant.nl/GL_Gallery2/Riga/

Kort gezegd: het is een hele ontdekkingsreis, maar zeker leuk. Probeer maar eens ingredienten voor pasta te vinden in de supermarkt hier…

Ik ben ook blij met mijn thermo ondergoed inmiddels, bij temperaturen onder nul de hele dag buiten fotograferen is tamelijk fris!

Een eerste berichtje uit het Oosten: ik zit nu met Renee in berlijn en check even snel hoe het staat met mijn bulaanvraag. Het lijkt allemaal goed te gaan, gelukkig.

Ondertussen zit ik met Renée super luxe in een suite van 80 m net onder de Zoo, een prima plekje echt. We hebben zelfs TV in de zitkamer en in de slaapkamer. Het ligbad is fijn, de keuken heeft een wasmachine … we willen bijna niet meer naar buiten.

Dat hebben we gelukkig wel gedaan, en dat bevalt ook prima. Mooie stad, mooie musea, rijke historie en het weer zit zelfs behoorlijk mee!

In de Zoo

Verplicht nummertje

De originele muur, incl. de achterliggende lege strook… (Bernauer strase)

Op aanraden van Lisa bij kunstenaarskolonie in Tacheles, erg cool en een beetje eng ook wel. Te gekke kunst, aanradertje voor Marek …

Mijn tijd is op, ik meld me snel weer met meer!