Luton, the boring travel bit. 2014, day 1

We eat breakfast in the lounge, and everyone starts to get concerned over the latest developments in the East of Ukraine been shown on BBC news, I send a message to Cora, so she can put every bodies mind at ease, which she does, although I think she's getting slightly exasperated at our lack of faith!  We make our way to a slightly delayed boarding, and soon the Airbus is being pushed along the apron, and we are finally on our way.

Until the captain announces that the aircraft has a faulty probe and this will need repairing.  Nobody took much notice as to how long the repair took, so we have no idea what time we are due to land.  The journey was pretty boring, but what we found in Kyiv certainly was not.

Take 2. 2014. The route to Kyiv. Or the holiday that was On then OFF then ON then OFF then ON then OFF then ON.

So, we decided that we would like to try and see the Chernobyl site again.  This time we would go as a family, Patrick and Billy are to travel with us.

At the time the media was reporting on protests taking place on Independence Square, Kiev, but after a bit of research, we were happy that the demonstrations were localised to the Independence Square area and the Stadium and were on the whole peaceful.  With the date agreed, we booked our flights.

That's when this happened:







This concerned us.  It's not the sort of images you see in a holiday brochure.  The following link is to the blog, from which I must credit the above photos: HERE  Bizarrely it is this blogger's account of the protests that first started to give me confidence to travel.  Also a thread I started on the Kiev forum of TripAdvisor: HERE Cora on the TripAdvisor forum was (and still is, we have kept in touch via private message) quite insistent that the rest of Kyiv was normal.  It was months before we travelled, and like the London riots, I expected things to calm down.  So we decided to book our accommodation later, and see if things did calm down.

And things did calm down, the Prime Minister resigned, the anti protest laws were annulled and the arrested protesters were released.

And then in mid February, in what initially appeared to be an attempt to disperse the protest, people got killed.  Soon there were reports of snipers on the roof tops, picking out protesters.  88 people lost their lives over 48 hours.

The holiday and whether we made it became less important to me, but I needed to know more about the crisis and why people were losing their lives, seemingly at the hands of their own.

Things then moved very fast, the President Viktor Yanukovych disappeared, a interim President was appointed, Yanukovych appeared in Russia, and a date for an election was set.  The mood seemed to change, the country was in mourning, yet the people were also celebrating a new freedom.  And things started to calm down again, it began to look like we would have the experience of seeing a country in transitional change for the better.

Then in the final days of February troops wearing uniforms "a bit like" Russian ones started to appear in Crimea.  Putin gets the Kremlin to approve the use of force in Ukraine.  The almost Russian troops start to surround Ukrainian military bases all over Crimea.  Then they start to take over the bases.  Crimea declares a referendum.  The referendum takes place, the results are heavily suspect, but unsurprisingly in the favour of Crimea joining Russia.  Putin denies any involvement..

The G8 counties were quick to start calling themselves the G7 countries as they start to impose sanctions on Russia for the annexation of Crimea, and Russia was to all intents and purposes kicked out of the G8.

All through this, Kyiv remains calm.  The Russian troops on the Eastern Ukraine border reduce in numbers. We start to plan the trip, it's now March and we go in April.  Then the government buildings in the Eastern cities of Donetsh, Luhansk and Kharkiv were stormed by pro Russian protesters.  The new Ukrainian government were quick to react, and it soon started to look like a small minority (possibly actual Russians) were trying to destabilise the East.  But we still got our regular reports of the calm in Kyiv, so we are going in TWO days.

The first four months of 2014 have been complicated for Ukraine, my understanding is limited, there's much more behind it, Gas supplies (for Ukraine and Europe), a new Cold War, other former Soviet states wanting to join Russia and much more.  But I wanted to give a bit of background to our trip, we have no worries about safety, I wouldn't be going if I did, I am sure however we will see things that are the result of the changing Ukrainian politics.

Day Fifteen. The final day, Turda and Alba.

It's hard not to feel a bit sad that our last day is here already, but the thought of a full day with our friends exploring Romania does go a long way to making up for it. It had been kept secret what we will be up to today, but we have been told to bring our jackets, in the current 30°c heat, this is interesting.

Aurel drives us out of Cluj, expertly using as many short cuts as possible in order to avoid the early morning traffic. We are soon into the country side, the majestic mountains offering a wonderful back drop to the fields. We are admiring them when Crina corrects us, "They're not mountains, they are hills! The mountains are much bigger, and more beautiful" They were big enough and pretty enough to consider them mountains in our book, sorry Crina.

We eventually arrive in Turda, Aurel pulls over to ask for directions, my very basic Romanian gives me the impression that we are heading for the Salt Mines and when we pull into the car park I am proved correct.

We both had a good idea of what to expect on a tour of a disused mine, some interesting geology, old mine workings, dirt, damp and disused machinery. As it turned out this couldn't be further from the truth. We entered, after Aurel had paid the reasonable fee of 12 lei (under £3) and descended down a long wide set of stairs. We then came across a elevator, and descended what felt like 5 or so stories.

Leaving the elevator we were greeted by a cathedral sized cavern, and we were full of wonder at the contents.

A mini golf course, bowling alleys, a ferris wheel, pool tables, sand pit, a

boating lake, artistic lighting and seating.  This definitely wasn't what we'd imagined..

Our hosts explained that the air is renowned for it's health properties, particularly for people with breathing conditions such as asthma. All the attractions were there so that a whole family could spend the day breathing in the healing air.

Our stay was short, because Aurel wanted us to see the "changing of the guard" at Alba Iulia  fortress at 12:00. Another drive through the beautiful countryside got us to Alba at 12:05, just missing it!  Which was a shame, but we still had all of Alba Iulia to see, which was great.

The fortress and churches around Alba are beautiful, the town feels like York, there is plenty of history here.  We visited a few churches within the fortress and the museum of archaeology.

We left the star shaped fortress by the third gate, towering above fortified gate is the Obelisk to Horea, Closca and Crisan.

The obelisk brought memories back for Crina, who last visited  here when she was nine.  The Communist regime compelled her to become a Scout, meaning she had to deliver reports to her school class, something she hated doing.  In front of the Obelisk was where she had to swear allegiance as a scout.  She asked if I would take some photo's of her for her mum, as a reminder of how far they have come since the revolution.

After a meal in Alba, we then head back towards Cluj.  On our return journey our friends treat us to some desserts at a confectioners, the desserts were somewhere between a mouse, trifle and cake, they were lovely.  It was a wonderful day, and it was made complete by a lovely final meal in Euphoria Bier Garten with Alin and Lidia.  We head to bed much later than intended, with a 4:00am start tomorrow.

Crina, Ioana, Carolyn & myself

Aurel, Crina, Carolyn & myself

Day Fourteen. Back in Cluj.

It felt good to be back in Cluj, a bit like coming home. We had made no plans, not knowing how fresh we would be after the journey, but after a good sleep nights sleep we decided to have a walk around the park and then into town and have a look around the market stalls. 

The weather was still wonderful, and many people were enjoying the park, rowing on the boating lake, using the exercise machines (I have seen similar in parks in England, but never seen them actually used) or just sitting in the shade.  Every time we have walked through here, we have noticed just how well used the park is.

The market was a collection of craft stalls with a few stalls selling produce, Carolyn bought a few things and practiced her Romanian.

At the opposite side of town was a mobile phone shop Carolyn wanted to visit, and around here we found more small shops and stalls, mainly selling clothes, amongst them was a small bar advertising a glass of wine for 1 lei, which is 20p, with hindsight we should have tried one to see if you can get decent a glass of wine for 20p, but we were already heading in the direction of Klausen Burger for lunch.

Having had a easy day, we were ready to meet up with our Romanian friends tomorrow, and a full day of surprise activities. 

Day Twelve and Thirteen. The return to Cluj.

Our train arrived, and we had a bit of a panic that our coach, and hard fought reserved beds didn't exist.  But after a bit of charades with a train conductor we realised that our carriage was to be added to the already long train, and a few minutes later it was added to the front of the train.

We asked our guard (Sasha) if we could be in a compartment
together, and he said he would see what he could do.  A Romanian (Michael) joined us who was on his way to Constanta, a even longer journey than ours, in the far north of Romania.  Also a very drunk, very loud man arrived, I think Carolyn had his bed.  After some shouting Sasha moved him on, all three of us were pretty relieved.

The journey was actually quite comfortable and we both slept well, we were joined by a Bulgarian lady at some point through the night, although she was very quiet in getting herself settled, but she still woke me.

The border crossing was again slow.  The Ukrainian border guards asked us a few question, most of which they directed at the Bulgarian lady.  At one point she raised her eyebrows and looked at us, we asked what was happening, she laughed and said "Not now, later".   We never found out what happened, but we got the impression she'd saved us some hassle.

We were largely ignored at the Romanian border, this time with some words from Michael smoothing the way.  A guy in the next compartment was South American, he had the third degree from the Ukraine border guards about any money, Vodka or books he was carrying, was now been interviewed by the Romanian official.  "We have BIG problem" says the guard, which got our attention, "in Romania you have Cancer, you are DEAD.  How is this so?"  It was the guards black humour, probably a bit too black, and maybe also a bit too close to the truth for many of the Romanian population.

On arrival at Suceava we found most places to be closed, but we needed to eat.  Eventually we found a Kebab bar, not far from the train station, and had a okay, but filling meal.  We decided to head back to the train station and have a drink at the bar on the platform.  Whilst enjoying our drink a drunk joined us, he had a very loud argument with the bar staff, and then slumped outside, I took his photo and felt I wanted to buy him a drink, but as I got up to buy one, the lady from behind the bar appeared with a bottle which she gave him for free.  He then sat, looked at his undrunk bottle for a few minutes and left quietly.

I didn't expect to enjoy the return journey over the mountains as much as we did coming, but I wasn't prepared for just how uncomfortable our final leg would be.  The train was heavily over subscribed, our reserved seats had been sold to several people, every station we stopped at, brought a new argument as more people boarded. This was made worse by the fact we were sharing a compartment with four Roma, and their large luggage. Their case took half the floor space, and a young child slept across two seats, they only had three tickets, but took five spaces. Eventually the Mum took the hint, and when the child woke, she made him sit up, which helped a little, but it was nothing compared to the number of people boarding at each station. The journey was very hot (not helped by the Roma insisting on having the window closed) and tiring, and we were relived to arrive back in Cluj just after midnight and then only a short taxi ride was keeping us from our much needed beds.

Day Twelve. київ actually its pretty awesome.

We had to check out of the hotel by mid-day, so decided to have a lazy breakfast and then head down to the spa for a hour.  We'd then have a drive in the opposite direction and come round in a loop to Kiev, then spend the rest of the day there.

The spa was welcome, but once we left we really didn't see anything worthwhile to stop at on our drive, so we ended back in Kiev sooner than we though (despite getting lost again)

I parked on the same road, but this time closer to the Metro station and we walked under the subway to the Metro station Dnipro.


View Larger Map

This is a good place to park, it is busy with the pleasure boats mooring right next to it, but I'm not sure I would like to use the subway under the road at night, it's the only place we saw in Kiev that looked like it could be a bad place to be after dark.

What a difference a day made, Kiev really did feel different to us.  The Easter celebrations were on, the main street was closed, there was a party atmosphere AND we knew our way around a little.  The previous day we had remarked how few shops there were.  Coming out of the Metro today we found a amazing labyrinth of subterranean shops, and the further and deeper you went the more upmarket it got.  It started with a series of stalls, then a supermarket and finally designer clothes shops in a full shopping mall about three or four floors below ground level.

We even found a great bar called Shato with fantastic traditional Ukrainian food and it's own brewery.  It was busy, and afterwards we could see why.  I'm going to say more in another post on Original Gravity at a later date.

The open spaces in Kiev are wonderful, onion domed cathedrals stand over squares with statues and fountains, the parks are full of little food stalls and pop up bars, I've never seen as many Segways, you seemed to be able to rent then in every park. We didn't get chance to cruise down the river, but that seems very popular, there's many boats to choose from.

We were glad we had made our peace with Kiev, we knew we were going to have to return to complete our Chernobyl trip and knowing there's more for us to see will help complete the trip next time.

Soon it was time to make our way back to the car and then the railway station.  I had got the route plotted in Google Navigation on my phone, but shortly after setting off, we realised the route took us down the road that was closed.  Unfortunately Google Navigation doesn't work very well without a data connection, it is fine unless you

make a wrong turn, then it struggles.  But Carolyn did manage to get us round the closure and back on route so we arrived at the train station in good time.

Day Eleven. київ A bit disapointing

I was really looking forward to seeing  Kiev, the day before I had spotted what looked like a good spot to park, and a check on Google maps seemed to confirm it.

We parked with no problem, but when I got out of the car, a woman started to talk to me in staccato Ukrainian. I smiled, told her I didn't understand and she smiled back and said "English?" What ever was the problem had disappeared, I asked if we were okay parking here, which she confirmed.  We then walked to the underpass together with her husband.

Except the underpass was under water. We had to find another route or wait for the tide to go.  They led us in the opposite direction, all the time talking excitedly to us about Kiev.

The only available route took us straight through the middle of a building site, lots of people were doing the same, in the UK you would have needed steel toe caps, a hard hat and a risk assessment before you got anywhere near such a site like this.  Carolyn's sandals lived up to their name, and filled with sand.

After making it through, they wished is "Bon chance" and we parted.

We took the funicular up the hill, and almost as soon as we emerged Carolyn
was covered in doves, we had unwittingly walked into a street hawkers trap. I looked at Carolyn as if to say "roll with it" and took a couple of photo's and next thing I had a bird of prey on my shoulder and my camera had been liberated. I could see Carolyn was nervous about it, but they may well have had my camera, but I had their bird, and I had a feeling the bird was worth more.

My camera returned and birds handed back we were asked to pay, "200 Hryven , for you and 200 for you", "No, it's too much" Carolyn says. "Okay, 100 and 100" Carolyn repeats "no" gives them 40 грн  and we leave, with them looking bemused and talking angrily at one another.  Later we realise that 40 грн is only £3.20 and feel just ever so slightly guilty.

Most of the day we spend wandering aimlessly around Kiev, we never seem to learn the lesson that one day is not enough to experience a new city, we made exactly the same mistake with Barcelona.

I was still desperate to fall in love with Kiev, Carolyn was beginning to hate it .

In desperation I suggested we tried using the Metro to the Hydropark on a island in the Dnipro river. There was also a bar I wanted to try on our way too.

How I wish we had got straight on the Metro from the start, it's simple to navigate, clean, very fast, and cheap. You buy plastic tokens which entitle you to one ride, no matter how far, or how many changes. They cost 2 грн which is about 20p.  The trains are every three minutes, and this seems to mean people aren't rushing to catch the trains, and if one carriage is full they will wait for the next.  It might well be different in rush hour, but it was very civilised every time we used it.  We both commented how good it was, and that we couldn't think of a better subway system we'd used.

The first stop was a thriving market, even at this later hour. Carolyn bought some perfume, after some searching we couldn't find the bar and not wanting it to be too late for the Hidropark we headed back on the Metro and towards the river.

The Hydropark has to be unique. It is like a very run down themepark, with beaches, bars, restaurants, barbecues and outside ballroom dancing (with music continuously played over a tannoy).  It had just started to get busy for the night when we arrived, and appeared to be popular, people were getting drunk and riding the attractions already.

There's something here for everybody.  Pensioners dance, children play on the rides, adults play table tennis.  There's fairground stalls, monuments celebrating the fall of communism.  There is a live act on in every bar (of which there are many).  It's impossible not to love it, even if only for its other worldly-ness.








We were tired however and didn't want to risk barbecued food the day
before we travelled back to Romania, but we would have loved to spend more time here. Tired and hungry we set back off into Kiev on the Metro.





All day I wanted to find and eat Chicken Kiev in Kiev, but we had failed. Restaurants here, and in Romania don't display menus outside, so it's hard to find something specific without constantly going inside, finding a waiter and checking the menu. But on the way back we spotted a Chicken restaurant, surely it was worth one last try? And it paid off, two Chicken Kiev later and we finished the day on a high.

(We did get lost driving out of Kiev, but hey)