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)

Day Ten. Andrews Journey.

This entry is heavy with family history and emotion. I make no apology but am aware of the diversity of our readership and so feel I should offer an explanation of the change of tone. This entry is still a travel log but also contains comment on a personal, spiritual, journey.

In the opening entry of the blog we introduced you to 2 very important  people. Our baby son Tyler who died, during pregnancy, 3 months before the trip and our cousin Andrew who died in 2010 aged 23. Both have a part in the story of how this whole trip came about and both are very firmly in our hearts and very prominently in our minds every step (and train, plane, metro and infuriating Ukrainian junction) of the way. In a kinder alternative universe I would not be taking this trip but would be at home growing my son inside me, the idea of taking the trip seemed disloyal to him. That is until Auntie Fiona heard about it and shared with us that it had always been Andrews goal to visit Ukraine and in particular Chernobyl and that we could honour his memory as part of our trip. And so the trip became something more meaningful and right. For me, to honour Auntie Fiona’s wishes is also to fulfil Tyler's legacy and therefore to honour him too. If that doesn't add together and you want to understand more my blog Courageandhope.co.uk should explain.

But back to the journey. As you will know from earlier entries we had hoped to take a tour to Pryp'yat' within the Chernobyl exclusion zone, here we had hoped to leave a laminated card showing Andrew's picture and a short explanation of his wishes and link to his Facebook page. We were thwarted in this when all tours were cancelled in honour of the anniversary of the disaster and due to Orthodox Easter which fell at the time of our trip.


It came as no surprise to me that Kevin did not intend to allow this to get in the way of wishes he shared with cousin to get as close to the site as possible. And so we set off in our hire car early on the Ukrainian equivalent of Good Friday.

Our hire car is basic but modern and reliable and the air-con is good. The route looks straightforward as long as we can negotiate Kiev city and emerge on the correct road at the other side. After a tour of the area surrounding our hotel we are on our way.


This is our first full day in Ukraine and as we travel toward and then through Kiev we notice differences again in this new country. There is a lot more commercialism than we saw in Romania with advertising hoardings regularly spaced down the highway touting regular stuff such as mobile phones, jewellery and restaurants. Police speed traps are profusive, every kilometre or two, a cop with a speedgun. In Kiev construction is everywhere, there appears to be some considerable investment in infrastructure, we see a bridge, railway and roads under construction ; we resolve to learn more about the Ukrainian economy, there just isn't enough time to see and learn (and then write) everything in one trip!

As we leave the city behind we see beautiful rural Ukraine and it is closer to what we have seen in Romania. Villages grown around agriculture, roadside vendors selling veg, many roadside shops selling colourful plastic flowers, cranes/storks (we haven't fully established which) nesting on lamp posts, horse and carts, motorbike and sidecars.

Another hour and we are running out of villages. The scenery changes to forest, mile after mile of cooling evergreens. We start to look for clues that we are approaching the 30k exclusion zone enforced around the Chernobyl plant and village in the aftermath of 26th April 1986. An abandoned farm? Stern looking warning signs? Roads becoming increasingly empty of traffic.

We spot a pleasant picnic area and pull over to assess our position. I am not willing to discuss here my personal spiritual beliefs and the following is therefore offered in the most secular sense: it is here that I feel that I am no longer adventuring with just my husband, from this moment Andrew's spirit is very much with us. I can feel the 2 boys excitedly enjoying their adventure together. The GPS tells us we are 42k from Chernobyl village, a photo opportunity! We are 12k from The Zone.

We return to the car and continue following the predetermined route. We get closer and closer, Chernobyl village is now less than 30k away; this gives us a wobble, are we somehow skirting the border of the zone? Have we slipped through and if so is it wise to continue? Or have got it completely wrong and are actually in completely the wrong place?

Then we see a radiation warning sign, then 2 monuments either side of the road....and then! There it is. The barrier of a checkpoint across the road about 300m ahead.

We are not sure whether Ukrainians are acquainted with the concept of dark tourism, we do know that they are protective of their borders and that the language barrier will certainly hinder attempts to clear up any misunderstanding. So a brief stop, hastily snapped photograph and a prompt u-turn mark the pinnacle of our adventure.

We came to leave the memorial card for Andrew in Chernobyl so that he could, in spirit, make the journey he had wished for. Kevin knows just the place. We drive back about 1km to the monuments erected on the road. One is a beautiful, edgy structure constructed from dark stone. There is life here, trees grow, we see a beautiful brightly coloured lizard and ants scurry, but it is silent and still. Its perfect. It is isolated but we hope that someone will pass by and notice our small memorial to our friend who wanted to come here in life and now has been able to make the trip and share our adventure.

Day Nine. Kiev Central Station.

We leave our train at Kiev, I want to take a photo of it before it leaves, but as I set off up the platform I realise that the train is bigger, much bigger. When we left Suceava it had four coaches, now looking up and down there were at least 30! The train stretched out of sight around the gentle curve of the platform, my guess was it must be at least 1km long! I give up on walking to the front and took a photo from there.

Earlier I had asked the thin vodka guy about reserving our beds for the return journey, and he told us to do it today before we left the station. We arrived just after 9am, and I had booked the hire car for 11am, to allow time for such things. As we leave the platform the grand scale of Kiev station hits us, there's almost 100 ticket booths all numbered and countless shops selling everything from food, coffee and gifts to mobile phones and computers. And it's very busy, trains are arriving all the time, people are everywhere. The bustle is how I'd imagine Delhi to be. It even made Luton airport seem quiet.

We choose a ticket booth and wait in queue. When we get to the front the lady writes 7-8 on a bit of paper and sends us away. We are at window 79 and the lowest numbers we can see are in the 50's. Before we look for booth 7 we go outside to make sure our hire car wasn't waiting for us.

Once we were sure our car wasn't there we go back inside and over the tracks, here we find a older more ornate hall, with just a couple of booths. One had INFORMATION above it in English. We get to the front of the queue, the lady speaks no English but writes 7-8 on a bit of paper and points to a big door with Hall 3 above it and says "tourist"

Once inside Hall 3 we see windows 7 and 8 to our right. We queue at window 7 which has "international" above it. The lady looks at the tickets then sends us to the next window. Here the lady speaks English and we explain what we need to do. She understands, but sends us back to window number 7. From then on the transaction went quite smoothly.

Our next problem is that we have noticed the station is double fronted, one entrance on either side of the tracks, and we don't know which side the car will arrive. I try phoning both numbers on my confirmation, but get no answer.

Hoping that the girl who speaks English might be able to advise us, I go over to her booth. There's no one there so I go straight to the window. I ask her, she smiles, types on her keyboard and replies "I give no information here, you go to information kiosk" I thank her, and walk away saying "computer says no" under my breath. Knowing that the information kiosk lady speaks no English and would send me back to this booth, I decide to cut my losses.

Back outside, we try to spot our car, we are approached by "taxi" drivers every 15 seconds. One of them is more insistent than the others and says "I speak English" I ask him what we need to know, he says that he will take us to the address on the booking form. I try to tell him that it's no good as there is no body at the office. He doesn't understand, but from somewhere produces a Asian girl of about 12 whose English is fantastic. She explains this to the taxi driver, but he still insists that he takes us to the office. We thank them and decide to split up, I'll take the far tracks, and Carolyn will wait here.

A few minutes later, a man approaches saying "Paperwork, you show me" I give him the print out expecting him to take me to the car. "I can take you here" He says. I ask if that is for the hire car and he clearly doesn't understand, he's just another taxi driver. He is again insistent that he takes me to the address, and like magic the Asian girl appears. After much discussion she tells me that the driver says that the car won't come to this door, and I should wait at the other side.

Walking back through to meet Carolyn, my phone rings, and I am relieved to hear a Russian accent, it's the driver from the hire company and he is on his way.

We are relieved, our first taste of the Ukraine was difficult. It was hard to find commonalities between the languages, and the because of the different alphabet, even using the translation software on our phones is difficult.

Half a hour later a beaming guy climbs out of a small Chevy waving a bit of paper with my name on. "I'm sorry, the traffic in Kiev is really bad today"

All we have to do now is drive and navigate, through the traffic a local has struggled with.