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.

Day Eight & Nine. Suceava to Kiev

As the train pulls into the platform, my first thought is that it was not the right one, not like the streamlined bullet train like pictures on the website, it is pulled by the same type of Romanian locomotive that bought us over the mountains. But once it stops at the platform it becomes obvious that it is our train.

The train staff speak only Russian and our tickets come under great scrutiny. Once aboard, the train guard points to her ring finger and then us. "Yes, we are married" we reply. We are ushered in to a cabin with two men on the bottom bunks, Carolyn seems happy that we are together rather than separate cabins as we were expecting.

We get fresh crisp bedding and set our beds up. Once we are comfortable we can take in our surroundings.

If I had to date our carriage, I would say somewhere in the 80's, about thirty years old, everything is very soviet looking, functional and built to last, it looks like it will last at least another thirty years at least.

At the end of the carriage is a coal burning stove, there's ash in the grate, and loose bits of coal about, it appears that it is still in use during winter.

The doors between the carriages look and feel like they are made from 2cm thick solid steel, they are painted battleship gray this coupled with the heat and closeness, makes it feel like I've walked into the set of Hunt For Red October.



It's not long before we reach the border, a
border officer comes and takes our passports. A short while later they are returned. Through the window I can see that the Romanian electric locomotive has been replaced with a noisy diesel one. When we set off it's at a steady pace. A watch tower and sign marks the border, that was much easier than I expected.



We stop again, this time a Ukrainian border guard gets on. He is wearing full military uniform, and barks at me to sit down. He inspects our passports and asks "tourist?" we reply "Da" He looks at us suspiciously and walks off with the passports. For the next 30 minutes to a hour, many differently dressed Ukrainian officials stomp up and down the carriage. Some of them start taking the train apart.

We eventually start moving, but without our passports, at the  Romanian checkpoint the train crew returned them before we left, we begin to wonder if they've been forgotten. The train comes to a halt in a marshaling yard.

We can see many dogs, and lots of men in shorts, socks and flip flops. I remembered reading that they had to change the wheels at the Ukraine border as the tracks are a different width and it became obvious that this was what was now happening.

The entire train was lifted in to the air by a series of screw jacks,

the action was so smooth, if you didn't look at a fixed point you didn't know that you were moving. All the while the new wheels were being put into place by a flimsy looking gantry cane. The old wheels were pulled out of one end, and the new ones pulled under the from other.

This impressive feat of heavy engineering was performed by the men in flip flops, and all the time the train was kept under close watch by soldiers and dogs begging at the windows for food. I wanted to take some photos, and video of the work, but my actions caught the eye of one of the soldiers and she started to march towards me gesturing No! I put my phone away disappointed, and I didn't get the opportunity to film more, we were being watched far too closely.

Once the work was completed the train was reversed back to the checkpoint and the border guard grudgingly returned our papers. The locomotive was replaced by a slightly less noisy diesel, and we were on our way again at a steady pace.

The buffet car had two tables, and a large kiosk with a display of chocolate, alcohol, cigarettes and crisps. A thin Russian guy was buying some Vodka, every time the chef added Vodka, the thin guy told him to add more, eventually his cup was full to the top with neat Vodka. He then appeared to negotiate the price. Once his transaction was complete the thin man greeted us in English, and offered to help us with the menu. We chose beef and potatoes. He advised us that we should come back after the next station but pay now, he then negotiated our price and told us "That is very good price"

We had brought our own beer and wine, so we decided to take these straight back to the buffet car and enjoy a drink while we waited for our meal.

We hadn't been sat long when the chef appeared with two plates of pretty good steak and chips with a fresh side salad. Afterwards we had a mug each of whole leaf tea and some Russian chocolate, it was the best meal I've had in a train by a very long way.

After dinner we both got a pretty good night's sleep, and we woke on a mainline with the train making good speed, it was only a couple of hours to Kiev, the journey had seemed to fly by.

The scenery is now dominated by massive pine forests, the occasional village with a Lada or motorbike and sidecar waiting at the level crossing. Many of the trees were full of Mistletoe, great balls hung from the branches, I wondered if they had the same Christmas tradition as us, and if not, was that the reason why the Mistletoe was doing so well.

We had brought our own breakfast, so after a quick clean up we sat in the buffet car and ate croissants. We were alone, as we were the following night. It seems that the buffet car doesn't get much use, and that two tables are plenty. After breakfast we pack and prepare to disembark at Kiev.

Day Five. Guests.

Way back in day two, Aurel suggested as the weather was so nice, we should have a barbeque, everyone agreed, and invited themselves to his house!

We loved the idea, the chance to experience Romanian hospitality in a real home.

It is traditional to take flowers or chocolate when you are a guest in Romania, I looked out for some on my recce to the train station,but it's Sunday, and almost all the shops are closed.

Crina and Dan  kindly picked us up to take us to Aurel's home, so Carolyn asked if they could take us some where for flowers.

Fortunately it was "flower day" and Dan knew just the place.

Flower day is the last Sunday before Easter, and if you have a flower name it is considered your birthday.  Crina means lily, so it was Crina's birthday today.  More here: CLICKY

The flower market was bustling with people buying, sellers and cars.  Carolyn and Crina went to look for flowers, myself and Dan stayed with the car.  It wasn't long before a symphony of horns indicated it was time for Dan to move the car.  The horn is a familiar sound on the streets of Cluj, but is normally a indication of exasperation and not aggression.

I got out to tell the girls that we had moved, I found them enjoying the market, and with a bunch of flowers ready.

When we arrived at Aurel's house, he came out to greet us with his wife Corena and miniature poodle Oxey.

We had a tour of the garden whilst Aurel did the important work of barbecuing.  Aurel's garden is typical of many Romania gardens, in that it is mainly used to grow vegetables, we had all the different produce pointed out to us, and we swapped Romanian and English names for the plants.  You could see many other gardens all the same, but none of them were as well set up as Aurel's.

The food was fantastic, and plentiful, we were introduced to Mititei a kind of kebab, a tomato and pepper salsa, that has been semi fermented (which was lovely) and minced roasted Aubergine, unfortunately we can't remember the names of the last two, but we will be recreating them when we get home.

We spent the rest of the afternoon, chatting and eating strawberries.  Everyone was soon tired from the good food, the beer and the sun, so Dan and Crina brought us back to our hotel.

After a couple of hours back at the hotel, we had a call from Lidia to say that Alin was on his way to pick us up to meet friends in a bar, and we had fifteen minutes.  It was a lovely surprise, but did mean we had to be quick to be ready.

Alin took us to a bar by the river, we met his 5 year old daughter, a charming little girl and their friends Dan and Anna. We drank, ate pizza and compared British and Romania life, another wonderful evening and fantastic treat.

Day Five. Reconnaissance.

We are traveling tomorrow, the first leg of our train journey to Kiev takes us to Suceave.  This is comparatively short, some 6 hours and about 322km or 200miles (which still is my longest rail journey,at least in time), as opposed to the Suceave to Kiev leg which is 21 hours and 585km or 364 miles. This certainly will be a unique journey!

So, this morning, we needed to pack light and I also wanted to walk to the train station, to avoid any directional challenges tomorrow.

We decided to divide and conquer, Carolyn would pack, and I would do the walk.

Having checked the map, I could see the railway station was on the opposite side of the hill, Google navigation told me to walk right from the hotel, I thought if I turned left that would take me a more direct diagonal route.

Once I turned the second corner I saw the hill I had to climb, WOW, by the time I was nearly to the top it felt like it was nearly vertical!  I turned right and then it was down hill all the way.  That hill is going to be a challenge with all the luggage!

I wandered around the station, I read the information boards and watched a train leave, it all looks quite straight forward. I filmed a train leaving, the video is here: CLICKY

I decided to try a different route back, this involved a foot subway, these are now rare in the UK, having been filled in, in favour of pelican crossings.  This Romanian one was made even more special by the fact it has a bar, I've included a picture. Other than that they are the same dark affairs we used to have in England.

I saw other things such as a tidy classic Mini, which must be a rare sight in Romania, some interesting graffiti, and lots of people queuing to get into to church.

The walk was nice, and the thought that the packing would be done when I got back made it even nicer.

Typically the return journey was completely flat, with no hill climbing, Google was right all along!

Day one.

After the car snapping a suspension spring and a couple of trips to the garage to get it sorted, the trip to Luton was really smooth, and we got nearly 500 miles under our belt with a trip to Newcastle yesterday.

We chose a package with a over night stay at the Ibis Luton Airport.  Our parking is with Airparks, about 15 minutes from the airport. Parking there was a pleasure, the staff were really helpful. It was stressless and even quite fun.  A good start to the holiday.

The hotel seems clean and the staff helpful, food is served 24 hours, with a full restaurant open in the evening.

We are currently chilling in the bar, with a decent wine and a shit beer.

The start.

It's only a week to go before we leave for Cluj-Napoca in the heart of Transylvania.  We are going for two weeks, and haven't prepared at all, no packing, only three nights accommodation booked, in fact the only things we really have prepared  are our air tickets and passports.

This is unlike us, normally everything is carefully planned and thought through.  We managed to get in this position through a series of protracted twists of fate.

The day after we booked our flights Carolyn found out she was pregnant, we have suffered too many miss carriages in the past to risk a trip away from home, so we made the decision to cancel them. Except we couldn't under Wizzair's terms and conditions.  So the tickets sat in our inbox.

Very sadly our world changed again and we lost baby Tyler at 15 weeks.  We have a blog about baby loss at http://courageandhope.co.uk/ and a twitter feed https://twitter.com/survivingloss

It wasn't for a few weeks when remembered the tickets.  And something to focus on other than baby loss seemed like a really great idea.

Plan A was to hire a car and take a grand tour of Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, and the Ukraine. However the car hire company let us down, with only a couple of weeks to go. Out of all the countries on our route, the Ukraine was the one I was most interested in, and I suggested a train journey to Carolyn. She agreed and a bit of googling found a night train to Kiev.

Further googling revealed tours of The Zone of Alienation were possible, this is the area around the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Carolyn was a bit harder to convince on this one, but eventually she agreed. 

Her decision was patrially influenced by Fiona, my aunt. Her son, Andrew died at 23 years old, and it was his ambition to travel to Chernobyl. Fiona asked if we made it could we take something of Andrews with us.  You can see his story on this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AndrewsJourney

If you ever travel from Romania to Ukraine or Russia, forget about booking tickets on the internet. We discovered that it COULD be done, with great difficulty, but it is also far more expensive. Also don't expect to be able to book over the phone. After a very, very long phone conversation with a employee of the train company DDB, who operate a train on the the route, they still couldn't tell us how much their own train would cost!

So the decision to wing it was made for us, and the unplanned holiday is soon to begin.