My trip is nearly at an end. I leave Lviv for Krakow tomorrow morning, assuming I can get anyone to sell me a ticket. I tried at both the ticket office and the train station, but no-one will sell me a ticket (except for first class) until this evening. I have no idea why, I'm sure Min was able to get a ticket two days in advance. Hopefully the train won't be sold out by the time I get there. Otherwise I'll catch the bus, which doesn't sound anything like as comfortable, but would actually be faster. It sounds like lots of people try to smuggle cheaper goods in Poland from Ukraine so hassles and delays at the border are common.
Yesterday I climbed to the 'High Castle' for a view over Lviv, today I've seen some museums. I've also been going to coffee houses, as Lviv is famous for them, and I never need an excuse to drink coffee.
Back in London September 3, in case you're wondering. I may have already said that, I have a goldfish memory.
"An architect of Iraqi descent has said he was forced to remove a T-shirt that bore the words "We will not be silent" before boarding a flight at New York." BBC
Another mixed-up Ukrainian day.
I got the overnight train from Chernivsti to Lviv last night. The one guy in my carriage at the start was a lawyer, and spoke some English, and more German. He was nice, so we chatted a bit. We were woken by the arrival of a Russian Ukrainian couple in the middle of the night, who seemed to have saved their conversation (and meals) all day so they could have them in our carriage in the middle of the night.
When we were leaving the train this morning, the lawyer said he was going the same way as one of the sights I wanted to see, and did I want to go with him, as he had time before his court appointment? He doesn't like public transport, so we ended up walking about 5km (more with detours) to the Lychakivsky Cemetary. It was actually a lovely introduction to the city, and I coped a lot better after we stopped for coffee, and he was able to translate things I never would have guessed.
We had a very late breakfast (of pizza, again) then he went to court and I went to do more touristy things.
On the way, I passed the Lviv Tourist Board office, so I thought I'd pop in and get some free maps and ask a few questions. When I got to their office, there were two signs on the door: "Lviv Tourist Board - Always with you and for you" and "Closed until September 7". So much for that.
I will have to post a link when I remember how I found them, because I'm staying in the best apartment in the world. It's right on Rynok, and it was really affordable, and it's just lovely. I can see the town hall from my bed. And it has a kitchen, so I'm not stuck with waitresses trying to sneak meat into my meals (happened again last night but I spotted it before eating anything).
I really like what I've seen of Lviv so far. It's rainy so tomorrow I'll check out some museums and the coffee bars that Min recommended. Life could be worse.
By the way, I've been uploading photos to Flickr as I go, internet cafes allowing. Sometimes I can't use the USB stick, sometimes I can't check my email, I never know what I'll be allowed to do.
Arrived on the overnight train from Lviv this morning. Checked into dodgy hotel, spent the day wondering around the fortress.
Had a very strange breakfast (pizza with boiled egg on a sweet base - what?) and a brilliant lunch. Lunch was at Gostynny Dvir, no English menu but I said I was vegetarian and they made me a really yummy veggie lunch.
Khotyn tomorrow, then Chernistvi. I think I'll also pop over to Kolomyya (two good museums, apparently) for a day trip from Chernivtsi.
"Internet firms have been criticised by UK MPs for "collaborating" with state censorship of the web in China.
Businesses such as Microsoft, Google and Yahoo blocking some information was "morally unacceptable", the Commons foreign affairs committee said." BBC
Having seen that even in Ukraine some cafes seem to block gay or lesbian content, it's clear that internet censorship is still an important issue that has a real effect on the lives of a country's citizens.
In other news, while looking for an internet cafe, I managed to stumble across one of the very few gay bars or clubs in Kiev. Woo!
(And in other news, Stary Kiev, listed as a 'gay cafe', has closed).
Tomorrow is Ukraine Indepedence Day (Den Nezalezhnosti), so it's a great day to be in Kiev. IYP says, "to give you an idea of what Independence Day on the streets of Kyiv is like, imagine a cross between a huge outdoor rock concert and civil unrest."
Train to Kamynets-Podilsky tomorrow night.
I've been reading updates from this site for a while now, so it is really strange to realise that I've been at the Khan's Palace in Bakhchysaray so soon afterwards. My experience as a tourist who doesn't speak the language and doesn't have any local contacts is of course really different, so go read this instead: Arrival at the Khan’s Palace, Market conflict out of control.
Just in case you've seen something about a plane crash in Ukraine on the news, we weren't on it. We are flying to Kiev tomorrow, where I'll be overnight, while Min flies onto Lviv.
Had an interesting dinner here in Simferopol last night, the idiotic waitress not only tried to give us meat dishes, she tried to charge us lots of extra hrivna for all kinds of random things. Min has a written thing explaining in Ukrainian what we don't eat, and I explained as best I could in Russian, we don't know if the waitress was just terminally stupid or just greedy and mean. So avoid the restaurant Ulf-Topor in Simferopol, especially if you're vegetarian. We're going to write to them and complain, but also to explain why vegetarians don't like being served meat dishes.
I keep forgetting to mention that we're being followed around Crimea by Russia's Eurovision 2006 entrant, Dima Bilan. He came second, and was the guy with the ballerina in his piano. We've heard the song "Never Let You Go" everywhere we've been, and in fact they're playing what sounds like the live version from last night's concert in the internet cafe right now.
We arrived in Yalta after a long day's travel. From Sudak we got a mini-bus taxi to Alushta, then another to Yalta. We just went into the Yalta Cat Show, as one does. It's always the first thing I check out in a strange town.
Simferopol tomorrow.
No wonder it's felt so hot, it's going to be 46C in Yalta today.
The fortress was amazing. There happens to be a folk festival going on at the moment so there were lots of musical performances as well as a re-enactment, which involved lots of fighting and explosions as well as some hot princess-on-princess action. The Dance of the Gothic Polyesther Princess is going to be the new hit of the summer.
Just found a report about Sudak from someone who was here earlier this month at archaeology.org with an interesting perspective.
Getting out of Transdniestr was a whole other story, but we arrived in Odessa safely.
We had a night that could probably only be described as 'if Carlsberg made hostels' - we were greeted by a stunning Ukrainian woman all dressed up in a very short skirt and vest top, who showed us around and explained that the hostel was having a party, with free beer and champagne, and that it was her birthday. Lots of her gorgeous friends came over, also all dressed up in very short skirts and one in an amazing pair of hotpants.
We had a beer, admired the locals, then went out for dinner at a lovely Lesbianese restaurant down the road, where we could watch more locals promenading in their Thursday night best. Back to the hostel where the drinks were still flowing and the party games in full swing.
It's a tough life, but someone has to live it.
Overnight train from Odessa to Simferopol last night (first class, cos we're classy), mini-bus to Sudak (ok, mini-bus is not so classy). Our hotel is amusing, but we're really here for the fort. We're hiding from the heat for another hour then heading up to explore.
To use the snappier title, Tiraspol in Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica.
I'm in an internet cafe full of kids playing computer games, to be precise.
There's no left luggage at the train or bus station, so we're taking turns to mind the bags and see the sights.
Last night we met up with some Moldovan lesbians (I hope the kids next to me can't read this) Min found through a GLBT rights organisation. They were really lovely (and quite hot) and we had a really good night.
We were up early today to get to the bus station. No big buses so we got a maxi-taxi to Tiraspol. The border crossing into Transdniestr was interesting - they took me into a back room, shut the doors and tried to get me to pay $US30 for a entry permit, but I knew that it should only be about 50c so I refused. We'd hidden any extra cash so we wouldn't be taken for everything we had - the internet is full of stories about people paying huge fines/visa fees. It took some discussion, but we were eventually ushered back into the front office to pay the local entry fee. The story kept changing but at one point one of the guys was trying to tell us we needed to have $US150 each to show that we could support ourselves while in Transdniester. Considering we'd said we were in transit to Odessa, this seemed like quite a huge amount. We showed that we had cards (Mastercard and Visa), and eventually that we had Ukrainian hrivnia to pay for the next bus to Odessa from Tiraspol. I guess they eventually decided we either didn't have any extra money or weren't going to budge, so they gave up.
It was a little scary but it was just a matter of getting through it.
It's really hot - probably mid to high 30s. We've already walked most of the main street but with our backpacks so we weren't stopping to appreciate the sights. We'll probably be back at the bus station by 5pm to get another maxi-taxi (mini-bus) to Odessa. One more border crossing into Ukraine then staying at a proper backpackers tonight, I'm kinda looking forward to it - mostly because I want to relax with a beer with the most difficult border crossings out of the way.
Moldova was really lovely - you could probably see the sights of Chisinau in half a day, but the parks are nice places to relax and watch people, and nearly everyone I met was really friendly and open. I'd been dreading Moldova a little because the Moldovans I'd encountered en masse in Antalya airport were horrible, rude and pushy, with really awful dress sense. I guess the kind of people who go on a package holiday to Antalya tend to be different to the general population. I'd love to go back to Moldova and see more of the country on something like a tour of the wineries.
We're just been on a big drive on the Transfagarasan Road. We head back to Bucharest from Sinaia tomorrow, then overnight train from Bucharest to Chisinau. We have a day in Chisinau, then leave for Tiraspol the next morning. If we are going to encounter any hassle, it's going to be at the Moldovan border with Transdniestr (the country that doesn't exist), which should be on the 17th, so fingers crossed it all goes ok.
Update: In Your Pocket have an article on the Transfagarasan Road. They're right about the weather conditions - it was so foggy we couldn't see the lake, and freezing cold on one side of the summit, then brilliant sunshine on the other side of the tunnel.
We arrived in Sighisoara, Transylvia, today. It's really pretty, the old town is tiny and very cute. We're going on a walking tour in half an hour. Tonight we're going to cook in the hostel, which is actually pretty exciting - we can eat whatever we want, without being limited to what's on the menu.
The food has generally been pretty good, though I've had salad cravings. I haven't had to eat fried cheese and bread once (so far).
If you're ever travelling around Europe by train, this German railways site is fantastic for timetables, routes, etc - you can't book tickets in Eastern Europe but the times are always right and it tells you how long and how many changes each option has.
Min and I arrived in Brasov yesterday. The name of this place lends itself to bad puns - bras off, brush off (the two may be related), apparently the town also has something to do with Dracula. However the locals appear not to appreciate bad Sesame Street Count-style laughing.
We managed to get Moldovan visas (transit, but we might have been able to get tourist visas too) and today we bought train tickets from Bucharest to Chisinau, so we're actually going there! We'll travel overnight on the 15th and be in Odessa, Ukraine, by the 17th, so it'll be a really quick visit to Moldova/Transdniestr.
There's not much on the internet about the visas, so if you're looking for information on Moldovan visas in Bucharest, Romania, you can get one in a day at the Moldovan Consulate, 8 B-dul Eroilor (very near the corner of B-dul Eroilor and B-dul Mihail Kogalniceanu (Kogaliniceanu?), take the metro to Eroilor or bus 123 from Gara de Nord. There's a pub on the corner where you can celebrate when you get your visa.
You'll need a photocopy of your passport to show the bank when you pay for the visa, or they'll yell at you. They might yell at you anyway, they seem to like doing it.
It turns out that I'm staying right around the corner from the first place I stayed in Istanbul. No wonder it all looked so familiar.
I've done nothing so far today but chill out in my room, have a shower, watch stupid TV and relax. I'm going to have a coffee now and figure out what I want to see and do - perhaps pay a visit to the Blue Mosque, one of my favourite buildings in the world. There's a little kid behind me which is hampering my search for 'lesbian bars istanbul'.
The train is so much nicer when you've got a sleeper. I was incredibly excited by everything - the comfy seats, the bed, the little basin, the little Turkish State Railways soap... I was probably very easily pleased because I'd sent two weeks living with 100 people in a crowded dig house, but it was still all very lovely.
The weather is in the 30s but not as hot as Konya, which has been in the 40s.
My train to Bucharest leaves at 10pm tomorrow night so I've got until then to explore Istanbul again.
It's weird being back, especially around Sultanahmet. Istanbul hasn't changed much, but I guess I have because a lot has happened in the six years since I was last here.
I leave site tomorrow. I'm hot, dusty, covered in bites (mostly mosquito), tired, and I'm looking forward to a room by myself and food that doesn't have to serve 100 people, but I'm still really sad to be leaving tomorrow.
I should be in Istanbul by Saturday morning, then on Sunday night I head to Bucharest, passing through Bulgaria. I hope I actually end up in Bucharest, the agency I booked the ticket through seem a little vague about exactly when and where the train goes after Bulgaria. I've always wanted to go to Serbia but not on this trip.
It's been really busy, too much to do as always, but the work is such a brilliant challenge that I'll miss it when I'm gone. I'll be working on things after the season finishes but it's never quite the same.
It's been quite hot, 40C on the mound. Have taken some photo and video but no idea when I'll get to put them online.