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Author Topic: Overland to the Ukraine  (Read 1682 times)

Wasyl

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Overland to the Ukraine
« on: September 11, 2009, 09:23:51 am »

Hi guys,just thought i,d write a few lines about the Ukraine,just in case anyone was ever thinking of touring the largest east European country,




 I did an overland to the Ukraine in 2006 , to visit my Aunt and Uncle, It was quite an adventure,Most of the roads we were on in The Ukraine were like B roads,even the main "highway" to Kiev,was riddled with giant potholes,Fuel was cheap in 2006 approx £1 per 5lts, :} beer 10p a bottle,Vodka 40p,per bot, :}The area where my relatives live approx 20km north of Lvov, is marsh land and thousands of dirt tracks,there are no visa requirements for the Ukraine,and the people are very friendly,in the countryside,
Taking a car into the city,is a different ball game,we were advised to park in secure parking lot,which we did, and it was guarded my some mean looking guys,Lvov is a fantastic city,and architecture,is something else,funnily ths city was spared by the Germans in WW11,
Driving in the countryside is something else every day is like "the wacky races"and we saw some weird contraptions masquerading as cars/trucks,
on one occasion we saw, a 1 horse power Lada,there was this Lada that had a horse,s backside in where the engine had been,two poles sticking out from where the headlights had been,and the driver sitting on the roof with a set of reins,and his family inside, {-)then there were the umpteen "6 wheeled tipper trucks "that only had 4 wheels the doubles that should have been on the back were reduced to one on each side,and they were,nt always in the same place, {-)
Then there were the "Police Speed traps"they were "something else"we were driving up a hill and approx 200m ahead i spotted a blue and white, police car,with a policeman standing in front of it, holding a speed gun,although we were,nt speeding, i instinctivly slowed down,much to the annoyance of the other drivers around me,who were,nt slowing down, when we got closer to the "speed cop" i soon realised why the Ukrainians were,nt slowing down,The policeman and his car were only plywood cut outs,As it turned out there all over the place, and they get shifted around, but as the locals know what they are I failed to see what use they had,until i spoke one of my cousins,She told me that the police use these dummy cars for about a month or two, then,Bang,they put a real one there, in the middle of the night, and they catch hundreds,But the on the spot fines rarely see the inside of the police station
As corruption is rife,
Another thing we noticed was,the amount of Russian hardware that was left after 89 we saw loads of Russian Jets, lying in fields,tanks at the side of the road,just abandoned,
yes its some place,
I may go back someday

Wullie
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das boot

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Re: Overland to the Ukraine
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2009, 10:15:29 am »

Bring me back a Mig 21 when you go again Wull....



Rich
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Wasyl

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Re: Overland to the Ukraine
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2009, 10:33:41 am »

Hi Rich,
If I had a big enough van i would {-)you,d be amazed at how many we saw,i saw 2 x Foxbats,3/4 old Mig 15,s, a Flanker,i think it was called,and numerous others that had been stripped of their aluminium panels,that the locals use to cover their shed roofs  then there were T90 tanks,T55,s and in my Aunts barn there was remnant from WW11, a genuine Zundap motorcycle/sidecar that still had the now faded German Balkan Kreuze on the side,
And whilst driving through Eastern Poland,we came across a compound behind an old disused railway station,that had, 1 x Sherman Tank, 1 xT34/76 2 x Opel Blitz trucks,a Kettenkrad,,and a Pak 38 anti tank gun,all were for sale,

Wullie
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das boot

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Re: Overland to the Ukraine
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2009, 10:39:49 am »

Now there's a coincidence Wull...the lady that drives the local mobile library truck rides a Zundap trike....she bought a solo bike from somewhere out there(her hubby did some work out there)and had it converted to a trike. An amazing machine it is, never seen anything like before.


Rich
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maninthestreet

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Re: Overland to the Ukraine
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2009, 10:09:07 pm »

Hi guys,just thought i,d write a few lines about the Ukraine,just in case anyone was ever thinking of touring the largest east European country,




 I did an overland to the Ukraine in 2006 , to visit my Aunt and Uncle, It was quite an adventure,Most of the roads we were on in The Ukraine were like B roads,even the main "highway" to Kiev,was riddled with giant potholes,Fuel was cheap in 2006 approx £1 per 5lts, :} beer 10p a bottle,Vodka 40p,per bot, :}The area where my relatives live approx 20km north of Lvov, is marsh land and thousands of dirt tracks,there are no visa requirements for the Ukraine,and the people are very friendly,in the countryside,
Taking a car into the city,is a different ball game,we were advised to park in secure parking lot,which we did, and it was guarded my some mean looking guys,Lvov is a fantastic city,and architecture,is something else,funnily ths city was spared by the Germans in WW11,
Driving in the countryside is something else every day is like "the wacky races"and we saw some weird contraptions masquerading as cars/trucks,
on one occasion we saw, a 1 horse power Lada,there was this Lada that had a horse,s backside in where the engine had been,two poles sticking out from where the headlights had been,and the driver sitting on the roof with a set of reins,and his family inside, {-)then there were the umpteen "6 wheeled tipper trucks "that only had 4 wheels the doubles that should have been on the back were reduced to one on each side,and they were,nt always in the same place, {-)
Then there were the "Police Speed traps"they were "something else"we were driving up a hill and approx 200m ahead i spotted a blue and white, police car,with a policeman standing in front of it, holding a speed gun,although we were,nt speeding, i instinctivly slowed down,much to the annoyance of the other drivers around me,who were,nt slowing down, when we got closer to the "speed cop" i soon realised why the Ukrainians were,nt slowing down,The policeman and his car were only plywood cut outs,As it turned out there all over the place, and they get shifted around, but as the locals know what they are I failed to see what use they had,until i spoke one of my cousins,She told me that the police use these dummy cars for about a month or two, then,Bang,they put a real one there, in the middle of the night, and they catch hundreds,But the on the spot fines rarely see the inside of the police station
As corruption is rife,
Another thing we noticed was,the amount of Russian hardware that was left after 89 we saw loads of Russian Jets, lying in fields,tanks at the side of the road,just abandoned,
yes its some place,
I may go back someday

Wullie

Just got back from the Crimea - petrol is currently about 75p per litre now. I paid about 60p for a half litre bottle of Tuborg lager.
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Wasyl

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Re: Overland to the Ukraine
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2009, 12:17:24 pm »

WOW,thats unbelievable,how prices have jumped,God knows how these people can afford to buy anything now,
In the Ukraine,consumer goods that we take for granted,i.e.washing machines,microwave ovens,etc are beyond most working class people,s reach,even the cheapest one,s here i.e.£199 for a W/M there over £450 there, a 20 year old Lada riva 1300 was £2000, and it looked like it had come from the scrapyard,My Uant and Uncles staple diet is Borsch,(beet soup) with some Speck thrown in,(pig fat),home reared chicken,rabbit,and road kill,
In the area around where they stay,Privet Marshes there is little or no infrastructure,its each man for himself,and the bulk of there food is home grown,and bartered,
When Chernobyl went bang in Belorus, the fall out landed right on top of this area,and the population were instructed to scrape 50mm of top soil off,and that the soil underneath would ok, <*<what they were,nt told,was where to put this contaminated soil,so it just got dumped in the counryside, where it lies to this day,
My Cousins husband was in the army when Chernobyl went up,his Battalion was drafted in, They were given a white paper boiler suit,and a paper mask,for protection,and they did the clearing up,Anatoly was in there for 3 weeks, and ended up with Radiation poisoning,and spent 3 months in a hospital,less than 30 miles from the blast zone,He got a medical discharge,and the Chernobyl Medal, and enough money to buy a new Lada,and also a stern warning,(you will not be able to have anymore children)luckily they have one son,They now live in Poltava,which is south of Kiev,


Wasyl
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maninthestreet

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Re: Overland to the Ukraine
« Reply #6 on: September 20, 2009, 02:07:46 pm »

Chernobyl is in the Ukraine, rather than Belarus. You can now go on a tour around the reactor exclusion zone, and get close to the reactor itself that blew it's top. Apparently you get exposed to about the same amount of radiation as you would get on a trans-Atlantic flight (or so they say). 
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