He just wanted to see my papers.

Today was going to be a long and hot day. As I am turning north my back will be exposed to its heat and that warms me up more than if it’s coming from the front. So I took off early, before the sun got up so high, skipping breakfast at the hotel. Did that instead at first stop for petrol.

They were just waving to cars. Back home we use traffic lights. But I could talk to them, much nicer 🙂

And I have med close contact to the police now. Twice in one day. The first was a routine control, only my papers. No problem, took a few seconds. The other one was because I crossed the central line (as every one does).

It didn’t matter how fast I drove, my shadow never left me. I’ll never be like Lucky Luke.

I did know that the police forces in Belarus and in Moldavia can be bribed. But I didn’t know how it is here. I’ve heard so much so I decided to see what happens if I wanted a regular fine. But this officer couldn’t speak a single word English. Instead he took out a paper. And then it was all clear to me, he wanted some money.

Here is how it’s done; he writes down what he would like, and I write down what I think it is worth. It is a game, looking somewhere else, getting just so much upset that it doesn’t stand out. As I didn’t want to lose too much time I was eager to end this. He wrote 200 and I 50. Then 150 and I 75. At 100 we agreed. The officer started to look around and I gave him the money. 9 € for crossing a line – ok I think. I hope that officer did something nice with the money.

My hotel in the park. It was not as nice on the inside. But cheap 20 €

I had no idea where to sleep tonight. I just had one goal, the former Soviet Nuclear Missile Silo at Pervomaysk. Lonely Planet says it’s one of the coolest museums in the Ukraine. So I went there. I made a separate part on that.

In Pervomaysk there are no hotels. Neither my GPS nor the web could list any. So I had to go on. I have planned this part badly so I didn’t really know where to go. But I ordered my GPS to take me to a place with at least 5 hotels. The closest town for that is Uman. Lonely Planet barely mention this town. But it has a landmark, a beautiful garden from the early 19:the century. As a matter of fact my hotel lays in the garden. But I arrived here late so I didn’t have that much time. I will perhaps have another look tomorrow. The town has nearly 100 000 citizens, but hardly any restaurants and absolutely no night life. I quote Lonely Planet “…this is one of many places in Ukraine where time seems to have stopped 1985.”

Part of the park

Tomorrow I will go west, to the Carpathians. I also think I will hit rain again. It’s been almost a week without it now.