Getting around
This is more a travelling and planing blog so if you are looking for my daily life, you’ll have to look somewhere else :)Archive for 2011 Ukraine
Warsaw
The drive down to Warsaw wasn’t so good. It began with a lot of road construction with heavy traffic. In a cuple of years it will be very easy ride, they are building a highway from Gdansk. The weather was ok, no clear sky and no rain. At least not until Warsaw.
I saw the first Stork; I believe there will be more to come. As I got to the Warsaw suburbs everything turned dark and there were lightning all around. And I just 20 km away from the hotel. But I didn’t want to get all wet so I stopped and put on my (new) rain gear. That was luck. One minute later the hell broke lose. I have never before driven through such heavy rain. Most car stopped but stopping on a bike only makes things worse. So I carried on. Aqua planning is no concern, the bike tires are so thin. But the water was getting deep. I suddenly had about 20 cm water on the street in front of me. I’m glad I have the right sort of bike for this. Slow down, stand up and focus. No problem, I would have liked to have a photo of that. I must have splashed a lot of water around me. It felt a bit like in South Africa as I drove through the creeks.
Now I’m at my Hotel overlooking the castle. It’s totally central and I spent some time walking down the narrow streets of the old town. Nice, but I lika Gamla Stan in Stockholm more. Lack of water perhaps.
Tomorrow I’ll see more ofWarsawin daylight. At lunch I will hit the road again, next stop Lviv.
Nynäshamn – Gdansk
Yesterday I boarded the ferry “Scandinavia”. This one is actually a bit more comfortable than the ferry I traveled on last year. I realize now that Polferries has two ships on this route. One is more for trucks and the other one,Scandinavia” is bigger and can offer more comfort. They take turns so you can only travel withScandinaviaevery second day.
But they were better at towing town motorcycles at the other one. Last evening it was all up to me to do that. And there were just some ropes and no where at deck to connect, only at a fence close by.
If someone, five years ago, would have told me that I was going to visitPoland3 times in the next years, I wouldn’t have believed it. But here I am, shortly approachingGdanskharbor. It has been a very nice experience, getting to knowEastern Europeon two wheels. And I’m glad I’ve done it before it gets to westernized.
Today it’s a five our drive toWarsaw. I’ve already booked a hotel. I normally just drive in to a town trying to find a nice place to sleep, but this time I didn’t want to spend time searching. I’m just for one night I Warsaw. Tomorrow at noon I will take on the journey to Lviv. I hope that the boarder crossing will be smooth this time. Last time I entered it took almost 3 hours. But that was coming fromBelarus. I hopePolandandUkrainehave more efficient administration. At least they will have to order that for next year as they together are hosts for European Championship in men’s soccer.
As I boarded the ferry I once again experienced one advantage of traveling alone. I made contact with some fellow bikers who are traveling almost the same route as Kim and I did some years ago Baltic countries –Poland-Germany, but the other way around. I gave them some tips about Wolfschanze and Trakai. If I bump in to them again I will show them our route, I still have it on my laptop.
I have so far no plans forWarsaw. If you, who read this, have any suggestions what to do, please leave a comment. That also goes with the rest of my journey through the Ukraine.
Making plans for the Ukraine
Since some time I’ve been planning my trip to the Ukraine. I have only found two decent books, one is Lonely Planet and the other one is written by a US woman, Linda Hodges. I have found out a lot so I now what highlights i don’t want to miss. I have also, as I always do, tried to contact local people through the Web, and successfully got some tips. Beside that I use Google Earth and watch pictures made by others. I for instance have found out that I probably will be able to drive on a very thin land strip to get down to Yalta. It looks very interesting and has just the right gravel road I like.
Then there is Gamlesvenskby. I don’t know if I’m going to meet any Swedish related people. I have contacted the Swedish organisation but thay didn’t have much to say either. It’s right on my way from Poltava to Yalta so I will go there anyway.
As usual, when I’m travelling I’ll try to update every day. And as I learned last year, the Ukraine is quite connected.
My ferry leaves Nynäshamn on the 19:th. Before that I will not write so much more.
Getting around 