Our train arrived in Kiev at around 7 o'clock in the morning. We didn't have a room booked and didn't really feel like staying in at someone's apartment again, so we took the subway from railway station to the center to find breakfast and wifi to find a hostel. We managed to book a room at DownTown Hostel and walked there with our backpacks. Luckily the room was immediately available so we could get settled and freshen up a bit. Since we were tired after the night on the train we didn't want to do any heavy sightseeing, but decided to do a walking tour which was descibed in our guidebook. It was supposed to last about two hours but for us it was more like six. We took a few breaks, but we were quite ... read more

We have found a city where we both could imagine to live in - it's Odessa. There's something so laidback and charming in this city that it has become the only city of the trip where we started dreaming about living in it. It's not so easy to put a finger on what it is exactly that we like so much. Climate seems nice (not too hot as there is a breeze from the sea, we assume winters are mild and short), beautiful boulevards you can just stroll on and admire pretty buildings, the sea, cheap prices, not too touristic but still a relaxed "holidayish" athmosphere in general. Or maybe just because its architecture resembles Helsinki :) Our eating habits today were quite Ukrainian. We started the day with borsch soup and after that went to ... read more

Yesterday evening we had made arrangements for accomodation in Tiraspol and had planned to leave quite early in the morning. But in the morning we found an sms from the host saying we should arrive only around 2pm. So, we spend the morning at the hotel using internet and blogging. We left eventually by a bus a bit before noon. As mentioned before, Tiraspol is located in Transnistria area, which is an autonomous breakaway republic in Moldova. We were kind of nervous because we had heard officials at border crossing were asking for bribes and harrassing westerners also in other ways. On the way it however became obvious that what we should have been worried about was the traffic and the driving style of our maxitaxi driver. He (and other drivers) were making insane passings all ... read more

During one day we had to travel from Tulcea to Bucharest by buss and get on an overnight train to Chisinau, Moldova. During our trip we have been asked what we go to Moldova for. Well, the main reason is that we don't know much about it and want to see what it's like. We know that there is the biggest wine cellar in the world and that it is the poorest country in Europe, but that's basically it. Since we are anyway passing through Moldova on our way to Crimea, would be stupid not to stop and have a look. Now, let's hope our French friends from Göreme will be reading the next few posts as they were wondering what on earth we would be doing in Moldova ;) Bus trip back to Bucharest we ... read more

We woke up in our familiar airconditioned room with good beds and the huge private terrace. Once again, a well slept night in this room. Even though once or twice we woke up to adjust the air conditioner. We had the hostel's coffee+cereals breakfast and then started walking to the Augustine bus station to catch a bus to Tulcea. We got lost on the way just enough to miss the buss, but the next one left at noon, so no big deal. We did some blogging and snack shopping at the nearby shopping mall before the bus left. Once again, the weather was extremely hot, but the bus had at least some kind of airconditioning, so the trip was tolerable. On the countryside we even spotted few men riding with horse carriages still - old style ... read more