Blogs from Ukraine, Europe - page 3

4 janvier Tranquillement, mon décalage horaire se réajuste et m'ouvre les yeux à l'heure honorable de 7h15 ce matin. Six des huit lits sont vacants dans le dortoir: le corps sous le linceul de l'autre couchette semble endormi depuis mon débarquement sur Kiev, c'est-à-dire depuis plus de 36 heures. Comme un vampire, ce dernier semblera se réveiller que pour revivre des nuits blanches sur la capitale ukrainienne jour après jour. Le ciel s'ambre difficilement avant 8h00am en cette saison. ¨ Why so early? ¨ que me demande Viktoria l'hôtesse, les yeux à demi levés de derrière l'horizon de son comptoir. ¨ I want to go to Lavra ¨ que je lui répond. ¨ Ohhhhhh Lavrrrra. Lavrrrra beautiful in summer. Flowerrrrs everrrrywherrrre ¨ qu'elle me relance, regard brillant, en se dessinant un croquis de sourire. ¨ And ... read more

2 janvier Il est plus ou moins 15h30 lorsque j'apparait à l'aéroport Borispol de Kiev. Caché sous mon manteau d'hiver, je me laisse guider par une vague de voyageurs dévêtus qui presse le pas vers les écrans des transits. Beaucoup d'indiens m'ont accompagné durant le vol d'Ukraine International Airlines: la compagnie lowcost est certainement la moins coûteuse pour rejoindre Delhi à partir de Toronto. Peut-être survêtu (la suite me prouva que non), j'esquive la masse en correspondance et rejoint les cordons de foule de la douane ukrainienne, seul, suant dans mon parka. Une douanière translucide étampe mon passeport: Welcome to Ukraine. Elle me sourit. Je serai peut-être le seul touriste canadien de mon vol à entrer à Kiev aujourd'hui. Le silence aéroportuaire s'étire jusqu'à ma sortie où m'accueille un froid qui changera mes mots en buée. ... read more

It was an early start after a night of very little sleep. The walls of the hotel were paper thin and there were some noisy people partying during the night. I was tired, but it didn't dampen my excitement for visiting Chernobyl. The drive took about an hour and a half, maybe a bit longer and we stopped at a garage en route for some breakfast. I remember drinking a hot coffee and I think I had a sandwich of some sort. The drive wasn't very memorable and I don't recall seeing anything exciting. I did like that as we left the city and drove further into the countryside, it got a lot snowier. I love snowy landscapes, so I was happy to see this. We reached Dytyatky Checkpoint for entering Chernobyl and our guides went ... read more

I had decided to do a walking tour that morning. The one I had chosen went to Lavra Hills, a part of Kiev that I hadn't visited the previous day. I headed down to Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti), which is where the tour started and was a short way away from my hostel. The square is a central point in Kiev and has undergone many names changes over the years. It used to be surrounded by the buildings of the city council but now it is surrounded by shops, offices, cafes and restaurants. The square got its current name in 1991, in the aftermath the Ukrainian Declaration of Independence and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The square is a popular place for political rallies to be held. I stopped for a coffee at one of ... read more

23rd Dec: The journey to Lviv from Krakow can only be described as a nightmare. What should only take a few hours, ended up taking forever due to lazy border staff. While I would expect some queuing, a couple of hours max, sitting at the border for 8 hours is just ridiculous. I had to lol when after finally clearing Ukrainian immigration one of the bus drivers announced that we had entered the Ukraine. Then we stopped at a service station for about half an hour. I don't have the patience for these kinds of journeys. Finally, we arrived at the bus station in Lviv around two in the afternoon, when we were scheduled to arrive at 6 am. I couldn't be bothered to deal with the bus and had booked a taxi transfer to my ... read more