Bike ride through Ukraine to Georgia - Part 3

Bike - not luxury but a means of transportation on the world (continued, part 3) My last day in Odessa, coincided with the last day of August. For a calendar month, I traveled only five degrees east from Helsinki to Odessa. Given that the disk 360 degrees, I will take six years to come back to London, if I move at the same speed. September was supposed to be a month of accelerated progress. Unfortunately, I could only rely on the strength of their legs. True, some helped ferry trip which was supposed to give me additional impetus. Promotion to five degrees does not change the situation on its merits. In the end, all was not as bad as it might initially seem. Despite the fact that, by the way, I pretty much winds, I managed to make significant progress on the south. So I was absolutely ready to month decisive move to the east. Odessa ferry - the largest port on the Black Sea, which in itself quite isolated and connected only with the Mediterranean Sea. They say that his name was due to the high content of oxides in the water column. From Odessa, a few ferries on the west coast: in Constanta (Romania), Varna (Bulgaria) and Istanbul. Thus, in an easterly direction hodilo not so many ships, and with cooling of relations between Russia and Georgia flight was even smaller. The vessel, which was destined to become my home for the next few days, was called "Sun Greifswald, with homeport in Hamburg. "Graysvald - freight ferry, which mainly transports trains, trucks and containers, and the remaining space filled with passengers.

Bike ride through Ukraine to Georgia - Part 1

Bike - not luxury but a means of transportation on PEACE, Tim Taylor, United Kingdom Before you get from the UK to Ukraine, I had to go five boundaries. Three on the road, two at the entrance. There is something pleasing in the border crossing in quiet places. At this time I was lucky enough to cross the border in the company of a tractor, a horse harnessed to a cart and a truck loaded with vodka. The truck won the race to the city of Sumy, which is 50 km from the border, but I'm on my bike managed to keep the tractor, let alone a horse with his cart at all far behind. She was going somewhere on a farm near the border. Two days later, a leisurely ride, I arrived in Kiev. Driving on hilly terrain is not so simple - the satisfaction of conquering peaks no, so still and most of the time have to travel up the hill. Only work and no laurels. Just like the workhorse of cycling (the whole ride through the hills bothered me much sooner than I could imagine). Museum Chernobyl By the way, I stopped in for tourists to get a zone near Chernobyl. This is a closed area, 100 km north of Kiev is 2,000 square meters. km along the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. Residents of 72 settlements were evacuated after a fire at a nuclear reactor in 1986. If you want to build extreme tourism in nuclear power, then you have the opportunity to visit this area and crumbling ghost towns because of the relatively short half-life of radioactive isotopes such as cesium and strontium, the overall level of contamination down to acceptable, in which during the short visit, no damage to health.

Five days in the country Thunder Dragon - Part 2

Cloud ADVENTURES Irish (continued, part 2) The first day of the trip started in Kathmandu. We visited the largest Buddhist stupa (the monumental building to house relics, approx. Perevi.) Nepal, monkey temple, and finally, the area of ??Dunbar. All the buildings looked grand, but not made much impression. All were in anticipation of emergency trips to Bhutan. We left the hotel at 6:30 in the morning to catch a flight to Bhutan. Unfortunately, one member of the group became ill and was unable to leave Kathmandu. Polet took about an hour, and pilots have demonstrated all his skill, when we made a landing. We flew past Mount Everest and through strong clouds began to decline. When we emerged from the clouds, the bottom seemed to Bhutan. I even caught his breath. As far as the eye could see, we have brought the wooded mountains. The plane literally had to squeeze through the gorge, almost touching the wooded on both sides of the mountain slopes. landing itself turned out pretty impressive. The plane circled a little to lose altitude in a small valley. Pilot planting machine is almost at an angle, and only a few seconds before touch strip lined fuselage . They were all very happy that we landed. Everest at the airport of Bhutan only two aircraft, which should be, and has led to restrictions on entry and the large sums that tourists have to spend each day. ornamented building the airport looked perfectly clean, the entire staff was dressed in traditional Bhutanese costumes. The women wore long dresses and men - skirts to the knee, similar to Scottish kilts, socks and shoes are weird.

Five days in the country Thunder Dragon - Part 1

Cloud ADVENTURES Irish Eoin McGoogan, Ireland early on Friday morning, I sat on the old coach bus and left the peace of Pokhara (a city in central Nepal, ca. Perevi.). Initially it was reported that the trip would take seven hours. In the end, it took about nine hours, and the journey that was clearly not for the faint of heart. Our route went up a steep mountain road and down the numerous gorges, which were littered with skeletons of buses that found at the bottom of his final resting place. Had me on the bus was driving my aunt Elizabeth, she would have held all the way on his knees, reading the prayers and occasionally interrupting them a couple of strong words. It was horrible, and when we finally reached the top the last hill, I first caught a glimpse of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal! That is, I wanted to say that he saw the place where Kathmandu was supposed to be, because he was hidden behind a dense veil of thick smog, which is here every day. I was told that a couple of days to live near the border with India - this is real madness, so I was well prepared. My view from the bus tour was to begin in two days, so I took a room in a good and inexpensive hotel in the area Tamela, where most are all tourist activity. Tamela - a maze of hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops. Here, crowded but comfortable, and although a bit messy, but compared to Indian cities, it is even nothing. I dined at a restaurant called "New Orleans" and went to his next port of destination, which will always be another Irish pub serving beer Guinness.

Bike ride through Ukraine to Georgia - Part 2

Bike - not luxury but a means of transportation on the world (continued, p.2) to the ferry, which was supposed to leave from Odessa, I had another week, so I decided to call in Kamenetz-Podolsk. This small, strange town was built on a rocky island, the prisoners in the loop channel of the Dnieper. If you pass the old bridge, will open a wonderful view of the castle and ancient buildings, which, like a fairyland, dotted the neighborhood. After two hours of racing through the quiet cobbled streets and the enchanted castle, I have already started thinking about how to get out of here, while my bike did not turn into a pumpkin. Kamenetz-Podolsk was only glance at the map, I'm at the same time identified a further trip to Odessa, which lies on Moldova's territory, and again went to the Ukraine. About Moldova I think I know less than other countries in Eastern Europe, and why this country was for me very attractive. How not to visit the small country between Romania and Ukraine, which was once part of the USSR, but now mired in internal conflict, the territorial and political disputes. There even has its own self-proclaimed republic, Transnistria, which is located along the eastern border. This is an unrecognized state already uspeloobzavestis own currency and declared themselves the last bastion of communism in the world. Terribly exciting! At the border, past the first checkpoint on the Ukrainian side, and almost got hold of a stamp in the passport, the border I had a bout of deja vu.