(Ukraine) Beautiful flowers are everywhere.

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[15/04/15~05/01 (D+1339)] 
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I had really amazing time in the ski resort that I wanted to buy a neck key chain which had the name of the ski resort. Actually I lost the key for the lock last year and I needed a new neck key chain which was the best way to keep the key. But I forgot buying it.  in the resort. So, I stopped souvenir shops on my way back.

 

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I checked a few shops, but I could not find it. I just bought some wood key chain which had the drawing of ski’s picture and name. It was only 8 UAH (0.36$/One year ago 1$). When I tried to pay, they didn’t accept it and told me ‘It is free because I took the picture with your bike.’ So I took the picture of them as well. Now it was equal that I paid 8 UAH. Most of people were very kind and smiling at me that it was quite nice to hang around in Ukraine.

(I put two prices. One was what I paid and one was one year ago before the war)

 

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I cycled back after a week and all snow was gone. The road of one week ago with the snow was much beautiful.

 

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HI was NI. Ni meant NO

TAK meant YES

I’ve never seen that sign that I just learn a new thing. ‘I should not bomb the toilet!’. Every day I’ve been grown on the road, for sure.

 

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Quite often I had seen people carried crop with horses.

 

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After 50km cycling back, I turned to the right. Since that, the uphill had started. When I checked the altitude map before, I didn’t see this difficult hill. I felt betrayed. The sun would go down soon that I became a bit nervous. After hard work, I reached to the top of the hill and the downhill started.

 

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I was wondering that the village just had the event or this play ground stayed here like for 365 days. I arrived in the city before the dark and checked hotels, but it was twice expensive than I expected. I remembered that there was one cheap hotel which was 20 km (12.5 mi) far from the city. I decided to cycle to get there.

 

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The price was 150 UAH (7$/One year ago 19$). Toilet was at the outside of the room.

Actually I saw very cheap and nice hotel just 10 km (6.25 mi) before the city. But there was no any grocery. That’s why I didn’t stay there. But I thought that the hotel was the best deal.

 

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This hotel was weird that the living room was very big and it was decorated with old Ukrainian souvenir. So, I felt like I had stayed at somebody’s house.

 

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At the next day I decided to go back to that a cheap nice hotel that I had to cycle back over 25 km (15.62 mi). But I turned to the wrong direction that I had to cycle 15 km (9.37 mi) more.

 

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This hotel was 100 UAH (4.5$/One year ago 12.5 $)

It was very clean and cozy. There was a banquet hall and restaurant in front of the hotel. The hotel was actually surrounded by the forest.

 

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By chance, I spoke with a daughter of the hotel. She told me she could show me the town which had a festival for Easter. The left one on the picture was the one who showed me around the city.

 

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It seemed that they were enjoying dry fish like Korean.

 

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It looked they were selling some honey. They offered me some alcohol. I said “Budmo” before drinking and all of them laughed. Budmo was one of few Ukrainian word I’ve learn in Lviv.
Budmo means ‘Cheers’.

 

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Some local people who wore typical Ukrainian clothes sang a song.

 

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It was cheese. Taste was so so. (Frankly speaking not my favorite)

 

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We went some coffee shop near the center. I was a bit surprised to see a nice coffee shop in a small city.

 

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They who wore Ukrainian clothes were making Easter eggs together. I’ve never seen to make it that it was very interesting.

 

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One of girl wanted to take the picture with me. After that she gave me one egg. I was embarrassed because I could not carry egg on my bicycle. Then the daughter of the hotel told me “Just take it. She would be glad to give you it as a gift :)”

(Later I left the egg in the hotel. Actually I wanted to break it because I was so curious. What would sound, smell, and touching like when it was broken. But I tried to resist the curiosity.)

 

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Later I visited some museum and it was so interesting. It looked like that their custom continued to the present time in this area. When I’ve seen and learn Ukraine culture, I felt sorry about what happening in Ukraine because I could feel Ukrainians were so proud of their country.

 

Video of singing and making Easter Eggs

 

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It was unbelievable to see the snow on 20th of April.

By the way, WiFi was not bad in Ukraine. But 3g was not popular with sim card. I used one of biggest network for sim card, but they didn’t have 3g. I heard that 3g just started in Ukraine.
One of friends had two phones in Lviv. One was for internet to use 3g and the other was for calling.
I could use 1000 minutes and unlimited 2g internet for 5$.

 

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Anyway it was so shocking thing to see snowing on April.

 

The video of snowing

 

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There was a flag of Russia on some product in a grocery. I heard that it meant something like ‘the money which you paid would support to invade our country.’

 

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One day I went to the center and had a pizza. But the problem was that green stuff. I’ve never ever seen the food without that green stuff in Ukraine. I really didn’t like the smell and taste at all. It was shocking that how they even put that green stuff on yummy PIZZA.

 

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When I was about to leave, finally I could see spring coming that the new buds were appearing on the trees now.
It looked like the daughter of the hotel worked as a manager. She discounted my hotel cost a lot and offered free food a few times. Seriously she was extremely kind to me. (The hotel was located 10? 13 km before Kolomyya. The restaurant and hotel was made of wood.)

 

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Just before leaving I had lunch at the restaurant. I did ask her ‘please no green stuff!’. And finally I had a food without bitter stuff. I asked what the name of that was’ She told me ‘Krip’’. I asked her to write down in Ukraine on my phone ‘Please I don’t like Krip. Give me food without Krip.’

This food was so fantastic. Thanks to a local peoples’ help, I could try different kind of food.

I researched and that green herb’s name is Dill in English.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dill

I don’t like bitter herb except coriander because I loved Mexican food that I was used to eating it later.

 

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She told me that her parents started with a small building long time ago. But now it was quite big. Recently they built high special ceiling as well.

 

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She suggested me to watch a wedding later, but it was too late to wait. I just took the picture when they were preparing. She told me that a girl usually got married around 26 years old in her small town. When they had a wedding, usually 300 to 400 guests came to celebrate.

 

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My favorite bird was flying around me while cycling. It was so gorgeous to see a big bird. I really loved to watch the bird, because it looked that they were having so much freedom. I also wanted to fly and look the ground from the sky.

 

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I could feel spring on the road that it was so green and white.

 

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When I arrived in my destination city, there was a street market. I wanted to check it out, but there were too many people that I just took the picture.

 

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I acted like I’ve never seen spring. I was so happy and excited to see beautiful flowers.

 

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The one who withstood the coldest winter would enjoy spring more than any other one.

 

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Some local people was selling flower.

 

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What was it? I wanted to ask, but then I gave up with language barrier. Was it garlic? Or pine seed??

 

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My plan was just to look around a park, but then I got to the center after keeping walking. I was hungry that I just went to a restaurant. Incredibly it was so slow service to get menu, order food, and get it. .

 

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Steak was so cheap that I ordered it. But it came after 40~50 minutes. I didn’t feel good at their service. It was my first time that I really didn’t want to give the tip in Ukraine.

I thought I didn’t have the steak by myself in the restaurant in the trip. The taste was so fantastic.

I was thinking that ‘should I give the tip or not’. Then actually I could not give the tip because I had only 200 UAH and the bill was 199 UAH.

Actually it was the most expensive food I had in Ukraine. There was the price for 100g and I thought that 150g would come out because the portion of food usually was small in Ukraine at my experience.

When I saw the bill, it was twice than my expectation.

199UAH (9$/one year ago 25$)

One year ago it was around 25$. This was the reason I did not have steak in the trip before.

 

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It was my brunch at the next day on the road at something like a local franchiser. Hamburger, chips, five wings, coke were 38UAH (1.7$/One year ago 4.75$)

I was full that I left half of sandwich to my bag.

 

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There were flowers everywhere that I really liked it. When I passed a small village, I could see tulip on the road. People planted flowers not only inside of their yard, but also outside of their house to share with people passing that I appreciated it.

 

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It seemed that Ukrainian people like other Eastern European lived together with their family that I could see a big house sometimes along the road.

 

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I booked the hotel through Booking.com. It was 240 UAH (11$/One year ago 30$)

 

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Actually it was much better than pictures.

 

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I could have a quiet view from my balcony. The hotel was between very small villages that even I could not hear car passing. There was WiFi as well in the room that everything was perfect.

 

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It was food I had from the hotel. Most of them were less than 2 dollars.

 

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After a few days, I started cycling again and I sweated on the uphill. Then suddenly I found very beautiful bird that I stopped. I wanted to close to it, but then the bird flew away.

 

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I saw an expensive hotel around this area on Booking.com. When I passed there, I could understand why it was expensive. There were many people on the weekend.

 

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I usually took the picture of money in the country I’ve been. But it was my first time ever to take the picture of all of money which people used in the market.

1$=22UAH// One year ago 1$=8UAH.
1 bill was too small.
500 bill was too big.

I’ve stayed in Ukraine for two months. After I left, I calculated how much I’ve spent and it was just shocking thing ever. I’ve spent over $2,000 for two months. I didn’t buy any expensive gears. (Dentist was around 370$)
It was like “Many drops make a flood.” However, I didn’t regret. It was really my first time that I didn’t stay with a local people’s house. It meant I was very independent. I realized that I could stay every time in the hotel if I had money.
In the whole trip, the most difficult for me was to find a place to stay in the night because I was too nervous to do wild camping. So I could say to cycle in Ukraine was very peaceful because I could stay in the hotel at the end of day. I realized that money could make the situation so safe.
But anyway it was the problem because I had spent too much money in the short time. I was thinking and thinking how to travel with enough money. When I was young (?), I was happy to travel even without enough money. But these days I became tired to depend on a local people, which made me feel useless person. I was sometimes sad that I could not have lots of different experiences.
I’ve tried a few things to make money by myself, but all of them were not helpful. After a while an idea flashed through my mind. YOUTUBE
But I was not sure I could make money with it. Also I was afraid of facing malicious comments. I saw that Youtube really didn’t care about malicious comments that there were so many malicious comments in people’s videos…Nah.. I really didn’t know I should start or not.
Anyhow, renting a beautiful flat in the center of city, visiting Opera House, going skiing, staying at the hotel every time, having meal in a restaurant all the time were very special experiences. Some local people told me that I should not need feel guilty because I helped their economy a little bit as spending some money.
Now I had to go to Romania, but I started worrying. Which about?? Thief! I had no idea why I worried about it. Anyway let’s go to Romania!

=================================

Route
Days in Ukraine = 63Days
Distance of cycling in Ukraine = 579.84 km (362.4 mi)
Cities I stayed in Ukraine = 9 Cities
Lviv, Rohatyn, Ivano-Frankivsk, Yaremche, Bukovel, Zabolotiv, Sheparivtsi,Chernivits, Valya Kuz’myna
Expenditure in Ukraine = 1,994.88 $
-Details-
Gift and donation : 169.1$
Hotel, restaurant, and others : 893.63 $
Room rent : $ 326.92
Dentist : $ 377
Ski resort : $227.45
($1=22UAH)

 

Starting Youtube? lol..


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13 Comments
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  1. The second bird might be Great spotted woodpecker (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_spotted_woodpecker)

    • Reply
      The Woman Traveling The Universe September 14, 2015 at 2:34 am

      Thank you for explaining 🙂

    • Indeed and a male I might add.

    • Dear Jin,

      Fantastic tour, fantastic people, fantastic food and fantastic places in fantastic price. How else can we describe this marvellous tour of Ukraine. I am too now keen to visit this lovely place after reading the blog. I am really grateful to you for updating the journal in quicker sessions. hope to see next update soon.

  2. Go Jin, Go!

    I hate dill too. They put it into mashed potatoes here at the Finland, what a waste of good mashed potatoes!

  3. Thank you for this Ukrainian blog report. So many interesting stuff happened in two months. I want to start cycling myself every time I read your new post here.
    I think your idea about youtube is really good. If it works then you can gain some extra money to stay in hotels and have some different new experiences. And your readers, viewers will see more and more interesting staff that happens throughout your journey.
    Good luck!

    P.S. that green stuff, krip, I put it on everything I eat, lol.

    • Reply
      The Woman Traveling The Universe September 14, 2015 at 6:17 am

      Hello Andrew,
      I am happy that you enjoyed my blog. So far my youtube is not poplular yet. I will try to test many kind of videos.
      Oh…please don’t put green stuff on my food lol..

  4. The things in the bags were gladiolus bulbs, to plant for flowers.

  5. it was very interesting to read your story about your
    journey to Ukraine. But the only thing. You map Ukraine incomplete, even though the war is not over, but the territory Ukraine is as follows: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Europe_location_UKR.png

    • Reply
      The Woman Traveling The Universe February 4, 2016 at 3:50 pm

      Hello Andrii,
      Thank you for reading my blog. Sorry that my map made you uncomfortable. I just captured without thinking too much because it was just about to show my route.
      Thanks,
      Jin

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